Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

@yy+1jtmh5j7g, you've nailed the issue with management pushing Waterfall in many parts of this place. That said, look at the new tech center in Columbus. While they're cutting elsewhere and offshoring ops, they're investing in this new hub specifically for "next generation Core Banking," stacking it with experienced tech talent, including ex-JPM hires. I saw posts from folks there talking about in-person sessions for "top level design," praising the deep, long-standing expertise in core banking. It's a different narrative than just forcing agile onto existing Waterfall structures. They aren't shouting "agile at scale" from the rooftops on LinkedIn yet, but the focus on experienced core banking technologists and dedicated design sessions suggests a potentially different model is being explored there. Could this be a skunk works effort attempting to bypass some of the usual managerial impediments? It's a stark contrast to the struggle you rightly called out.

@jy+1jtmh5j7g, we already know that. The real problem is the upper and middle management who keep shoving Waterfall to Agile teams and giving them constant pressure.

@wq+1jtmh5j7g, agile is working just fine in other large companies. They use Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) with Agile Release Train (ART).

Every company's agile transformation has failed. It does not work in large companies. It's a software development system

Great question: Is it tradition? Lack of psychological safety? Failure to form real teams? Maybe it's all three.
In most bricks-and-mortar financial orgs, "agile" gets jammed into legacy structures that were never built for it. You can’t just sprinkle in standups and Jira tickets and call it transformation.
You’ll hear names like ING, Capital One, USAA, maybe Barclays—but even those are mostly tech pockets, not full-org success.
Real agile needs trust, stable cross-functional teams, and leadership willing to give up control in exchange for outcomes. But these cultures still run on fear, silos, and status updates. Psychological safety isn’t missing—it’s actively discouraged.
So maybe agile didn’t fail. Maybe these firms can’t do agile until they fix the system.
Anyone actually seen the real deal? Not a few pilot teams—whole-org change?

Someone please name a bricks and mortar financial services firm that has been successful across the whole org with agile. Anyone? Anyone?

@OP here. @dm+1jtmh5j7g No, I will not send this by cert mail. But since these are the board's words, anyone should send this to the nearest 'agile transformationist' you know. WF was my third employer, doing agile transformation. @cz+1jtmh5j7g, yes, this is a "big lying bank". I bring the "psychological safety" aspect into the discussion. The culture has to be corrected and psychological abuse eliminated (or at least minimized). You can mine this board for all the examples of psychological abuse. The Capricious Management Program sometimes named "efficiency program hat is ostensibly about efficiency, but in reality is a cost-cutting and restructuring campaign, often executed with shifting or opaque justifications. Examples include "rank and yank" curved performance reviews. I blew up a Grok model doing this! And to the skeptics of agile (WF is too big...) skeptics like @ee+1jtmh5j7g try a Gemini prompt "What banks have been good at achieving agile? can you give me a list in order of asset size?" or google "McKinsey agile bank." Agile is here, agile can be scaled, agile can be successful -- BUT you need the right culture. A scalable model that thinks of Teams and not C&C hierarchies. Maybe WF can make that a for-mentioned Gemini list. Agile is here, scalable and in AI. Now I will go back to retirement....

This is the same story at every larger company that jumped on the agile band wagon.

Agile works well in small to mid, one location software development shops. The team meets- breaks to code and meets again to review it. That is not WFC. They used to actually use index cards to track work. Try doing that here. Agile is not one size fits all.

The original post should be sent, certified mail, to Scharf and his lieutenants and the BOD.

| Also, it’s that time of year—cue the C&C survey. You know, the one that asks if you trust | your manager and if you like working here. Funny how the focus always seems to be on | the manager, not the actual health of the team. Maybe HR could pivot from defending
| org charts to actually supporting teams?

There is no concept of team here....every 'team' I've ever worked on here has only been a collection of individuals who happen to report to the same manager, that's it.

More cringey slop from the AI evangelist ugh

@d2+1jtmh5j7g Oh.. Claude is much more than a robot.
For those interested in working for a more agile organization or in rating the agility of a potential employer, I use this prompt (which is in my handy dandy prompt genius) it is:

Analyze the following job description with a specific focus on indicators of agile practices related to team structure, team roles and responsibilities, and team collaboration.

Identify and list specific phrases or sections within the job description that suggest or contradict agile team practices.
Based on these indicators, rate the job description using the scale: Non-Agile, Agile-Aware, Agile-Like, Agile-But, or Truly Agile.
Provide a concise explanation for your rating, directly referencing the indicators you identified in step 1.
Suggest specific revision changes to the job description that would better attract agile practitioners by clearly articulating an agile team environment. Frame these revisions as actionable suggestions for HR.
/lt;begin paste>
(Paste the job description you want to analyze here)
/lt;end paste>

Yeah it was pretty obvious this was AI. So thanks for...having a robot restate things for you?

