[Lio]

I’d add one thing to that list:

Control the amount of Work In Progress by the team.

I’m not sure if that counts as common sense or not but I see it as vitally important.

[hurril]

Common sense is a dumb term because it tends to mean whatever the person invoking it considers good.

Having worked as a programmer since 1999, I can say that these things were not part of the processes and ideas when I started, at the places I worked. Interpret that any way you want.

I like agile/ scrum/ whatever and what I mean when I invoke those terms, is the list enumerated above.

I dislike the bullshit derivative terms, however. The burn-down charts, estimation poker, story points and all that. (Sure - the poker might trigger a thorough discussion about controversial estimations, so I guess I'll allow it.)

I also really dislike the concept of the daily standup for non-juniors.

[laserlight]

> Sure - the poker might trigger a thorough discussion about controversial estimations, so I guess I'll allow it.

I believe all these tools have their place. But they are more frequently used by management to exert power over engineers. “What a dumb take. That feature obviously will not take that long. You are over-cautious as always.” “We had decided that this feature was 2 story points. Why did it take that long?” No, dumb fuck. It was your decision, not mine. I had argued against it, but you didn't listen.

[flir]

That's not my experience. But if it does happen, does it matter? All that happens is that less work goes into the next sprint, right?

(I'm suggesting that the problem in your process might lie elsewhere - with mapping points to time, maybe, because the points system should be self-correcting to that kind of gaming).

[laserlight]

Totally agreed. But such understanding is not the approach of power-game players in the first place. For such people, agile is a tool of oppression.

[ac50hz]

+10

That’s common sense, otherwise we’re just not taking real-world problems into consideration.