I've been working on or with teams using Agile methodologies for over a decade. It will be around for a while. Yet, there has always been a problem with those teams...there was always a feeling of tension at the end of the sprint, even though it was not acted upon by the developers; it was internalized as shame, resentment, self-loathing, and even a mild depression.
In the last 2-3 months, some on my team, and myself have waddled through such feelings. I'm fortunate to have been able to work through them, and to emerge with a bit more understanding of why I've had such a bias against Agile.
With a team using Agile Methodologies, there is an overwhelming urgency to complete your selected story/task/bug/issue within the sprint cycle - "that's what the mantra's say! That's how Agile works! Everyone else who used Agile does it, and does it better than me/us! I cannot be the slacker!"
And then it happens.
You've gotten a few sprints closed. You completed your tasks in time; some were close, but it was probably just the extra cycles spent on Reddit. Staying an extra couple hours made sure I kept velocity at the right level.
The next sprint was not so fortuitous. You did not finish a task. It was only 5 story points. I'm an idiot. Don't worry, I'll finish it up during the first few days of the next sprint, and still complete my typical number of points.
I'll just work a few extra (unpaid or unreported) hours.
Now you've moved into the mindset of "keeping up with the team," rather than "solve a problem effectively for this domain/customer".
We're coming up on the end of the next sprint. I've done a decent amount of work creating and coding a solution...but it feels wrong. I could really use a day to review and maybe (no...no!) rework the solution.
Nope. No reworking. What I have implements the fix/feature. It'll fly through testing.
But there's something wrong with it...I really need to know...
Ugh. Close the ticket. Now ignore it.
There it is. The start - or perhaps relapse - into a state of Cognitive Dissonance: You believe deeply that you are an excellent Software Engineer; you create solutions for problems that exceed and amaze not only your customers, but your team and even yourself. Yet you have just committed a solution to the baseline that you feel is...wrong...insufficient for the actual problem as a whole.
The show must go on, so you have to convince yourself that it must be the correct solution. Agile is good, right. It knows something you don't. Master it and you will become the master.
And if others follow it, they will see me as a master.... If others follow it, I am not wrong.
