5 Phases of the Agile Anti-Patterns Immaturity Model to Avoid

Welcome & Opening Remarks

Joe Ghali | 00:00:00–00:01:28
Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We’re excited to dig into a topic that comes up constantly whenever organizations attempt Agile transformations: the Agile Anti-patterns Immaturity Model—specifically, the five phases that teams fall into and the traps to avoid along the way. Whether you’re calling in from your office, your home, or somewhere in between, we’re grateful to have you with us.

Today is all about identifying patterns that look “Agile” from the outside but break everything Agile is supposed to support. We’re here to expose those patterns so that you can recognize them early, prevent them from spreading, and help your teams move toward a healthier, more mature Agile practice.

Dean Peters | 00:01:28–00:02:20
Thanks, Joe. What we’ll cover today is not just theory—it’s behavior we’ve seen firsthand in dozens of organizations. Some of these anti-patterns show up subtly. Others show up like a freight train. Either way, they slow teams down, frustrate leaders, and sabotage outcomes. Our goal is to help you spot them before they calcify into culture.

Why We Created the Agile Anti-patterns Immaturity Model

Dean Peters | 00:02:20–00:03:52
Let me start with why we created this model. Over the past decade, we’ve watched organizations adopt Agile terminology—sprints, stories, ceremonies—without adopting Agile thinking. So they announce they’re “Agile,” they rename a few roles, maybe hire a Scrum Master, and then they wonder why nothing improves.

Because what they adopted was the appearance of Agile, not the mindset.

The model we’re sharing today is based on years of observing how organizations misapply Agile ideas in predictable stages. If you know those stages, you can intervene early.

Joe Ghali | 00:03:52–00:04:34
We see these patterns everywhere: startups, massive enterprises, nonprofits, government teams. The same five phases show up again and again. No one intends to land there—these aren’t conscious choices. They’re defaults, shortcuts, misunderstandings, and reactions to pressure. But once a team slips into a phase, they often don’t realize it until the damage is visible.

Understanding What an Anti-pattern Really Is

Joe Ghali | 00:04:34–00:05:56
Before we walk through the phases, let’s define an anti-pattern. An anti-pattern is a behavior that feels productive in the moment but actually harms long-term outcomes. It looks logical. It feels efficient. It makes sense politically. But it goes against Agile principles.

An example:
Teams skipping retrospectives because they’re “too busy.”
Feels efficient. Saves time.
But it eliminates continuous improvement, guaranteeing more inefficiency later.

Agile anti-patterns feel like shortcuts. But all shortcuts come with a cost.

Dean Peters | 00:05:56–00:06:40
Exactly. Anti-patterns often emerge under stress: deadlines, pressure from leadership, unclear goals, or organizational fear. When people don’t know the real purpose behind Agile practices, they cling to whatever feels safe or familiar.

That’s how immaturity forms—not because people don’t care, but because they’re trying to survive with incomplete tools.

Introducing the 5-Phase Immaturity Model

Dean Peters | 00:06:40–00:07:58
So let’s introduce the model. It covers five phases:

1. Dabbling — Using Agile words without Agile practices
2. Doing — Following rituals without understanding purpose
3. Denying — Blaming Agile for problems caused by misapplication
4. Diverging — Everyone invents their own version of Agile
5. Doom Looping — Repeating failed patterns instead of maturing

Each phase represents a common failure mode. And the sooner you recognize which phase your team is in, the sooner you can help them evolve.

Joe Ghali | 00:07:58–00:09:42
We’re going to walk through each phase in detail, what causes it, how it shows up, and how to move your teams out of it. Some of what we cover might feel familiar. That’s good—it means you already see the patterns. And if you recognize your organization somewhere on the map, don’t panic. Immaturity isn’t a diagnosis; it’s a starting point.

Next, we’ll begin with Phase 1: Dabbling, where most organizations accidentally start their Agile journey.

Phase 1 — Dabbling: Playing With Agile Vocabulary

Joe Ghali | 00:09:42–00:11:04
Phase 1 is what we call Dabbling. This is the stage where organizations start using Agile words because they sound modern or industry-standard. They replace “project plan” with “roadmap,” “requirements” with “stories,” and “tasks” with “tickets.” They may even reorganize into squads or rename titles because it feels like the right move.

