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As a developer and designer I think agile methodology is a nice add-on for traditional workflows in startups. I love how it encourages interdisciplinary work. B
by dieg0 12y ago
As a developer and designer I think agile methodology is a nice add-on for traditional workflows in startups. I love how it encourages interdisciplinary work. But I believe it took an unexpected turn towards treating the technical side of things as a mere commodity.
Last weekend I attended Startup Weekend event, looking to have fun trying to build something fast from a simple idea pitch. First day more than 80% of the crowd were business / marketing peoples. Designers were scarce and half of the few developers disappeared during the second day. Maybe I’m a masochist but decided to stay until the end, I figured I’d learn something about the agile event fauna. And I did: in most cases the agile methodology is stepping on top of rational thinking.
Do before you think and fail fast is good, only when you know how to do.
Last time I was on SW I had a lot of fun, but last weekend’s experience was somewhat sad. Gurus and their new methodologies might have some to teach, but will never replace rational thinking.
- mattgreenrocks 12y agoCommoditization is already happening IMO; many devs have internalized agile to mean "slap together as many open source/SaaS APIs and then apply duct tape so it holds together." You'll see this sentiment leak out when discussing the necessity of domain modeling or testing in a mature web app that continues to grow. There's always a contingent that shows up loudly complaining, "but that looks like work! I don't want to!" They believe they have to always be kowtowing to Business by constantly shipping features and patching over what breaks. As michaelochurch likes to say, we've been colonized by businessmen. Our own ideas about productivity and quality are slowly being replaced by theirs.