What a jackass the Cranky Product Manager is. Before she knew that he would “violently” disagree with her (shame on him!), the Cranky Product manager promised Saeed of the excellent On Product Management blog that she would post about his blog’s nomination for an uber-prestigious Canadian Blog Award in the category Best Professional/Career Blog. But alas, the Cranky Product Manager did not act right away. She waited, thinking Thursday would be a good day for said post.
And so Thursday, today, arrives, and just as the CPM was revving up and writing a glorious call-to-action to help the On Product Management crew reap their just rewards, she discovers that “voting round 1″ is now over, and alas Saeed/Alan/Ethan did not advance to round 2.
F$&*. The Cranky Product Manager feels partially responsible for this utter travesty of justice. If only she got off her lazy ass and wrote a post earlier. Maybe it would have helped. What a turd she is.
Alas, the Cranky Product Manager flaked and broke her word. There’s no decent way to make up for this, but the CPM is going to try. Here goes….
If you haven’t checked out On Product Management do so now. Below are some of the Cranky Product Manager’s favorite posts, most of which give their unique take on the reality of Agile product development. Unlike most others writing on Agile, these guys don’t just drone on with the Agile party line. Instead they make though-provoking observations and arguments that you have not read anywhere else. Examples:
- Annoyed by newly Agile-ized developers who act like they invented the concept of getting customer feedback? Check out Is Product Management Agile?
- Why Agile/Scrum is not a panacea, and commentary on the ironic inflexibility of some agile proponents: Agile/Scrum Reality Check. (Was going to say “rigidity” instead of “inflexibility”, but kept snickering like Butt-head.)
- Agile/Scrum and Product Management – Parts 1, 2, 3, 3a, and 4. (whew! lots of reading, but worth it).
- Also, check out the hilarious Uninterruptible Power Supply Saga (don’t forget to read the comments): part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
Big thanks to the 119 of you who deigned to answer to the Cranky Product Manager’s lil’ Facebook poll on software development methodologies. The poll is now closed.
While this is hardly a scientific poll, the results show a HUGE change in software development methodologies between now (2008) and two years ago (2006).
Software Product Development Methdologies: 2008 vs 2006
- In 2006, you reported that a sizable majority of product development used a waterfall methodology (55%), with Scrum garnering a mere 7%.
- In 2008, the picture is very different. Scrum and its Agile cousins account for nearly 60%, where waterfall has dropped to a mere 28%.
- The percentage of products using waterfall dropped by 50% in just two years! (from 55% in 2006 to 28% in 2008.)
- Scrum increased by 410% (!), and is now definitely the most popular flavor of Agile.
Wow. What a difference in just two years.,
Poll Conclusions
The CPM sees the writing on the wall. She’s now on a mission to learn all she can about Agile/Scrum in order to stay employable. But geez, there’s got to be something better out there than that canonical (naive) Scrum book. Something that reflects the realities of developing software PRODUCTS for multiple customers, not doing custom one-off developing projects. Please, say there is.
Nonetheless, the CPM thinks we are approaching Agile’s “Peak of Inflated Expectations,” soon to be followed by the “Trough of Disillusionment” (to borrow phraseology from the much-despised Gardeners), as people realize Agile still has flaws and is no Silver Bullet. Plus, Agile’s flaws aside, waterfall is not going away completely as there are too many products that CANNOT be developed via Agile (hardware, medical, defense, heavily regulated industries, products with very spread-out or outsourced development teams, to name a few).
Detailed Results
119 people responded to this Facebook poll, run between September 12 and October 1. Bare in mind that the readers of this blog are hardly representative of the entire software industry, and that the ones that use Facebook might be even less representative. Nonetheless, the results are very telling.
Question 1: Is your product currently being developed with one of the following software methodologies?
Reported Software Product Development Methodologies in 2008
Question 2: Two years ago, what methodology was used for the product from Question 1?
Reported Software Product Development Methodologies two years ago, in 2006
