Comment by VyseofArcadia
13 hours ago
> An agile process should build a feature, release that feature, interview users, analyze system behavior, iterate by improving user's goal, adding appropriate scale, iterating by removing unexpected errors or behavior.
I feel like there's this no true Scotsman thing going on with agile. Whenever someone describes their actual experiences with agile, there's always at least one person who speaks up and decries it as as not real agile and what agile should be.
At this point I don't care what agile should be. I just don't want management shoving agile down my throat anymore. I've yet to see it actually improve productivity for any team I've been on. Real agile must be exceedingly rare.
> I feel like there's this no true Scotsman thing going on with agile. Whenever someone describes their actual experiences with agile, there's always at least one person who speaks up and decries it as as not real agile and what agile should be.
It's not mysterious or confusing. The original definition is at https://agilemanifesto.org/
That's like pointing to https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ and claiming this is one true Christianity. There are some 45 000 distinct Christian denominations on the planet, each with different beliefs and practices, doing exactly that, and each claiming they're the ones getting it right.
In your experience, what has improved productivity?
Weekly standup to check in with devs, leave them alone otherwise. Reach out if a high priority item comes up, but 9 times out of 10 that can be an email.
I've heard that one of the benefits of agile is identifying blockers and encouraging collaboration, but I saw much better results from assuming you've hired intelligent adults with work ethic and letting them reach out and collaborate as needed. Daily standups, sprints, boards, planning, etc. are great in a low-trust environment where you can't be sure people are doing the right things. But if you've hired self-directed people, that stuff just gets in the way.
There's a balance. Not every team is made up of infallible devs, even at decent companies. Human nature is never full-trust.
I've known talented devs who are great people who still need more oversight than you describe. Usually they are ~5 years off from being full-trust, yet still valuable team members. Yes they benefit from daily standups.
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