96 Agile Quotes (Funny, Short, incl. Mindset, Retros) 

Are you seeking inspiration to thrive in today’s fast-paced agile world and therefore you need some agile quotes? In this article I’ve curated the ultimate collection of thought-provoking quotes that encapsulate the agile mindset and transformation. There will be funny ones, short ones or and some are for pure motivation. 

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Agile Mindset Quotes: Cultivating Progress and Adaptability

In his work, Gil Broza emphasizes the essence of the Agile mindset, which values individuals and embraces change as a natural part of the process. The following quotes echo the core principles of Agile, urging us to prioritize people over processes, stay adaptable, and embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and progress. 

1. “Agile is an attitude, not a technique with boundaries. An attitude has no boundaries, so we wouldn’t ask ‘can I use agile here’, but rather ‘how would I act in the agile way here?’ or ‘how agile can we be, here?’” – Alistair Cockburn, signatory of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development 
2. “Unfortunately, in their desire to be agile (with a lowercase a), many firms have attempted to do Agile (with an uppercase A). They have traded a goal for an orthodoxy—adopting the methods and certifications but not the theory behind them. And this is fatal.” – Aaron Dignan in Brave New Work 
3. “Agile is not a methodology, it’s a mindset. It’s a way of thinking that values individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” – Craig Larman
4. “Agile teams are empowered teams. They have the freedom to innovate, experiment, and take risks.” – Mike Cohn 
5. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist 
6. “Agility means that you are faster than your competition. Agile time frames are measured in weeks and months, not years.” – Michael Center for Systems Innovation Hugos 
7. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas A. Edison, Inventor and Businessman 
8. “The only way to go fast is to go well.” ~Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), Agile trainer and author 
9. “My advice is to stop emphasizing the process frameworks and start focusing on the company culture and mindsets. Get clear on the values you want to operate under and actually embody those values in every area of the company.” – Selena Delesie, agile coach and trainer (source) 
10.  “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” – Abraham Maslow, Psychologist 
11. “Agile is not a set of practices; it’s a mindset. If you don’t change your thinking, you can’t be Agile.” – Gil Broza, Agile coach and author 
12. “Agile is not just about changing processes and tools, but also about changing the culture and mindset.” – Lyssa Adkins, Agile coach and author 
13. “Agility is principally about mindset, not practices.” – Jim Highsmith 
14. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker 

Agile Motivation Quotes: Fueling Success and Productivity 

Discover the essence of Agile Motivation Quotes – words that should ignite success and productivity in your team(s). These powerful insights from visionaries, historic figures or agile experts highlight the significance of continuous improvement, adaptability, and customer focus.  

15. “It doesn’t matter how good you are today; if you’re not better next month, you’re no longer agile.” – Mike Cohn 
16. “The important thing is not your process. The important thing is your process for improving your process.” – Henrik Kniberg] 
17. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius 
18. “Agile teams produce a continuous stream of value, at a sustainable pace, while adapting to the changing needs of the business.” – Elisabeth Hendrickson 
19. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay 
20. “The only way to learn it is to do it.” – Archimedes 
21. “The only thing harder than starting something new is stopping something old.” – Craig Larman 
22. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates 
23. “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’” – Grace Hopper 
24. “The most valuable thing you can do when you have a limited amount of time is to work on the most important thing.” – Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum 
25. “If you want to build a successful product, you need to understand your customers’ actual behavior—their reality—not the story they tell themselves.” – Teresa Torres, Continuous Discovery Habits 

Agile Transformation Quotes: Driving Change and Growth 

These quotes below echo the essence of cultural shifts, teamwork, resilience, and the evolving workplace. Embrace the wisdom of these thought leaders 

26. “Agile transformation is not a project; it’s a cultural shift.” – Michael Sahota, Agile coach and author 
27. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford 
28. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill 
29. “…the agile movement in software is part of a larger movement towards more humane and dynamic workplaces in the 21st century.” – Rowan Bunning 
30. “Thriving in today’s marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile.” – Scott M. Graffius 
31. “Agile leaders lead teams, non-agile ones manage tasks.” – Jim Highsmith in Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products 

Short Agile Quotes: Impactful Inspiration 

Short agile quotes serve as powerful coaching tools, distilling complex concepts into memorable insights. Ideal for Agile coaches or Scrum Masters, they can be used in training sessions, team discussions, and brainstorming exercises. They underline the essence of Agile, fostering communication, adaptability, and innovation.  

