Forget Agile and Kanban, understand what your user wants first

dev.to

9 points·el_programmador··3 comments

I recognise that different folks have had very different experiences of agile, lean, kanban and so on. Many of those experiences have sucked. I've had a few bad agile exeriences, usually "it means we never write docs" layered over an existing hack-and-patch culture.

But this is just straw-punching clickbait. And it had the intended effect: I'm annoyed.

> If things like Kanban and Agile actually worked

I have personal experience of them actually working. Multi mega SLOC distributed systems with dozens of teams working for several companies on multiple continents.

So as you might imagine, I somewhat resent being painted as an accomplice to hucksters.

As in all things, we humans are predisposed to think in all-or-nothing terms. Agile works or it doesn't. Lean is effective or it's not. People just don't want to do the hard and nuanced work of realizing that these are just management methodologies (ffs). They will not by themselves make your business good or bad. There are a hundred other factors at play in your work life, from the personalities of upper management to the viability of your product. Picking a methodology, just like picking a religion or a philosophy or a brand of toothpaste, is not, and never will be, a silver bullet. It's a tool in the toolbox, with pros and cons. Nothing more.

I agree.

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