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Pushing clouds with chopsticks

Perhaps if I hadn’t had a previous career outside of software it wouldn’t bug me so much, but I find the nebulous, amorphous task of software development thoroughly frustrating. It was back around 2003 that I was having a conversation about a project with my project manager at the time (who was old-school yet awesome), and I told her, “It’s really like trying to push a big cloud and all I have are two chopsticks.” I’m closing out my 13th or 14th year in software development, and I still feel this way. Even with all the insight, feedback, and visibility into a project that Agile Software Development provides me (and yes, real Agile, before anyone bothers to say that I feel this way only because I’m not doing full Agile Software Development), I’m still frustrated by how unwieldy the whole practice can be.

2 thoughts on “Pushing clouds with chopsticks”

  1. Is that IT??

    Barry, you need to elaborate on this. I get the feeling that you know what you’re talking about, so it’s a shame that you don’t say more.

    I’m especially curious to hear about how a career outside of software compares to one inside.

  2. Jacob, thanks for commenting! Yes, there’s lots to say about the topic. I do need to write more about it; trying to break a bit of inertia in my blogging. Feedback like this helps, so thanks again!

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