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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37134050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37134050 > Not everybody knows that, but Scrum was invented to manage a team

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37134050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37134050 > Not everybody knows that, but Scrum was invented to manage a team of dysfunctional COBOL programmers at a bank, not for product-led tech companies, and certainly not for startups. > If you're mostly hiring juniors, low-skilled, unpassionate, unable to work autonomously without constant handlholding, reactive instead of proactive people, then you'll certainly need some micromanaging SDLC like Scrum.

touisteur 3y ago
I'm also wondering whether using Scrum somehow makes your team become this dysfunctional COBOL programmer team...
poulsbohemian 3y ago
So funny thing... about twenty years ago I was managing a project with Cobol developers on one side, and this web thing on the other. And we had a bunch of business people convinced we were all stupid and lazy, so they wanted to force us to do this scrum thing. We would do things like a daily standup with them in order to go through the motions, and then we'd have the real meetings once they left us alone. Because the problem wasn't that the Cobol programmers were dysfunctional, it was that the business refused to actually listen and understand anything - they just wanted to make edicts, even when they didn't understand the regulations or processes in their own business (this being a highly regulated industry...). I pulled off what was perhaps the first project in that company's history that got delivered on time and met its requirements (and it was a big flipping deal of a project...) and the business people took credit for it and I got overlooked for promotion and life went on.
- tamimio 3y ago
  > and the business people took credit for it and I got overlooked for promotion and life went on. Story of my life! And I guess it is the case for most competent employees unfortunately.
thunderbong 3y ago
The reply to that comment is also valid, IMHO

touisteur 3y ago

I'm also wondering whether using Scrum somehow makes your team become this dysfunctional COBOL programmer team...

poulsbohemian 3y ago

So funny thing... about twenty years ago I was managing a project with Cobol developers on one side, and this web thing on the other. And we had a bunch of business people convinced we were all stupid and lazy, so they wanted to force us to do this scrum thing. We would do things like a daily standup with them in order to go through the motions, and then we'd have the real meetings once they left us alone. Because the problem wasn't that the Cobol programmers were dysfunctional, it was that the business refused to actually listen and understand anything - they just wanted to make edicts, even when they didn't understand the regulations or processes in their own business (this being a highly regulated industry...). I pulled off what was perhaps the first project in that company's history that got delivered on time and met its requirements (and it was a big flipping deal of a project...) and the business people took credit for it and I got overlooked for promotion and life went on.

tamimio 3y ago
> and the business people took credit for it and I got overlooked for promotion and life went on. Story of my life! And I guess it is the case for most competent employees unfortunately.

thunderbong 3y ago

The reply to that comment is also valid, IMHO