But here’s the truth: nothing actually changes. The org structure is the same. The culture is the same. Decisions still flow top-down. They’re dabbling in Agile terminology without adopting Agile principles.

Dean Peters | 00:11:04–00:12:26
Exactly. Dabbling is the “fake it till you make it” phase—except they never make it, because language alone doesn’t shift behavior. You’ll hear things like:
“We’re Agile. We’re doing two-week sprints.”
or
“We’re Agile because we write user stories.”

But if you peek under the hood, planning is still waterfall, prioritization is still political, and there’s no feedback loop. Dabbling feels safe because it creates the illusion of progress without requiring real change.

Symptoms of Phase 1: Dabbling

Dean Peters | 00:12:26–00:13:48
Some recognizable symptoms:
• Teams “estimate” work but never use estimates
• Meetings get renamed to ceremonies, but goals stay the same
• Leaders say “be Agile” but demand fixed dates and fixed scope
• There’s no retrospective discipline
• Deliverables move, but learning does not

The core issue? No one understands why Agile practices exist. They’re just copying vocabulary.

Joe Ghali | 00:13:48–00:14:56
And this is where we often get called in. A team says, “We’ve been Agile for a year, but nothing’s improved.” And we look at their process and think, “You’re not Agile—you’re cosplaying Agile.” Dabbling leads directly to Phase 2 because eventually teams realize vocabulary alone doesn’t improve delivery.

How to Move Beyond Dabbling

Joe Ghali | 00:14:56–00:16:10
The only way out of Phase 1 is education and intent. Teams must learn why Agile practices exist—why we time-box, why we iterate, why we inspect and adapt. If the organization doesn’t understand purpose, every practice becomes a checkbox instead of a mindset.

Clarity is the antidote to dabbling.

Dean Peters | 00:16:10–00:17:22
Yes. And this is also where a product mindset matters. When teams shift from output-thinking to outcome-thinking, Agile becomes a vehicle—not a vocabulary. That’s when the maturity starts to build. Dabbling is harmless only if you don’t stay there too long.

Phase 2 — Doing: Performing Agile Instead of Being Agile

Dean Peters | 00:17:22–00:18:48
In Phase 2, organizations graduate from dabbling to doing. They’re executing ceremonies now—standups, sprint planning, demos, retros. They’re breaking work into stories. They’re following a structure. It looks good on paper. But the problem is: they’re doing Agile performatively.

People attend ceremonies but don’t collaborate. They fill out story templates but don’t validate user value. They estimate work but don’t learn from the estimates. They’re doing all the right actions for all the wrong reasons.

Joe Ghali | 00:18:48–00:19:58
Doing is the “checkbox” phase. Teams believe that if they complete every ceremony, they must be Agile. But Agile isn’t about compliance—it’s about learning. And in this phase, you rarely see learning. You see repetition without reflection.

Velocity becomes a goal instead of a metric.
Standups become status meetings.
Retrospectives become complaint sessions.
Demos become slide decks instead of product feedback.

This is Agile theater.

Symptoms of Phase 2: Doing

Joe Ghali | 00:19:58–00:21:08
Key indicators that you’re in Phase 2:
• Teams hit sprint goals without delivering value
• Leadership demands “Agile predictability”
• Roadmaps are deadline-driven, not discovery-driven
• Discovery happens rarely—or not at all
• Focus shifts to activity instead of outcomes

The ceremonies exist, but the soul of Agile is missing.

Dean Peters | 00:21:08–00:22:18
Phase 2 is more dangerous than Phase 1 because it gives a false sense of maturity. You’re “doing everything right”—yet the business outcomes haven’t improved. Many organizations get stuck here for years because on the surface, everything looks fine. Underneath, everything is brittle.

Phase 3 — Denying: Blaming Agile Instead of the Implementation

Dean Peters | 00:22:18–00:23:46
Phase 3 is Denying, and this is where frustration boils over. Teams and leaders look at the lack of progress and conclude:
“Agile doesn’t work.”
“Sprints slow us down.”
“This process is too rigid.”

