Agile as promised vs. Agile as performed
Your team has more ceremonies, more dashboards, more alignment — and the same problems shipping to production. The RMT Diagnostic shows you exactly where process replaced progress.
- →Meetings multiply when delivery slips
- →Metrics stay green while production burns
- →"No blockers" is the most common lie in standup
10 signs. Scored. One page. You'll know by sign three.
Written by a software architect · 25 years in enterprise delivery · 31 essays published · 0 certifications sold
What we diagnose
Start here
Risk Management Theater
When organizations perform control instead of practicing it. Process as emotional insurance.
The Standup Tax
The annual cost of a meeting nobody needs but everyone attends.
Sprint Prison
How two-week cycles became two-week cages. Velocity theater in action.
Estimation Theater
Story points aren't data. They're a group performance of certainty.
"Let's align."
→ The decision is already made.
"No blockers."
→ Nobody wants to be the blocker.
"We need visibility."
→ We need narrative control.
"We followed the process."
→ Don't question outcomes.
"We're Agile."
→ We renamed the same meetings.
"The team is aligned."
→ Nobody objected publicly.
Think your team might be performing control instead of practicing it?
Take the 60-second self-checkWhat the diagnostic reveals
- —Control disguised as alignment
- —Metrics masking delivery pain
- —Ritual replacing engineering judgment
Latest
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Book — $19
Agile: The Cancer of the Software Industry
“The methodology industrial complex doesn't sell results. It sells the appearance of progress to people who can't tell the difference.”Read more
Operational guide — $7
Standup Detox Kit
Async templates, pushback scripts, transition playbook. Replace the daily meeting without creating chaos.
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