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  3. Structured, yes or no?

Structured, yes or no?

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  • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

    I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

    Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

    Greg UtasG Offline
    Greg UtasG Offline
    Greg Utas
    wrote on last edited by
    #12

    I think your post is talking about two different things. The first one is process. You don't need guidelines or rules to follow until something bad happens. Then you put something in place to reduce the chances of it happening again, even if working alone. The second one is stability. I would also get annoyed if priorities were constantly changing. It's also not an effective way to work when you often have to drop one thing for another. Returning to where you left off takes time. And if you never return to it, you wasted time on something that wasn't needed. The less churn, the better. Wanting to know what's coming months in advance may be unrealistic, but knowing what's coming this week isn't. It won't always work out as planned, but it usually should.

    Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
    The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

    <p><a href="https://github.com/GregUtas/robust-services-core/blob/master/README.md">Robust Services Core</a>
    <em>The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.</em></p>

    Sander RosselS C 2 Replies Last reply
    0
    • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

      I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

      Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

      D Offline
      D Offline
      den2k88
      wrote on last edited by
      #13

      Structure, with flexibility of course. Without it's all a mess of work hours but with no idea of the direction.

      GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • T TNCaver

        I agree. Agile is the invention of project managers and is designed for their purposes. Dividing development work into Scrum's arbitrary sprint lengths is just silly, and only measures how well you can train developers into fitting their work into the process so that progress reports can show artificial improvements. However, there is nothing wrong with planning your project, structuring its development into a logical sequence and being able to plan your day/week/month. I'm a loner programmer myself and I've always planned my projects by tasks. Now that I do work with a team I find the Kanban approach works well without all the red tape of scrum. Maybe you and your friend could try Kanban, or your own version.

        If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.

        L Offline
        L Offline
        lmoelleb
        wrote on last edited by
        #14

        Do you know where Agile comes from? Because the statement "Agile is the invention of project managers and is designed for their purposes" to me looks a bit strange when you know the history of agile.

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

          TNCaver wrote:

          I agree. Agile is the invention of project managers and is designed for their purposes. Dividing development work into Scrum's arbitrary sprint lengths is just silly, and only measures how well you can train developers into fitting their work into the process so that progress reports can show artificial improvements.

          Exactly this. I've even worked in a team where I wasn't allowed to pick up additional work if I finished my work, say, one or two days before the end of the sprint, because "we'll be planning that for the next sprint" :wtf: I'd just sit there and pretend to be working. Coworkers were just finishing up their work for the sprint so they didn't need my help either.

          TNCaver wrote:

          there is nothing wrong with planning your project, structuring its development into a logical sequence and being able to plan your day/week/month.

          Of course there isn't! However, when a client calls and says "we'd prefer you'd work on tasks A and B rather than what you're doing now" or even "drop everything, we need to do this work ASAP!" there should be room for that. I prefer knowing what I'll be doing the next month (if only because that means I have any work at all), but priorities can shift by the day.

          Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

          L Offline
          L Offline
          lmoelleb
          wrote on last edited by
          #15

          How many clients do you have? Because if I drop whatever I am working on because client "A" think it is important... what about clients "B-Z"? Support cases gets priority (i.e. the product can't do something it should be able to do and it affects their business), but besides that we can't interrupt the team every time a client gets "a good idea".

          Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

            I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

            Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

            J Offline
            J Offline
            Jo_vb net
            wrote on last edited by
            #16

            Too much structure can cause a lot of useless output. My current example: I'm testing the MVVM Toolkit from MS (which is based on the very popular MVVMLight from Galasoft). When you install the NuGet package of the MVVM Toolkit it comes along with 6 or 7 other packages. And when you create a new build it adds more than 100 files to your debug folder !! MVVMLight from Galasoft did add less than 10 files.

            L 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • J Jo_vb net

              Too much structure can cause a lot of useless output. My current example: I'm testing the MVVM Toolkit from MS (which is based on the very popular MVVMLight from Galasoft). When you install the NuGet package of the MVVM Toolkit it comes along with 6 or 7 other packages. And when you create a new build it adds more than 100 files to your debug folder !! MVVMLight from Galasoft did add less than 10 files.

