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by varjag 299 days ago
My takeaway from observing different teams over years is the talent by a huge margin is the most important component. Throw a team of A performers together and it really doesn't matter what process you make them jump through. This is how a waterfall team got the mankind to the Moon with handwoven core memory but an agile team 10x the size can't fix the software for a family car.
1 comments
scott_w 299 days ago
You conflated, misrepresented and simply ignored so many things in your statement that I really don’t know where to start rebutting it. I’d say at least compare SpaceX to NASA with space exploration but, even then, I doubt you have anywhere near enough knowledge of both programmes to be able to properly analyse, compare and contrast to back up your claim. Hell, do you even know if SpaceX or Tesla are even using an agile methodology for their system development? I know I don’t.

That’s not to say talent is unimportant, however, I’d need to see some real examples of high talent, no process, teams compared to low talent, high process, teams, then some mixture of the groups to make a fair statement. Even then, how do you measure talent? I think I’m talented but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn others think I’m an imbecile who only knows Python!

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varjag 299 days ago
Hell, do you even know if SpaceX or Tesla are even using an agile methodology for their system development?

What I've been saying is methodology is mostly irrelevant, not that waterfall is specifically better than agile. Talent wins over the process but I can see how this idea is controversial.

I’d need to see some real examples of high talent, no process, teams compared to low talent, high process, teams, then some mixture of the groups to make a fair statement. Even then, how do you measure talent?

Yep, even if I made it my life's mission to run a formal study on programmer productivity (which I clearly won't) that wouldn't save the argument from nitpicking.

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scott_w 298 days ago
Except your only example was nonsensical on the face of it.

> Yep, even if I made it my life's mission to run a formal study on programmer productivity (which I clearly won't) that wouldn't save the argument from nitpicking.

I didn't ask for this, I just asked for sensible examples, either from your experience or from publicly available information.

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