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Discussion on: What does "agile" mean these days?

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Sergiy Yevtushenko

You're right, many things which were intended to improve process were taken over by managers and used against developers:

  • Planning using hours is very popular and most managers I met in my career reluctant to switch to story points because they are not so obvious to them, especially as managers' level increases. Actually even time-based planning can take into account days off, sick leaves and other stuff, but many managers refuse to accept idea of ideal vs real hours.
  • Original idea of stand-ups is to share information between developers, but many companies use it as developers' everyday reports to management. While original purpose is extremely helpful and boosts cooperation and awareness inside the team, reporting just kills motivation and underscores hierarchy (which also contradicts the spirit of agile). In one company where I was working it looked even more derogatory: during stand-up manager was sitting in front of his laptop and picking developers who should report while team was standing. When I pointed out that this is wrong and there should be no report and manager should be standing as well, I was fired :)