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Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

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Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#81

Post by jcadam »

camtarn wrote: post #33

Quoting a nice idea from the article: "One way to achieve this might be putting work items through what I would call an algebra of complexity, i.e. an analysis of the sources of complexity in a work item and how they combine to create delays. The team could then study the backlog to locate the compositions that cause the most work and stress, and solve these knots to improve the codebase. The backlog would then resem…

Retrospectives for us consist of the dev team sitting in a room getting lectured by the PM on why we consistently fail to close all of our stories, and asking for our opinion on what new processes can be introduced to fix it.

Of course, feedback is solicited, but it is an unspoken rule that criticism of project management is verboten. However, criticism of self and others on the dev team is absolutely allowed and encouraged, and so the brown-nosers amongst the team use the opportunity to make themselves known.

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#82

Post by s_kilk »

maxxxxx wrote: post #22
cageface wrote: post #7

I've been doing Scrum-driven development for a few years now after working much more independently for most of my career. I understand why managers like it because it at least lends some structure and predictability to what is an inherently unpredictable enterprise. But the author's criticisms of the incentives of Scrum are on point I think. Because the stories are always articulated in terms of user facing features…

In my view the only way to handle this is to make constant refactoring part of the work without telling management. If you ask for permission for refactoring you will almost always get a "No".

This is how we ended up with the "Shadow Sprint" at a previous workplace. A whole bunch of utterly essential engineering work was left out of the sprint process, so many of us would just go ahead and do what needed to be done anyway while working on whatever tickets we'd picked up frome the "real" sprint.

Utterly dysfunctional of course, but if it's do-or-die, I'd prefer to 'do'.

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#83

Post by blub »

stevesun21 wrote: post #54
blub wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deconstruct Scrum and perhaps something like RUP/DAD (Scrum doesn't tackle the whole lifecycle) into components and understand what the purpose of each component is. Start from Kanban and add stuff until you get a process that matches the critieria of the organisation. This requires a lot of skill though, so many teams are stuck with one-size-fits-all tools like Scrum, especially now that it's become a management buz…

I have been two different org, one use scrum and one use kanban, working in the team apply kanban was feel like a sunny afternoon in a park - you lose the awareness of time, and just want to lay back and work on few things for long time, but suddenly your manager told you there is a timeline, no one knows until your CEO keep ask (yep, a startup).

A Kanban board should be customized by the team to help them achieve their goals.

e.g: if timelines are important, a due date should probably be added to the tasks/post-its.

Assuming some tasks are more urgent than others, the todo column should be sorted, or tasks could be assigned priorieties.

Adding a limit to the done column which triggers an event like a retrospective/celebration can help avoid the feeling of an endless grind.

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#84

Post by shepbook »

afroisalreadyin wrote: post #70
cageface wrote: post #7

I've been doing Scrum-driven development for a few years now after working much more independently for most of my career. I understand why managers like it because it at least lends some structure and predictability to what is an inherently unpredictable enterprise. But the author's criticisms of the incentives of Scrum are on point I think. Because the stories are always articulated in terms of user facing features…

Author of the post here, thanks for your comment. As you said, the fact that you have to stick out your neck and fight for code quality is very annoying, and after some time, one just stops doing it, and starts flowing with the "add the one more line of crap to get things working and collect the points".

I feel much the same way as much of what you've said in this post. I'm curious what you think of things like the #NoEstimates camp that removes the ambiguity and "gut check" nature of things like points or even time estimates?

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#85

Post by JustSomeNobody »

taneq wrote: post #49
tomelders wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I leave my current role in just under two weeks for the very reason you describe. I'm tired of being the "difficult dev" that everyone has grown to hate. Let them launch. Let it fail. Let's see who the arsehole is then.

You, because the moment you leave you become that-guy-who-we-can-safely-blame. Mostly joking but plenty of places do work like that.

It will indeed be his fault. He set them up for failure and left, they'll say.

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#86

Post by afroisalreadyin »

cechner wrote: post #2

Scrum proponents (a label I would tentatively apply to myself) would tell you that 'you're doing it wrong' but unfortunately a point-by-point reply to this article would detract from the general problem here: Scrum is intended to be the straightest line towards measuring your real progress on a project, and not much else If youre working on a project where it is important that you have as-accurate-as-is-realistic an…

I agree that Scrum is dead simple, but that doesn't mean it delivers sensible estimates, or allows you to get somewhere with less effort than some other methodology. You might end up doing more (and worse) work because Scrum is trying to be too simple and linear, which I argue is the case in the post. But it's simple, I definitely agree.

Regarding development: My main point is that Scrum leans towards agile methods such as XP (testing, CI etc), but it also sucks the time necessary to do those things well. The time Scrum takes off of the devs' working hours could much better be spent on those.

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#87

Post by mirekrusin »

crdoconnor wrote: post #63
cageface wrote: post #7

I've been doing Scrum-driven development for a few years now after working much more independently for most of my career. I understand why managers like it because it at least lends some structure and predictability to what is an inherently unpredictable enterprise. But the author's criticisms of the incentives of Scrum are on point I think. Because the stories are always articulated in terms of user facing features…

One amendment I always wanted to make was to have a "technical debt dial". You could stick it on the wall next to the scrum board. The debt dial should be from 0% (spend all the time refactoring) to 100% (spend zero time refactoring, get it out at all costs). Management should have complete control over the dial. Developers should have control over what kind of refactoring they do (ideally the retro should have a que…

For most companies static 100% image would do for this dial.

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#88

Post by afroisalreadyin »

zelos wrote: post #6

"Because the assumption is that refactoring will be a few hours' work, or even shorter if it's renaming a class here and replacing a file there. These are only the most superficial cases of refactoring, however..." That always bothers me, too. The changes you can make continuously are hardly worth bothering to worry about, because they're so small and quick and decent developers will do them automatically. It's the c…

Exactly my point. The changes that are risky (difficult to do, might take more time than planned) are those that will make the greatest difference in all code quality aspects. And these are the ones that are pretty much impossible to integrate into Scrum.

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#89

Post by matthewmacleod »

blub wrote: post #19
mms1973 wrote: post #4

In my opinion, the good thing about Scrum is that you can tweak the rules to fit your needs, aka, "Scrum in name only". The daily standup, IMO, should be only to remove impediments, and if you have none, then a sentence or two will suffice. I see the DS as the most useful meeting, as you are aware of what your workmates are doing. And if Scrum is still a pain in the back, then you have Kanban, which is sort of Scrum…

This kind of tweaking is frowned upon and you will be chastised for doing it. Yes you can do it (and probably should when you understand the purpose of each Scrummy practice), but don't expect to be praised by Scrummers.

That's nonsense, in my experience. Most people doing Scrum-like development in my experience are much more interested in a development process that works well and produces good results than they are about over-attachment to process.

Re: Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum

#90

Post by ricardobeat »

As usual, criticism is strongly shaped by experience. My experience is also limited to three or four workplaces, but I have never, ever, seen this "race for points" and definitely not being "awarded" the points at review time. The points don't mean anything by themselves, it's an abstract measure of effort whose value fluctuates wildly, influenced by team dynamics, individual productivity, type of work being done etc etc. Failing to understand that is starting with the wrong foot.
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