Google Tech Talks has a new video (December 7th) with Jeff Sutherland discussing a Scrum approach to processes and programming methods and Google’s use of those practices in the development of Adwords. While it discusses this type of programming, it also gives a glimpse of how the Google Adwords team works together.
Scrum Tuning: Lessons learned from Scrum implementation at Google
Google hasn’t universally adopted this Scrum process, but it appears that the Adwords team may have.
A counterpoint to this presentation is the discussion that takes place on a Googler’s blog. Steve Yegge (who may have just become one of my favorite search engineer bloggers) provided a look at Google’s programming methods, and some great insights to other aspects of working at Google in Good Agile, Bad Agile this past September. The followup is entertaining, too – Egomania itself.
I found both the presentation and Steve Yegge’s posts interesting not so much for the discussion of Agile programming, and the use of a Scrum methodology, but rather for the glimpses they provide into Google culture.