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Agile in 2025: Expert Predictions and Industry Trends
The days of 'doing Agile' are over. As we enter 2025, organizations’ relationship with agility continues to evolve.
Economic pressures, technological advances, and hard-learned lessons are pushing organizations to rethink their approach to agility. While many companies still struggle with meaningful transformation, clear patterns are emerging that signal where agile practices are headed this year.
Drawing on insights from Agile experts and practitioners, here are eight key trends that we see defining how we work this year.
1. The Return to Agile Fundamentals
Key Highlights:
- Movement away from heavyweight frameworks back to core Agile principles and values
- Emphasis on simplicity and delivering customer value rather than ceremonial processes
- Integration of Agile practices into daily work without drawing attention to them
While large organizations continue to rely on structured frameworks to drive consistency across teams, we're seeing a growing groundswell of support for getting back to basics. This isn't about abandoning structure entirely - it's about finding the right balance.
Teams are increasingly focused on streamlining processes, embracing continuous improvement, and maintaining an unwavering focus on delivering real customer value.
The pendulum is swinging back from scaled frameworks to fundamental engineering practices. Teams are incorporating agile practices into their daily workflows without the overhead of excessive ceremonies. Delivering with feature toggles, continuous integration, and trunk-based development are becoming more important than analysing burndown charts and a calendar full of unproductive ceremonies.
Expert take:
“Rather than telling people how to do their jobs, work with them to set the goals for a process that would make them and the company more successful. Measure success based on improved team behavior rather than adherence to a set of rules. Instead of Agile, push for agility. In that sense, Agile is never really over. It’s just transforming into what it should have always been.”
- Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Author, Speaker, Trainer, and Coach
2. The Evolution of Agile Roles
Key Highlights:
- More emphasis on technical leadership within teams rather than process-focused roles
- Shift from dedicated Scrum Master positions to embedded agile leadership
- Product management roles evolving to incorporate stronger business analysis capabilities
The job market for Agile roles is undergoing a significant transformation. Pure Scrum Master positions are evolving into hybrid roles that combine technical expertise with process leadership. This isn't just semantics - it reflects a deeper understanding that effective agile leadership requires both technical context and facilitation skills.
Engineering managers are expected to understand both system architecture and team dynamics. Instead of relying on external agile coaches, they're building these capabilities within their technical leadership. The focus has shifted from process adherence to technical mentorship and delivery optimization.
Product managers are also adapting to this new reality. They're becoming what some call "super ICs" - professionals who blend product thinking with solid business analysis skills. It's no longer enough to just manage a backlog; today's product leaders need to speak the language of both business and technology.
Expert take:
“First of all, I think it needs to be said, we should not panic. You do not need to abandon your career as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, or Agilist of any kind. But we do need to think about it differently. Some suggest broadening your skills, which can certainly make you more valuable. Become a ‘technologist who is a Scrum Master’ or a ‘manager with agile coaching skills’.
Keep in mind, this also may not require you to actually learn new skills, but to be smarter about how you position yourself and your existing capabilities. Know that organizations are looking for agile to be ‘baked in’ to the people they hire. You should broaden the scope of the types of roles you are searching for as well, because you might be surprised. I like to find companies that mention agile skills on job boards, then go and scour all of their open postings to see where else I might be able to apply.”
- Brian Link, Business Agility Coach, Author, and Speaker
3. Cross-Functional Teams Become Truly Cross-Functional
Key Highlights:
- Teams capable of handling end-to-end delivery from discovery to implementation
- Breaking down traditional specializations in favor of full-stack capabilities
- Reducing dependencies between teams through better cross-functional team structure
The definition of "cross-functional" has evolved significantly. Modern engineering teams aren't just mixing developers and testers - they're creating truly autonomous units capable of handling the entire software lifecycle.
In effect, forward-thinking organizations are breaking down the remaining silos between frontend, backend, and DevOps specialists in favor of truly full-stack capabilities. Teams are increasingly taking ownership of the entire delivery pipeline, from initial discovery through to production deployment.
The most exciting part? Teams that embrace this approach are discovering they can deliver features faster and with better quality than ever before. When you own the entire process, you naturally make better decisions at every step. Plus, this approach not only avoids handovers and dependencies but also helps those teams develop into Product teams over time - armed with both domain knowledge as well as technical expertise.
Expert take:
“The nature of work is evolving. As challenges grow more complex and the pace of innovation accelerates, cross-functional collaboration is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity. By embracing fluid roles, shared ownership, and open input, teams can unlock their full potential and deliver solutions that stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape.
