Will Crushing Expectations Make an Agile Team Non-Agile? DUH!
We are warning you! Our Agile Architect, WWT's Mark J. Balbes, Ph.D. is in a pretty cantankerous mood. Read this ADTmag article at your own risk.
Posted by adtmag.com on October 10, 2019
One of my colleagues asked me a question so stupendously stupid the other day that I just had to dedicate a column to it. Now don't get my wrong: My colleague isn't stupid, and I'm totally taking his question out of context for comedic effect, but still. Come on!
His question was, and I say this with a straight face as I type:
"Will unrealistic crushing expectations from management make an agile team lose their agility?"
My internal reaction, in the order I thought them.
Response 1: Duh!!!
Response 2: Doh!!
Response 3: No. Crushingly unrealistic expectations from management stimulates a team to become even more agile so they get more done! Doofus!
Response 4: No. The team simply needs to set appropriate expectations by transparently showing their backlog and their forecasts predicting when the work will be done.
As I thought about my unverbalized Response 4, I realized I was the doofus.
