RetroOnAgile

Master Agile Principles: The Power of Regular Reflection

Back to Basics Series – Principle 12

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

What Does It Mean?

Agile isn’t about sticking rigidly to a plan or blindly following a process. Continuous improvement is baked into the methodology itself. Regular reflection allows teams to inspect what’s working, identify what isn’t, and make changes that actually improve outcomes.

This principle emphasizes rhythm over perfection. It’s not a one-time event; it’s a recurring habit that keeps the team evolving and learning.

My Experience

I’ve seen teams sprint after sprint without pausing to reflect. They executed flawlessly on paper, but recurring issues—missed dependencies, unclear requirements, process inefficiencies—kept cropping up.

When I introduced structured retrospectives and reflection practices, even small adjustments had a huge impact. One team identified that their daily stand-ups were too long and unfocused. By tightening the format and focusing on blockers, they shaved 30 minutes per day off their meetings and surfaced issues faster.

The key is not to wait for a crisis. Reflection should be proactive and continuous, allowing the team to adapt before problems escalate.

Why This Matters

Regular reflection enables teams to:

  • Identify and eliminate inefficiencies
  • Strengthen collaboration and communication
  • Improve quality and delivery speed
  • Adapt to changing circumstances proactively

Teams that skip reflection risk repeating mistakes, building frustration, and stalling improvement. Agile isn’t just about speed—it’s about learning and evolving.

Take It to Your Team

For your next retrospective or sprint review:

  • Ask: What worked well this sprint? What didn’t?
  • Identify one process or habit to experiment with in the next sprint.
  • Set a short feedback loop: Check in mid-sprint to see if the adjustment is helping.

Reflection isn’t optional—it’s the mechanism that transforms good teams into great, adaptable, high-performing teams.

Back to Basics – Overview

About a year ago, Atlassian took to Twitter with their #RetroOnAgile campaign and asked followers to tweet something they liked and something they wished about agile. Under my @MomofXandM handle, I tweeted the following responses: “#ILike the Agile principles and values. #RetroOnAgile” and “#IWish more folks followed the Agile principles and values rather than trying to hammer away on process and methodology. #RetroOnAgile”

I still like the agile principles and values, and I still wish more folks would stick to the basics outlined in them. Instead, command-and-control runs rampant in Corporate America, and now more than ever we all seem beholden to process and methodology.

What should we do about this? As ScrumMasters it’s our job to coach our team to better practices, so I think a return to the basics might be well-warranted. I am therefore setting out to do a series of posts focusing on agile principles and values, so that I can re-center myself and my teams on the simplicity that matters. Let’s start with an overview.

Many know the story behind the Agile Manifesto. 17 developers met at a ski lodge in Utah to discuss the way software development seemed to be going at that time. They weren’t happy with the hyper focus on processes, tools, reems of documentation, and constant contract negotiation, so they penned the manifesto.

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.  Through this work we have come to value:


Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan


That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.


https://agilemanifesto.org/

There were 12 principles behind the manifesto. These coupled with the manifesto birthed the Agile movement. There were plenty of forerunners, but these are the principles the Agile community points back to regularly. Some even treat these words like gospel.

  1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
  2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
  3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
  4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
  5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
  6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
  7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
  8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
  9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
  10. Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.
  11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
  12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

In the coming weeks, I’ll explore each principle and value in more depth. I welcome feedback and conversation, and it’s my hope that you take these discussions back to your teams.