Agile, SCRUM and optimism

two men at a transparent wall board

I have posted an article to my Linkedin blog. I had come across an article on medium, and so probably behind their paywall, called, “The Death of Agile: Why Tech Giants Are Abandoning Scrum and What They Use Instead”. One of the alternatives the author suggests is a zero methodology regime.

I extracted what I consider important from the article and argue these are critiques of SCRUM not necessarily of Agile.  I made a note in 2021, called SCRUM, where after listing a series of critiques of SCRUM, I highlighted four of the principles from the Agile manifesto, which I think remain relevant,

·       Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

·       Working software over comprehensive documentation

·       Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

·       Responding to change over following a plan

While not a fan of poor documentation, as I don’t consider the product finished without good documentation, these are useful, people centric and optimistic strategies.They rely on empowering talent, not micromanaging it.

I first wrote about Theory X/Theory Y in my blog article “Maximising Creativity” (2004), where I acknowledge its authorship by Douglas McGregor. I first heard about it in the ’80’s and McGregor wrote his book , “The Human Side of Enterprise”, in 1960.

In my previous article I concluded that while Agile maybe a Theory Y methodology/ideology, SCRUM is not, it is a Theory X methodology and the result of a Theory X methodologies is a Theory X organisation. …

A bit of an old hat

I am tidying up my flat and recovered a copy of my 1988 paper developed for Oracle Expo Europe of that year, called Developments in the UK Case Market. It looked at SSADM vs Information Engineering and how and why to implement these methodologies. It’s not as dated in content as one might think, although the language is a bit old fashioned. Obviously if using post relational design and implementation techniques some of it is a bit old hat but not having a data model will be a cause of regret. …