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IMO Agile has become regulatory capture. It's a means by which non-engineers can extract value from a booming market which doesn't directly benefit from their s
by lunias 7y ago
IMO Agile has become regulatory capture. It's a means by which non-engineers can extract value from a booming market which doesn't directly benefit from their skills.
That being said. I think there is a lot of wisdom in the original agile manifesto. The core principles are solid, but the methodology has clearly been co-opted by consultants and supported by management looking to increase the headcount under themselves.
I've often struggled to understand why my team is made up of only 20% engineers with the other 80% pretending to create value by holding meetings to tell engineers what to build next when I feel like it's your clients that should be doing that.
Ultimately it's engineering that becomes the constrained resource which leads to technical debt in favor of pushing out product's features.
I would venture a guess that most engineers have used (critically) more software in their lives than any non-technical person driving the development of the product. Why then are engineers not the most consulted people on the efficacy and value of new features? I think there is a big myth out there that engineers are incapable of directly handling client feedback.
- omerbensaadon 7y agoThis completely short-sells the role of good designers in an organization. Creating the _right_ thing is extremely hard.
- amznthrowaway5 7y agoGood designers can't design without a deep understanding of the engineering. Non-technical people shouldn't be driving or designing engineering projects.
- lunias 7y agoForgive my omission I didn't have designers in mind when I wrote that. Here is what I think: I would place designers closer to the engineering (necessary) side of the spectrum. Designers do in some cases build tangible things, are very technical, and they approach refinement from angles of impact that some engineers may be unaware of. I do think there are quite a few interpretations of what a "designer" does across many industries. In the field of software did you have in mind architects, UX, product, something else, all of the above? The definition of engineer includes design in both it's noun and verb form: "a person who designs, builds, or maintains engines, machines, or public works." "design and build (a machine or structure)" But the definition of designer makes no mention of engineer. As such, I would enforce that my designers are actually engineers and stay away from "pure" designers that do not have the technical foundation necessary to validate their designs. Design in a lot of ways is an emergent property of the engineering task at hand - unless we're talking about purely artistic pursuits.