32. “Remember: it’s not the documentation that needs to be kept in sync, but the people.” – George Dinwiddie, software development consultant and coach 
33. “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” – Various sources (often misattributed to Stephen Hawking) 
34. “There is a way to do it better — find it!” – Thomas A. Edison 
35. “Change will be incremental and take time.” – Mike Cottmeyer 
36. “Planning is a quest for value.” – Mike Cohn 
37. “Focus on idle work not idle workers to achieve fast, flexible flow.” – Ken Rubin 
38. “The best way to develop software is to do it in iterations.” – Mike Cohn 

Funny Agile Quotes: Adding Humor to the Journey 

Inject humor into your team meetings or training sessions with these funny Agile quotes. For example, I lifted a scrum team’s spirit after they didn’t reach a sprint goal by using Churchill’s take on success: persevering through failures with unbroken enthusiasm.  

39. “Scrum is like your mother-in-law, it points out ALL your faults.” – Ken Schwaber 
40. “Multitasking Makes You Stupid. Doing more than one thing at a time makes you slower and worse at both tasks. Don’t do it. If you think this doesn’t apply to you, you’re wrong – it does.” – Jeff Sutherland 
41. “Blame Is Stupid. Don’t look for bad people; look for bad systems—ones that incentivize bad behavior and reward poor performance.” – Jeff Sutherland 
42. “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Mike Cohn 
43. “Big egos have little ears.” – Robert Schuller 
44. “Knock knock. Who’s there? Processes and tools. Processes and tools who? See, I told you he was Agile!” – Unknown 
45. “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” – John Wooden 

Agile – Scrum Quotes: Boosting Productivity and Collaboration 

Elevate your team’s productivity and collaboration with these insightful Agile – Scrum quotes. Use them in your Scrum ceremonies, such as planning or even retrospectives. 

46. “Scrum focuses on being agile which may (and should) lead to improving. Kanban focuses on improving, which may lead to being agile.” – Karl Scotland 
47. ” As ScrumMasters, we should all value being great over being good.” – Geoff Watts 
48. “Do the planning, but throw out the plans.” – Mary Poppendieck 
49. “Scrum without automation is like driving a sports car on a dirt track – you won’t experience the full potential, you will get frustrated, and you will probably end up blaming the car.” – Ilan Goldstein 

Agile Retrospective Quotes: Unearthing Gems of Wisdom for Team Improvement 

Use these Agile retrospective quotes to inspire your team and cultivate an atmosphere of continuous improvement. Introduce them during your retrospectives to provoke thought, motivate introspection, and celebrate learning from mistakes.  

One of my favorites is the first one: it emphasizes the huge role of retrospective meetings. Even a daily standup can be used as a mini retrospective which again underlines the importance of the spirit of these meetings that look back on how we work. 

50. “If you adopt only one agile practice let it be retrospectives. Everything else will follow.” – Woody Zuill
51. “The retrospective is the heart of Agile.” – Esther Derby, Agile coach and author 
52. “The retrospective is the most important Scrum ceremony. It’s where the team learns and improves.” – Ken Schwaber, co-creator of Scrum 
53. “The retrospective is a time to reflect on what went well, what didn’t go well, and what we can do better next time.” – Mike Cohn, Agile trainer and author 
54. “Retrospectives are the key to continuous improvement.” – Diana Larsen, Agile coach and author 
55. “The retrospective is where the team takes ownership of their process and identifies ways to improve.” – Esther Derby 
56. “Retrospectives are not about blame, they’re about learning and improving.” – Mike Cohn 
57. “The retrospective is a safe space for the team to share their thoughts and feelings about the project.” – Ken Schwaber 
58. “Retrospectives are the engine of Agile. They drive continuous improvement and help teams deliver better results.” – Diana Larsen 
59. “The retrospective is the team’s opportunity to celebrate their successes and learn from their failures.” – Esther Derby 
60. “When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don’t repeat it.” – Paul Bear Bryant 
61. “Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way.” — Al Franken 
62. “A mistake is a signal that it is time to learn something new, something you didn’t know before.” – Robert Kiyosaki 
63. Making mistakes isn’t enough to become great. You must also admit the mistake, and then learn how to turn that mistake into an advantage.” – Robert Kiyosaki 
64. “Improving processes requires change. The two cannot be separated.” – Niagara Institute 
65. “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” – Peter Drucker 

