The curse of Delivery

I don't know what's wrong with delivery. And then I don't think about child birth. I'm talking about our sprint deliveries. We have a delivery curse. And it's bad. When I started working in our department I was originally a tester. I'd just been with the team for a little more than two months when a delivery was due. Back in those golden days waterfall was the thing so the delivery was a BIG deal. Then the development department leader got sick. And the project manager. And the architect. So no one knew the routine for delivery. Somehow everyone relied on me, the newest kid on the block, to work it out. Perhaps because I'm much older than the guys. Dunno, but somehow everything turned out OK. I was freaked out but we had a release.

Then, I turned into project manager and since this was during the summer months I calculated on having my days off late in the summer. We can't be four weeks late. But we could, and I spent the first week of my holiday on the phone. Of course. Next time I would be prepared. We couldn't be two months late. Well, we couldn't, but Microsoft could be (as a part of the release we were going to test a new hot fix from MS). I spent the first week of my winter holiday on the phone.

Then we turned agile. Release every month! We were going to a nearby village, Eskilstuna, for kick-off. I think this was the only really snowy day of this winter. Snowstorm. Of course. Then I was sick during the two coming releases. During one of them I had high fever and hid most of the time.

So this morning I woke up. I'm well. And there is a release coming up. Hm. Curse broken! But our architect went for an exercise and came back rigid. His old back injury had struck and he couldn't move. Away to the ER with the architect. Late delivery and who knows when will get our architect back. So Agile is evil. Monthly releases are bad for my team's health...