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> A whole bunch of places dont do scrum right now. If you dont like it, just join some place that doesnt do it. Can you give some examples? As far as I know al

> A whole bunch of places dont do scrum right now. If you dont like it, just join some place that doesnt do it. Can you give some examples? As far as I know all the high profile tech companies that everyone tries to emulate use scrum internally. It exists in some form at most places. For the organizations that don't do scrum and the company isn't doing well, it's only a matter of time really ... as the allure and promises made by the scrum cultists are too hard to resist. I'm not entirely against it. When used properly, scrum can deliver lots of value and lead to a productive working environment. However, it can also be easily weaponized by (mediocre) management leaving few corrective levers. In highly political environments this may still result in passable productivity but low morale and high turnover nibble at it over time.

username90 6y ago
Google doesn't, I know I worked there. I'm pretty sure Facebook doesn't either. Some teams at Google uses standups, extremely few uses scrum with sprints. At least from message boards I didn't hear of anyone even talking about sprints or anything related to scrum. Google focuses more on individual responsibility and project/task ownership. Junior engineers gets to own small tasks, and as you move up the ladder you get larger and larger projects. Edit: A "small" task at Google could be a multi month venture btw, so not really "small" in the context of scrum. It could be to implement and deploy a service designed by a senior engineer etc. Edit Edit: The ladder even says that as a junior you independently complete tasks no longer than 3 months long or something like that. So giving a 2 month project to a junior engineer and letting him drive it and work on it on his own is expected. That sort of project ownership and experience doesn't exist for juniors in any scrum setting.
kasey_junk 6y ago
Can you name a high profile tech company that does use scrum regularly across teams and groups? It’s my impression that scrum is largely the domain of companies that outsource their tech to consultancies not those that have large engineering teams of their own. I’d be shocked for instance if any of the faang companies dogmatically applied scrum.
- gregjor 6y ago
  I've mainly seen Scrum with outsourcing companies. It doesn't seem to help them produce anything useful and on-time. It does help them refer to their "process" and obfuscate what's going on (or not) with Jira and weekly check-ins and "sprint planning" meetings and so on. It's not really Scrum, just a simulacrum intended to make the client feel like something is happening.

username90 6y ago

Google doesn't, I know I worked there. I'm pretty sure Facebook doesn't either. Some teams at Google uses standups, extremely few uses scrum with sprints. At least from message boards I didn't hear of anyone even talking about sprints or anything related to scrum. Google focuses more on individual responsibility and project/task ownership. Junior engineers gets to own small tasks, and as you move up the ladder you get larger and larger projects. Edit: A "small" task at Google could be a multi month venture btw, so not really "small" in the context of scrum. It could be to implement and deploy a service designed by a senior engineer etc. Edit Edit: The ladder even says that as a junior you independently complete tasks no longer than 3 months long or something like that. So giving a 2 month project to a junior engineer and letting him drive it and work on it on his own is expected. That sort of project ownership and experience doesn't exist for juniors in any scrum setting.

kasey_junk 6y ago

Can you name a high profile tech company that does use scrum regularly across teams and groups? It’s my impression that scrum is largely the domain of companies that outsource their tech to consultancies not those that have large engineering teams of their own. I’d be shocked for instance if any of the faang companies dogmatically applied scrum.

gregjor 6y ago
I've mainly seen Scrum with outsourcing companies. It doesn't seem to help them produce anything useful and on-time. It does help them refer to their "process" and obfuscate what's going on (or not) with Jira and weekly check-ins and "sprint planning" meetings and so on. It's not really Scrum, just a simulacrum intended to make the client feel like something is happening.