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Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

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Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#21

Post by torginus »

Imo the fundamental failure of Scrum as a planning methodology stems from the fact that it gives user requirements ('user stories') to developers and expects them to translate them to a technical implementation almost as an afterthought that's barely acknowledged in the framework.

Most of us work on huge codebases with tons of baggage and hundreds or thousands of engineer-years invested into it.

Implementing a feature into such codebase requires a combination of architecting, reading the code and experimenting - making the change is usually easy compared to that.

Scrum has no proper way of handling these activities.

- Figuring out how to do the feature is usually part of the 'planning' and 'grooming' activities which are 'invisible work' with timeboxed team meeting slots allocated to it, even though a well-thought out implementation can save tons of time

- Just plunging in and doing it means that a large uncertainty exists as to how much effort said feature wil take. This can either lead to time overruns or padded estimates (or both)

Scrum just doesnt' offer anything valuable imo. Its just feelgood management consulting ceremonies devs would rather do without. And I haven't even touched on the tyrannical micromanagement dark patterns it enables.

Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#23

Post by 8372049 »

x3n0ph3n3 wrote: post #4
kelseyfrog wrote: post #2

What evidence would it take to conclude Scrum didn't work?

The same that it takes to prove that TDD doesn't produce more value than other development techniques. Both have moving bars whete proponents just claim "you are not doing it right" in the face of any criticism.

"You're not doing it right" can be its own criticism though. If you're not doing X right then maybe that means it's too hard to use X in a way that adds value.

X can be useful for one person in one situation and not useful in another, neither of which shows that it's intrinsically useful or intrinsically flawed. It just depends. Our holy wars to prove the might of our favorite tools and techniques are never going to give any universal truths.

(Except that Vim is better than Emacs.)

Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#24

Post by sshine »

kstenerud wrote: post #20

Scrum serves two primary purposes: 1. To force a check in so that everyone keeps the manager up to date. This is annoying for people who already do that as a matter of course, but not everyone is that disciplined. 2. To demonstrate velocity to the higher ups. We can't get away from the fact that upper management needs reassurance that we're not just fucking around. With these bullshit numbers we can make them feel be…

> It's a tool to counterbalance human nature

More specifically, it's a tool for pacing and measuring pace.

Like cattle, you kinda go faster when you prod them with sticks.

Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#25

Post by spriggancg »

MarkMarine wrote: post #9
max_sendfeld wrote: post #3

Same logic with communism - all the ones that ended in oppressive dictatorships, mass executions or starvation weren't "real communism" or weren't "implemented right"...

Oy. Why add politics to this. Maybe just stay on topic.

we could add religion also! the ayatollahs of scrum can speak too!

Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#26

Post by itronitron »

torginus wrote: post #21

Imo the fundamental failure of Scrum as a planning methodology stems from the fact that it gives user requirements ('user stories') to developers and expects them to translate them to a technical implementation almost as an afterthought that's barely acknowledged in the framework. Most of us work on huge codebases with tons of baggage and hundreds or thousands of engineer-years invested into it. Implementing a featur…

>> a well-thought out implementation can save tons of time

I think there is a bias for many developers to feel like they are not doing anything unless their actively producing/editing code.

Once I realized that I could just state in a standup that I was 'investigating' and 'researching' the best approach to XYZ then I felt a lot less resistance to the process.

Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#27

Post by lukol »

baq wrote: post #16

Writing about Scrum, regardless if it's praise, complaints, references, howtos or just plain descriptions without referencing the agile manifesto is kinda... missing the point? The content of the article is good, but perhaps quoting the founding principles of agile would make it even better? Implementing Scrum (including org-specific adaptations) without understanding the idea behind 'agile' is what a PHB does. https…

This. Scrum is just a way of operationalizing the basic principles behind the Agile Manifesto while putting them in a way that can be communicated and understood outside of dev/product organizations. No Scrum Master/Agile Coach/Product Owner, etc. worth his/her salt will tell you to slavishly stick to every piece of Scrum as long as you get the basics (see the manifesto) right.

It is, however, a somewhat useful tool for helping you get this running in the first place (especially in organizations where there is a lot of chaos to begin with, i.e., upper management regularly changing the product scope and release timeline based on the color of their coffees, etc.).

Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#28

Post by pydry »

proc0 wrote: post #13

If I recall, one of the creators of scrum boiled it down to two elements: a cycle and a reflection on that cycle. All scrum types revolve around that in different ways, and it seems most orgs fail to understand this. The biggest tool of scrum is having cycles, and then reflecting on the cycle in order to move it in the right direction, but most of the time there are still quarterly planning and bad adherence to the s…

If you boil scrum down to that then there is no scrum because scrum didn't invent iterative development or retros.

It invented a bureaucratic way to cargo cult them though.

Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#29

Post by Sankozi »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #2

What evidence would it take to conclude Scrum didn't work?

Scrum works in some way. Its rituals take some time, even if you consider all of them pointless, there is some time left to deliver value. Crappy car also works if you can use it and drive to designated place.

The question should be "Is there, for every situation, something clearly better than Scrum?".

Re: Scrum's Built-In 'Get Out of Jail Free Card' Against Criticism

#30

Post by h0l0cube »

8372049 wrote: post #15

> "If failure cannot be attributed to Scrum, then neither can success." I don't think this is true, given the "Get out of jail" arguments he is attacking. A proper tool used in its intended way for its intended purpose is intrinsically useful. You can say the same about any tool: If you use a hammer to cut a cake, the resulting mess is your fault. A broken hammer is not an error with hammer as a concept. If you succe…

Scrum isn’t so much a tool but an ill defined framework. The Get out of Jail Free Card the author refers to is abusing this lack of definition to brush off any failed attempts at applying the framework. The author continues to imply if there’s so many failures to apply the framework, that’s probably a failure inherent to the framework itself, at least as it is deployed today.
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