The irony? They’ve never actually practiced Agile—only a ritualistic version of it. But Agile becomes the scapegoat.

Joe Ghali | 00:23:46–00:24:54
Yes—this is where you hear things like:
“We tried Agile, and our delivery got worse.”
“We tried Agile, and leadership stopped getting updates.”
“We tried Agile, and engineering became less predictable.”

This phase is psychological. People are rejecting Agile because it didn’t magically solve structural or cultural issues.

Symptoms of Phase 3: Denying

Joe Ghali | 00:24:54–00:25:58
Signs you’re in the denial phase:
• People say “Agile is chaos”
• Leadership demands going “back to waterfall”
• Retrospectives get abandoned
• Teams cut corners to “move faster”
• Engineers stop estimating because “it doesn’t matter”

Denying happens when teams treat Agile as a silver bullet instead of a discipline.

Dean Peters | 00:25:58–00:27:24
And what happens next? Leaders issue mandates—more process, more reporting, more checkpoints, more control. This pushes the team further from agility and deeper into bureaucracy. And then everyone wonders why morale drops. This is why Phase 3 is so critical—if you don’t intervene, immaturity compounds.

Why Organizations Get Stuck in Denial

Dean Peters | 00:27:24–00:28:42
Denying is rooted in a misunderstanding of what Agile is supposed to fix. Agile can help teams move faster, but it doesn’t remove structural silos, unrealistic deadlines, or unclear strategy. When leaders expect Agile to fix everything, they inevitably blame Agile when it doesn’t.

Joe Ghali | 00:28:42–00:29:56
To escape this phase, teams must stop asking, “Why didn’t Agile fix our problems?” and start asking, “What problems did Agile expose?” Because Agile is a spotlight—it reveals dysfunction. If you treat the spotlight as the problem, you stay in denial forever.

Clarity as the Path Out of Denial

Joe Ghali | 00:29:56–00:31:06
Moving out of Phase 3 requires radical clarity:
• Clear outcomes
• Clear priorities
• Clear decision rights
• Clear accountability

Agile fails when strategy is unclear. Fix the strategy, and Agile finally has room to breathe.

Dean Peters | 00:31:06–00:33:40
Teams also need psychological safety to admit what’s not working. You can’t improve a process people are afraid to criticize. In high-maturity environments, retrospectives are safe. In low-maturity environments, retrospectives disappear. That’s the dividing line between Denying and real growth.

Phase 4 — Diverging: Everyone Invents Their Own Agile

Dean Peters | 00:33:40–00:35:08
Phase 4 is what we call Diverging, and this is where everything starts to fragment. Instead of rejecting Agile outright, teams begin customizing it beyond recognition. One team runs one-week sprints. Another uses Kanban. Another does “Sprintban.” Some teams do retros; others don’t. Some estimate; others refuse. Leadership thinks they’re empowering teams, but really they’re enabling chaos.

Everyone is doing a version of Agile that works for them, but not for the organization.

Joe Ghali | 00:35:08–00:36:32
Yes—Diverging is Agile individuality masquerading as Agile autonomy. Autonomy works only when there’s alignment on goals, principles, and outcomes. But in this phase, alignment is gone. Teams reinvent Agile because they don’t understand its principles deeply enough to adapt it responsibly.

You hear phrases like:
“We do Agile… our own way.”
or
“We tried retros, but they didn’t feel useful.”

And that “feeling” becomes the justification for abandoning discipline.

Symptoms of Phase 4: Diverging

Joe Ghali | 00:36:32–00:37:52
Common red flags include:
• Teams redefining Agile terms to suit comfort
• No shared definition of done
• No consistent approach to planning
• No alignment on measures of success
• Leaders unable to compare team performance
• Teams prioritizing preference over principles

The core dysfunction? Every team is optimizing locally, not globally.
The organization no longer behaves like a system.

