[arendtio]

Just in case you aren't aware, but this is what agile is actually about. Big part of it is communicating with the team. Not having a fixed plan and adjusting when having new insights is also part of it, but I think the communication part is often overlooked.

In the classic methodologies, you had some document, that told you what to do. In agile you should talk about things and just use a few notes to summarize what should be done.

Acceptance criteria are a (good) tool to drive the discussion into a specific, rather than abstract, direction, but should not replace verbal communication.

[taurath]

Why do you have to ascribe good practices such as confirming work necessities as being “Agile” or not? The word (as a proper noun) to me has lost all meaning having been inane different workplaces, all of which claim to be “Agile”.

[chiefalchemist]

I've also witnessed agile being used as a excuse for "We're not going to take the time to understand the problem. We're not going to work with the client so that they understand their own problem. Nah. Insted, just do the work. Do what you're told. If we miss the target we'll fix it in another sprint. They're paying. NBD."

[tcbasche]

It’s funny because that outcome is almost certainly the opposite of agility. Just do the work and hope it’s what they wanted.

[arendtio]

Actually, because I also feel that the word has been used in many contexts and I would like to sharpen the meaning. So you might say, that I could go around an find all things that work aka good practices and say 'This is Agile', but in fact Martin Fowler (one of initial authors), said, that they even discussed calling it 'Conversational' but ultimately choose 'Agile' [1]. I think that example shows, how important verbal communication is, from the perspective of the Agile Manifesto.

[1] https://youtu.be/G_y2pNj0zZg?t=1399

[chiefalchemist]

Perhaps. But methodology should be independent of being able and willing to ask questions. A close colleague recently left a company because the talk was "we're agile" but the walk was "don't ask questions, just do what you're told."

[arendtio]

> But methodology should be independent of being able and willing to ask questions.

What if asking questions significantly increases quality and productivity? I mean, strictly speaking, Agile is no methodology but more a set of values [1], that defines a culture rather than a methodology. Yes, there are agile methodologies (Scrum, XP, etc.), but those are worthless without the right culture.

In fact, I think you are better off with the waterfall methods, if your company has no ambitions of changing the culture. So the correct combination of culture and methodology is critical.

[1] https://agilemanifesto.org/

[chiefalchemist]

Culture > methodology

Culture either allows and values questions and improvememt or it doesn't. If it doesn't then methodology will not override (read: fix) that.

Waterfall or not, or otherwise isn't really relevant. Culture is.