[capote]

I think time pressure is the worst thing cited here, and it's the reason I tend to stay away from methods in which I sense agility.

The time estimate and completion time features on tools like Jira make my insides sink a little bit. I think it's somewhat difficult to know ahead of time exactly how long something will take to implement, and, even worse, committing yourself to that puts pressure to ignore unforeseen events or complications or to not take care of them properly. I'd rather be extra careful than quick.

Assuming your team isn't massive or out of control, I think it's possible to have trust in programmers that they won't muck about and will deliver work in the time it takes to deliver the work--which for a good programmer isn't affected by management or Jira or estimates. It's just a constant.

[stronglikedan]

We have a client that needs to know up front what things will cost, so that it can be budgeted, and the budget approved. They get a SOW (as tight as we can get it), and an estimate (which, to them, is a quote). The estimate is whatever the developers have estimated the tasks to be, multiplied by three. It seems to cover us in most cases, and the client happily pays.

[2muchcoffeeman]

I used to hate all previous attempts at being agile. But my current workplace gets it more right than wrong.

People over process right?

[capote]

Maybe it's just whichever process matches the people and vice versa.