Dean Peters | 00:37:52–00:39:18
And when you dig into why they diverged, the reason is almost always the same: lack of coaching. Teams were left alone to “figure it out,” and so they adapted based on convenience rather than outcomes. Divergence is the result of teams being asked to self-organize without being given the knowledge to do so responsibly.

How to Recenter Teams in Phase 4

Dean Peters | 00:39:18–00:40:46
To escape Diverging, organizations must realign around principles, not rules. If each team understands why ceremonies exist, why iteration matters, why cross-functional collaboration matters, they’re better equipped to adapt intentionally.

Give teams autonomy, but anchor it in shared outcomes, shared definitions, and shared learning practices.

Joe Ghali | 00:40:46–00:41:58
A great tool here is a Working Agreements Charter. It outlines the foundational elements all teams follow—definitions of ready and done, planning cadence, retros cadence, delivery accountability—while still giving room for adaptation. Structure enables innovation, not the opposite.

Phase 5 — Doom Looping: Repeating the Same Anti-Patterns

Joe Ghali | 00:41:58–00:43:14
The final phase is Doom Looping—the phase where organizations cycle through the same mistakes over and over. They dabble, then perform Agile rituals, then blame Agile, then invent their own Agile, and eventually come full circle back to dabbling again. It becomes a loop of dysfunction.

This is where Agile transformations burn out.

Dean Peters | 00:43:14–00:44:38
The Doom Loop forms when leadership seeks quick wins instead of cultural change. They want Agile to speed things up without altering incentives, roles, autonomy, or decision-making. So teams go through transformation after transformation with no real improvement. Every year it’s a new tool, a new framework, a new slogan—but the outcomes never change.

Symptoms of Phase 5: Doom Looping

Dean Peters | 00:44:38–00:45:56
If you hear any of the following, you’re in a Doom Loop:
• “We need a reset.”
• “We’re restructuring the teams again.”
• “Let’s hire a new Agile coach.”
• “We’re switching tools to solve the problem.”
• “This new framework will fix everything.”

These are signals of treating symptoms instead of causes.

Joe Ghali | 00:45:56–00:47:18
And the frustrating part is that people working inside the loop feel the pain long before leadership does. You hear whispers like:
“We’ve done this before.”
“Nothing ever changes.”
“Why are we reorganizing again?”

The Doom Loop erodes trust, kills morale, and undermines any transformation before it begins.

Breaking Out of the Doom Loop

Joe Ghali | 00:47:18–00:47:58
Breaking the Doom Loop requires maturity, transparency, and courage. Leaders must acknowledge past mistakes rather than cover them with new terminology. Teams must embrace continuous learning instead of continuous reinvention. And the entire organization must shift from activity-based Agile to outcome-based Agile.

That is where genuine transformation begins.

What Mature Agile Actually Looks Like

Dean Peters | 00:47:58–00:49:16
Let’s talk about what Agile maturity really means. Mature Agile isn’t perfect execution—it’s consistent improvement. It’s transparency. It’s aligned autonomy. It’s clear outcomes. It’s leaders empowering teams rather than controlling them.

Agile maturity is not measured in sprints—it’s measured in learning cycles.

Joe Ghali | 00:49:16–00:50:34
Yes. Mature teams don’t fear change; they embrace it. They make decisions based on data, not opinions. They collaborate instead of coordinate. They experiment instead of rush. Mature Agile teams don’t panic when priorities shift—they adjust. Because they’re anchored in purpose, not process.

The Cultural Shift Required for Agility

Joe Ghali | 00:50:34–00:51:56
Culture is the foundation of agility. If the culture rewards heroics, teams will burn out. If the culture rewards predictability, teams will hide problems. If the culture rewards output, teams will generate activity. True Agile cultures reward learning—because learning leads to outcomes.

Dean Peters | 00:51:56–00:53:24
And culture is shaped by leadership behavior. Leaders create the conditions where agility can thrive—or where it suffocates. When leaders ask better questions, prioritize outcomes, and model transparency, teams follow. When leaders micromanage, control, or reward speed over value, anti-patterns flourish.

