Monday, January 20, 2014

Agile claims versus Agile Manifesto

There is a big problem with the Agile claims. Many of them are just claims, and there are close to a logical fraud. I recently had a similar experience - with the below report - where the main result was to just deeply annoy (!) tens of agile practitioners (or at least a third of them) with the Agile Manifesto.

"Mario Moreira reports his survey results. Most people who claim to be agile don't know the agile principles in the Agile Manifesto." - Jeff Sutherland

Here you can find this report and also I have extract some quotes.

http://cmforagile.blogspot.ro/2014/01/as-i-look-across-agile-landscape-i-am.html

"ThThe results were quite revealing and support my hypothesis.  Of the 109 Agile participants: 
  • 59% knew 3 or more of the five Scrum events
  • 11% knew 3 or more of the twelve Agile principles
I actually find these results quite astounding.  Could it really be true that only 11% of Agile professionals and enthusiasts could name just 3 Agile principles?  I don't mean they they memorize them but can provide at least the key words of the principle.  This means that 89% could only name 2 or less.  What makes this even more astonishing is that 67% could not name even a single Agile principle (and I did give credit to those who could name the key words of the principle - e.g., self-organizing,  frequent delivery, etc.). " - Mario Moreira

"Now do keep in mind, knowing the principles is just the first step and it doesn't make you Agile.  Next its time to live it.  But how do we expect to “be Agile” if our focus is so much more focused on the mechanics or “doing Agile”.   I would suggest that anyone who claims to be an Agile enthusiast ought to periodically bring their work back to the Agile values and principles.  Maybe its time to revisit the values and principles and understand what it really takes to be Agile." - Mario Moreira 

The main question - it is a kind of fraud to pretend to be something that is far away from your current abilities?

Friday, January 17, 2014

Survival with Scrum

This article (the bellow link) present a list of interesting, tough and unusual interview questions (mostly from significant and well known companies) and some associated suggested answers. I want to analyze this question and this suggested answer from an Agile & Scrum viewpoint.


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5. "If you were on an island and could only bring three things, what would you bring?"

Suggested answer: A knife, matches and duct tape. (Duct tape is good for everything.)
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The suggested answer seems to be smart and even cool. It is possible to produce a good impression during an interview. Anyway, I will propose another viewpoint: we have a problem and we need a solution.  Let use an Agile/Scrum manner to solve this problem.

First: What are the value & risks associated with the problem? 
Second: It is a clear-enough question?
Third: What is my expertise in this domain?

Well ... Very high value and very high risks - "to be or not to be". And what about the island: what kind of island? It is near to Greenland or to Madagascar? It is Ireland or a simple rock near Saint Helen?
The information & the knowledge related to this problem is not ready enough in order to give a clear answer (a solution).  We need to refine this knowledge until will be ready for the answer.

My suggested answer: "for a such high risks, high value and also vague problem, I need to gather more information about the inland (... requirements) and also more information about the possible survival solutions. It is totally unwise to give you an answer in a matter of seconds, minutes and even hours."