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We did Agile and it failed

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 8 months ago

Agilistas are often accused of saying, whenever anyone says that Agile failed, of saying "You weren't doing it right." I think we usually start with questions, and the Q and A goes something like this:

Joe Tryer

We tried Agile and it failed.

Sam Agilista

Tell us about your dedicated Product Owner.

Joe

Well, we didn't have a real PO, but we had an Analyst.

Sam

Did the Analyst have the authority to modify the requirements,

and to control scope to bring the project in on time.

Joe

No, we all knew what we had to do and when we had to get it done.

Sam

OK ... tell us how you worked together.

Joe

Well, we figured out our technical tasks and everyone worked on

their tasks.

Sam

What happened then?

Joe Tryer

Well, at the end of the month, when we would integrate the system,

it wouldn't integrate and a large percentage of the stories weren't

really done.

Sam Agilista

I see. Did you try working on fewer or smaller stories?

Did you try working on stories instead of tasks?

Joe

Well, we couldn't, really, because the Analyst wouldn't make them

smaller, said they would be useless if they were smaller. And

anyway, only two of us could do Java, and the DBA and the testers

couldn't really do coding.

Sam

OK. What else?

Joe

Well, the Architecture Team kept saying our design was wrong,

and they wouldn't let us release the code ever, no matter what,

until we changed over.

Sam

So what happened?

Joe

Well, we had a three-month refactoring to put in the new design.

Sam

I see. How did that turn out?

Joe

We had a lot of trouble debugging the app on the new architecture.

Sam

Did your tests help get that going?

Joe

Well, we didn't have many tests so our testers got overloaded.

Sam

So what happened then?

Joe

Well, after almost the whole 90 days, they canceled funding for the

project. So that's why Agile failed.

So by the time the conversation is over, we generally know that Agile failed because it wasn't done. We don't know why it wasn't done, which could be important. But we do know they weren't doing it right.