Every agile practice traces back to a few simple foundations: principles, guides, and frameworks.

If you’re curious about the thinking behind agile practices, these roots show how modern methods grow from timeless principles.

Why It Matters

Without grounding in principles and guides, agile risks becoming a set of rituals that look busy but miss the point. Teams can follow the motions of Scrum or Kanban and still struggle if they don’t understand the mindset behind them. These foundations remind us that agility is built on empiricism, collaboration, and continuous learning — not just events and checklists.

For people working in complex environments, the foundations of agile practice provide orientation and focus. They connect today’s frameworks back to the principles that inspired them, offering a compass when methods feel rigid or overwhelming. By returning to these roots, teams can adapt with purpose rather than simply comply with process.

Curiosity Clusters

Scrum Is Intentionally Incomplete Learn why Scrum doesn’t give you all the answers — and why that’s a feature, not a flaw.

Project vs Product Thinking Learn why project thinking falls short and how product thinking creates lasting value.

2020 Scrum Guide Linked Commitments to Artifacts Explore how these commitments help teams inspect, adapt, and stay aligned on value.

Stakeholder Engagement Is a Whole-Team Responsibility Learn how Scrum turns stakeholder engagement into a whole-team responsibility, using events and reviews to drive real collaboration.

Empirical Planning Beats Fixed Expectations Explore how empiricism keeps plans relevant in complex, changing environments.


Together, these curiosity clusters help unpuzzle what Agile practice really means — not a checklist of ceremonies, but a mindset rooted in principles, guides, and empiricism that help teams adapt with purpose.