4 Comments

Everything you wrote makes sense, and maybe Sprint is not the best word (it's actually derived from Scrum, instead of Agile).

If you have the power to organize your work, sure, go with longer sprints or whatever works for you.

On the other hand, I have seen longer sprints transform into releases and waterfall and long delivery dates.

I have worked in both Waterfall and different flavors of Agile, I can assure you, Waterfall is really bad.

It is actually interesting how Anti-Agile Scrum is, with the Scrum Guide being very prescriptive.

In the end, adaptability is one of the key principles of Agile and we should all define our own ways of working (as long as it's in line with the overall goal, of delivering the best products and solutions).

Expand full comment
author

I agree about your last point. I'm sure there are worst alternatives than classic scrum with 2-week sprints, but it's probably not the best too :)

I suggest all EMs to try and experiment where they can, instead of just accepting it as a given because it was 'always done like that'.

Expand full comment

Great article, Anton. Glad you mentioned Shape Up! Since I learned about this way of working, I've been trying to influence my dev teams with some of its ideas, such as shaping and working in 6-weeks cycles.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks Rafa! I would love to hear how it works out for you :)

Expand full comment