Why would I be so angry about it? Isn't it good that people actually use common sense to make decisions? After all, Scrum is also said to be "based on common sense".
This is the question to everyone who claims that the use of common sense is a virtue: what brought you to where you are now? Wasn't that common sense?
- Wasn't that common sense that told you to separate programmers from testers?
- Wasn't that common sense that told you to separate analysts or architects from development team?
- Wasn't that common sense that helped you invent "iteration zero" in which you are excused for not delivering anything useful?
- Wasn't that common sense that helped you invent "hardening sprint" in which you execute all the tests you did not care about over the course of the project?
- I also suspect you used common sense to determine that TDD makes projects too expensive and should be abandoned
- It was probably common sense that whispered to your ear when you named numerous roles in your team, for every member of the team to feel special
- And wasn't it nice when common sense provided you with so simple solution to the problem of an iteration falling into the holiday season? And you just made it one week longer...
Even if somebody else used common sense and made decisions quite opposite to those above, it was your common sense that told you to make these mistaken decisions. And therefore, don't trust your common sense. Talk to people who are wiser and more experienced. Search for options on the web. Learn what solutions people implemented in the industry. But don't trust your common sense.
This post wouldn't be here, if it were not for Michal Rosolowski, whose views on common sense blew my mind. There is a video available with Michal's lightening talk on this subject:
http://vimeo.com/album/1977617/video/44244699