Did you try telling them that that is _absolutely_ how "agile" works? Even Scrum, the way most companies adopt it meticulously, is just a list of recommendation

Did you try telling them that that is _absolutely_ how "agile" works? Even Scrum, the way most companies adopt it meticulously, is just a list of recommendations. The key is that the team finds a process that works for them and keeps evolving it. I guess in your case it may have called for a compromise. Unfortunately, if those guys had gone up the management chain saying how you're "not agile", they probably would have won...