ASM, Clancy & Harvey, and Agile (Re: vintage computers in active use)

[jwsmobile]

On 5/27/2016 9:08 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
>> While I don't formally do agile, what I do do is in line with many of
>> >the principles behind agile - things like "release early, release
>> >often", short iterations, and constant customer involvement.
> I can appreciate some of the elements, also. It's just irritating when
> they start turning it into meeting (oh wait... scrumm) hell and folks are
> more focused on pushing the methodology than completing the project.
I had the task of doing mouse firmware for a project that ws a huge 40 
person C++ object oriented mass of crap with all the stuff that goes 
with that.

Note Customer here means the entity that consumes or engages your end 
product.  In this case there were other bits involved that were also 
large blank page projects, since this was an aircraft product. The 
hardware, manufacturing, test program, and even business and marketing 
were all formal, with little of the bullshit you'd think of as random 
operations in especially marketing and sales.

But in my tiny corner they were all blockheads about what I had to do to 
be "agile" and I just basically said go f yourselves.  I was basically 
expanding a manufacturer supplied sample code set, and I always work 
iteratively, but a lot of the things I had to do had to respond to 
things that were not planned.

The model of formally planning out the stuff that Agile has sometimes 
doesn't work.  Especially in places where embedded programming is 
involved.  But if the managers would look at what you have to do, 
frequently it is a modified version of that.

In this case the manager had never touched low level programming which 
was part hardware and software ever, and didn't get how much had to be 
"tried" and modified.  Luckily there were people who got the problem and 
eventually it was a good project.

Thanks
jim