I’m not sure I’m a big fan of the release train concept either, as it implies a strong bias towards highly dependent component teams, which is generally not a great idea.

Nice article overall, but reality of many creative software – from free web browsers to large enterprise apps costing millions – is to deliver software in “release trains”, the logistics of it feel very similar to the assembly line. Still that is layered on top of individual features that may be developed in scrum, so while the overall premise is valid, just consider this release train trend.

> 1. Scrum is not a “out-of-the-box” fit to Complexity:

I don’t think that’s a fair summary of that article. For instance, Dave also says: “I think the sprint concept needs little change and it handles complexity. ”

> “He was particularly scathing about the Scrum devotion to a single process and the role of the ScrumMaster.”
Given the third hand account, I don’t know what Dave was trying to say here. If he’s saying that the Scrum community thinks they are the *only* solution to complexity, then he’s wrong. We just think we’re the only solution out there now. We think the Agile Manifesto itself also supports some solutions to complexity, it’s just that no other Agile approach is nearly as consistent with the Agile Manifesto as Scrum. I completely leave open the possibility that something will come out to challenge Scrum in this space, but so far, no approach has even come close.

I stand by my original statement, that process is repeatable, and complex work is not. I also stand by my view that Scrum has several built in risk mitigators to complexity, and Kanban does not.

In my opinion, this is why David Anderson said:

• “Kanban is NOT a software development life cycle or project management methodology! It is not a way of making software or running projects that make software!” — David Anderson
• “There is no kanban process for software development. At least I am not aware of one. I have never published one.” — David Anderson
• “It is actually not possible to develop with only Kanban. The Kanban Method by itself does not contain practices sufficient to do product development.” — David Anderson*

http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/entry/5758/its-all-about-the-granularity/

2. “His approach is deliberately controversial and he makes no apology for attacking the “sacred cows” of the Agile movement. He was particularly scathing about the Scrum devotion to a single process and the role of the ScrumMaster.”

http://www.infoq.com/news/2012/09/snowden-agile-practice-theory