21 April 2025 | Published by: Emily Clark
In our pursuit of creating frameworks that cater to every purpose, exception, and edge case, have we made Agile more complicated than it needs to be? What started as a simple, nimble methodology has evolved into a web of bureaucratic rules, tooling, and processes, leaving many people wondering if it is just as heavy as traditional Waterfall.
At its core, Agile was about simplification and creating a shared understanding of work to be done. Yet, over time, we've drifted away from this principle. As we added more layers to address complex challenges—such as cross-team planning, managing dependencies, and aligning to corporate strategy—Agile has expanded into something far beyond its original intent. What was once nimble and adaptable has evolved into something far more complex, with less room for the very flexibility that made Agile successful.
The Dangers of "What About-ism?"
Agile is in its original form focused on the team level and communication. As more and more organizations saw the benefits and adopted Agile, usually Scrum or Kanban, the questions started: What about... Planning across teams? Managing risks and dependencies? Enterprise reporting? Funding models aligned to Agile development? These are all important considerations. But in our efforts to address each one, we’ve transformed a straightforward methodology into a corporate playbook, often stretching to hundreds of pages.
These lengthy documents, once dropped on an executive's desk, can cause immediate overwhelm. Leaders, faced with a tome of complex guidelines, might find themselves questioning the cost, value, and overhead associated with Agile implementation. At that moment, it’s easy to see why they might hesitate—how could something that was supposed to simplify our processes become so daunting?
Losing the Plot: The Beauty of Simplicity
Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost sight of Agile’s core principles. We’ve forgotten the elegance of simplicity, prioritization, and maximizing the work not done. Agile was never meant to be a massive, one-size-fits-all, prescriptive framework. It was intended to be a principles-based flexible approach that helps teams respond to change more effectively by focusing on the most important work and delivering value faster.
But today, we’re overwhelmed by processes and templates that try to solve every "what about" scenario. The result? A loss of flexibility, innovation, and the very spirit of collaboration that made Agile so appealing in the first place.
Back to Basics: Simplifying Agile by Focusing on Intent
To truly unlock the benefits of Agile, we need to return to its lean principles. Instead of focusing on processes and tools, we should focus on intent and outcomes. What do we want to achieve? What value are we delivering to customers? These should be the guiding questions—not an ever-growing list of rules and expectations.
Simplifying our approach to Agile doesn’t mean ignoring the complexity and demands of modern business. Rather, it’s about stripping away unnecessary layers that stifle creativity and slow progress. We need to ensure our teams our focusing on what they are trying to deliver and not side tracked by how they are delivering it. By focusing on what really matters—delivering business outcomes—we can make Agile an enabler of change rather than an obstacle to it.
In the end, it’s time to return to what made Agile successful in the first place: simplicity, prioritization, and a shared understanding of what we’re trying to achieve. It’s not about a massive playbook for every scenario—it’s about delivering meaningful results that focus on customer needs. By embracing this back-to-basics approach, we can truly unlock the power of Agile and start seeing the business outcomes it was always meant to deliver.