[teampractices] [Engineering] Feedback requested on proposal for creation of Agile Specialist Group

[Matthew Flaschen]

On 03/04/2014 09:19 PM, Whatamidoing (WMF)/Sherry Snyder wrote:
> They're saying, "Stop poking me with a stick twice a
> week".  Agile proponents are saying, "Well, the only alternative is that
> we stab you with a big knife twice a year".  They are very loudly in
> favor of "don't poke me at all".

If "don't poke me at all" means "don't change the software", that 
obviously won't happen, regardless of whether this new group is created. 
  "wiki" means quick, so while we can discuss the best software release 
frequency, we should be able to agree it's not "almost never".

> TLDR:  When those anti-Agile users discover a proposal to spend half a
> million dollars a year on making sure that the users keep getting poked
> with sticks twice a week, then the people in favor of this proposal
> should not be surprised at the results.

That's not what the proposal is.  The proposal has nothing to do with 
release frequency, which is a separate issue.  By way of illustration, 
the original Scrum guide has one month sprints, but says it's up to the 
organization and team.

The goal of scrum is to improve process in order to produce better 
software more efficiently.  It's only part of that though.  There are 
important complements, such as automated and manual testing, that reduce 
the "poke factor".

No matter how you translate the goal of scrum, though, it's not to 
blindly stick to a particular release frequency (let alone without 
sufficient quality assurance), or to deliberately annoy users.  That's 
neither the goal of scrum, nor our goal.

Let's discuss the proposal on its own merits, not based on possible 
misunderstandings of it.  We can communicate what the proposal is really 
about to minimize (but not eliminate) such understandings.

Matt Flaschen