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Comment by optymizer | Hacker News Reader

In my experience, junior developers like the rigid structure and senior developers would prefer more flexibility.

Companies that implement agile to the letter typically treat their developers like consultants. You're treated as a mindless drone that is supposed to work on tasks that were predefined for you. You might as well be outsourced.

I found that kanban-style works better imo. A prioritized backlog where you pick the most important task to get done makes for a more relaxed and friendly environment, compared to an environment with a rigid deadline every two weeks that everyone sprints towards. As long as there's progressed made towards the most important items, everybody is typically happy.

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Every company I've worked at that followed some sort of rigid scrum process has suffered from burnout and general failure in one form or another

It treats developers like consultants because it's really designed for agencies working on one-off short-burst projects ( this is the only setting I've seen it have a positive effect )

by nature it just chews people up if it becomes a day-to-day practice, the whole process revolves around the assumption that there's lack of trust and team cohesion

> the whole process revolves around the assumption that there's lack of trust and team cohesion

Where in Scrum is this defined?

A mandatory meeting in which all developers must be present and regurgitate status updates to the entire team, as an example, assumes this information wouldn't get to relevant parties organically and all team members must consume all status updates.

> and all team members must consume all status updates.

This is because nobody can be assed to figure out who needs to communicate with who, on what.

Which goes to some assertions that have been made about this thread: Scrum is a tool to build standardized minimums in support of mediocre talent. Elite tech companies don't use scrum because they don't have (as much) mediocre talent.

Scrum doesn't have a status update meeting.

I don't work in civilian software development, but I do work in a setting with clearly defined, regular meetings/briefings. In our org, information frequently DOESN'T get to the relevant parties organically. There are representatives from every functional section; bringing every last team member in would be pointless and unsupportable due to space constraints anyway. The briefing is directed to the Commanding General (or whoever is receiving the brief in his stead, like a VP-equivalent in corporate terms). Our briefs are an opportunity to give the senior decision-maker 1) a snapshot of exactly what is going on right now 2) demonstrates to the decision-maker that the staff understands his/her mental image of the organization's direction/goals 3) forum for directed tasks/information requests from the senior leader to either Subject Matter Experts or the people who know them.

I'm not surprised, I see "rigid scrum" as an oxymoron.

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