[FROM THE ARCHIVES] It's time to stop hating and speak up.

So, I came across THIS post today on Twitter by Michael O. Church. You should read it first, it's got some great points and is very interesting.

I'm just going to put it out there that I DO NOT think that "going Agile" or using any the frameworks are ALWAYS the route to go. They just don't fit every situation. I'm also not of the club that you need to follow everything laid out per CSM or any of the equivalent certifications to a T either. You need to make whatever process you use to manage projects work for you as best you can.

I'm going to start my selective breakdown by laying out two quotes from the post. I think they give the gist of what his post is really about.

"There’s a strong resentment that software engineers and technologists have toward “non-technical” people or “business people”. We compare our situations, and our impulse is to find the arrangement unjust. Based on fundamentals, things are a bit off."...

"Rather than getting angry about their superior status and compensation, and our inferior lot, we might do better to observe what these people have done in order to get where they are."

These quotes and everything related in between are very valid points. I think that everyone in our industry has a lot to learn from executives. Their education and experience are excellent resources to learn what to do and what NOT to do.

My problem with this post and countless others is the constant harping on the agile principles and methodologies without real justification. In this case (as it is most of the time) Scrum.

Since I don't care to ramble on all day about who's right or wrong I'm just going to break the sections I want to rebuke.

We’ve let this industry be invaded by the worst kinds of psychopaths.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion but this is pretty harsh. No further comments.

Programming used to be an R&D job; now we have to deal with two-week “sprints” and “user stories” and, worst of all, the sorts of mediocre, mindlessly obedient colleagues who will put up with that nonsense (and for whom such processes are designed).

This is pretty much the equivalent of someone rambling on and on about how Common Core sucks and the old way was better. Spoiler: it isn't and people spent a lot of time to figure out why. Here's why

From what I can see here the real problem is mediocre colleagues? It's the only thing that has any merit towards why Scrums aren't/haven't worked out. It makes sense since a Scrum team should know best how to solve the problem they are presented.

Less qualified team + Scrum = poor results

Solution: Stop hiring mediocre employees.

I'm positive that most situations are much more complicated but based on what's provided here that's all I've got for ya. Again, I don't think Scrum is applicable to every situation. That does not mean it doesn't work ever anywhere.

That brings discomfort and humiliation as well as financial mediocrity. Writ large, it also makes us an underperforming industry.

Again, stop hiring people who are mediocre employees. Be honest in their reviews. Be vocal about their performance in the most professional manner you can. It's really not hard to address these problems. It's just easier for most of us to roll over and think we can't do anything about it.

Innovation isn’t possible under “Scrum”.

This is silly. Innovation is possible, but it's harder when surrounded by a mediocre team and if you're being micromanaged into the ground. Scum shouldn't equate to micromanagement.

"But at XYZ company we did it like ABC so it is micromanagement!"

Well, I'm sorry you had to work with someone who didn't take the time to learn what they were trying to apply in practice. Your experience in a Scrum team should have resembled something like the statement below

Scrum relies on a self-organizing, cross-functional team. The Scrum team is self-organizing in that there is no overall team leader who decides which person will do which task or how a problem will be solved. Those are issues that are decided by the team as a whole.

If you're not having an experience similar to what's outlined above you should express this in your retrospectives, "360" reviews and whatever other outlets you have for team assessment.

I also want to include a bit of the second to last paragraph.

They’ve been pooling connections and resources while we’ve been drawing lines in the sand by saying “I won’t work with Java programmers” or “I refuse to hire anyone who doesn’t want to do Scrum”.

This is insane, if this is really a thing going down in Silicon Valley it needs to stop. It's so counter-productive. Think about all of the people you're missing out on!

If we want to get better at developing cool things and innovating in general we have to work together to improve. We can only improve if we provide each other with professional constructive feedback. So, speak up! This will only improve our "collective intelligence" and foster a better working relationship between developers and "non-technical people".

Again, if you haven't read the post I'm commenting on you should read it HERE.