Why Sprints Are Broken

Let me say something that a lot of engineering teams are thinking but not saying out loud: sprints are not working anymore . Not for everyone, and not in every context. There are still teams running two-week cycles who are genuinely productive and who find the structure useful. But for a growing number of engineering organisations - particularly those working with modern tooling, AI-assisted development, and complex product problems - the sprint model has become more of a performance than a practice. The rituals continue. The points get estimated. The velocity gets tracked. And underneath all of it, the actual work is happening on a completely different rhythm that the sprint structure is not capturing and is actively getting in the way of. This article is not about bashing agile as a philosophy. The core ideas behind agile - iterative development, responding to change, close collaboration, shipping working software - are sound and remain relevant. This is about the specific implementa