On all the agile projects I’ve worked on, the teams have been very reluctant to make a specification in place before starting development. Often claiming that we can’t know the requirements up-front, because we’re agile.

Article is from 2016

Since the “new” version it has been shit. Typical big enterprises to break something the users like.

Are there any online collectives that work together to stop this tomfoolery?

Same as it has been for the last 100 years: Vote with your money. If you don’t like the product/service, don’t buy it. Stop thinking you can force them to change their offering.

Missing perhaps the most important skill: Human to human communication, allowing you to:

• Discover the real requirements for your task by talking to the end user/stakeholder.
• Be able to propose and discuss alternatives to the requested solution, after you learn the real requirements.
• Clearly and timely communicate obstacles that occur during any phase in the project.

I suspect it is missing because most developers, myself included, dislike human communication. We like computers because they give us honest and logical answers.

If you have been gaining experience in the IT industry as a developer and have good hands-on experience on various issues that appear in any kind of application then you should consider moving higher in the corporate hierarchy.

Or, you know, keep doing what your enjoy and stay a developer.

I started developing software professionally, i.e. for a salary, about 20 years ago. I didn’t have any education beyond high school. Today I’m a freelance software consultant, currently working for a central bank in Europe. You know how I got here? By studying. Learning to use SQL, C#, PowerShell, bash, JSON, etc. I never learned computer algorithms and to this day I can’t write an efficient quick sort in either language. Along the way I learned the value of human interactions and efficient communication, vital to a freelance consultant wanting to be successful. Now my peers would tell you I write clean, efficient, readable, working code. My managers would say I deliver value and play well with others.

My point is it’s not about your theoretical knowledge about CS or The Art of Computer Programming, it’s about delivering tangible value to your employer.