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 – Development
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 […]
The Interview
Technical interviews fail because technical interviewers insist on turning them into challenges. The appointment is for 10:30. Tom, the VP of Something Very Important, Dick, the CIO, and Harry, Software Engineer III sit at the other side of the table when you arrive. They arranged a single chair opposite their side of the conference table. […]