How Organizations Move Toward Maturity

Dean Peters | 00:53:24–00:54:40
The path toward maturity isn’t complicated—it’s consistent.
• Prioritize customer value
• Align around outcomes
• Encourage continuous learning
• Empower teams to experiment
• Reduce fear
• Increase clarity

These principles move teams out of immaturity and into genuine agility.

Joe Ghali | 00:54:40–00:55:52
The good news is: no matter where your organization is today—Dabbling, Doing, Denying, Diverging, or even Doom Looping—you can course-correct. The immaturity model is not a judgment. It’s a map. And a map is only useful because it shows you where to go next.

Audience Q&A

Dean Peters | 00:59:52–01:01:18
All right, let’s move into questions. We’ve been watching the chat light up, and a lot of you are asking versions of the same thing: “How do we diagnose which phase our organization is in?” I’d say the simplest way is to observe behaviors during moments of friction—deadlines, escalations, planning cycles, or executive reviews. That’s when the mask drops. Watch what people do when they’re under pressure. That’s the real indicator of maturity.

Joe Ghali | 01:01:18–01:02:40
Absolutely. Another question I’m seeing is: “How do we move leadership out of the Denying phase when they believe Agile is the problem?” The key is reframing. Agile didn’t create the issues—it surfaced them. If you can highlight what Agile exposed, and tie those exposures back to outcomes leadership cares about, they’re far more likely to re-engage with the transformation instead of dismissing it.

How to Influence Leaders Without Creating Conflict

Joe Ghali | 01:02:40–01:03:54
A great tactic is to shift conversations from output to outcomes. For example, instead of arguing about sprint velocity, ask:
“What customer behavior changed because of our last release?”
That reframes the conversation instantly. It moves the focus away from speed and toward value. Leaders respond to clarity, not ceremony.

Dean Peters | 01:03:54–01:05:10
And one more thing—don’t lecture. Invite. Leaders shut down when they feel corrected, but they open up when you invite them into the learning process. Try language like:
“Can I show you what the team learned this sprint?”
or
“Can we look at the data together?”
Those questions feel collaborative, not confrontational.

Addressing Dysfunction in the Doom Loop

Dean Peters | 01:05:10–01:06:36
We also had a question on how to break out of Doom Looping when the organization keeps restarting Agile every 12 months. The first step is documenting the patterns:
• What’s repeated?
• What’s abandoned?
• What’s unaddressed?
When you show that history visually—like a timeline—it becomes undeniable. People often repeat patterns because they forget previous attempts. Make the invisible visible.

Joe Ghali | 01:06:36–01:07:44
And emphasize wins. Even in dysfunctional cycles, teams achieve pockets of success. Highlight them as evidence that Agile works when applied correctly. That gives the organization hope—something to build on. Doom Loops thrive on frustration and forgetfulness. Break both, and you open a path forward.

Practical First Steps for Teams in Each Phase

Joe Ghali | 01:07:44–01:09:10
Another question came in: “What’s the first step if we’re in Dabbling or Doing?”
For Dabbling:
Start with education. People must understand the purpose behind the practice.

For Doing:
Restore learning. Bring retrospectives back. Rebuild the inspect-and-adapt muscle.

If you restart the learning loop, maturity will follow.

Dean Peters | 01:09:10–01:10:22
For Denying:
Shift the conversation from blame to curiosity.

For Diverging:
Create organization-wide working agreements.

For Doom Looping:
Document the pattern and stabilize leadership expectations.

Every phase has an exit path—you just need to choose it deliberately.

Closing Remarks

Dean Peters | 01:10:22–01:11:14
Thank you all for spending this time with us. The Agile Anti-patterns Immaturity Model isn’t meant to shame teams—it’s meant to empower them. When you can name a pattern, you can fix it. When you can see dysfunction clearly, you can design around it. Agility is a journey, not a ceremony.

Joe Ghali | 01:11:14–01:12:44
Absolutely. And remember: every team, every organization, every leader goes through these phases at some point. What matters isn’t the phase you’re in—it’s the direction you’re moving. If today’s conversation gave you even one insight that helps your teams grow, then that’s a win.

Thank you again for joining us. Have a fantastic rest of your day, and we look forward to seeing you at our next session.