Misunderstanding Agile: Bridging The Gap With A Kaizen Mindset

In recent years, Agile has become closely associated with modern software development, promoting customer-focused value delivery, regular feedback loops, and empowered teams. However, beneath the familiar terminology, many technical professionals are beginning to question whether Agile is achieving its intended outcomes or simply adding complexity.

Many experienced developers and engineers voice discontent with excessive processes, poorly executed rituals, and a disconnect between Agile principles and the realities of their daily work. 

As organizations push for broader Agile adoption, understanding the roots of this discontent is crucial — not only for improving team morale but also for ensuring that Agile practices genuinely add value rather than becoming just another management fad.

The Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto defines a set of values and principles that guide software development (and other products). It inspires various frameworks and methods to support iterative delivery, early and continuous value creation, team collaboration, and continuous improvement through regular feedback and adaptation. 

Teams may misinterpret their core purpose when implementing Agile methodologies that do not adhere to their foundational principles. This misinterpretation can distort the framework’s adaptability and focus on customer-centric value delivery.

The sooner we assess the health of Agile practices and take corrective action, the greater the benefits for business outcomes and team morale.

Feedback on Agile Practices

Here are some common feedback themes based on Scrum teams' perceptions of their experience with Agile practices.

1. Disconnect Between Agile Theory and Practice

The Agile Manifesto sounds excellent, but real-world Agile feels like “Agile theater” with ceremonies and buzzwords.

Cause: Many teams adopt Agile practices solely to undergo the process without embracing its values.

Change in perception: Recognize the difference between doing vs. being Agile. Foster a culture of self-organized teams delivering value with continuous improvement to customers.

2. Lack of Autonomy

Agile can feel prescriptive, with strict roles and rituals that constrain engineers.

Cause: An overly rigid application of Agile can stifle creativity and reduce a sense of ownership. Engineers thrive when given the freedom to solve problems rather than being confined to a prescriptive approach.

Change in perception: Agile teams are empowered to make decisions. They don’t dwell on obstacles—they take ownership, lead through collaboration, and focus on delivering solutions with achievable delivery commitments.

3. Misuse of Agile as a Management Tool

Agile is used for micromanagement to track velocity and demand commitments.

Cause: Agile is sometimes misunderstood to focus on metrics over outcomes. When velocity is prioritized over value, the purpose gets lost.

Change in perception: Focus on principles and purpose, not just processes. Processes aren’t about restriction, but repeatable and reliable success. Agile processes support the team by reinforcing what works and making success scalable.

4. Lack of Visible Improvement

Despite Agile processes, teams still face delays, unclear requirements, or poor decisions.

Cause: When teams struggle to show visible improvement, foundational elements — like a clear roadmap and meaningful engagement with engineers around the product vision — are often missing.

Change in perception: Anchor Agile practices to tangible outcomes, such as faster feedback loops, improved quality, and reduced defects. Continuously inspect and adapt the process and product direction, ensuring both evolve together to drive meaningful progress.

How to Bridge the Gap With Kaizen

The disconnect between Agile’s theoretical benefits and practical execution can undermine empowerment and autonomy for a self-organized team, ultimately producing outcomes antithetical to the methodology’s intent of delivering iterative, user-focused solutions. Without proper contextualization and leadership buy-in, such implementations risk reducing Agile to a superficial process rather than a cultural shift toward continuous improvement.

As the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen reminds us, meaningful change happens incrementally. Agile retrospectives embody this mindset. When the process isn't working, the team must come together — not to assign blame but to reflect, realign, and evolve.

Leveraging the Power of Retrospective for Continuous Improvement

Misalignment with the value statement is a core reason Agile processes fail. Agile teams should go beyond surface-level issues and explore more profound, value-driven questions in the retrospective to get the most out of them.

Some of the recommended core areas for effective Agile retrospectives:

1. Value Alignment

   • What does “value” mean to us in this sprint or project?

   • Are we clear on what our customer truly needs right now?

2. Flow and Process Efficiency

   • Where did work get blocked and delayed, and is the team aware of the communication path to seek support?

   • Are our ceremonies (stand-ups, planning, reviews) meaningful, valuable, or just rituals?

3. Commitment and Focus

   • Were our sprint goals clear and achievable?

   • Did we commit to too much or too little?

4. Customer Centricity

   • Did we receive or act on honest feedback from users or stakeholders?

   • Do we know how the work impacted the customer?

Suggested Template for Agile Retrospective Takeaways

Use this template to capture and communicate the outcomes of your retrospective. It helps ensure accountability, transparency, and alignment going forward.

A structured retrospective framework for teams to reflect on performance and improve workflows.

1. Keep doing what’s working well:

• Practical and valuable habits and Practices.

• What reinforces team strengths and morale?

Examples:

• Effective and outcome-based meeting

• Collaboration for efficient dependency management

2. Do less of what we are doing too much of:

• Process overdose. Encourage balance and efficiency.

• Overused activities are not always valuable.

Examples:

• Too many long meetings drain team morale and disrupt daily progress.

• Excessive code reviews on trivial commits delay code merge and integration.

3. Stop doing what’s not working and should be eliminated:

• Identify waste or negative patterns.

• Break unhealthy habits that reduce productivity or hurt team morale.

Examples:

• Starting work before stories and the Definition of Done are fully defined - action before understanding purpose, business value, and success criteria

• Skipping retrospectives - detached from improvement 

4. Start doing what new practices or improvements we should try:

• Encourages innovation, experimentation, and growth.

• A great place to introduce ideas that the team hasn't tried yet.

Examples:

• Add a mid-sprint check-in

  • Start using sprint goals more actively

Conclusion

Agile is based on the principle of progressing through continuous improvement and incrementally delivering value. Retrospective meetings are crucial in this process, as they allow teams to pause, reflect, and realign themselves to ensure they are progressing in the right direction. This approach aligns with the Kaizen philosophy of ongoing improvement.