              L Offline
              L Offline
              lmoelleb
              wrote on last edited by
              #17

              Well, and then there is me: Why on earth would you use a toolkit for MVVM. But I am starting to accept that either: 1) I did not understand MVVM and by accident created something that is way simpler to program 2) A lot of other people are misunderstanding MVVM. I do not care which one it is, as long as those toolkits are kept away from my software. :D

              J 1 Reply Last reply
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              • Greg UtasG Greg Utas

                I think your post is talking about two different things. The first one is process. You don't need guidelines or rules to follow until something bad happens. Then you put something in place to reduce the chances of it happening again, even if working alone. The second one is stability. I would also get annoyed if priorities were constantly changing. It's also not an effective way to work when you often have to drop one thing for another. Returning to where you left off takes time. And if you never return to it, you wasted time on something that wasn't needed. The less churn, the better. Wanting to know what's coming months in advance may be unrealistic, but knowing what's coming this week isn't. It won't always work out as planned, but it usually should.

                Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
                The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

                Sander RosselS Offline
                Sander RosselS Offline
                Sander Rossel
                wrote on last edited by
                #18

                Greg Utas wrote:

                The less churn, the better. Wanting to know what's coming months in advance may be unrealistic, but knowing what's coming this week isn't. It won't always work out as planned, but it usually should.

                True, but our churn is dependent on that of our customers. If they have churn, we have it too. The difference is that we're getting paid for it.

                Greg Utas wrote:

                And if you never return to it, you wasted time on something that wasn't needed.

                I've been hearing this a lot too. Frankly, I don't really care. It's nice when customers use your software, but if they don't, they don't. As long as they pay for it it's not my time that was wasted, but their money.

                Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                Greg UtasG D 2 Replies Last reply
                0
                • L lmoelleb

                  How many clients do you have? Because if I drop whatever I am working on because client "A" think it is important... what about clients "B-Z"? Support cases gets priority (i.e. the product can't do something it should be able to do and it affects their business), but besides that we can't interrupt the team every time a client gets "a good idea".

                  Sander RosselS Offline
                  Sander RosselS Offline
                  Sander Rossel
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #19

                  A couple, but sometimes it's like that. Last month, I had months of work ahead of me, but someone quit his job and months of work kind of evaporated and priorities for this customer changed quite a bit. Yesterday I had a call with the customer and we're now going to pick up a new project while postponing the previous one. So, I now have weeks of work for this client alone, while yesterday I had none, while last month I had months (talk about churn) :doh: Of course, that resulted in other customers getting more priority with their changes. Meanwhile, another customer called this morning, his reporting didn't work, took me half a day to fix. Of course I'm not doing everything ASAP, but when a client calls it usually has to be scheduled in later this week, or at least somewhere this month.

                  Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                  L 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • T TNCaver

                    And that's always been the case. Priorities change. I don't know what the "official" Kanban approach to that is, but we shift tasks between the "doing" and the "backlog" and the "on hold" statuses quite often because of shifting priorities. It doesn't mean you can't plan your day, it just means that sometimes you change your plans.

                    If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.

                    Sander RosselS Offline
                    Sander RosselS Offline
                    Sander Rossel
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #20

                    TNCaver wrote:

                    it just means that sometimes you change your plans.

                    And sometimes multiple times a day :laugh: Maybe this is also because I'm alone working on multiple projects? I guess when you're in a team people have their own clients and projects and maybe there's a bit more stability.

                    Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                      I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

                      Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                      O Offline
                      O Offline
                      obermd
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #21

                      Try something like a Trello task board. If your project is hosted on GitHub, there's a Trello add-in that will allow comments during commits to become tasks. Here's a sample board New Requests Requests being worked Requests being tested Requests completed This will give both of you the ability to see what's in queue and give your friend the structure he needs.

                      Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                        Greg Utas wrote:

                        The less churn, the better. Wanting to know what's coming months in advance may be unrealistic, but knowing what's coming this week isn't. It won't always work out as planned, but it usually should.

