Comments by "Mentat" (@_Mentat) on "Agile Uncertified | Philosophy Over Rituals" video.

  1. I work there now! Agile has been disastrous for us. Being agile is good - but the endless rituals and ceremonies of Agile(tm) is corporate death; all creativity is killed. Innovation? Forget it. Only the Product Owner could "legally" do it, and he's got all the creativity you would expect of a middle manager.
    13
  2. Customer: I'll buy your software. When can I expect delivery? Supplier: Have you heard of Agile?
    2
  3. Your situation seems hopeless. The best you can do is tell senior management that the methodology will never make a working system. A heroic CEO would then throw out agile and go back to methods known to work: ie, hire people who know what they are doing; put specialists into each area, and believe them when they tell you the best way to achieve the desired result; forget about "teams", individuals either deliver or you get rid. "Teams" are perfect for avoiding individual responsibility. Where I work is much the same. Agile is successfully delivering simple things but the complicated things we were going to do are continually being kicked into the future because they cannot be made using Agile. No one really acknowledges this; it's just decided "not to do that at the moment." Middle management "sold" Agile to the senior management, and it was a hard sell. And now productivity has fallen off a cliff. Senior management is getting antsy and middle management is starting to panic. Panic "looks like" we might not let you take leave; the smallest problem is a "crisis"; Agile consultants are hired and hero worshipped because they might save the day and middle management face at the same time. Engineers are forbidden from criticizing the process.
    1
  4. Agile has ceremonies, rituals, artefacts and banishes people who point out its flaws -- it's a cult.
    1
  5.  @krisztianfekete652  Unfortunately our sales dept has their own demo system developers who mock up what the customer wants and tell them the functionality they want is already 99% present in the existing product. We receive the requirements and a deadline written into a signed contract with the customer. "Let's build it together," would be rapidly followed by, "Give me my money back."
    1
  6.  @adambickford8720  It was a good company before Agile.
    1