Hi, guys! The subject of today's post, as you can guess, is use of methodologies in project management. Now almost every team, as it begins some software development, tries to keep under control the entire workflow in order to avoid any accidents and risks. For this purpose, managers turn to various methodologies, hoping that the experience of other companies will be applicable in their practice too. For some simple typical tasks this can really work. But, in our opinion, blindly following a methodology may be fraught with a significant reduction in development effectiveness.

Not so long ago, we came across a very old article of Joel Spolsky, which has not lost its relevance today and stays a canonical example of the correct company scaling. Or "methodology", if you will. The article raises a question of a company's success or failure (regardless of a field of its activities) and a role of a methodology in its fate. The author describes quite interestingly how the methodology arises, and why her seemingly noble goals ultimately worsen results of work. And it does not matter whether it's about IT projects or about the food industry - the principles are the same.

Of course, nowadays it's hard enough to surprise someone by comparing an IT company with the McDonald's work organization, but in those days Joel's article was very successful. And the term "Naked Chef" from this article is still widely applied to developers-improvisers of a high level.

We are not entirely sure whether this is a laudable term or an abusive one. And what do you think in this regard? Do not hesitate to share your opinion and experience with us on this matter! Anyway, the question of using methodologies is rather ambiguous, so we are sure that we will come back to it more than once.

Riter development team