🎬 Introduction
Agile was supposed to liberate teams.
Faster iterations. Closer to users.
More learning, less bureaucracy.
But somewhere along the road…
Agility became ritual.
Process became dogma.
We stopped thinking,
and started worshiping the ceremony.
🔄 The Agile Paradox
We’ve seen it before:
- Daily stand-ups that last 45 minutes
- Retrospectives filled with silence
- Teams sprinting without understanding the race
Agility became a checkbox.
A theater.
A safety blanket for control disguised as freedom.
đź“ŤReal-world case
In a major European fintech company, the IT team proudly ran five Scrum teams.
Backlogs were updated.
User stories were written.
Burndown charts looked great.
Yet product launches were constantly delayed.
Users reported no significant improvements.
Team morale? Flat.
A deeper review revealed:
- 30% of stories were rewritten 4+ times due to unclear ownership
- Stakeholder reviews were box-ticking rituals
- Teams followed Scrum, but had no shared vision
They were agile in motion, rigid in mindset.
🪞Metaphor: The Sacred Calendar
In some teams, the Jira board is more sacred than the customer’s pain.
Sprint Planning becomes a liturgy.
Velocity metrics are the new commandments.
And the team becomes… priests of a process they no longer question.
🚨 Warning Signs of Process Idolatry
- More energy spent on rituals than outcomes
If retrospectives feel like paperwork, it’s time to pause. - No space to challenge the process itself
Agile is iterative – including how we do Agile. - Dogmatic use of frameworks
“We must do it this way” is the death of creative teams. - Low psychological safety, disguised as structure
People obey the rules but don’t speak up.
🛠️ How to Break the Spell
- Re-center on purpose
Why are we using Scrum/Kanban/XP?
Does it still serve the team’s mission? - Foster Agile literacy
Ensure people understand why each practice exists – not just how. - Iterate on the process itself
Teams should have agency to tweak, drop or invent rituals. - Make feedback loops real
Feedback isn’t a retrospective note. It’s a daily muscle.
đźš« Avoid These Pitfalls
- Becoming framework fundamentalists
No method is universal. Adapt or die. - Conflating agility with speed
Agility is about responsiveness, not acceleration. - Measuring what doesn’t matter
Burnout with perfect velocity is still burnout.
✨ Closing Thoughts
Agility should be a lens, not a cage.
A team that blindly follows Agile rituals may move fast —
but in circles.
The most agile teams?
They ask better questions.
They outgrow their frameworks.
