The Artima Developer Community
Sponsored Link

Weblogs Forum
Favoring artifacts and practices over principles

1 reply on 1 page. Most recent reply: Oct 20, 2008 4:41 AM by Erik Engbrecht

Welcome Guest
  Sign In

Go back to the topic listing  Back to Topic List Click to reply to this topic  Reply to this Topic Click to search messages in this forum  Search Forum Click for a threaded view of the topic  Threaded View   
Previous Topic   Next Topic
Flat View: This topic has 1 reply on 1 page
David Vydra

Posts: 60
Nickname: dvydra
Registered: Feb, 2004

Favoring artifacts and practices over principles (View in Weblogs)
Posted: Oct 19, 2008 8:40 PM
Reply to this message Reply
Summary
David Kreth Allen reflects on the fact that in his experience "people seem to favor artifacts and practices over principles." My reply follows:
Advertisement
David,

You nailed it! I have long wondered why Certified Scrum Master is such a big hit? Personally, I liked the Scrum book and I was reasonably happy with the 2-day CSM course I took in Calgary 5 years ago until the moment we we given out Certificates. "Certified"? Have we stooped so low as to call a 2-day mild collegiate discussion a certification of something? Alas, apparently, this is what The People crave - a TLA after their name.

I prefer The Road Less Traveled of software development - finding teams of independent thinkers who are building leading edge technology, who seek out and use best practices, but are not interested in joining any religion and wasting time discussing the One True Way...and I am looking for my next job now :)

Sincerely, David Vydra, CSM

Read David's post here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/citcon/message/653 Thread: "that isn't scrum"


Erik Engbrecht

Posts: 210
Nickname: eengbrec
Registered: Apr, 2006

Not surprising Posted: Oct 20, 2008 4:41 AM
Reply to this message Reply
Too right. I'll take a stab at why...

Large (and probably not-so-large) corporations like to have things be measurable by people who have no idea what they are measuring. This goes along with the idea that "a good MBA can manage anything," and can be applied to any area where an expert in one field (e.g. HR) needs to make judgements on another area of expertise.

Achievement against principles is hard to measure, even for people with shared principles and common expertise. Some would say you can't really measure it, that it requires "trust" and "judgement" based on prior "experience." Unfortunately for, say, a project manager with little development expertise who has a new team, there is no trust because he doesn't know the team. Trust is built through common experience and reputation. There can be no judgement because there is insufficient prior experience on which to base it.

But even a monkey can check off a box designated by a TLA.

Flat View: This topic has 1 reply on 1 page
Topic: My experience with the EeePC 901 so far Previous Topic   Next Topic Topic: The adventures of a Pythonista in Schemeland/6

Sponsored Links



Google
  Web Artima.com   

Copyright © 1996-2019 Artima, Inc. All Rights Reserved. - Privacy Policy - Terms of Use