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As someone recently said it here, the difference between software development and marathon is that marathon runners know their destination.
by hbrn 4y ago
As someone recently said it here, the difference between software development and marathon is that marathon runners know their destination.
- chrisseaton 4y agoOrienteers then? They don’t know their destination until they have their next waypoint. It’s not healthy to live in an eternally manic state of having to sprint at work.
- hbrn 4y agoOrienteering definitely fits better. And it's a competitive sport. It might not be healthy, but that's how you win.
- hinkley 4y agoNot all who wander are lost. A hiker or a marathon runner or a club cyclist not currently at an event have a destination: where they started. But the good stuff happens in the middle, and that’s not necessarily planned out in advance. Pacing is even more important then because there may be nobody to come bail you out, or it might take hours for them to do so.
- tomatotomato37 4y agoSo do sprinting runners, unless something has gone horribly wrong in the track design. Maybe we should get rid of the running analogies altogether and adopt the term "voyage" instead
- rob74 4y agoOr "journey" - then you can explore philosophical concepts like "it's not about the destination, it's about the journey" to help cope with projects that never get finished...
- commandlinefan 4y ago> marathon runners know their destination Hell, in this analogy even the marathon organizers don't know the destination. Or much care.
- hbrn 4y agoIdeally, during first few years organizers are runners. They don't know the destination, but they care more than anyone.
- mrguyorama 4y agoI'm tired of pretending software developers don't know their destination. If you started making a task-tracking app, and after all the work for scrum end up building a video game instead, something has gone terribly wrong.
- chrisseaton 4y agoDidn’t Slack do that exact thing, but the other way around, and are now worth 20 billion?
- hbrn 4y agoWhile I personally don't believe it, one could easily explain it with survivorship bias.
- Macha 4y agoThe founder even did it twice. The last time he set out to make a video game, he came out the other end with Flickr
- nivertech 4y agoAccording to its inventor, Scrum™ was created to manage a team of dysfunctional COBOL programmers at a bank[1], not to find a Product/Market Fit (PM/F). Instead of using an SDLC methodology here, use one of the relevant product frameworks for that, but needless to say, there is a large element of luck here, as finding a PM/F isn't guaranteed. Usually you use low-tech SDLCs like Scrum/SAFe at the places that already have found PM/F, or those relying on violence (aka "taxation") as their main business model (e.g. military/government/public sector). The only PM/F Scrum Inc found is how to make bazillions from useless certifications and training. -- [1] Scrum | Dr Jeff Sutherland | Talks at Google https://youtu.be/2L1oBLTICx4?t=1217 https://youtu.be/2L1oBLTICx4?t=1217
- rob74 4y agoPlus they ended up with the most elaborate Easter eggs I have seen in a web app: https://slack.com/404 https://slack.com/404