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That's what offends me about this piece, really. And on top of it, Agile, which has always had the whiff of "Taylorism, but from the inside" about it. Always

That's what offends me about this piece, really. And on top of it, Agile, which has always had the whiff of "Taylorism, but from the inside" about it. Always sprinting (huff huff huff); attention atomized by checking texts, emails, phones, voicemail, and of course iterating over an ever-increasing number of Slack channels (or Teams); everything in these bitty increments of moving the assembly line along. And this has to be accomplished through a kind of homogenization, which invariably leads to replacement. But sure, let's hot desk on rows of laminate-topped folding tables for the greater glory.

sdoering 5y ago
> Agile, which has always had the whiff of "Taylorism, but from the inside" about it. Isn't 'lean manufacturing" a direct descendant of Taylor and agile a direct descendant from 'lm'?
bigpeopleareold 5y ago
Agile might work for someone else, but I never saw it work. I saw this trying to be applied, amongst other methodologies, but the real sticking factor is whether a group of people feel like they are solving actual issues in the end. "Agile" or any methodology was a bit make-work, to fill a role that we can report on the specific progress of small things. At least for me, seeing people learning to handle issues, get through real features needed without the minute formalities has made them, and myself, more engaged in what I do. Being practical in the end gets you farther than having faith in a strict process.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > "Agile" or any methodology was a bit make-work, to fill a role that we can report on the specific progress of small things. Agile isn't a methodology, and most methodologies described as Agile eschew formal minutiae. The problem is, of course, that methodologies, of whatever origin, are, in practice, subject to top-down, non-Agile modification to suit the taste of managers who thrive of formalized minutiae, and, also, the starting point of methodologies for many shops isn't the original description by Agile practitioners who developed them while delivering superlative value but customized versions crafted by and marketed alongside consultants whose jobs are largely telling command-and-control-oriented managers what they want to hear.
  - bigpeopleareold 5y ago
    You're right and thank you for bringing this to light. Because my experience has been trying to use that thing to solve non-problems.

sdoering 5y ago

> Agile, which has always had the whiff of "Taylorism, but from the inside" about it. Isn't 'lean manufacturing" a direct descendant of Taylor and agile a direct descendant from 'lm'?

bigpeopleareold 5y ago

Agile might work for someone else, but I never saw it work. I saw this trying to be applied, amongst other methodologies, but the real sticking factor is whether a group of people feel like they are solving actual issues in the end. "Agile" or any methodology was a bit make-work, to fill a role that we can report on the specific progress of small things. At least for me, seeing people learning to handle issues, get through real features needed without the minute formalities has made them, and myself, more engaged in what I do. Being practical in the end gets you farther than having faith in a strict process.

dragonwriter 5y ago
> "Agile" or any methodology was a bit make-work, to fill a role that we can report on the specific progress of small things. Agile isn't a methodology, and most methodologies described as Agile eschew formal minutiae. The problem is, of course, that methodologies, of whatever origin, are, in practice, subject to top-down, non-Agile modification to suit the taste of managers who thrive of formalized minutiae, and, also, the starting point of methodologies for many shops isn't the original description by Agile practitioners who developed them while delivering superlative value but customized versions crafted by and marketed alongside consultants whose jobs are largely telling command-and-control-oriented managers what they want to hear.
- bigpeopleareold 5y ago
  You're right and thank you for bringing this to light. Because my experience has been trying to use that thing to solve non-problems.