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Why Scrum is stressing you out

rethinkingsoftware.substack.com

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Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#2

Post by debacle »

We moved from sprints back to work queues for exactly this reason. Output is exactly the same but no one is cutting corners to "finish" the sprint. We still use a kanban and do estimation the same exact way, but rather than arbitrary deadlines, devs are trained and encouraged to communicate on their velocity in a way that is far more effective than a daily standup.

Scrum was an idea that had its time, but after like...15 years the limitations are apparent.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#3

Post by AnarchismIsCool »

I've learned to hate software process. If you have team sizes set sanely and empower devs to do what they need to do in order to accomplish the goal, they'll be fine without the management overhead of arbitrarily imposed productivity flow. Agile et al, along with 99% of the features in ticketing systems, exist to make managers feel like they are justifying their paycheck.

If you are a manager and this makes you angry, you're one of the bad ones.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#4

Post by cybrexalpha »

One of my soft requirements for engineering roles is "no agile". Usually if a hiring manager tells me that team is an agile one it's a very clear sign that I don't want to work there.

Of course, this pickiness is only if I'm in a situation where I don't need to move. I can think of plenty of cases, for example being laid off, where I'd take a role in a scrum team.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#5

Post by insane_dreamer »

We don't do agile, scrum, standups, etc. We meet 1x week to review where we're at and establish/re-establish priorities for the week if needed, use a ticket system for tasks to track progress, a high-level "weekly goals" shared doc, communicate on Slack as needed, and let the devs actually do the f'ing work the way they know best. If someone can't self-manage and produce without a manager over them, or reach out if they've hit a blocker (due to their own limitations or someone else's) they are not the right fit for us.

IMO, if you're a SWE/dev and spending more time doing other stuff (meetings, TPS reports, etc.) than coding (coding includes the time needed to research, experiment and think of good solutions, not just actual coding), then something is wrong.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#7

Post by aetherson »

debacle wrote: post #2

We moved from sprints back to work queues for exactly this reason. Output is exactly the same but no one is cutting corners to "finish" the sprint. We still use a kanban and do estimation the same exact way, but rather than arbitrary deadlines, devs are trained and encouraged to communicate on their velocity in a way that is far more effective than a daily standup. Scrum was an idea that had its time, but after like.…

The main value of stressing about sprint goals and what's "in" a sprint and finishing it is the very specific situation of there being a bunch of people who want to feed in a large amount of work to a team (usually bugs/support requests/operational work) and it results in constant prioritization issues.

If you don't have that situation, you probably don't need to be really careful about what's in a sprint.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#8

Post by loloquwowndueo »

AnarchismIsCool wrote: post #3

I've learned to hate software process. If you have team sizes set sanely and empower devs to do what they need to do in order to accomplish the goal, they'll be fine without the management overhead of arbitrarily imposed productivity flow. Agile et al, along with 99% of the features in ticketing systems, exist to make managers feel like they are justifying their paycheck. If you are a manager and this makes you angry…

Just keep in mind that a lot of people equate Agile with Scrum, which is incorrect. Agile is about exactly what you said: empowering devs to get shit done. None of the extra “keep managers happy” crap that Scrum introduces is in any way covered by the Agile manifesto.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#9

Post by maximumgeek »

I think back to the early 2000's, and there are other factors in play as well. Back then, I worked with a team of engineers that stayed together for over 4 years. In that time, we did not have Project Managers telling us to do daily standups. We met as an engineering team.

We often would go days without having a formal meeting.

But, software was different then as well. Everything is interconnected now. One team dropping the ball affects countless other teams. Deployments were whenever we felt a new one was due or at a multi month cadence. Did this introduce problems, yes, but at the same time, they came in controlled release cycles.

Nothing against CI/CD and continuous delivery, but the hamster wheel has gotten to a point where we have to release all the time. Corners are cut on everything, and testing is given lip service.

At this point, I am a manager, and SCRUM stresses me out. Either let us work from a queue, or give us a project with a deadline. Give me back a stupid gant or pert chart. At least then it was, is this done to allow XYZ, not we are going to accomplish this in the next 2 (arbitrary) weeks.

So much more to say, but I am toast.

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