Good contract, bad tech - what to do?

[GB9]

Agile

Interesting that the OP sees Agile as a positive. From a senior PM / Architect position its an absolute nightmare working in an Agile environment in my line of work. Fine for web sites and modular coding etc. where you can genuinely chunk things into tasks that take less than 4 days, but for a decent size design, forget it.

From my experience Agile = little design / no testing

[heyya99]

Interesting that the OP sees Agile as a positive. From a senior PM / Architect position its an absolute nightmare working in an Agile environment in my line of work. Fine for web sites and modular coding etc. where you can genuinely chunk things into tasks that take less than 4 days, but for a decent size design, forget it.

From my experience Agile = little design / no testing

I see your point my my issue here is that most contacts out there demand god experience developing in an Agile environment. I will be competing with these people come next contract. It wouldn't take long for a good interviewer to see my latest Agile experience is found wanting. I suppose I can just emphasise my previous Agile experience.

[VectraMan]

I see your point my my issue here is that most contacts out there demand god experience developing in an Agile environment. I will be competing with these people come next contract. It wouldn't take long for a good interviewer to see my latest Agile experience is found wanting. I suppose I can just emphasise my previous Agile experience.

Everybody has their own idea of what Agile means anyway, so just learn to BS your way through and you'll be fine.

If I was in your position I'd be pleased I had a year's work at a decent rate.

[Murder1]

I'm in a similar position to the OP in that the project I'm working on is possibly the only agile run project at the company and the tech isn't particularly the most advanced.

I've been here for a couple of years and have always had the concern that my skill-set was deteriorating and that long term it was in my interests to go. However, leaving would leave the client in a pickle and so I've been happy to renew as I try and build a long-term relationship with the client that can hopefully be maintained going forward.

One thing I would advise is at the point of renewal, discuss your concerns with the client and see if there's scope to introduce some better agile practices or newer techs but be sure to highlight the positives for them rather than just yourself. You may find that they are open to ideas but need someone to lead the way.

Another thing I would advise is to look for either a small contract to manage on the side, or look for work someone can sub-contract to you. I've been looking for and have managed to find some sub-contract work that I can progress evenings and weekends which is more cutting edge and helps keep my skill-set up to date. It's time consuming don't get me wrong but the hope is it pays off long term.

[heyya99]

Everybody has their own idea of what Agile means anyway, so just learn to BS your way through and you'll be fine.

If I was in your position I'd be pleased I had a year's work at a decent rate.

I'm very pleased and if the tech wasn't an issue, I'd stay for ages. I'm just don't want to damage my future career.

[CoolCat]

"Agile" is a load of bollocks anyways isnt it. Mostly projects using "Agile the methodology" are not "Agile the common meaning of the word". I have seen countless big Agile projects go belly up for blooming obvious reasons. This industry is so full of quack medicine for it ailments and so full of tulip leadership.

Arghhhhhhhhh

[TheFaQQer]

Can contracts even be broken early?

Contracts can ALWAYS be broken.

Whether your contract can be terminated early legitimately, is a matter for you to determine based on what the contract says.

[TheFaQQer]

Everybody has their own idea of what Agile means anyway, so just learn to BS your way through and you'll be fine.

If I was in your position I'd be pleased I had a year's work at a decent rate.

This

[jmo21]

Interesting that the OP sees Agile as a positive. From a senior PM / Architect position its an absolute nightmare working in an Agile environment in my line of work. Fine for web sites and modular coding etc. where you can genuinely chunk things into tasks that take less than 4 days, but for a decent size design, forget it.

From my experience Agile = little design / no testing

If places aren't doing testing, it's because they don't employ tester resources.

Or they do, but outsource it, bob doesn't understand what is happening, says yes to everything on conference calls, and then it all falls arse over tit on go live.

[tranceporter]

I see your point my my issue here is that most contacts out there demand god experience developing in an Agile environment. I will be competing with these people come next contract. It wouldn't take long for a good interviewer to see my latest Agile experience is found wanting. I suppose I can just emphasise my previous Agile experience.

I wouldn't be too fussed about interviewers asking AGILE questions. Unless the interviewer is only interested in AGILE instead of your tech capabilities, I would not worry about it too much. I had a very quirky interview recently where I was drilled on AGILE only, but then again, I would not want to work in a place where they base their project on propaganda and hogwash. End of the day, a capable manager working with capable developers/contractors/testers should be able to get the job done without relying on FR(AGILE). And I am saying this after working with AGILE projects for at least 3 years. I must say, that all AGILE scrum masters I have worked with talk a lot (personal life, or how the boss is giving them tulip, in front of everyone etc), and are absolutely interchangeable.