Comments on: Thoughtworkability

By: Pelagius

Pelagius — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:14:34 +0000

Three Thoughtworker Stories from various sources

Thoughtworks quoted fixed price for phase 1 of a development project. To get their foot in the door they threw every resource they had at it to deliver on time. Come phase 2 they had annoyed everyone so much by endearing habits such as re-writing the code written by the client’s in-house developers if they took a day off, that they were thrown out.

Thoughworker comes along to see the “Agile Way” to a bank. Thoughworker tells them if you follow their great methodology they don’t need to write any documents or upfront analysis. Just write test cases, code and re-factor until they you get it right. The potential clients uniformly respond, we actually like thinking about things and trying to understanding them before we start writting code. Thoughtworker retreats, psychologically crushed that people do not follow his faith.

Thoughtworker describing their technique for writing requirements, “We preserve the business semantics in our stories”. Member of audience, “You mean you write them in English ?”. Derisive laughter from the client’s staff.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 06:07:59 +0000

This is hilarious, I know nothing about Thoughtworks but this is exactly the kind of slanging match that Trilogy always used to generate when I was there, and it sounds like they have a similar kind of culture. I had a very enjoyable 3 months training there exposed to high level management from Fortune 500 companies, and then they canned half the company because the bubble burst. I can see why people hated them, and I can see why people there got very passionate about the company; the outsiders mixed a lot of true observations with jealousy, and the insiders mixed a lot of well intentioned passion with some arrogance and other bad traits. Couldn’t get so excited either way myself, but then I belonged to the cyncial European contingent in training…

By: Christian carter

Christian carter — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 08:18:44 +0000

Ukluk has suggested in his blog that maybe we should have a “business tier” and a “presentation tier” in our applications. That sounds controversial. What do you guys think ? Is it a good idea ? Or is it bad ? What are the pros and cons ? Are there other important patterns our community should know about ?

By: whatever

whatever — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 23:48:25 +0000

TW was, of sorts, my dream company. I was waiting to get enough experience to apply in TW. But After reading throught this, I am having my doubts…
I guess, to expect good quality work AND “knowledgable” managers in IT is just stupid!!

By: Fartin Mowler

Fartin Mowler — Wed, 18 May 2005 17:19:58 +0000

in a previous life i used to work for thoughtworks. although a lot of the negative stuff said about them is out of jealousy, a lot of it is true. in my experience, the developers are incredibly talented and cool but the managers are turds. the management team presents itself as progressive and people-friendly when in fact they are highly political cutthroat liars.

By: test

test — Mon, 16 May 2005 01:35:23 +0000

test

By: Cenk

Cenk — Sun, 01 May 2005 07:07:56 +0000

Hani couldnt pass the interview process hahaha :)

By: Buddie

Buddie — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 15:07:23 +0000

It’s not only a problem for TurdWorks: all big consultancies are basically shit to work for, unless you buy into the whole “if you adhere to the careermodel and lick enough upwards, you might make X in 2 years!” (unless you get passed over at the last moment and have to wait another year, because mid-year promotions are big no-no).

I’ve worked for 2 larger consultancies: for one for 2 years, before I quit (I was depressed and liked inflicting pain on myself back then), the other I quit after 2 months..

By: skaffman

skaffman — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 04:48:21 +0000

Interesting article, so much so that I would very likely have emailed the link around the whole company, if it hadn’t been for Hari’s usual fascination with other mens’ genitalia.

Yet another serious piece of commentary rendered sour by John Thomas references.

By: DontUnderstandObjectsTooWell

DontUnderstandObjectsTooWell — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 18:25:31 +0000

< < If these people at Thoughtworks are so super smart, why haven't they invented some great new technology? It seems to me like they're followers, just using someone else's ideas. >>

Totally agree – they’ve contributed nothing to the development community at large why can’t they come up with their own stuff instead of just using tools the rest of us hard working bile blog readers have created like: CruiseControl, CruiseControl.net, JMock, PicoContainer, IBATIS, NUnit, NMock, XWork, WebWork, QDox, Nanning, SiteMesh, Selenium, Marathon, XDoclet … robbing bastards….

By: Clown Puncher's Son

Clown Puncher's Son — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 17:45:21 +0000

It isn’t the same without big pop punching clowns in every room of the house. It just isn’t right to have a house where there has not been a clown punched in every room. That’s what clowns are for.

By: any

any — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 05:31:15 +0000

abcd

By: Biggus Dickus

Biggus Dickus — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 04:35:39 +0000

Joseph Ottinger dead? LMAO. He’s probably busy writing the longest pile of crap you’ve ever seen on the inside of his coffin.

His wife died in 1884? Her name wasn’t Ciara was it?

By: Dan W

Dan W — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:41:53 +0000

Joseph Ottinger died early Friday morning at the residence of his son, S.F. Ottinger, on Park Ave. East. Three children survive him, Mrs. Ottinger having died Oct. 14, 1886. Rev. D.J. Meese will officiate at the funeral, which is to take place at Indianapolis at 2 p.m. today.

By: Not Joseph Ottinger

Not Joseph Ottinger — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 14:46:47 +0000

Hi Guys!

Thanks for your valuable input. TSS wouldn’t be as useful without you.

PS: you don’t know me.

By: Clown Puncher

Clown Puncher — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 01:42:59 +0000

And Anu, I’m still here…just haven’t had much to comment about.

By: Clown Puncher

Clown Puncher — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 01:41:10 +0000

About the math question thingy…

Am I the only one that has used grease monkey to write code that parses, adds, and automatically populates that field?

C’mon…and I thought I was hanging around smart people!

By: diprey

diprey — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:18:40 +0000

Thank you Hani! I know, I know, not the most typical reply…

By: Anu

Anu — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 11:04:46 +0000

Its not the same here without the clownpuncher…

By: Anonymous this time

Anonymous this time — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 08:32:53 +0000

I wonder why Martin Fowler doesn’t have BileBlog in his BlogRoll.

It gets tiring to hear shameless self-promotion by Martin Fowler & Co.