This is an interesting language problem. I think part of the reason the words are “agile” and “sprint” is that it’s essentially a way for engineering to communi

This is an interesting language problem. I think part of the reason the words are “agile” and “sprint” is that it’s essentially a way for engineering to communicate iterative progress, convince management that yes, work is getting done, and that really, we’re moving as fast as we can. That there is deception in the wording is, imho, a pragmatic response to management never seeming to understand software development at face value. Eng: “No, we can’t move any faster. This is literally the best we can do. Doing this right, and doing it as fast as possible, involves care and intentionality.” Mgmt; “Can’t you just work more hours right now?” “No, that will not help.” “You guys are lazy. We regularly pull 70 hour weeks to get all the meetings and emails in.” “You know what? Next week, we are going to deliver x,y, and z. Promise. It may mean the overall vision takes longer to execute, but I want to show you how hard we work. We are getting a ton done. We are moving as fast as we can. We are sprinting! Now leave us alone and let us do the work necessary to execute the vision.” Mgmt: “Hey other managers, look how much MY team is kicking ass. They are delivering x, y, and z ON SCHEDULE AND AS PROMISED. They are sprinting, and they basically never tell me ‘no’! Sure, we don’t need y or z to execute the vision, but how else were we to know that? If we hadn’t tried it out? They just sigh and go back to their caves, EVERY WEEK. I’m the best manager.” It’s basically a way to educate about iterative development while giving management a way to save face, no matter how inefficient it may be. A healthy org could do it without the deception, but corporations are krakens.