Talking vs. Doing

I work for a large software company, and the things that go on here on a daily basis take me through a large range of emotions, most of them unpleasant. It’s the first time I have ever worked for a global company with 15,000+ employees, and it has been a tough adjustment to say the least.

One of the more interesting changes that I have observed in the last few months in my particular business unit is that the folks at the top decided to adopt the Agile software development methodology. If you want to read about Agile, you can do it here.

The fact that we have made this move in itself is not all that interesting. The team that I work on has used something resembling Agile ever since I have been here, and that is pretty much all I have ever used in some form or fashion. I like to call our methodology “GLH”, or go like hell.

What is interesting to watch, however, is the adoption of all of the nomenclature but not really much of the process. We have all the right people saying all the right things, using the correct terminology, etc. But, when it comes right down to it, it’s still a lot of the same old inflexible people developing software the same old inflexible way.

I would equate it with what it must be like to adopt Six Sigma or something. You have all of the roles and terms, people jump in and make it look nice, but in the end you are still turning out lousy products or being wildly inefficient.

I would be much more impressed if we would just stop the banter and actually work in a way that reflects the spirit of the methodology, rather than the letter.