So, the next time you hear someone talk about cross-functional collaboration, challenge them to think beyond meetings and updates. True collaboration means breaking down walls, embracing diverse contributions, and working together in ways that transcend traditional boundaries. Only then can we tap into the collective intelligence of our teams and achieve greatness together.”
- Shubham Sharma, Senior Software Quality Engineer, Qantas
4. Lean Takes Center Stage
Key Highlights:
- Growing adoption of "NoEstimates" and forecasting approaches over traditional estimation
- Emphasis on smaller, more frequent releases with clear business context
- Increased focus on flow efficiency and waste reduction in processes
The shift toward leaner practices is revolutionizing how teams approach delivery. Organizations are moving beyond story points and velocity metrics to focus on flow efficiency and cycle time. The "NoEstimates" movement isn't about abandoning predictability - it's about finding more reliable ways to forecast and deliver value with less overhead.
This shift toward leaner practices is complemented by a focus on smaller, frequent releases that tie directly to business outcomes.
Organizations are getting better at lean principles to identify and eliminate unnecessary steps in their processes, with a singular focus on value delivery.
Expert take:
“Asking whether Lean is still relevant in 2025 is akin to questioning the relevance of continuous improvement itself. The answer is, of course, a resounding "YES!" However, the challenge lies not in Lean’s principles but in how effectively organizations implement and sustain their improvement efforts.
While many organizations adopt Lean methodologies, a significant gap remains between intention and execution. Common pitfalls include inadequate leadership commitment, failure to integrate Lean with organizational strategy, and lack of workforce engagement. Lean’s relevance hinges on addressing these challenges head-on by embedding continuous improvement into the DNA of an organization.”
- Patrick Adams, CEO and Executive Lean Coach, Lean Solutions
5. Quality and Technical Excellence Make A Resurgence
Key Highlights:
- Renewed emphasis on XP practices and technical craftsmanship
- Greater focus on sustainable testing strategies combining automated and human testing
- Continuous refactoring and technical excellence becoming primary concerns
Technical excellence is back in focus. While the past decade saw many organizations chase velocity at the expense of quality, engineering teams are rediscovering that there's no sustainable agility without solid technical practices.
Extreme Programming (XP) practices, once considered too rigorous for many organizations, are seeing renewed adoption. And modern tooling has made these practices more accessible, but they still require disciplined engineering culture to implement effectively.
Testing strategies are evolving too, blending automated and manual strategies to ensure robust and adaptive systems. Advancements in testing technology—including AI-assisted tools—are enabling faster and more accurate testing processes, so quality remains a priority even in accelerated delivery cycles.
Continuous refactoring has become a primary concern, especially as organizations deal with the technical debt accumulated during rapid pandemic-era digital transformations. Teams are finding that regular system evolution isn't just about clean code - it's about maintaining the ability to respond quickly to business needs without sacrificing stability.
Expert take:
“For me, XP is at the core of Continuous Delivery, which is also the foundation on which DevOps is built.
I don't think that you can achieve Continuous Delivery without the kind of polyglot collaboration between all of the parties involved in creating software. How can you Continuously Deliver if the Ops team, security team, testing team, dev team, or product team is in a silo? You can't.
I think that both of those approaches represent a genuine paradigm shift - it's a complete change in focus, not only about how to practice software development but really what software development is. I think of it much more in terms of it being this exploratory process of discovery and part of the way in which we organize our work is to enable that - to allow ourselves the freedom to discover things, learn new things, change direction, and discard the bad things.”
- Dave Farley, Independent Software Developer and Consultant, Founder and Director of Continuous Delivery Ltd.
6. Business Agility Extends Beyond IT
Key Highlights:
- Expansion of Agile principles beyond software development into broader business operations
- Integration of product-oriented thinking across organizations
- Focus on measurable business outcomes and value metrics
The walls between IT and business are finally crumbling. While software teams have been practicing Agile for years, we're now seeing these principles take root across entire organizations. A significant milestone in this evolution is the recent acquisition of Agile Alliance by Product Management Institute - a clear signal of the broadening demand for agile skills and expertise across different business functions.
Teams are adopting product-oriented thinking throughout the organization and focusing on measurable business outcomes rather than just project deliverables.
The data backs this up: while IT teams lead with 70% Agile adoption, product and R&D teams aren't far behind. Even traditional business operations and marketing teams are embracing agile practices, with adoption rates of 28% and 20% respectively. This shift is driven by necessity - in a world where market conditions change rapidly, no department can afford to operate in quarterly planning cycles anymore.
Consider Unilever's experience: By applying agile practices beyond their tech departments into marketing and product development teams, they've reduced time-to-market for new products by nearly 30%. This agility has enabled them to respond more effectively to changing consumer demands, particularly during times of economic uncertainty.
