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from the what-if-you-can't-program-your-way-out-of-a-paper-bag? dept.
Agile Development is hip. It's hot. All the cool kids are doing it.
But it doesn't work.
Before I get into why this "Agile" stuff is horrible, let's describe where Agile/Scrum can work. It can work for a time-sensitive and critical project of short duration (6 weeks max) that cross-cuts the business and has no clear manager, because it involves people from multiple departments. You can call it a "Code Red" or call it a Scrum or a "War Room" if you have a physical room for it.
Note that "Agile" comes from the consulting world. It suits well the needs of a small consulting firm, not yet very well-established, that lands one big-ticket project and needs to deliver it quickly, despite changing requirements and other potential bad behavior from the client. It works well when you have a relatively homogeneous talent level and a staff of generalists, which might also be true for an emerging web consultancy.
As a short-term methodology when a firm faces an existential risk or a game-changing opportunity, I'm not opposed to the "Code Red"/"crunch time"/Scrum practice of ignoring peoples' career goals and their individual talents. I have in mind that this "Code Red" state should exist for no more than 6 weeks per year in a well-run business. Even that's less than ideal: the ideal is zero. Frequent crises reflect poorly on management.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @03:40PM (1 child)
There is no waterfall or agile. If you have gatekeepers then at best you have waterfalll. If you say you have agile and it takes 12 weeks to fix and test a bug, you do not have agile just unplanned development. I been in this bus for 45 yrs, there is no agile or waterfall in business just the thought that is the name you want to call it.
It is small teams 3 to 4 developers, you are agile, since they all know what is happening. If you have more and lots of gatekeepers, you are waterfall.
The only group that I have ever seen were doing software right and as true waterfall, is for space shuttle. If that was done wrong people die.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday January 04 2018, @05:59PM
For gates, I just let the customer choose when, and how often to take the hit. In large orgs, it's beyond my control to change that part, so they can balance how long they can do without the functionality they need versus how much effort it is for the gating process.