Is this some kind of joke?

Story: Optimizing Your Development ProcessTotal Replies: 12
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phsolide

Apr 15, 2011
8:56 AM EDT
This article is almost entirely an unhinged eruption of buzzwords, combined with a very professional-appearing diagram, that upon inspection, reveals itself as utter nonsense.
jdixon

Apr 15, 2011
9:23 AM EDT
No, no. It's: "Is this some twisted joke?"

See http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/t/thegreatsmokeoff.s...
jacog

Apr 15, 2011
10:14 AM EDT
I work with people who live on this sort of thing.

If I said to them "I think red and blue stripes is what we should use", they will ignore me, but if they read the same thing on a blog somewhere, with "red and blue stripes" now described as "duospectral alternating" or some such thing, suddenly it would be all credible and become religion.
dinotrac

Apr 15, 2011
10:23 AM EDT
I don't get the joke part. It's not especially well-written, and, for the life of me, I don't get the mapping of fibonacci series to output. A little meat would be nice.
tuxchick

Apr 15, 2011
1:25 PM EDT
But it says things like Six Sigma and Fibonacci, surely it is wonderful and beneficial.

LOL @duospectral alternating. Completely true.
herzeleid

Apr 15, 2011
1:36 PM EDT
The diagram looks like something written by an eager management intern with some business schooling under his belt and some vague notions of something called IT
azerthoth

Apr 15, 2011
6:25 PM EDT
Alternately `How to attach the bureaucratic mindset to a creative process`
hkwint

Apr 15, 2011
9:28 PM EDT
az: Like that one.

Fibonacci numbers, what a crock!

However, anyone who actually did some math, will know it's "Golden Ratio", meaning nothing more than "multiplying by 1.6".
tarminian

Apr 18, 2011
11:24 AM EDT
Actually, it was a very good article on measuring productivity in agile development iteration.

Maybe the real joke is that you don't understand something that you need to in order to have a job in this day and age.
gus3

Apr 18, 2011
11:54 AM EDT
@tarminian: You need to learn these two important contrasts:

Knowledge vs. Understanding

Credentials vs. Education

ISO 9000, Six-Sigma, Just In Time... different refrains of the same song, no matter how badly the credentialed PHB's want different. This "Optimizing" is the same tune, just with different lyrics. It all boils down to, "We got it right this time!" but it never fails to fail.

"History doesn't repeat itself. It stammers."
phsolide

Apr 18, 2011
1:30 PM EDT
I re-read the blog post just to make sure that Mr/Ms tarminian wasn't speaking the truth.

Unless "measuring productivity in agile development iteration" consists of constructing complex sentences laden with as many buzzwords as possible, I still think this blog post is bunk.

The "Fibonacci Sequence" thing is a bit weird, and presented without any justification at all. Standards organizations do have "preferred numbering" sequences, for thinks like f/stop on cameras, etc, that don't have a logical physical unit as something to number by, but Fibonacci Sequence? Really?

The paragraphs about how organizations fail to estimate properly is quite risible. It may very well be impossible to estimate well at all times. See http://scribblethink.org/Work/kcsest.pdf for a view into why this is true, and what the ethical consequences of saying you can estimate accurately might be.

The article also throws around terms like "quality", "velocity" for which it provides no generally-acceptable definition. This is particularly problematic for 'quality'. "Quality" software may not be one of those universal things. All of us would say a brick is heavier than a feather, and indeed, we can measure that. But "quality"means a bunch of things that are often in opposition to each other ("meets specifications" vs "first to market"), and so when speaking of "software quality" you MUST provide your definition. Otherwise, you're blowing smoke.

I think the question still stands; Is this some kind of joke?
Koriel

Apr 18, 2011
4:33 PM EDT
Ive been in software development for over 20 yrs with multiple companies, working in teams and solo contracts and never have I heard such twaddle spouted by an actual developer this is the usual management BS in an attempt to justify their existence. Even the various time management courses I had to endure at various companies never once spouted this crap some were actually quite enlightening although don't ever tell them that.

gus3

Apr 18, 2011
5:46 PM EDT
@Koriel:

A bad example is no less an example.

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