While I can’t claim to have invented this old joke – or its many iterations, I have added my own flavour to the tech project version that’s been flowing the interwebs for a few years. So, why did the chicken cross the road, team?
THE BUSINESS ANALYST : I have twelve meetings today, I don’t have time to get into the whole user story. But I can tell you it involves a rooster on a distributed team, and far too many stakeholders. Is it even necessary for the chicken to cross the road? How confident are we in the ROI, which road is she crossing again?
WEB ANALYTICS: We’ll need to get some tags on that chicken to be able to tell you that, come back after three months, minimum, othewise we won’t have enough data. Also, it doesn’t look like your chicken is setup for GA4. We’ll have to redo the container.
THE BUSINESS OWNER: Because I have three other business initiatives riding on the chicken being on the other side of the road that were supposed to start six weeks ago. You’re killing me.
THE DEVELOPER: Because the requirements said so. The trebuchet was the most efficient method, because you said it was urgent. Oh, what ? She had to get to the other side alive? Where was that in the requirements?
SCRUM MANAGER: Let’s iterate, people. Let’s get the chicken to the center line today, and we’ll talk about the rest of the way tomorrow.
THE AGILE PROJECT MANAGER: The chicken is just not going to be able to cross the road this month. Crossing requirements were due last Friday. She will have to take her place on the backlog. Maybe the chicken can cross the road in Sprint 9.
