What I think Big Tech can still learn from the Agile community (and what isn’t really relevant)
What Big Tech can still learn from the Agile community
- Direct interaction between problems and problem-solvers vs intermediation, “shielding the team” etc.;
- Avoiding excessive specialisation;
- Focusing on team/organisational success over individual promotion;
- Technical excellence through good habits vs individual heroics;
- Simplicity vs promotion-driven development;
- Actual continuous integration (technically and in terms of knowledge drift);
- Conquer and divide AKA Start Together;
- Actual iterative, incremental development AKA Think Big Work Small;
- Feedback loops that aren’t releases, launches;
- Aligned autonomy vs laissez-faire leadership
What Agile community topics aren’t really that relevant in Big Tech
- Typically, don’t have a lack of autonomy problem so much as a lack of alignment problem;
- Burndown / burnup;
- Whether or not teams estimate