Agile Coaching Quotes: Inspiring Excellence and Team Empowerment 

Turn to these Agile coaching quotes for inspiring team excellence and empowerment. These are ideal for Agile coaches seeking to instill a culture of continuous improvement and self-reflection. You may want to share these quotes during your team meetings or when coaching individuals.  

66. “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” – Muhammad Ali 
67. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi 
68. “Agile coaching is more about who you are and what behaviors you model than it is about any specific technique or idea you bring to the team… I would say that agile coaching is 40% doing and 60% being. The powerful (silent) influence you have because of who you are and how agile values shine through your every move should not be underestimated.” – Lyssa Adkins 
69. “People don’t change because you want them to change, people change when they’re ready to change. So, understanding why, and when, and how people change is probably the biggest thing you can learn.” – Ron Quartel 
70. “A ScrumMaster who takes teams beyond getting agile practices up and running into their deliberate and joyful pursuit of high performance is an agile coach.” – Lyssa Adkins 
71. “A project manager and an agile coach are not even as much alike as a house cat and a jaguar. They are simply not in the same family. A project manager plans and controls, supervising throughout. A coach guides. A project manager’s success equals the success of the project. An agile coach’s success equals the team’s continual improvement and their pursuit of high performance. The two are focused on completely different things and thus act completely differently.” – Lyssa Adkins 
72. “When you need me but do not want me, then I must stay. When you want me but no longer need me, then I have to go.” – Lyssa Adkins 
73. “You’re not going to hit the mark all the time. You will make mistakes. You will lose your cool and yell. Your mind will wander during the stand-up meeting. You will skillfully manipulate people into doing what you think is right for the team. The most important thing you can do in the face of your mistake is to model the agile value of openness. Transparently and with humility, simply own up to the impact of the mistake, and apologize for it.” – Lyssa Adkins 
74. “What are you coaching for? You’re looking for the quality of the conversation, not the content. The subject matter of the conversation matters not. The quality does. When the team converses, don’t join in and act as a team member. There are already enough team members. Be a coach instead. Help them improve their conversations so that they can come up with higher-quality ideas that translate directly to the products they build.” – Lyssa Adkins 
75. “What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.” – Chip Heath and Dan Heath 
76. “Adopting agile can feel worse before it feels better. Problems and tensions often become more visible, which can be uncomfortable for some teams. But when tensions are more visible, you have a better opportunity to solve them.” – Jordan Husney 
77. “Big bang agile rollouts are much more likely to fail. It’s best to start with something simple like Scrum and Kanban on a few teams and then to scale up through experimentation.” – Murray Robinson 
78. “Agile leaders lead teams, non-agile ones manage tasks.” – Jim Highsmith in Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products 

Agile Teamwork Quotes: Fostering Collaboration and Collective Success 

These Agile teamwork quotes perfectly encapsulate the collaborative spirit central to the Agile Manifesto, such as the first quote below which forms one of the agile principles. In addition you might find inspiration also from other historic figures below or from coaches, such as from Phil Jackson or from Henry Ford. 

79. “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.” – Agile Manifesto 
80. “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi 
81. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson 
82. “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie 
83. “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford 
84. “The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.” – James Cash Penney 
85. “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs 
86. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller 
87. “Teamwork makes the dream work.” – John C. Maxwell  
88. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle  
89. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford  
90. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi  
91. “Agile is a team sport.” – Jim Highsmith, Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products  
92. “It takes two flints to make a fire.” – Louisa May Alcott 
93. “Unity is strength. . . when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” – Mattie Stepanek  
94. “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth  
95. “When you hand good people possibility, they do great things.” – Biz Stone 
96. “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” – H.E. Luccock

Wrap up

We hope that you got inspired by these quote and it will enable you to motivate your co-workers to embrace agility. As a further reading recommendation, here’s an article we wrote about comparing agile vs growth mindset.