Simple is Better
If you’ve followed my writing for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that I tend to come back—again and again—to Agile basics. It’s not because I’m nostalgic for 2001 or trying to relive the early days of software delivery. It’s because somewhere along the way, we’ve drifted from the core of what made Agile powerful in the first place.
We’ve layered frameworks on top of frameworks. We’ve created certifications, roles, and processes that often do more to complicate delivery than to simplify it. And ironically, in our quest to scale agility, many organizations have ended up recreating the very bureaucracy Agile was designed to dismantle.
As we finish up 2025 and head into 2026, I’m convinced that the teams who will thrive in this new era are the ones who deliberately go back to basics—teams that rediscover simplicity, focus on delivering value, and adapt based on feedback rather than ritual.
Because here’s the truth: simplicity isn’t a step backward. It’s a competitive edge.
Remember Why Agile Worked in the First Place
Let’s go back to the Agile Manifesto for a moment. It’s twenty-four years old now, and yet its principles read like a breath of fresh air in an industry drowning in process.
“Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.”
That single line might be the most misunderstood (and most ignored) principle in modern Agile. When the manifesto was written, simplicity wasn’t a side note—it was a foundation. The early Agile movement wasn’t about ceremonies or roles or maturity models. It was about removing waste and increasing flow.
Agile worked because it was lean, empirical, and human-centered. Teams focused on delivering small slices of value, inspecting the results, and adapting quickly. They didn’t need an org chart of roles to do that; they needed clarity of purpose, empowered people, and fast feedback loops.
Over time, though, we started codifying and scaling that success. Frameworks like SAFe, LeSS (I like LeSS, BTW. Look for a post on that in the future.), and Scrum@Scale tried to make Agile more predictable at enterprise levels—which wasn’t inherently bad. But somewhere between “inspect and adapt” and “follow the framework,” the spirit of agility got lost.
Complexity Creep: How We Overcomplicated Agility
I’ve seen it firsthand across organizations of every size: teams struggling under the weight of processes that don’t serve them. Instead of agility being a mindset, it’s become a checklist.
- Every meeting is prescribed.
- Every artifact is templated.
- Every role is defined down to the hour.
We’ve replaced thinking with following.
And ironically, that rigidity creates the very pain we’re trying to avoid:
- Long feedback cycles.
- Confusion about ownership.
- Teams “doing Agile” instead of being Agile.
As Agile coach Barry Overeem once put it, “When a framework becomes the goal instead of the means, agility dies.”
This doesn’t mean frameworks are bad. Frameworks can be incredibly helpful starting points—they give structure, consistency, and a shared vocabulary. But they were never meant to be the destination. They’re scaffolding, not architecture.
The Simplicity Mindset
So what does it mean to return to simplicity? It’s not about stripping away everything and declaring “no process.” It’s about adopting a simplicity mindset—an intentional effort to reduce friction, focus on what matters, and make space for learning.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Start with your current reality.
Too often, teams adopt frameworks wholesale rather than examining what actually needs improvement. Start by asking, “What’s causing pain in our flow?” and “What’s blocking value delivery?” Then build from there—incrementally. - Keep ceremonies purposeful.
If a meeting doesn’t drive learning or decision-making, shorten it or eliminate it. The goal isn’t to follow Scrum to the letter; it’s to enable communication, transparency, and improvement. - Optimize for feedback, not process.
The faster you can learn from users, the faster you can adapt. Focus on shortening feedback loops—through demos, experiments, or even simple stakeholder check-ins. - Empower teams to adapt.
Give teams the freedom to tailor their own ways of working. Encourage them to experiment, simplify, and evolve their process based on evidence—not dogma. - Measure outcomes, not outputs.
Shift focus from how many story points you’ve completed to what value you’ve delivered. Are customers happier? Are users getting what they need faster?
When simplicity becomes the foundation, everything else gets easier. Predictability improves. Quality increases. Teams communicate more clearly. Leaders make better decisions because they’re closer to reality.
Why Simplicity Is a Strategic Advantage
In a world defined by uncertainty and AI-driven acceleration, complexity is the enemy of adaptability.
Organizations that simplify can move faster because their decision loops are shorter. They can pivot when markets change. They can innovate without being bogged down by process debt.
Research from McKinsey (2024) supports this: companies that streamline their delivery systems and reduce handoffs are 40% more likely to meet time-to-market goals and twice as likely to report high team morale. Similarly, Gartner’s 2025 Agile Outlook emphasizes “contextual agility” — tailoring practices to fit the environment rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all framework.
In other words, simplicity scales. Not because it’s less work, but because it focuses teams on what actually matters.
A Personal Observation
In my own experience coaching teams and leaders, the highest-performing ones aren’t those with the most mature framework or the most polished Jira dashboards. They’re the ones who understand their purpose, make decisions quickly, and keep communication open and honest.
When teams cut out what doesn’t serve them—extra layers of process, unnecessary approvals, redundant reports—they create the space for meaningful work.
And perhaps more importantly, they rediscover why they’re working that way in the first place.
That’s what simplicity gives us: clarity, focus, and alignment.
Getting Started: Your Simplicity Reset
If your team is feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or weighed down by ceremony, try this exercise:
- List every meeting, report, or ritual you perform in a sprint.
- For each, ask:
- What value does this add?
- What would happen if we removed or shortened it?
- Is there a simpler way to achieve the same goal?
- Experiment with one simplification per sprint and inspect the results.
You don’t need to overhaul your process overnight. Small simplifications—done consistently—create compounding gains over time.
Final Thoughts
Agile has always been about people and outcomes over process and tools. Somewhere along the line, we inverted that.
But the good news is: we can find our way back.
If we start small, stay curious, and keep the simplicity mindset at the center of how we work, we can reduce friction, increase value, and build organizations that are genuinely adaptive—not just performatively Agile.
As we move into this next era of work—where AI, distributed teams, and constant change are the norm—the most resilient organizations won’t be the ones with the most elaborate systems.
They’ll be the ones that choose simplicity, clarity, and continuous learning.
Because in 2026, simple = sustainable.
References:
- Beck et al., Manifesto for Agile Software Development (2001)
- McKinsey & Company, The State of Agile Delivery in 2024
- Gartner, Agile Outlook 2025: The Age of Contextual Agility
- Overeem, Barry. Scrum.org Blog: “Revisiting the Agile Manifesto in 2024”
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