Education & Work Is there an IT skills shortage?

I thought Minitran was the midget transvestite from Lord of The Rings.

 

That is really dumb...if they they go down that path....it will cost them a motza...."Agile" is so inappropriately used.

If they go down this path...the cost of IT Projects will go down the tube...at least keep the Program Management function....as costs needs to be managed...

 

Most likely, they will just be rebranded to 'service delivery managers ' or the like...
Very similar duties and responsibilities, just perhaps not having the title of PM as agile doesn't really have a specific role called the PM.
Alternatively, they could just come to Brisbane... We are behind the times here...we need project managers to round up the cattle before the sun sets for the day.

 

Real IT companies in Brisbane have been using agile practices for 8-10 years.. dinosaurs don't know what day of the week it is...

 

True. However, a lot of companies in Brisbane ( and many other cities) say they use agile methods...but few do it well...most are what they call hybrid agile environments. Whether they are fully agile or hybrid, execution is a real problem abs most don't get near the level of business benefits that agile methods espouse.
And rounding up the cattle before the sun sets is very important. I think I remember there was a specific instruction for that during the ekka- Brisbane even gave a public holiday for that kinda stuff

 

Forgot about them, I thought you were more a vacuum tube kinda guy.

 

IC, I'll be a shade old by then.

 

Tell me about it!

I've seen Agile done as everything from "we have a stand-up every morning" through to going down the whole estimation, burndown charts, and sprints route.

I think that Agile done well is a net benefit, but I'm not convinced that it's necessary any better than other approaches. The big win is probably team communication, from the stand-up, and having visibility of what other people are doing.

But it can break down when you get a large team, or the scrum master runs a couple of stand-ups together to save themselves time. And there's always one person who goes on and on...

 

It comes down to risk/reward in some ways. I am working for an organisation that is stuck on waterfall. They just rolled out a project they have been working on for nearly 2 years. That's nearly 12 months of documenting requirements and locking down the specs then build, test, refine and rollout. The system they have delivered does not meet business requirements. The issue is that when gathering business requirements the tram relied on the business giving accurate requirements, which didn't happen. The project was doomed from that point.

My issue is that the business has waited 2 years for a product and the product is not suitable. That is a lot of time to waste getting something that doesn't work.

Done well, agile could have delivered a suitable product in a shorter. But as you say, that relies on it being done well.

Done badly, no methodology is going to deliver what the business needs. I guess with agile though, it can get to the non-functional system a lot faster than waterfall. I don't know what the answer is but from a user perspective, I can confirm it is frustrating that the system does not do what I need it to do.

 

Re: Product or system not delivering what is expected... I could have a long a rant right now... but I won't share it on the forum. Will be happy to talk face to face on this though.

 

The other issue I have found with waterfall is that the business signed off on the requirements document and now the system has been delivered but doesn't meet requirements, the development team is very lost. They are saying "but the business signed off on the requirements, what do you mean the system doesn't meet business requirements?". They have started a new project control group to find out what has gone wrong and how to fix it. It's exasperating.

I spoke to the business rep who signed the business requirements document and he told me he didn't understand it and didn't even read most of it. No wonder the project was doomed from the start.

 

Not sure who said it...but of the only tool you have is a hammer then every problem will be a nail. Often 'Agilists' expose a religious fervor that blinds their common sense.

Agile works well in a startup environment or in self contained endeavours but struggles to deal with complex dependency networks especially across multiple suppliers.

Ive been through RAD, JAD, Spiral, XP and Agile. They are great where, for instance, user interfaces or interpretation of business rules is involved. But they are left wanting in areas such as procurement, infrastructure etc is concerned.

As I recently pointed out to a colleague...once the estate is developed, the permits obtained and the house framed, you can certainly 'sprint' through fitting out and decorating the rooms as in "The Block", but building a house by completing one room at a time would entail way too much rework and cost.

 

Fire him. Giving sign off on the BRD is a very important role.

And it doesn't sound like the BRD writer and the business rep took time to sit together and step through the document!? Another huge fail.

 

There are a lot of politics involved. The development team has gone through a lot of reps. I was originally a rep but they couldn't work with me because I have an I.T. degree and I.T. background. They needed someone who would accept what they were saying. The guy who signed off on the BRD was replaced soon after with another person without the skills or knowledge to do the job. As far as I know there have been 5 business reps for that one project.