141–150 of 214 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think people are really unhappy with the manifesto, but with applied Agile as it is experienced out in the world where you're having your workday ordered by high powered productivity consultants and LinkedIn-brained middle managers.
so, things that are in no way agile but want to call themselves agile
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really don't understand the hate for Agile. Adaptation, empiricism, iteration self-managed teams etc...what's not to like? I'm currently involved with two programs run by project managers who probably haven't written code for 30 years (if ever), and it's a nightmare.
The failure mode of Agile is when the company says "we're going agile" but refuses to adapt or let the team manage itself, as well as having a fixed deadline, scope and budget which have been decided outside the team. In other words, you still have the clueless project managers, but you have to cosplay "agile" within that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The failure mode of Agile is when the company says "we're going agile" but refuses to adapt or let the team manage itself, as well as having a fixed deadline, scope and budget which have been decided outside the team. In other words, you still have the clueless project managers, but you have to cosplay "agile" within that.
But that's the failure mode of anything. Why is Agile uniquely (and very consistently) blamed for management failures?
I have no explanation for why /that/ is, mind; except - well, look at the result: the blame and hatred is aimed at Agile and its priests, not at management. Cui bono?
I have a shelf full of histories of British science and engineering during WW2, so I feel like I have some remote idea of what being an engineer in an actual “wartime mode” is like. Think about, e.g., working in the lab trying to improve radar to be able to stop the daily bombing raids. It’s hard to imagine “wartime mode” as being an appropriate metaphor for any US company, other than as a sort of fantasy role play.…
> being an engineer in an actual “wartime mode” is like. Think about, e.g., working in the lab trying to improve radar to be able to stop the daily bombing raids. This is slightly OT, but I believe wartime in the UK and US forced a number of cultural changes towards egalitarianism and what would nowadays be called "diversity" because things had to actually work . Being upper class in the UK would not save you from Ge…
I don't know enough about Spitfire engines to comment, but is that true about Turing? I thought he kept his sexuality a secret.
Speaking as an engineering manager, this is wish-fulfillment. According to his own LinkedIn, the author has never been a first-level engineering manager. His blog is accordingly heavy on cliches and mostly free of actual work experience. Taken at face value, the article is a recipe for burning out first-level managers, while the building is burning down. It neglects to focus on stopping the fire, because the author w…
I'm also an engineering manager, currently working in a department that feels on fire, and I think there is good wisdom in the article. The part about not fostering a "us vs them" mentality was good food for thought, as I do find it tempting to build short term camaraderie. When faced with big picture issues that can't be changed (believe me, they can't) it's easy to reach for a "We all know that these exec decisions…
From the article:
> When you receive a new headcount, you need to prioritize hiring experienced, self-sufficient, autonomous engineers who can tolerate (even better, strive) in high-stress environments and are experienced enough to contribute immediately.
Yeah, such people would be able to spot and smell "this BS" from a mile and trying to sell it to them by re-packaging won't exactly help raise motivation. I would wager that most of them can probably appreciate the truth behind "this is what we are paid to do so we need to do the best we can for what needs to be done" - they are probably exercising that discipline in their personal lives too.
This entire blog post assumes agency that you, the EM or Team lead, rarely have in an organisation that is on a "wartime" footing. It's cosplay. Real wartime footing: 1. Direction and technical decisions are driven by priorities of board-level members and often arrive in email form late on Friday evening. The entire organisation is expected to pivot immediately. A new senior leadership team member starts scheduling d…
Like many/most of us, I've been through this, but by virtue of luck and experience, haven't in a while. I think I've learned to spot the symptoms early enough that I avoid the companies/teams/projects that are on that path.
For those who think this is inevitable and unavoidable in a tech career, take heart in the fact that it's not!
I have a shelf full of histories of British science and engineering during WW2, so I feel like I have some remote idea of what being an engineer in an actual “wartime mode” is like. Think about, e.g., working in the lab trying to improve radar to be able to stop the daily bombing raids. It’s hard to imagine “wartime mode” as being an appropriate metaphor for any US company, other than as a sort of fantasy role play.…
I have an (actual) engineering buddy who occasionally has small fires flare up in the factory he works at. Ever since talking with him about it, I’m very much off put when someone at my cushy software company talks about ‘a fire’. No, some system is down or throwing errors- there is no fire.
It all feels like theatre. Been working in many companies in “war mode” and they all think that in order to become profitable (none of them were) you need to push the most “important” features out of the door asap, otherwise your competitors will eat you alive. It’s a lie. Executives and VPs and all those folks that earn 5x what a normal engineer earns, don’t really care about the company they work for. All they care…
I really don't understand the hate for Agile. Adaptation, empiricism, iteration self-managed teams etc...what's not to like? I'm currently involved with two programs run by project managers who probably haven't written code for 30 years (if ever), and it's a nightmare.
This entire blog post assumes agency that you, the EM or Team lead, rarely have in an organisation that is on a "wartime" footing. It's cosplay. Real wartime footing: 1. Direction and technical decisions are driven by priorities of board-level members and often arrive in email form late on Friday evening. The entire organisation is expected to pivot immediately. A new senior leadership team member starts scheduling d…
Is there a German word for the feeling you get where you want the opportunity to apply a hard-won skill, but also kind of don't? I feel that reading this all-too-accurate comment. Like many/most of us, I've been through this, but by virtue of luck and experience, haven't in a while. I think I've learned to spot the symptoms early enough that I avoid the companies/teams/projects that are on that path. For those who th…
I have a pretty high threshold before pressure at work actually stresses me out, so I've stuck around for a while after seeing the warning signs before leaving a team on this path.
Warning signs are always there in my experience, you just have to pay attention. The real challenge is paying attention as the problems start to ramp up, its easy to get distracted fighting fires and not see the bigger picture.
This entire blog post assumes agency that you, the EM or Team lead, rarely have in an organisation that is on a "wartime" footing. It's cosplay. Real wartime footing: 1. Direction and technical decisions are driven by priorities of board-level members and often arrive in email form late on Friday evening. The entire organisation is expected to pivot immediately. A new senior leadership team member starts scheduling d…
This is painfully accurate. I'm not sure how companies fall prey to these problems, but they seem to be incredibly hierarchical. What I means specifically is that the lower level employees and mid-level managers seem almost rabid to praise, cater to, and and be swept up by the useless whims of nearly anyone in the executive suite. It's sickening, and not because of the impacts on work. Why do so many grown adults act…
That model could work really well when done bottom-up, with individuals defining what they see as most important in their context and managers rolling that up into coherent strategies at each level as it goes up. Effectively, managers should be puzzling together what those closest to the product and customer find rather than forcing down goals and metrics.
Unfortunately companies don't work that way and leadership fundamentally doesn't trust their employees, especially employees they are a few layers away from in the org chart. OKRs ended up being just another name for leadership slamming goals down the org, no different than the Company Pillars I would see at Microsoft 15 years ago.