True story – customer rep wanted us to make their own facebook, largely on future profit share. “Should be easy”

Managers that see themselves as enlightened leaders instead of value creation facilitators often use faux Agile methodology as a means of asshole bargaining.

“Name your resource price and I will hold You to it. I don’t have a plan, I don’t have market valuation, and I expect to change the whole project unexpectedly, no, make that pivot, interrupting the framework flow, and I will hold You responsible to what You promised. Are You not a bro of Your word, bro?”

Needless to say, an experienced bargainer, scarred by past betrayals, never names the price first. Developers are no exception. They can give a very precise estimate when they know what they need to know as in for a very specific feature, in very specific context.

If You lack the ability to define what it is You want, then embrace agile for what it is supposed to be- specification and value discovery through incremental, continuous delivery. Make value from the start, continue making value as Your understanding grows, don’t interrupt the creators of value.

This excellent post by Kyle Prifogle has lots of gems on achieving real value for minimal investment, without technical debt and developer burnout.

http://kyleprifogle.com/dear-startup/

Oh yeah, the trick? Don’t asshole negotiate with developers.