Expert take:
“Agile innovation has revolutionized the software industry, which has arguably undergone more rapid and profound change than any other area of business over the past 30 years. Now it is poised to transform nearly every other function in every industry. At this point, the greatest impediment is not the need for better methodologies, empirical evidence of significant benefits, or proof that agile can work outside IT. It is the behavior of executives. Those who learn to lead agile’s extension into a broader range of business activities will accelerate profitable growth.”
- Darrell Rigby, Jeff Sutherland, Hirotaka Takeuchi for Harvard Business Review.
7. Agile Adapts to Remote and Hybrid Work
Key Highlights:
- Evolution of Agile practices to better support distributed and hybrid teams
- Development of new collaboration patterns for remote work
- Focus on asynchronous communication and documentation
Remote work has forced a fundamental rethinking of agile practices. The tools have evolved - Jira, Trello, and Slack are table stakes now - but the real innovation is happening in how teams structure their work and communication patterns to maintain the same level of engagement, communication, and velocity as in-person teams.
Distributed teams are developing new approaches to traditional ceremonies. Asynchronous standup updates combined with focused synchronous discussion time. Sprint planning split into async preparation and live refinement sessions. Retrospectives that blend individual reflection time with group synthesis.
Documentation, once seen as anti-agile, has found its place in the remote world. But it's not your grandfather's documentation - teams are using tools like Notion and Confluence to create living documents that evolve with their products. Architecture decision records (ADRs) and technical RFCs have become crucial tools for maintaining alignment across distributed teams.
Expert take:
“At one point, in-person face-to-face communication was the most effective way to communicate. This was still very true back in 2001 when Agile was defined, and this is why it was essential to document that in the Agile principles. However, the state of technology back then lacked the conductivity or capabilities to make remote possible, leaving workers desk-bound. The hardwired phone, desktop system, and limited email were what we had. So Agile worked to collocate teams and promoted in-person face-to-face meetings whenever possible in its first decade of existence. But that was 20 years ago.
For Agile, with today’s technology, we are not going against the intent of how we framed effective communications. On the contrary, the technology has helped remove the impediment that most large multinational and distributed teams were dealing with when adopting Agile — we can now have everybody face-to-face regardless of where they are in the world. Furthermore, Agile helps to give the hybrid workplace a set of values and principles to help the hybrid work environment prosper.”
- Ray Arell, Founder and Executive Director, nuAgility
8. Economic Influences Shape Practice
Key Highlights:
- Greater emphasis on cost-effectiveness and demonstrable ROI
- Focus on T-shaped people and efficient team structures
- Renewed attention to productivity and outcome-based metrics
Economic realities are pushing organizations to rethink their agile implementations. The focus has shifted from process purity to practical outcomes. Teams are being asked not just to deliver features, but to demonstrate their impact on business metrics - aka cost-effectiveness and return on investment.
Value stream mapping has moved from theory to practice, as organizations work to understand and optimize their delivery pipelines. The most effective teams are those that can connect their technical metrics (lead time, deployment frequency, MTTR) to business outcomes (revenue impact, customer satisfaction, market share).
The investment in T-shaped individuals - those who combine deep expertise with broad capabilities - is proving particularly valuable in this environment. These team members can adapt to changing needs and help reduce the coordination overhead that often plagues specialized teams.
Expert take:
“Looking ahead, I foresee a renewed focus on certainty, optimization, and individual performance metrics. I see this because developing self-management is extremely hard, too slow for some and it'll be easier to revert back to old habits of command and control. This shift could divert attention away from user-centric goals and outcome-based measures, a trend that could undermine the very principles that have made Agile successful. To counteract this, I believe the Agile community must remain vigilant, using tools like Evidence-Based Management to ensure that we stay aligned with our core values while providing the metrics and proof of progress for those who need it.”
- Simon Bourk, Professional Scrum Trainer, Master Integral Coach TM
Looking Ahead
As we move into 2025, we're seeing the emergence of a more mature, nuanced approach to agility. Organizations are moving beyond the framework debates and certification chases to focus on what truly matters: building high-quality software that delivers business value efficiently.
The most successful teams will be those that can:
- Maintain technical excellence while adapting to changing business needs
- Balance autonomy with accountability through clear outcome metrics
- Leverage automation and AI without losing sight of craftsmanship
- Scale agile practices through organization-wide adoption
- Adapt their practices to support distributed, async-first work patterns
The future of Agile isn't about choosing between SAFe and Scrum, or debating the merits of estimation. It's about building engineering organizations that can consistently deliver value while maintaining the technical excellence needed for long-term sustainability. The teams that get this right won't just survive the next wave of change - they'll lead it.
Exciting times indeed.