Category: agile

On Agile and Buzzwords

I rarely use the term “agile” these days. If I mean “responsive to change” or “adaptive”, I just say those words. If I mean “self-organising”, I say it. If I mean “lightweight”, I say that. If I mean “cynically exploiting a trend to sell certifications”, I say that

Developers Should Abandon Agile

Source: Developers Should Abandon Agile

The problem with agile (and scrum in particular) is it provides numerous tools for managers to use in bad faith, and few tools for developers to exert upward influence.


The intentional conflating of ‘estimates’ with ‘commitments’ manipulates devs into working extra hours. Any unexpected complexity (inherent to software development) is expected to be internalized by whoever happens to be working on that particular task.


The notion that I need to work the weekend finishing my coworkers’ work if they call in sick 2 days in a row is an extremely fucked idea outside of software.


The agile notion of ‘commitment’ to churning out a specified amount of finished work exactly every 2 weeks is overtly hostile toward developers who want to make long-term decisions about the system.


The rush at the end of the sprint to merge a bunch of complicated code together is an immensely complex task that isn’t understood or appreciated by most product owners.

Source

On Agile Planning

When the people who do the work plan the work, you get better plans

When you plan together, you get happier, more engaged people

Source: Agile Practice Workshop at Eye Care Leaders – Technology

Source 2: Top 3 reasons to do Big Room Planning

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