                        True, but our churn is dependent on that of our customers. If they have churn, we have it too. The difference is that we're getting paid for it.

                        Greg Utas wrote:

                        And if you never return to it, you wasted time on something that wasn't needed.

                        I've been hearing this a lot too. Frankly, I don't really care. It's nice when customers use your software, but if they don't, they don't. As long as they pay for it it's not my time that was wasted, but their money.

                        Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                        Greg UtasG Offline
                        Greg UtasG Offline
                        Greg Utas
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #22

                        I can see why you wouldn't care if the customer is paying anyway. It's probably a personality thing. Like your colleague, I don't like being yanked around in one direction, then another. I would tell the customer that churn has a cost and suggest that we work together to better determine the requirements in advance. If they didn't want to do that, OK, they're the customer. But not one that I'd gladly take on again.

                        Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
                        The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

                        <p><a href="https://github.com/GregUtas/robust-services-core/blob/master/README.md">Robust Services Core</a>
                        <em>The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.</em></p>

                        Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                          I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

                          Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                          Richard Andrew x64R Offline
                          Richard Andrew x64R Offline
                          Richard Andrew x64
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #23

                          Think of the addition of structure as simply the next step in your evolution as a developer and businessman. It's inevitable.

                          The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

                          Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                            I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

                            Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                            D Offline
                            D Offline
                            Daniel Pfeffer
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #24

                            When working alone, do whatever you feel comfortable with. I suspect that even then, you impose some structure on your work. When working with someone else, some structure is essential. This is necessary so you can coordinate your work - for example if your team member is designing the UI, you don't want to have him/her sitting around waiting for you to implement & test it while you write the data access layer. This does not mean that you need to implement all the requirements of the American DoD. :omg: :) As always, YMMV.

                            Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.

                            Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                              Greg Utas wrote:

                              The less churn, the better. Wanting to know what's coming months in advance may be unrealistic, but knowing what's coming this week isn't. It won't always work out as planned, but it usually should.

                              True, but our churn is dependent on that of our customers. If they have churn, we have it too. The difference is that we're getting paid for it.

                              Greg Utas wrote:

                              And if you never return to it, you wasted time on something that wasn't needed.

                              I've been hearing this a lot too. Frankly, I don't really care. It's nice when customers use your software, but if they don't, they don't. As long as they pay for it it's not my time that was wasted, but their money.

                              Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                              D Offline
                              D Offline
                              Daniel Pfeffer
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #25

                              I beg to differ. Money is not the only reason I write code. Another reason is the satisfaction of knowing that people find it useful and are using it. Basically, I'm happy when my client are happy with what they paid for. This is also a good way to ensure repeat business.

                              Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.

                              Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

                                Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                                D Offline
                                D Offline
                                DerekT P
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #26

                                Good to see this discussion, and particularly that there are plenty of (other) folk out there who "just get on with it". I think the key is absolutely the number of people involved, even if they're not directly developers, but maybe sys admins etc. Currently I've active projects for three different clients, and juggling priorities on a daily basis between them. (All the while trying to keep my hours down as I'm nominally retired and SWMBO expects me to be available for walks / shopping / chores at home!) My "planning" process is essentially a notepad file per client of high-level requests. I charge for "reactive" stuff by the hour (e.g. 1st line support, urgent fixes) and for new features on a fixed-price basis. The fixed-price stuff means that I have effectively drawn a line around how much is going to change and how long I should be spending on it. Where I know that these mini-projects have an interdependency (e.g. they involve changes to the same module) I'll combine them and quote for the combination. Because I've been the sole "IT person" working with these clients for an average of 5 years, I know their businesses very well and am (almost) integrated into their staff. That means that, while ultimately they set the priorities and authorise work, I'm in a position where I know the impact of changes and can give a good steer as to what is going to have the most positive impact per £ of my time on their business. I can back that recommendation up and 95% of the time they are happy to go with it. Of course new requirements come into the business, often driven by specific customers, but I can assimilate the pros and cons of changes very quickly and suggest changes to schedules to accommodate. As far as my clients are concerned, they're each my primary focus. I try to make sure that work for one never adversely impacts projects for another. If it looks like there may be a clash coming up, I ask one of them a difficult question that needs a decision; that usually delays things for a couple of weeks! Because it's "just me" and the projects are big but not massive, I can internalise all the pending changes and understand what the dependencies are. If it were a bigger project with a bigger team, that probably wouldn't be possible and we'd need to plan it all out in much more detail. Before going freelance (some 30 years ago now! :omg: ), I was in a role called "Design Authority" which involved co-ordinating all the various development projects of a fair-sized corporation. My job was to make sure that things

