The Problem
Agile Is Showing Its Age
Agile was revolutionary in 2001. It rescued software from Waterfall. But the world has changed dramatically — and Agile's overhead has become its own bureaucracy.
"AI writes 60–80% of production code. Low-code platforms ship entire apps in days. CI/CD deploys hundreds of times per day. Batching work into 2-week sprints is an artificial constraint that no longer serves us." — The FLOQ Framework
The cost of Agile ceremonies — per person, per year:
| Ceremony | Per Sprint | Annual (26 sprints) |
|---|---|---|
| Sprint Planning | 2–4 hours | 52–104 hours |
| Daily Standups | 2.5 hrs/week | 130 hours |
| Sprint Review | 1–2 hours | 26–52 hours |
| Sprint Retrospective | 1–2 hours | 26–52 hours |
| Backlog Grooming | 2–4 hours | 52–104 hours |
| Total per person | 286–442 hours/year |
That's 7–11 weeks per person per year spent in ceremonies instead of building. In a world where AI can generate a full-stack feature in an afternoon, this overhead is indefensible.
🤖 AI Changed the Game
When AI generates 60–80% of code, effort estimation is meaningless. Story points measure the wrong thing entirely.
⚡ Deployment Cost → Zero
When deployment is free, batching is unnecessary. A feature ready on Day 2 shouldn't wait until Day 14.
📊 Output ≠ Outcome
A team could deliver 80 story points of features no customer uses and celebrate. Velocity measures the wrong thing.
🗓️ Calendar-Driven ≠ Signal-Driven
Why run a retrospective when nothing went wrong? Why wait 2 weeks when something goes very wrong?