@javahippie
Ich hab es tatsächlich erst einmal erlebt, dass agile (Scrum) wirklich gut funktioniert hat (~350 Pers., 14 Dev Teams). War extrem "bürokratisch", aber hat funktioniert, quasi alle Ziele wurden innerhalb eines 3 Jahre Abschnittes erreicht, allerdings mit extra Budget.

Ich hab heute oft den Eindruck, dass es mehr als Ausrede dient, keine vernünftige Planung für die Zukunft zu machen... Deadlines gibts natürlich trotzdem immer.

@javahippie Ich habe auch schon viel schlechtes auf Youtube darüber gehört ("Agile, you're doing it wrong..." und so).

Jetzt, wo ich drüber nachdenke, würde ich aber vermuten, wenn es sehr schlecht läuft, liegt es an den Menschen und weniger am System.
Oder anders: Welches Entwicklungs-Koordinierungssystem hat gute Ergebnisse?

Persönlich habe ich es bisher nur einmal ein paar Monate erlebt, da war es zwar gefühlt objektiv ineffizient, aber für die Menschen war es ok.

@javahippie
Opinion incoming...

Agile is cargo cult in big companies. Scrum works on team levels but as soon as multiple teams interact, management gets scared and wants the alleged determinism of classic project management back.

SAFe combines the best of both worlds for management: Calling yourself agile and still be in full control.

It combines the worst for anybody else: Permanent deadlines and loss of autonomy.

@javahippie I really believe in Scrum - I actually do. I've got no idea what to call the scaled messes, cause it ain't Scrum.

Doing Agile is not the same as being agile

@javahippie Yup. I joined a team that had to suffer through this 💩.

And the first thing I did as manager (when I took over the team) was to ditch the process, drop Rally and get back to the basics. 🖕🏿this kind of “Agile”

@javahippie
I've been lucky enough to never work under SAFe, but I have the same view of Scrum (as I've seen it practiced). The constant deadlines make sure that you're always under pressure to deliver.

We need to trade a lot of efficiency for resilience everywhere in society.

@javahippie Software developer of 18 years here -- I don't mind SAFe Agile. It's fine.

A) I think those unmovable deadlines happen despite Agile (directors and SVPs aren't coding, they're selling), and B) team burnout has, IMO, a *completely* different cause, namely being a result of lack of humanity coming down from upper management, regardless of the pace of work.

@javahippie
Das ist wild, ich habe sAfE für Satire gehalten.

Leute verwenden das ernsthaft?

@javahippie I agree with your assessment. I’m SAFe certified but hope that I never need to use it again.

My opinion of SAFe is its the aesthetics of agile for execs that don’t trust their engineers enough to give them real autonomy.

@javahippie from what I can tell SAFe was designed to be sold to top heavy organizations that were unwilling to make the structural/cultural changes needed to become agile.

It resolved the managerial question: How do we maintain a deathgrip on our tech teams (and our jobs) and also demand more?

My org has had far more failed projects, unclear priorities and way too much work in progress since the switch, not to mention a slew of managerial hirings that muddy things even more.

@javahippie You have intrigued me. We have been using some form of Scaled Agile everywhere I work.

It is possible to have the failed state you described, although we haven't seen it.

On the other hand, now I am worried.

The fact that it's so bad for you and your teams, is true. And I want to learn to guard against what you see and perhaps learn what's busted in my place of work.

@javahippie

ummm

again this is opinion and i’m likely wrong but the high churn rate of personnel in sv seems to be a feature not a bug (increasingly the rest of the economy too but..)

there seems an active drive to reduce institutional knowledge in these orgs save for a few true believer types that have been there since the beginning

the high priests with their ears to the gods of the c-suite share only tiny snippets of their knowledge while exhausting the rest of the faithful of theirs

@javahippie I was done with it about 2 hours into the training.

Thankfully my employer soon after agreed.

@javahippie

I can't reshare or star this enough.

So many times I find myself lementing, "you're sacrificing agility on the altar of big-A Agile".

@javahippie add to that the stress of never feeling done or getting congratulated on your work and achievements because there's always the next thing to work on.

Every engineer I've seen in an Agile team is permanently burnt out, working weekends, and feeling bad about themselves.

@javahippie Having suffered under SAFe/Agile for a while, I can agree it's the worst thing possible, ever. I'll never willingly work with any org using it.

If you haven't seen it yet, this is pretty excellent: https://safedelusion.com

@javahippie I've seen it work on close-ended time-bound projects under 6mos or extremely discrete features. Anywhere there's an end that is tangible, where you can take stock and say "we did this!"

Maintenance, continual improvement, or incremental long-horizon product work? Hard agree.

@javahippie

But there's a "delivery train!"