Agile seems to have ended up as a way for PMs to report upward to senior managers who also need to report upward.
You can see why. These people have to decide what will be worked on out of all the potential things that can be worked on. Someone has to make that decision. Will this feature make us money? What about that bit of work that doesn't add a feature but reduces resource costs? What about tech debt that I'm told is building up and slowing the ability to deliver features?
I'm not a senior manager, but ultimately someone up the chain is responsible for the company surviving and making money and paying our salaries. They are just like you and I, trying to make decisions based on what little information that can glean. So part of that is "what will this cost and how much will it be worth" vs "what will that other thing cost and how much will it be worth".
To that end, they need some way to estimate this. They latched on to agile as it was being promoted by tech as a way to do this. Whose fault is that?
And so with that came all the frequent estimations, are we on track, rituals, etc. Some people don't believe this should naturally follow. I agree. But somehow all those rituals have become part of the cult.
We abondanded scrum. We abandoned refinements and estimation of stories and story points etc. Now we meet with a PM once a month formally and as a team perform a t-shirt size estimate on where we are. Otherwise we update her as frequently as she asks (which isn't often) or we want. This gives power to us but because of that we're conscientious and make sure to inform her timeously when things are looking sketchy or whatever. Yes, we still have to give "estimates", because ultimately, senior management want to make decisions, but it is otherwise quite lightweight.
You can see why. These people have to decide what will be worked on out of all the potential things that can be worked on. Someone has to make that decision. Will this feature make us money? What about that bit of work that doesn't add a feature but reduces resource costs? What about tech debt that I'm told is building up and slowing the ability to deliver features?
I'm not a senior manager, but ultimately someone up the chain is responsible for the company surviving and making money and paying our salaries. They are just like you and I, trying to make decisions based on what little information that can glean. So part of that is "what will this cost and how much will it be worth" vs "what will that other thing cost and how much will it be worth".
To that end, they need some way to estimate this. They latched on to agile as it was being promoted by tech as a way to do this. Whose fault is that?
And so with that came all the frequent estimations, are we on track, rituals, etc. Some people don't believe this should naturally follow. I agree. But somehow all those rituals have become part of the cult.
We abondanded scrum. We abandoned refinements and estimation of stories and story points etc. Now we meet with a PM once a month formally and as a team perform a t-shirt size estimate on where we are. Otherwise we update her as frequently as she asks (which isn't often) or we want. This gives power to us but because of that we're conscientious and make sure to inform her timeously when things are looking sketchy or whatever. Yes, we still have to give "estimates", because ultimately, senior management want to make decisions, but it is otherwise quite lightweight.
It is so liberating.