A few years ago, I was working as a product manager on a large product team. We were using agile—or we thought we were. We had all the meetings: standups, sprints, grooming, retros. But still, something didn’t feel right. Things were slow. People were tired. And nobody was really happy.
When business teams asked for changes, some developers got upset. They said, “Why this was not in the ticket?”
Testers wanted everything to be fully written before they do anything. It started to feel like we were doing waterfall, just with different words. Agile was only in the tools—not in the mindset.
1. The Waterfall Thinking Behind Agile Tools
We were using Jira and all agile formats. But every small change request was a big problem.
Developers wanted full clarity before working. Testers were worried when things were not written perfectly. They asked: “Where is the detailed documentation?”
In their mind, changes meant risk. Risk meant blame. So they wanted everything fixed and clear—like in waterfall.
I understood that this is not about process. It’s about feeling safe.
The team was not lazy. They just didn’t feel comfortable with changing things all the time.
2. When Progress Stops Because of Fear
One day, during a very important sprint, we had to change something. A small change, but still a change.
The developers said: “If it’s not in documentation, we don’t build it.”
So we stopped. The sprint failed.
That moment showed me something important: we had a fear problem. Not a process problem.
People were afraid of doing something wrong. Afraid of being blamed.
And when fear controls your sprint, you are not agile anymore.
In fast-moving projects, things change all the time—requirements, expectations, even priorities.
If we wait for perfect clarity, we’ll end up releasing nothing.
3. Helping the Team Trust the Process Again
After that sprint, I organized some open talks with the team. Not official retros—just honest talks.
I said, “Project is always moving. There will be changes. Agile is here to help us, not to stop us.”
We talked about the real goal of agile. It’s not only planning. It’s not only Jira.
It’s about reacting fast when things change.
It’s about working together when something is unclear.
It’s about not being perfect—but being fast and safe enough.
The team slowly started to change.
Instead of saying, “This is not in the spec,” they asked, “What’s the impact?”
They started to suggest solutions, not block the flow.
We didn’t throw documentation away. But we said: let’s keep just enough to move forward.
4. Real Agile Needs Trust, Not Just Tools
Agile breaks not because of tools. It breaks when people don’t feel safe.
If your team is afraid of change, afraid of trying new things, then no framework will help.
In fast-paced environments, everything moves quickly.
If the team can’t trust each other—or feel safe in uncertainty—agile becomes just a word.
We fixed it not with a new tool.
We fixed it with trust.
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