Scrum + Hip Hop: Vol. 8
Don’t Forget the Lyrics
Why does Agile documentation suck? And I’m not talking about the Agile Manifesto, the Scrum Guide, or even ScrumPLoP. I’m talking about developer documentation.
I get it: developers don’t like writing documentation. Me either. Who does? It’s not fun, but too often it falls off. I once overheard a developer say: “There’s no documentation in Agile.”
If no one writes anything down, before you know it, you’re left with a complex application with inner workings that only a handful of folks know anything about. And I’m not talking about writing pages, upon pages of documentation. Remember one of the values of that little thing called the Agile Manifesto?
“Working software over comprehensive documentation.”
The key word is comprehensive. It’s not “Working software instead of documentation.” Back in 2001, even the cats gathered in the Wasatch mountains knew the importance of writing things down; just not going overboard with it. Take Kendrick Lamar During his performance at Top Dawg Entertainment’s annual holiday concert, he forgot the words to guest verse on Jay Rock’s “Vice City.” In true Agile form, he adapted, and went freestyle.
Back in the day, before the Internet (I know, way back in the Stone Age), if the album didn’t come with the lyrics written inside, you had to listen to tracks over, and over to learn the words. The hook was easy enough to pick up, but you had to pay real attention on the verses. These days, you can just Shazam, or Google it.
Sure, Agile teams should be able to adapt to like Kendrick Lamar, but when they freestyle without taking the time to document, teams run the risk of becoming subject matter experts (SMEs). And if you’ve been following along, you know how I feel about that.
“There is no need for other heroes when you already have Superman.” — Ron Eringa
It makes little sense to build a large-scale application without letting other people how it works, or what’s connected to what. If you’ve ever used Photoshop, you know how daunting it is to learn. It’s filled with so many features, each with their own levels of complexity (try using Alpha Channels, or Clipping Masks). What if none of that was documented? See my point? So why do folks refuse to write it down? Do your part, and stop making Agile documentation suck.
The Next Track: Ode to the Hype
