I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had thoughts about it

Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by notjoemama on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @01:08PM (#37325317)

Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? There’s a bit about “TPS reports” where multiple managers individually correct the main character on a new cover sheet. I’ve experienced that myself. The movie portrays it comedically but IRL it’s kind of a demoralizing experience. A bit soul crushing actually.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by nine_zeros on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @01:20PM (#37325526)

Office space is actually accurate once you replace TPS reports with Status reports/JIRA tickets/Performance reports/Incident reports etc.

The amount of dancing required for the sake of management in this industry is just insane.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by l33t7332273 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @01:32PM (#37325740)

I think “TPS report” is actually meaningless so it’s supposed to be swapped in for whatever is relevant to the viewer.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by aidenn0 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @01:36PM (#37325806)

It's actually a real thing that software companies of the time were not unlikely to have: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TPS_report

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by SquirrelOnFire on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:26PM (#37328522)

As a long time PM (of all sorts of P)...

If you don't want to have to talk to customers, which only one developer who I've ever worked with has actually wanted to do, you need a way to equip someone else to do so.

Same thing if you want to keep your investors happy, your counterparts in other departments informed of when they need to have the hardware to pair up with your software ready, etc.

There's definitely such a thing as too much overhead, but developers who just do the things they are interested in without considering that they are part of a larger business are the other side of the coin that you're describing.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by nine_zeros on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:43PM (#37328803)

I think there are few things that developers object to that don't appear to get addressed.

1. If other departments need metrics/insights/visibility, why don't they go collect it? As a PM, go collect that information yourself and deliver it to stakeholders? Why does everything need to be done by engineers?

2. When engineers get measured, evaluated and pitted against each other using these activities, it breaks camaraderie. We don't enjoy these activities because we see through the management practices of rating people based on the number of proverbial TPS reports or the quality of the cover sheet or the number of story points completed - none of which are actually important to the success of business but very important to the manager who will just recycle them upwards. Do you really think people are motivated to do this meaningless work?

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by grecy on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @01:30PM (#37325701)

The movie came out the same year all my friends and I graduated a Software Engineering degree.

I love the movie, but damn it hits close to home and I never know if I should laugh or cry.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by epiccoleman on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @02:12PM (#37326414)

Silicon valley started the year I entered the tech workforce. Very similar feeling.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by sumtechguy on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @02:00PM (#37326213)

I have been unable to re-watch that movie. Because it hits too close to home.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by baz00 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @02:17PM (#37326509)

I haven’t seen it yet surprisingly. I will watch it tonight.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by freedomben on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @03:21PM (#37327539)

You absolutely must. It was great when it was new, it's even better now.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by nier on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:14PM (#37328336)

Saw it after getting hooked on Silicon Valley and I’m glad I did. Both come from Mike Judge just as Idiocracy does which is simply brilliant. Had I known that he’s also behind Beavis & Butthead, I would have given it all a hard pass. Now I’m thinking, maybe I just misunderstood Beavis & Butthead.

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Re:I wrote, “Scrum is a cancer,” and the Internet had though... by baz00 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @05:07PM (#37329149)

Just watched it. I am dying inside a little. Amazing film!

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