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What would be weird is if I did the exact same thing the whole time, because "Agile". It wouldn't just be weird; it would be very bad. I like your definition

What would be weird is if I did the exact same thing the whole time, because "Agile". It wouldn't just be weird; it would be very bad. I like your definition of it as a meta-methodology. I think 90% of the blogs I read about Agile completely miss this -- even those, like this one, that rail against Cargo Cult Agile. I think what people get so messed up about is the mix of discipline and performance. If your team decides that in your situation you need daily standups and burndown charts? Then you got stuff to rigorously do every day. You make your own rules, sure, but whatever they are, they're meaningless unless you have the discipline to stick with them. Some folks naturally want to focus on the "make your own rules" part. Some folks naturally want to focus on the discipline part. But focusing on either is a terrible mistake. They're equally important. (Insert long discussion here a bout Shu Ha Ri)

st3v3r 10y ago
I'm willing to wager that 95% of teams don't have a choice when it comes to a lot of this stuff. The burndowns and standups are mandated by management. So a lot of this "If your Agile isn't working for you, just change it!" doesn't really apply.
- DanielBMarkham 10y ago
  To some degree, yes. I've worked in tons of multi-team environments. Being able to walk into a team room and ask simple questions like "How much work do you guys think you have?" or "About that feature. Have any idea when it might be done", or "Anything I can help you with?" is a reasonable thing to ask if you're burning the kind of money businesses burn. The counter to what you say is that none of this crap should take more than 10-15 minutes a day. I find that if I establish that upfront, SMs and managers don't end up creating Agile Death Marches. Instead they come back and ask how that can possibly work. Because Agile is meta, it really should disappear. Aside from setting up things and tweaking them, it shouldn't be a topic of discussion. If you're talking about it too much, you're probably doing it wrong. But you are correct. It is not like that in most places. Sadly.

st3v3r 10y ago

I'm willing to wager that 95% of teams don't have a choice when it comes to a lot of this stuff. The burndowns and standups are mandated by management. So a lot of this "If your Agile isn't working for you, just change it!" doesn't really apply.

DanielBMarkham 10y ago
To some degree, yes. I've worked in tons of multi-team environments. Being able to walk into a team room and ask simple questions like "How much work do you guys think you have?" or "About that feature. Have any idea when it might be done", or "Anything I can help you with?" is a reasonable thing to ask if you're burning the kind of money businesses burn. The counter to what you say is that none of this crap should take more than 10-15 minutes a day. I find that if I establish that upfront, SMs and managers don't end up creating Agile Death Marches. Instead they come back and ask how that can possibly work. Because Agile is meta, it really should disappear. Aside from setting up things and tweaking them, it shouldn't be a topic of discussion. If you're talking about it too much, you're probably doing it wrong. But you are correct. It is not like that in most places. Sadly.