                                Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                  I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

                                  Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                                  N Offline
                                  N Offline
                                  Nemanja Trifunovic
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #27

                                  Sander Rossel wrote:

                                  It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc.

                                  No offense, but I would not want to work with someone like you. That sounds like a lot of unnecessary stress.

                                  utf8-cpp

                                  Sander RosselS D 2 Replies Last reply
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                                  • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                    I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

                                    Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

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                                    Lost User
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #28

                                    If he is a designer, then he should be an analyst too. Tell him to reverse engineer what's been done so far and come up with leveled (function) diagrams. You can then discuss things, moving forward, from a common base. Level 0: context diagram; 1 page level 1: main functions (max 7) 1 page. level 2: explosion of level 1. etc. Stop at any level / function once achieving enlightenment.

                                    "Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I

                                    Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                      I've always been a bit of a cowboy coder. Has everything to do with my first job and it fits my personality, I think. Not one for lots of rules or things set in stone. My customers prefer it that way too, they're too busy to worry about the development process, they just want a working project delivered. I've always disliked scrum for that reason, way to much red tape! Oh, and I dread the "we can't do that until the next sprint" reply from companies! X| So I'm now working with an external designer (who is also a friend), and he has some problems with this way of working. It's basically constant changes, shifting priorities, loose deadlines (if at all), etc. He prefers to know what's up for today, the next two weeks, and the coming months, in that order. A change should be requested up front, planned, etc. So basically he prefers (the rigidity of) scrum*. It even affects his mood in that he doesn't feel like working because he doesn't know what to expect. As far as I know he's not on the autism spectrum. Needless to say, as a good developer-manager I'm now trying to keep him out of the chaos and bring some structure to his tasks. What are the preferences here? * I know scrum should be the opposite of rigid, but that's not at all how I've experienced it

                                      Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

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                                      Lost User
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #29

                                      Sander Rossel wrote:

                                      What are the preferences here?

                                      Most of the places I've worked followed ISO 9001[^] standard which has strict requirements for planning and documentation. There really isn't much of a choice for some people. In order to get ISO certification[^] there has to be a full-time auditor on staff to ensure the process is strictly followed.

                                      Greg UtasG Sander RosselS D 3 Replies Last reply
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                                      • L Lost User

                                        Sander Rossel wrote:

                                        What are the preferences here?

                                        Most of the places I've worked followed ISO 9001[^] standard which has strict requirements for planning and documentation. There really isn't much of a choice for some people. In order to get ISO certification[^] there has to be a full-time auditor on staff to ensure the process is strictly followed.

                                        Greg UtasG Offline
                                        Greg UtasG Offline
                                        Greg Utas
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #30

                                        ISO-9001. :laugh:

                                        Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
                                        The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

                                        <p><a href="https://github.com/GregUtas/robust-services-core/blob/master/README.md">Robust Services Core</a>
                                        <em>The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.</em></p>

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                                        • Greg UtasG Greg Utas

                                          ISO-9001. :laugh:

                                          Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
                                          The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

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                                          Lost User
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #31

                                          Greg Utas wrote:

                                          ISO-9001. :laugh:

                                          Yeah, tell me about it. It's been revised over the years but at one point we were required to write the requirements and documentation *before* we wrote the code. Was damn near impossible to do without revisions. I worked on some of the vessel nav software you see on this site[^]. Looks like they even kept my GUI after 15 years. There was an upside, the beer in Norway is much better than the watered down stuff here. :)

                                          Greg UtasG 1 Reply Last reply
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