[painful]

I agree with the part that says Agile (and Scrum in particular) is drinking the koolaid. Managers who don't themselves write any code, but micromanage their workers with their version of Scrum, are the worst.

[gav]

The majority of issues I see with Agile and Scrum is that it's a process added by people external to the teams and it's treated as a rigid process to be followed.

I've worked with teams who have had to suffer through a 45-minute standup every morning that was immensely painful. They were just following the process as best as they understood it from a couple of days with an "agile coach" and didn't really understand what being agile really meant.

> Managers who don't themselves write any code, but micromanage their workers with their version of Scrum, are the worst.

I don't think anyone would disagree on the evils of micromanaging, but as a manager that doesn't code, I think that managers who do code are depriving their teams of the most valuable thing they have to offer--their support. If you take on a coding task and put yourself on the critical path of that sprint's work, you have to commit to putting the hours in to get it done. This is not a good use of your time.

This is the difference between a manager and a Tech Lead.

[Aeolun]

Just the fact that a manager doesn’t code doesn’t mean they’re providing their teams with any support.

[jasonm23]

Effectively Scrum is a poor fit because it's not based on engineering practices first.

XP is better simply because it's based on engineering practices first.

The trouble with any approach is that it's a template and some teams / people rest on those templates in place of actual thought.