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Seven Deadly Agile Sins

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I spend a lot of time talking to teams about what to do to become more agile. I also see a lot of teams that never make it to their potential.

Instead of giving you a bunch of "do this" instructions, how about let's talk for a minute about the stuff you shouldn't be doing?

Here are the Seven Deadly Sins of Agile Teams.

  • Lust - We've all been there. The user wants feature X, but what WE want the user to want is feature X, Y, and Z. Especially Z, since it is full of cool new technology that we'll have a blast programming.


    Yes, it's possible to lust after features in a project that the user doesn't want that much. And if we try hard, we can usually convince the Product Owner to put them in an iteration. Doesn't make it right, and it's an easy way to take up a lot of time and energy on things the user doesn't really care about.

  • Gluttony - I know how you feel. It's the beginning of the iteration and you're on top of the world. You can do anything. Build the Space Shuttle using toothpicks and crazy glue? Sure, it would be hard, but we could do it. All of those points up there for the taking, and you want all of them.

    Take only the points you are double-dog sure that you can complete in an iteration. Anything more is Gluttony.

  • Greed - So you've taken the points the team can do. Now you're tying to do all of the work, wanting to be the superstar. Relax -- agile teams are not about heroes. Everybody is in this together, and you are supposed to share.
  • Sloth - Quite honestly this is one I see a lot. You know these people -- they're the ones just punching a clock and doing their time every day. Mostly found in government and big organizations, sloths can kill morale and team cohesion faster than anything else.

    Got a sloth on your team? Get rid of them -- at any cost. If you can't get rid of them, find something useless for them to do that keeps them away from everybody else.

  • Wrath - "But we're not doing this the right way!" -- I hear these words in some fashion all the time. So you went to a couple of conferences and now you're an expert. Or heck, maybe you are really an expert. Doesn't matter. In either case, you're mad because things in the team aren't going the way you think they should be going.

    Got news for you: your anger is causing more problems than the thing you are angry about. This is tough medicine for people to take who drank the cool-aid. Agile teams are about teamwork, not about conforming to somebody's sense of how they should act.

  • Envy - "We've got a new project and dang! This is going to be cool because we are doing TDD!" somebody says. Or the team is going to be humming once the CI environment is setup. Or because we're using new a toolset life is going to be great.

    New stuff is great, and new tools and new techniques can really help your team move to the next level. But don't focus too much on them. The tools and techniques are helpers for the work, they're not the work itself. Also -- envy has a way of being much more fun until you actually get the thing you envy after. Usually the grass just looks greener on the other side.

  • Pride - Finally a special word to those of you who have your Ken Schwaber posters at home or those who are proud to be in the XP inside circle: come back to earth. We miss you here.

    Nobody wants to hear how connected you are or what famous person X said about what the team should be doing. Teams don't work well because they are associated with famous or important people. They work well because there's group respect and they continue to adapt to their surroundings.

    That's not saying that well-known people should be ignored, simply put in their place. There have been a lot of books written by people who could never do the things they are advocating. Lots of agile-type authors and promoters would make horrible team members. Being famous means being focused on yourself. You don't want to be like that -- not if you want a good team.

Note that the first four sins focus on how you act in respect to your obligations. The last three are how you act in respect to your other team members. The first four usually happen with agile newbies. The last three usually happen with people who think they're experts.

All of them are bad. Avoid these sins, and your teams will run a lot better.

1 Comment

Great article.

I really like (in terms of making me think) the "Wrath" and "Envy" ones.

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This page contains a single entry by Daniel published on June 4, 2008 1:16 PM.

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Daniel Markham