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The answer doesn't seem far from the truth. Unfortunately, I believe Scrum is only the tip of the iceberg. The diversity of responsibilities I experienced comin

The answer doesn't seem far from the truth. Unfortunately, I believe Scrum is only the tip of the iceberg. The diversity of responsibilities I experienced coming from university to my first job is immense, despite never doing anything technically complex or interesting. Couple that with a bunch of bureaucracy and a movement that is continuously pushing responsibilities of the upper layers onto the lower layers, without giving them the autonomy and agency to act out those responsibilities how they want. It is incredibly harmful. Yeah, I am a little salty about the state of things. I'd prefer programming in "my basement", and can understand why communication is important. Yet I can't help but feel we've thrown out the baby along with the bathwater.

simonbarker87 6y ago
Interesting you use the word “agency”. I have used this exact word when trying to reconcile how scrum works. Some tickets are so detailed on acceptance criteria that if something is then missing I don’t feel like I have the agency to deal with it my self. I’ve used the analogy of fitting a kitchen, if everything is spec’d to super high detail and then it simply says “a cooler” no one in their right mind would just grab a cooker, they would ask the home owner/client what cooker they want.
- BlargMcLarg 6y ago
  Same here. What's worse: my manager desperately wants people in the team to take on more responsibility and step forward. Yet everyone has a history of facing negative feedback when doing so. That ain't gonna happen. Reason I emphasize agency is that as long as it gives the best result and meets the requirements (including ethical ones), I don't care how it is done. Result being very broad: features, maintainability of the code, enjoyment of the team, etc.. Anything else that is pushed from the management layers without good reason is needless overhead. Now what do software devs usually do when we see needless overhead? Ah right, we remove it. If only it were that simple outside software.

simonbarker87 6y ago

Interesting you use the word “agency”. I have used this exact word when trying to reconcile how scrum works. Some tickets are so detailed on acceptance criteria that if something is then missing I don’t feel like I have the agency to deal with it my self. I’ve used the analogy of fitting a kitchen, if everything is spec’d to super high detail and then it simply says “a cooler” no one in their right mind would just grab a cooker, they would ask the home owner/client what cooker they want.

BlargMcLarg 6y ago
Same here. What's worse: my manager desperately wants people in the team to take on more responsibility and step forward. Yet everyone has a history of facing negative feedback when doing so. That ain't gonna happen. Reason I emphasize agency is that as long as it gives the best result and meets the requirements (including ethical ones), I don't care how it is done. Result being very broad: features, maintainability of the code, enjoyment of the team, etc.. Anything else that is pushed from the management layers without good reason is needless overhead. Now what do software devs usually do when we see needless overhead? Ah right, we remove it. If only it were that simple outside software.