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by lairdpop 3330 days ago
Agile only works for certain kinds of developers. In particular, it works well for people who are team oriented and communicate well, able to talk to the rest of the team to coordinate for at least 10 minutes a day, and responsible enough that they push themselves to deliver and get what they need from the rest of the team. If someone's an introvert who wants to be left alone to code, or to rely on a manager for all discipline, they need to be in a different environment, perhaps an old-school waterfall company where the manager hands out assignments and badgers people until they are done. I've done many agile transformations, and some developers just don't fit in agile, and are perfectly happy in waterfall, and that's fine. Though it might mean needing to find a new job.
2 comments

I am ok having to talk with people for three hours or more a day. I am ok having to coordinate and having to respect other people's needs.

I am not ok with being micromanaged on hourly basis. I am not ok when I loose all autonomy and have no responsibility. The whole 10 minutes of talk you put in is nonsense - you won't be able to split large tasks into microtasks in those 10 minuteš a day.

Last point - waterfall vs agile is false dichotomy. So is the strawman of evil badgering management who stands against pack of developers who have all awesome social skills and are natural born benevolent leaders.

Or it might mean that the company should be asking whether agile is actually a net benefit.