I think this sounds really good, but I doubt moving away from sprints would work well in most organizations. Smaller startups, sure, but rarely in established companies. The biggest hurdle, in my opinion is that lack of certainty from those running the business. Business people think they need estimates and certainty. They want to know what is going to be done and when, thus, knowing what work is going to be done in two weeks. If the people who run the organization can trust their development team, then maybe, but if the trust isn’t there, I really don’t see how they would move away from sprints…
Having said all that, thank you for this write up and some suggested approaches!
Yeah, that's a good point. I don't think though that 2 weeks is the only way to drive certainty. I'm not sure where lies the right path, as I to work in sprints.
My main point is to get EMs to think and challenge the current practices :)
I like that approach much more than sprints and waterfall, but of course the best approach would be based on your company's needs.
I am working in a huge corporation and we (devs) are giving feedback for improvement of the work process, a lot of teams started a transitioning from waterfall to sprints because of that, but I believe that the shape up would be the best approach and our team has been doing it without even realising we are doing that, thanks for sharing your thoughts, I'll do more research about the approach for sure and suggest to the people above me implementing it.
Hey Anton, loved this perspective and the quotes during a Sprint sound too familiar :) I’m a big fan of Shape Up, but too many people think “this won’t work for us because of X”. To combat this perception, I’ve put together 10+ interview case studies with teams who’ve adopted Shape Up (of all sizes and industries). Hope you don’t mind me linking this here: https://shapersbuilders.transistor.fm
Rigid sprints with too much baked into them for the sake of metrics leads to burnout quickly. And burnout plagues our industry. I'm all for trying something new.
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).
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.
I like that approach much more than sprints and waterfall, but of course the best approach would be based on your company's needs.
I am working in a huge corporation and we (devs) are giving feedback for improvement of the work process, a lot of teams started a transitioning from waterfall to sprints because of that, but I believe that the shape up would be the best approach and our team has been doing it without even realising we are doing that, thanks for sharing your thoughts, I'll do more research about the approach for sure and suggest to the people above me implementing it.
I think this sounds really good, but I doubt moving away from sprints would work well in most organizations. Smaller startups, sure, but rarely in established companies. The biggest hurdle, in my opinion is that lack of certainty from those running the business. Business people think they need estimates and certainty. They want to know what is going to be done and when, thus, knowing what work is going to be done in two weeks. If the people who run the organization can trust their development team, then maybe, but if the trust isn’t there, I really don’t see how they would move away from sprints…
Having said all that, thank you for this write up and some suggested approaches!
Yeah, that's a good point. I don't think though that 2 weeks is the only way to drive certainty. I'm not sure where lies the right path, as I to work in sprints.
My main point is to get EMs to think and challenge the current practices :)
I like that approach much more than sprints and waterfall, but of course the best approach would be based on your company's needs.
I am working in a huge corporation and we (devs) are giving feedback for improvement of the work process, a lot of teams started a transitioning from waterfall to sprints because of that, but I believe that the shape up would be the best approach and our team has been doing it without even realising we are doing that, thanks for sharing your thoughts, I'll do more research about the approach for sure and suggest to the people above me implementing it.
I'm glad to hear it was useful! I think every team needs to find what works for them, there are really no fixed ways that work for everyone.
You are lucky to be in a big company that listens to the developers :)
Hey Anton, loved this perspective and the quotes during a Sprint sound too familiar :) I’m a big fan of Shape Up, but too many people think “this won’t work for us because of X”. To combat this perception, I’ve put together 10+ interview case studies with teams who’ve adopted Shape Up (of all sizes and industries). Hope you don’t mind me linking this here: https://shapersbuilders.transistor.fm
Hey David, thanks for sharing! I'll check it out myself, and I also linked to it inside the article :)
Rigid sprints with too much baked into them for the sake of metrics leads to burnout quickly. And burnout plagues our industry. I'm all for trying something new.
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).
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'.
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.
Thanks Rafa! I would love to hear how it works out for you :)
I like that approach much more than sprints and waterfall, but of course the best approach would be based on your company's needs.
I am working in a huge corporation and we (devs) are giving feedback for improvement of the work process, a lot of teams started a transitioning from waterfall to sprints because of that, but I believe that the shape up would be the best approach and our team has been doing it without even realising we are doing that, thanks for sharing your thoughts, I'll do more research about the approach for sure and suggest to the people above me implementing it.