Agile helps teams deliver value sooner, reduce risk faster, and increase transparency while maintaining the ability to change direction quickly based on feedback and lessons learned. But one of the most powerful — and least discussed — benefits of Agile is that it exposes the problems that have been holding us back all along.
In traditional waterfall environments, it’s possible to live with slow processes for years. A painful code merge process, long approval waits, or delays from other teams are treated as frustrating, but normal. Because delivery happens in large batches, the organization can simply wait things out. The work will get done eventually, and the underlying issues never have to be confronted.
Agile removes that hiding place.
When a Scrum Team is expected to deliver a Done increment at least once per Sprint, every impediment becomes immediately visible. Anything that slows the team down — even slightly — shows up right away. Suddenly, the slow merge process isn’t something you can tolerate for six months. The long approval cycle isn’t something you can put up with for the duration of a project. The delays from other teams aren’t just inconvenient. They become blockers to delivering value this Sprint.
Agile doesn’t create these problems. It reveals them.
And that revelation can be uncomfortable.
Many organizations find the early stages of an Agile transformation surprisingly difficult for this reason. All the issues they’ve been silently living with for years are suddenly in the spotlight. It can feel overwhelming, but this discomfort is actually an opportunity. Agile is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do — making the real impediments visible.
Once an impediment becomes visible, the organization can fix it. Slow merge processes can be improved. Approval paths can be simplified. Cross-team dependencies can be reduced or removed by defining products. These improvements don’t only help the Scrum Team succeed; they raise the performance of the entire organization.
Incremental delivery gives us many benefits — earlier value delivery, greater visibility, reduced risk, and the ability to change direction. But one of its hidden strengths is that it forces us to confront the truth about what slows us down. Waterfall lets those issues linger. An Agile approach forces us to solve them
Some organizations consider giving up when they realize how much work is required to remove these long-standing impediments. But this moment isn’t a reason to quit Agile. It’s a reason to continue. Agile isn’t causing the problems — it’s finally exposing them.
And once exposed, they can finally be solved.
If your organization is discovering flaws during its Agile journey, that’s not a failure. It’s progress. Embrace the transparency. Lean into the improvements. And don’t turn away from the chance to fix the things that have been quietly holding you back for years.
That is where the real transformation happens.
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