How big tech runs tech projects and the curious absence of scrum. "Scrum" here refers to an "agile" software development methodology where developers break their work into goals that can be completed within time-boxed iterations, usually 2 weeks, called sprints, with daily time-boxed "stand-up" meetings, usually 15 minutes or less, called daily scrums (a form of stand-up meeting). At the end of each sprint, there are review meetings where stakeholders give feedback.
The "big tech" companies included in the survey were Amazon, Apple, Datadog, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Shopify, Spotify, and Uber. Over 100 companies were part of the survey.
"Methodologies used by companies in this survey were:"
"No 'formal' methodology: common for public and venture-funded tech companies."
"Plan, build, ship: common for public and venture-funded tech companies."
"Scrum: common for large, non-tech companies, non-venture funded companies and consultancies."
"Kanban: mentioned across all companies."
"SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework): mentioned with large, non tech companies and a non-venture funded company."
"Shape Up: mentioned for a few venture-funded companies."
Kanban is a system where a "kanban board" is used for moving items around to decide their priority. The name comes from a Japanese word.
"Insights that are worth thinking about are below."
"Teams with dedicated project managers typically recorded lower satisfaction ratings at public or venture-funded tech companies. However, at non-venture funded companies and consultancies, several respondents were very happy with project management, and called out these people as a reason for their satisfaction."
"Teams being allowed to choose their own way of working was more common at public tech companies and venture-funded scaleups. Large, non-tech companies and smaller, non-venture-funded companies were more likely to mandate the same approach for all teams within the company."
"Team autonomy and high satisfaction seemed to be correlated."
"Teams struggling often had little to do with the methodologies."
"JIRA has been mentioned mostly with negative associations: all 13 mentions of JIRA were in this setting."
"Project management approaches that do not work well share a few characteristics, according to respondents who left a rating of a 1 or a 2:"
"Engineers not involved in estimations that the team then committed to, is a frequent pain point."
"Requirements changing, even with dedicated project managers, sits poorly with engineers."
"Teams with no autonomy to change a failing project management approach also recorded low satisfaction."
JIRA is issue & project tracking software from Atlassian. "The #1 software development tool used by agile teams", they say.
Out of Amazon, Apple, Datadog, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Shopify, Spotify, and Uber, all let teams decide their methodology and the most common choice is plan, build, (iterate), ship.
The article on the project management survey is long and has much more in it. I just pulled out a few quotes on this one issue.
How big tech runs tech projects and the curious absence of scrum
