AGILE

[BolshieBastard]

I worked for a small digital media agency in Cardiff for about 3 months as a permie I absolutely hated it there, the development manager adopted Agile and now he's one of these Agile Evangelists funny thing is he speaks through his rear and now he's even published a white paper on it and he's only done for 15 months what a

LOL! Sounds like an ex linkedin contact of mine. Always going on about agile and 'cucumber' blah, blah, blah.

He regularly puts comments up about how great cucumber is.

[tranceporter]

LOL! Sounds like an ex linkedin contact of mine. Always going on about agile and 'cucumber' blah, blah, blah.

He regularly puts comments up about how great cucumber is.

No doubt he must be doing 'penetration testing' with 'cucumber'. Then again I have worked for a certain digital media agency based in Farnham, and I would never want to work there again. I do not understand how companies find business parks in the middle of nowhere, connected only by 'Dora's Green Lane'.

[herman_g]

This manager has clearly illustrated why he WAS a contractor - he has the perfect permie mindset.

I had my first exposure to agile last year. The project was complex but involved something I had done many times. The client was doing a POC and the interest they were generating was bringing huge interest from top potential clients across the continent. I was the architect.

The project kept using Agile and they used the excuse that "Agile doesn't work that way" whenever they were questioned about specs that were wrong or project schedules and milestones. They really were in their own little world as they struggled to play their new game by the rules.

Needless to say, the project went 150% over budget, delivered nothing ( it was only a POC ) pissed of the executives ( who begged me to find a way to force them to deliver ) and in the end made the company look really stupid in the industry.

When they canned the project, the PM and her minions were put on other projects and acted like the disaster never happened.

Agile was dead in the organization but the permies involved went out of their way to seek the next big answer on how to avoid the real goal: delivery of quality software through proven methods.

[The Spartan]

LOL! Sounds like an ex linkedin contact of mine. Always going on about agile and 'cucumber' blah, blah, blah.

He regularly puts comments up about how great cucumber is.

You not a fan of Cucumber? what is your automation tool of choice?

[Cenobite]

You not a fan of Cucumber? what is your automation tool of choice?

I'm such a knob: Cucumber is really a tool for communicating business requirements. In your cucumber steps, in Ruby at least, you'll call Capybara or Webrat to actually interact with the browser.

[The Spartan]

Cucumber is really a tool for communicating business requirements. In your cucumber steps, in Ruby at least, you'll call Capybara or Webrat to actually interact with the browser.

Spot on there, how did you make yourself look like a knob? I must have missed that?

[Cenobite]

Spot on there, how did you make yourself look like a knob? I must have missed that?

Haha: by being the anal Cucumber guy. Ooh err!

[tranceporter]

I'm such a knob: Cucumber is really a tool for communicating business requirements. In your cucumber steps, in Ruby at least, you'll call Capybara or Webrat to actually interact with the browser.

Quite right. On the ASP.NET MVC3 side of things, we use SpecFlow instead of Cucumber, and write stories using the same Gherkin (Given, When, Then) syntax. Then we can either write TDD tests or BDD tests for UI Acceptance using Watin or Selenium WebDriver. The real knob is that tech guy who wanted more Agile than TDD/BDD.

[Cenobite]

I think the worst places to work are those which say they're Agile but aren't. I'd prefer an honest-to-goodness Waterfall project than that.

I contracted at one place when deadlines were so tight we were told we'd be sacked immediately if we were seen writing test code. Luckily we weren't effectively micromanaged so when the boss strolled off we'd work as normal. Stand ups were essentially just reporting to the boss and everyone was bored waiting for their turn and addressed him directly.

At the same place I was handed a user story which had exactly one word on it ("Inversions") and told I was a clever lad who shouldn't need any help and if I was seen talking to other parts of the business to find out what implementing "Inversions" meant then I'd be sacked because we were so up against it. Normally a user story card is the promise of a future conversation with someone who understands the business requirement but hey. I should have just done a handstand in front of them and said my job is done.

[jmo21]

At the same place I was handed a user story which had exactly one word on it ("Inversions") and told I was a clever lad who shouldn't need any help and if I was seen talking to other parts of the business to find out what implementing "Inversions" meant then I'd be sacked because we were so up against it. Normally a user story card is the promise of a future conversation with someone who understands the business requirement but hey. I should have just done a handstand in front of them and said my job is done.

I'd hand in my notice there and then. What a load of nonsense.