Challenging Misconceptions About Behaviour in Agile Teams

TL;DR; Agile is often misused to justify poor planning and lack of accountability, but true agility demands more discipline, professionalism, and clear alignment with the product vision. Teams that fail to deliver usable increments or start work without sufficient understanding are not practicing real Agile. Development managers should ensure their teams uphold high standards and address unprofessional behavior rather than excusing it as Agile.

Published on 13 February 2025

Written by Martin Hinshelwood

1 minute read

https://nkdagility.com/resources/lVebZgXa1DP

I keep hearing people justify bad behaviour in Agile teams by saying, “That’s how Agile works.” No. It isn’t.

Agility isn’t an excuse for chaos, poor planning, or avoiding accountability. True agility requires more discipline, not less. More planning, more diligence, more professionalism.

If your team can’t produce a usable increment every Sprint, if work is started without enough understanding to be confident it can be completed in the timebox, or if developers don’t know how their work contributes to the product vision—then you’re not Agile. You’re just unstructured.

Scrum isn’t a free-for-all. It’s a social technology for delivering adaptive solutions with professionalism and integrity. Agility only works when teams commit to doing things right.

Let’s stop normalising unprofessional behaviour and call it out when we see it. Agility deserves better.

Have you seen Agile misunderstood this way? What’s the worst case you’ve encountered?

Also published on: LinkedIn

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