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This is a long article that has some history in it, but I don’t think it makes a point. Who cares if Agile came out of Lean? It didn’t, but they are closely ali

This is a long article that has some history in it, but I don’t think it makes a point. Who cares if Agile came out of Lean? It didn’t, but they are closely aligned. Agile is all over the place so it’s kind of hard to cargo cult agile. Maybe author is confusing it with scrum or whatever. And since agile is just a bunch of principles, there are also lots of dumbasses claiming to do agile when they are really just chaos.

JohnFen 4y ago
I really think that the problem with Agile isn't really Agile as such. It's that Agile, at least everywhere that I've seen it done, is used as a mechanism by management to squeeze developers harder rather than to be a better method of development. In other words, it exists to serve management, not product development. That's why it ends up as a means to treat programmers like machines. That's not really Agile's fault. As long as management has the last word about things, any methodology will end up the same way.
galangalalgol 4y ago
The agile manifesto was a set of stated relative values that the authors felt lead to positive results when a development team bought in. It wasn't a description of any methodology or process. In fact I have never been able to tell how agile methodologies were related to the manifesto in any way. Software and manufacturing methodologies can be good as best practices or guidelines, but when they require documentation for following steps, and have a methodology for changing the methodology, they lose their value. If you have a well intentioned group of team players that understand the values and guidelines and buy in, then the formality is a waste of time, and if you don't have those people nothing can save you. Process gets used as a shield for accountability by those people not a tool to correct their performance. Accountability (not blaming) is simply a way to adjust the power given to well intentioned team players based on the results of their decisions and actions. It is not a punishment, even though it does hurt.

JohnFen 4y ago

I really think that the problem with Agile isn't really Agile as such. It's that Agile, at least everywhere that I've seen it done, is used as a mechanism by management to squeeze developers harder rather than to be a better method of development. In other words, it exists to serve management, not product development. That's why it ends up as a means to treat programmers like machines. That's not really Agile's fault. As long as management has the last word about things, any methodology will end up the same way.

galangalalgol 4y ago

The agile manifesto was a set of stated relative values that the authors felt lead to positive results when a development team bought in. It wasn't a description of any methodology or process. In fact I have never been able to tell how agile methodologies were related to the manifesto in any way. Software and manufacturing methodologies can be good as best practices or guidelines, but when they require documentation for following steps, and have a methodology for changing the methodology, they lose their value. If you have a well intentioned group of team players that understand the values and guidelines and buy in, then the formality is a waste of time, and if you don't have those people nothing can save you. Process gets used as a shield for accountability by those people not a tool to correct their performance. Accountability (not blaming) is simply a way to adjust the power given to well intentioned team players based on the results of their decisions and actions. It is not a punishment, even though it does hurt.