@cz+1jtmh5j7g, OP, thanks for your post. The problem with Wells Fargo, in a short sentence, is that Wells Fargo does not practice what they preach. This is a big lying bank altogether. I don't think there is much we can do to change this corrupt organization because of the arrogant tone-deaf ignorant narcissistic executives.

@OP here. Confession: I didn’t actually write this—Claude did. All I did was google site:https://www.thelayoff.com Fargo agile to find posts and threads that I then fed into Claude. These are your words—not mine!

But I do believe most of the individual contributors have genuinely tried to make agile work. People gave it an honest shot. It’s the culture—and the management behaviors behind it—that have derailed agile, the cloud migration, and pretty much every tech initiative.

Watching CS on CNBC trying to downplay the “efficiency program”—saying they just “cut around the edges”—was concerning -- actually it pi sed me off. This supposed “efficiency plan,” paired with the offshoring push dressed up as innovation, has led to more U.S.-based tech layoffs than ever.

Now WF is hiring from the BNY bone yard for leadership. Is this another reinvention? Or just another rerun? Will agile at WF be BE-Agile or BE-Wagile? Time will tell.

Also, it’s that time of year—cue the C&C survey. You know, the one that asks if you trust your manager and if you like working here. Funny how the focus always seems to be on the manager, not the actual health of the team. Maybe HR could pivot from defending org charts to actually supporting teams?

For those still reading, I recommend this: Cultivating Psychological Safety in Agile Teams from the Agile Alliance, which WF is a member of. WF is practically the poster child for Amy Edmondson’s work on psychological abuse in the workplace.

It’s like the company just redirected the dysfunction—from abusing customers during the account scandal to abusing employees under the "efficiency" banner. Either way, it’s still toxic. And without integrity, agile doesn’t stand a chance.
source:https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/experience-reports/cultivating-psychological-safety-in-agile-teams/

@cq+1jtmh5j7g, the essential scrum ceremonies are Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-Up, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective. The essential scrum activity is Backlog Refinement. Get some fundamental stuff straight! SMH.

@cq+1jtmh5j7g, it's not "replenishment", it's "refinement". LOL. You'd better take some agile training course.

@an+1jtmh5j7g 'nonsense' because of the way it is implemented - Agile is a mindset, not a checklist. The only “essential” Agile activities are the ones that help your team deliver better, faster, and with feedback. i.e. Standup, demo and replenishment are essential.

Most of the team in India is real challenge

I would add my LOB not supporting Agile and continuing to live in the waterfall world as a major impediment to success.

I gotta say, OP pretty much sums it up.

Don't forget constant reorgs placing people into roles they don't really belong in thus exacerbating the fear based culture.

I've been in the thick of it for years and it's depressing af. Everything here is measured in terms of all or nothing, success or fail. Here is your date, now deliver 100%. Completely missed opportunity. At this point, I truly believe it's a mindset some people aren't wired to comprehend. What's funny is that the fools who are coming from different companies aren't any better. I highly doubt Chase is "agile".

What is so sad is that almost everyone sees the problem and acknowledges it's broken. Everyone except the C-Suite who lives in an echo chamber and sends out worthless surveys for self-assurance. Pitiful leadership is the root of most of the issues.

The OP absolutely nailed many of the agile failures within WFC. It's been a disaster and only getting worse. Much like the multiple Cloud initiatives that have failed. But the WFC execs just can't help themselves and continue hiring their buddies instead of the best and brightest.

@af+1jtmh5j7g, those are not nonsense, those are basic ceremonies required for agile. Before you criticize others, you need to uderstand the agile fundamentals first. WF agile is failing partly because of people like you who do not understand agile.

I have been told that there is no hierarchy or rank differences within an agile team, and everybody is an equal partner. But WF Product Owners think that they are the bosses of agile teams, and they tend to bully the rest of the team members. At that moment, I thought something was wrong.

stand-ups, replenishment, ceremony, sprint planning, review, retrospective ... what nonsense is this - my previous employer had 'real' agile but not like the madness here. i joined because i had to relocate with family...

Well said!

beautifully written - 100% happening

• Middle managers gave waterfall instructions while demanding agile results
• Forcing every team into the same framework regardless of function
• Creating role confusion between scrum masters/product owners/managers
• JIRA ticket counts over actual value delivery