You know there’s a war on In the midst of the Second World War, General Groves got the inspiration that he might encourage these pointy-headed geenyuses out in the desert by sending them a management engineer. We know them these days as scrum lords. This poor fellow actually believed he could apply Scientific Management (Taylorism) […]
Category: Opinion
We’re Not a Team
You keep using that analogy. I don’t think we are what you think we are. The smartest software architect I ever met once told me, “If you get your nomenclature right, you’ll likely get everything else right, too.” Maybe that’s why things are so wrong in software development. Managers keep calling us something we’re not. […]
Agile! Leave them kids alone!
This Dainty’s Not for You The Agile Manifesto was written by software developers for software development projects. The 12 principles of the agile manifesto each specifically deal with software development and software developers. None of the values or principles require management or any other role in a corporate organization. Indeed, every value and every principle […]
Watch Out For That First Step
It’s a doozy. Agile bewildered the industry. Simple statements, borne from first principles shattered misconceptions about software development. Agile Frameworks consistently fail their stated purpose: deliver software faster. I realized the mismatch: Agile Frameworks do not employ agile. Agile Frameworks employ the failed management processes that have crippled software development projects since the 1960s. The […]
Janie Harris and Your Fun Per Unit Time
I had the best manager ever at SAIC. Her name was Janie Harris. She had little technical background and didn’t want any more. But she was the department head over three divisions worth of more than 400 scientists, engineers, and lawyers (odd collection) at the apex of her department. Janie didn’t want to impress you […]