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Why Scrum is stressing you out

rethinkingsoftware.substack.com

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Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#331

Post by hydrogen7800 »

As a mechanical engineer I love lurking here because you software folk have a way of classifying and describing a technical workplace that I don't find anywhere else on the web.

I was recently part of a program for ~2 years that was essentially in perpetual sprint mode. We never had time to stop and consider the impact of decisions, because requirements were constantly shifting beneath our feet. All the tasks and sub tasks, and their interrelated nature was haunting my dreams. I would have sudden panicked realizations in that brief window of clarity before bed that I forgot or missed something.

There was always an acknowledgement among all in the (virtual) room during calls that the problem was outside the room, or that "yeah this sucks, but it's the least bad way to run the program" or something like that. The technical problems were interesting to me, but not enough to sustain my motivation through that.

"Sprints, on the other hand, are fake deadlines". Amen. As a result of what I described above, it was hard to take these "deadlines" seriously.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#332

Post by bunderbunder »

lo_fye wrote: post #313
sevensor wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to bring some scrum masters down to the local high school track and have them run back to back sprints until the message sinks in.

The Scrum Master is supposed to be part of the team, constantly helping with the Sprint, whether that's getting clarification for you, or pushing back on unrealistic expectations, or getting more resources, or whatever. Sprint was a bad choice of terms. It shouldn't have been related to races at all. If anything, it should be more like walking. It's about figuring out what pace is sustainable for your particular team…

Yes, sure, all of that. But also, my boss's boss and my boss's boss's boss are looking at velocity and continually asking for more. They've got dashboards for it. Managers have to answer for why their team's velocity is different from another manager's team. Et cetera.

You can say "don't do that that's not how it works" until you're blue in the face, and it will still happen.

That's the critical failure of Scrum: it's one giant managerial dark pattern that's full of enticements to abuse it. Those enticements are constant. The exhortations to not do it that way are buried in the fine print somewhere, and the only reminders about them are coming from disgruntled individual contributors, probably from lower-performing teams, whose opinion is therefore suspect. The managerial opinion is probably that they should stop whining and make the deadline already.

I keep wishing we could instead have an agile framework that works with human nature instead of fighting against it.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#333

Post by SoftTalker »

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…

All of these methodologies (and most formal software architectures as well) have as a their main sales pitch the idea that you can hire average/entry-level developers and build good software with reduced defects and on a defined schedule if you only follow these magic guidelines.

It refuses to learn from The Mythical Man-Month and recognize that building software has an essential complexity that cannot be avoided. You need smart people to implement and manage it, and you'll have to pay them what the market says they are worth.

Building software that's more complicated than a standalone CRUD system is hard, it will always be hard, and unpredictable, and to some degree stressful. No methodology will ever make it anything else because the methodology used doesn't change the nature of the problem.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#336

Post by randomdata »

nineteen999 wrote: post #118

Daily standups are horrendous. I don't know how people put up with that level of time wastage and micromanagement.

The problem with standups is that usually the wrong people are talking.

I don't give a rat's ass about what other developers are doing. I either already know by virtue of having to work with them, or they are entirely disconnected from my work and so what they are doing doesn't really matter.

What I really need to know what the managers and executive are doing. That has the most impact on my work. Yet, strangely, they almost never want to share.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#337

Post by typeofhuman »

nottorp wrote: post #275

Hmm I think 95% of the conversation in this thread can be summarized as: Person 1: Scrum sucks at my job because X, Y, Z. Person 2: That's not the ideal spherical cow! Sorry, it's not "real scrum".

Person 3 (me): what's your proposed alternative - considering all stakeholders?

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#338

Post by SoftTalker »

randomdata wrote: post #328
SoftTalker wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The customer often has tunnel-vision on their needs, and doesn't know what's possible, and might have trouble even describing it except that their manager told them that their foo task was a problem. The devs have the opposite problem, they can imagine all sorts of new technology that would be fun to use (for them) in helping the customer solve their problems with doing foo, and even if they understand foo…

If we were talking about developers in general, perhaps, but we're specifically talking about good developers. They exist at the intersection of understanding the business, what customers are actually saying, and understanding the technology. Without that, what would make them good?

Very very few of these people exist. They like to think that because they are very good at writing and understanding code and technology that they are automatically the smartest person in the room with every other aspect of the business. And I'm not talking exclusively about software developers, you'll find the same issues with anyone who is deeply smart and experienced at any one thing, thinking they must be smart about everything else too.

There are a few polymaths out there, yes. But only a few.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#339

Post by marcosdumay »

kkfx wrote: post #112

People like to forget a thing: Kanban, which is the scrum "ancestor", was designed for FACTORY MASS PRODUCTION of already designed parts, not for designing new ones, on other words it's a system that works only if what you do is pre-defined, does not demand much intellectual, creative activities and anything it's well known in advance. Applying it to creative activities is a classic application of a religion to a soc…

Well, it's worth pointing out that the only thing factory kanban has in common with software development kanban is the existence of some artifact called "kanban". What was probably a publicity stunt to use the hype of the other kind, kinda like Java and JavaScript.

Re: Why Scrum is stressing you out

#340

Post by randomdata »

SoftTalker wrote: post #338
randomdata wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we were talking about developers in general, perhaps, but we're specifically talking about good developers. They exist at the intersection of understanding the business, what customers are actually saying, and understanding the technology. Without that, what would make them good?

Very very few of these people exist. They like to think that because they are very good at writing and understanding code and technology that they are automatically the smartest person in the room with every other aspect of the business. And I'm not talking exclusively about software developers, you'll find the same issues with anyone who is deeply smart and experienced at any one thing, thinking they must be smart a…

> Very very few of these people exist.

Well, yeah, that's why they're considered good. Why they get a special title not given to everyone else. It would be nonsensical for "good dev" to refer to everyone who touches software development. "dev" would already communicate everything you need to know. The addition of “good” implies being set apart from what is typical.

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