The Tyranny of Taylorism and how to spot Agile BS
summary
Forrester-style data shows 81% claim agile while only 22% do short iterations, 16% have ordered backlogs and 13% run retrospectives, and the US DoD white paper Detecting Agile BS gives six yes/no litmus tests (deliver working software to real users each iteration, empower teams to change process and requirements, convert user feedback into <1 month work, control deployment ecosystem). The talk traces Taylorism to Taylor and Gantt, argues waterfall comes from industrial management and the US military, and claims most orgs say agile but lack the practices.
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chapters (26)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:37Data
- 3:47Agile BS
- 6:33Where did it come from
- 7:35The Industrial Revolution
- 9:00Soldiering
- 12:09Task and Bonus System
- 13:20Modern School System
- 14:05Factory Worker
- 14:37Output
- 15:05Harvard 1908
- 15:31Waterfall
- 15:47US Military Complex
- 16:17What was the problem
- 18:00The Predictive World
- 21:08Detecting Agile BS
- 23:52Product Charter
- 24:25Balance of Autonomy vs Alignment
- 25:06Tight Feedback Loop
- 25:30User Feedback
- 26:07Agile Ecosystem
- 26:56High Level Questions
- 27:57Project Success
- 28:25Agile Safe
- 28:51US Air Force
- 29:23Conclusion
