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In the same way that few ReST implementations are truly ReSTful, few agile implementations are truly agile. The Agile Manifesto came into style, then predictab

In the same way that few ReST implementations are truly ReSTful, few agile implementations are truly agile. The Agile Manifesto came into style, then predictably a cottage industry of small companies grew up around it, with the business model of charging Fortune 500s huge amounts of money to train their Engineering departments. I've sat through such training before, and I can say without doubt that the day our company took "agile training" was the day we stopped being agile. We overlaid an efficient process with a ton of bureaucratic busy work. We came out the other side of it with an army of PMs (read: Jira configuration experts). Engineers had less time to engineer, with constant flow-interrupting meetings where they became trapped in a morass of Gantt Charts, "deliverables" spreadsheets, etc. We had many employees for whom English was a second language, and interestingly none of those I talked to realized that "agile" was an actual word, meaning "nimble, quick, dexterous." Nothing about the new process conveyed any of those qualities. It was basically classic waterfall, with stand-up meetings thrown in. Rigid project management methodology is definitionally opposed to agility.

carlivar 4y ago
I tend to think of communism as a comparison. Aren't proponents of "agile" similar to those saying "we've never had real communism"? Both have manifestos. I think there are certain systems that make sense and can be executed properly but human nature eventually mucks it up.
- jjslocum3 4y ago
  Well put... Animal Farm is really about Agile. All engineers are equal, but some are more equal than others!
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  No one's saying we've never had real agile. Philosophically, agile is more like democracy/capitalism: it decentralises control to teams, where the information and expertise are. Failures in agile are things like "I didn't like using story points". Waterfall is more like communism: it centralises control away from the people doing the work. Failures in waterfall are things like "we spent millions and got nothing out of it".

carlivar 4y ago

I tend to think of communism as a comparison. Aren't proponents of "agile" similar to those saying "we've never had real communism"? Both have manifestos. I think there are certain systems that make sense and can be executed properly but human nature eventually mucks it up.

jjslocum3 4y ago
Well put... Animal Farm is really about Agile. All engineers are equal, but some are more equal than others!
robertlagrant 4y ago
No one's saying we've never had real agile. Philosophically, agile is more like democracy/capitalism: it decentralises control to teams, where the information and expertise are. Failures in agile are things like "I didn't like using story points". Waterfall is more like communism: it centralises control away from the people doing the work. Failures in waterfall are things like "we spent millions and got nothing out of it".