Re:Why Agile and Scrum Are Terrible
by JoeAltmaier on Saturday June 13, 2015 @12:26AM
(#9709853)
Agile is an engineering process. It is supposed to solve problems. Those problems remain. Ergo, Agile isn't working. We can be apologists all we want for Agile but it remains true, it often fails to improve things at all.
Re:Why Agile and Scrum Are Terrible
by dragonwriter on Saturday June 13, 2015 @09:22AM
(#9710918)
No, Agile is not a process, engineering or otherwise. Agile is a set of principles which can guide the selection of a process and how it is applied, but it is not a process (indeed, it is fairly expressly a response to the fetishization of process.)
And I am unconvinced by your claim that Agile isn't working, that is, I am unconvinced that the problems Agile exists to mitigate are not reduced in organizations that actually apply the Agile principles in hour they approach work.
OTOH, I do think the "Agile" brand had failed because a while lot of applications of canned process in rote ways -- the thing Agile directly opposed -- is being sold as being Agile methods.
Agile isn't an engineering process, its the the idea of applying problem- and resource- (including the staff on the team) specific engineering to the development process.
Re:Why Agile and Scrum Are Terrible
by JoeAltmaier on Saturday June 13, 2015 @09:08PM
(#9713408)
That's pretty weak - its not a process, its an idea of a process. Whatever. Applying this idea of a process often fails, obstructs senior engineers and does nothing to enable the rank and file as advertised.
The OP makes some real points about failings of management that predate Agile, and are common even where the word "Agile" isn't used, and occur (among other places) in places that use "Agile" as an empty buzzword the same as the same type of organizations would use the name of any other approach that was popular if Agile wasn't around.
But none of it really has anything to do with Agile. Very little of it even has to do with Scrum (which, as an actual defined process rather than an approach to selecting/using processes, is at least subject to process-oriented criticism.) And, perhaps most importantly, no solutions/alternatives are offered.