Click – Onshore /Offshore Process Map – to download Zipped PowerPoint File.
Looking at some of the rankings on Google of some of my old posts it would appear over the last year that I have become one of the main critics of Scrum /Agile:-
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I mentioned in my last Agile related post - Agile Scrum Fails to Get to Grips with Human Psychology that I now want to move away from Agile focused posts for a while to give a little more balance to my blog content. However, as Al Pacino said in the God Father episode III “As soon as I am out, I find myself being pulled back in”. The “pulling back in” in this case took the form of an email from a friend.
The email stated that they had been keeping a close eye on my blog and its Agile related content, and informed me that they had never come across such seemingly organised /persistent/ aggressive and vitriolic commenting concerning what is essentially a set of commercially inspired ideas and concepts. The email continued stating that as serious blog reader he had done some investigation work and discovered that many of the blog commenters appearing on many of my Agile posts seemed to be commenting on Agile posts all over the net. When the dates and times of their comments are closely analysed it would appear that these defenders /promoters of the Agile faith are doing so possibly as a full time occupation which got me thinking!
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It is clear that over the past 50 years Deming’s ideas have become the dominant management doctrine among the western industrialised nations and have often been lauded for the transformation of Japanese car manufacturing in the 1970’s. Adoption of these ideas by Toyota and other Japanese car manufacturers generated such stunning productivity that it firmly entrenched these companies as the dominant players in the modern, global car manufacturing market.
Heart land of Deming & Taylor – The production line.
Despite this transformation in manufacturing, Deming’s doctrines have not had the same impact on the civil engineering, construction and to some extent the IT industries. The reason for this can be traced back to Deming & Taylor’s focus on improving production line efficiency. In contrast civil engineering and construction derive their revenue almost exclusively from the sale of unique project ventures which are rarely repeated. A key difference.
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I am sure many of my regular readers are aware of the huge number of comments and long running dialogue concerning my post Agile Fails to Get to Grips with Human Psychology.
Chaplin’s “Modern Times”
Recently one of my regular commenter’s decided to bring up an age old argument of Systems versus Individuals or better known as Taylor Vs Deming. I am conscious that a post working through my opinion on this age old argument is something more befitting a book rather than a short blog post, and as such I am in danger of over simplifying a very complex issue and it’s relevance to the software industry.
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I promise in the next few weeks to concentrate on other subjects other than AGILE and its deficiencies, but my readership statistics show that AGILE is a popular subject. I also feel I have to keep up with my protagonists comments, which are appearing not just on my blog but all over the net.
At the moment, the net is buzzing with AGILE evangelist websites and Blogs making statements like “the AGILE manifesto is the equivalent to Newton 4th Law of Motion”. When someone takes a fanatical belief in anything without proper empirical evidence you have got to start thinking!!. Please see my post Storm in a Tea Cup. I really think these evangelists do not expect us to engage our brains. They think if they keep repeating the common look-up list of humorous slogans about AGILE’s invincibility, we will all be conditioned into turning a blind eye to the detail and asking for verifiable and independent evidence concerning this approach’s claimed scalability and prowess over other methods /approaches. At the moment the whole IT methods industry from Waterfall to RUP to AGILE and SCRUM is in need of consolidation based on some sound independent research. As we speak, large corporations take huge “flip flop” financial gambles adopting this method over another, largely based on the word of lightweight fee-earning consultants.
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