Agile is Dead • Pragmatic Dave Thomas • GOTO 2015

GOTO Conferences · 1.5M views · 2015 · 40:39

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Software practice, open source & careerstalk

Why Hacker News recommends it

Offered in nearly every Agile or Scrum complaint thread as the authoritative take on what agile was meant to be versus what it became.

What it is

Dave Thomas, a co-author of the Agile Manifesto, argues at GOTO Amsterdam 2015 that Agile as a branded industry has lost its meaning. He says agile is an adjective, not a noun, and urges developers to reclaim agility.

Recommended by 11 HN commenters across 9 different months, 2016 to 2026.

What Hacker News said

Strong rec monksy · 2016-10 · on “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?”

Agile Is Dead: By Dave Thomas [this video] I love his talks for a few reasons: Often times... 1. He's anti-hype 2. He's contriversal 3. He's right.

Strong rec jrs95 · 2018-05 · on “Reality Driven Development: Fixing Project Management in Software”

I highly recommend this video of a Dave Thomas talk about what agile was supposed to be vs what it has become. Most of us are probably stuck working with some sort of Agile methodology regardless of whether or not we'd like to, but it can still be nudged in the direction that Dave talks about. [this video]

Recommends rimantas · 2016-07 · on “In a nutshell, why do a lot of developers dislike Agile?”

Listen to one of the authors of the manifesto itself: [this video] (BTW, he is very opposed to the use of Agile as a noun ;).

Recommends lumannnn · 2016-10 · on “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?”

by Dave Thomas (PragDave) "LoneStarRuby 2015 - My Dog Taught Me to Code by Dave Thomas" - [LINK] and "GOTO 2015 • Agile is Dead • Pragmatic Dave Thomas" - [this video]

Recommends jeremiep · 2016-11 · on “It’s not the methods that are Agile, it’s the people”

Usually, the more a team advertise itself as Agile, the less agility it actually has. I myself have never seen Agile work well, not even close. I saw plenty of make-believe and head-in-the-sand and as mentioned in earlier comments, insane amounts of cargo culting. I really like the way Dave Thomas put it: [LINK] He also made a talk about it: [this video] These days this is the only methodology I follow and it works wonders, anything more I feel is just noise. At the end of the day nothing replaces actual engineering and understanding what you're doing.

Recommends okreallywtf · 2017-08 · on “Split user stories ruthlessly and get value earlier”

I think Dave Thomas[0] made some great points recently [1] about what Agile (as a noun) has become and I think it addresses some of your complaints. Note this isn't just a repeat of the agile manifesto, it is him discussing why he hates what Agile has come to mean to a lot of people and it sounds like his grump-level closely matches yours. The jist I get from it is that agile has become an Enantiodromia[2] and has in some ways simply replaced the problems it was there to fix. That doesn't mean it has to be that way, but thats what happens when people take something and create a religion around it. In my company we call our process "agile", but what that really means to us is to do the minimu

Recommends FrankyHollywood · 2018-05 · on “Scrum disempowers developers”

Dave has an interesting talk about it. [this video] My personal experience is any project where scrum actually works is a boring project, no interesting problem is predictable. Fortunately I see mostly frustrated scrum masters, not understanding why planning fails :)

Recommends jppope · 2018-07 · on “Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?”

1) Do not attempt to live code. change your code via version control, build small videos, copy and paste... whatever you do... do not try and live code 2) Read "The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs" ... its not really about Steve Jobs so much as its about how to be a great presenter. 3) building or writing a talk is significantly less important than the delivery... which means that more of your time should be spent on how to deliver the speech (recording I find is the best way to practice) 4) Pick a single thing and do it well, do not attempt to put too much into a talk or tackle something massively complex. 5) Make sure that everyone is walking away with something they can actually use. T