Is your Agile process truly agile, or just Agile theater?
Agile isn’t one-size-fits-all. Too many teams perform Agile theater: rituals without impact. In Enterprise SaaS, complexity demands both alignment and autonomy. A shared backlog as a single source of truth adds clarity and coordination without killing ownership or adaptability.
TL;DR
- Agile is context-specific; “Agile theater” delivers rituals without impact.
- Enterprise SaaS needs balance: team autonomy, strategic alignment, and cross-team execution.
- Shared Backlog as SSOT is an alignment tool: improves visibility, cuts duplication, does not dictate priorities.
- Agile failures stem from leadership and culture gaps: weak vision, poor communication, resistance to change, low technical excellence.
- Product leadership sets vision, drives continuous discovery, enforces accountability, and removes org blockers; SSOT supports this.
- Use flexible discipline: clear outcome metrics, minimal necessary practices, regular retros, and decision guardrails.
- Successful orgs tailor methods (Spotify, Google, Amazon); many transformations fail due to structure and culture, not the framework.