This is a great point. I know it sounds shallow but its a really really good point. This is the reason that even though lots of shops think they are agile, in

This is a great point. I know it sounds shallow but its a really really good point. This is the reason that even though lots of shops think they are agile, in essence their processes are really just granular waterfall. I had one pm who wouldnt know what "agile" was if you asked him but he ran his product more agile than I've seen anyone else do. We would sit every 3 days, with his excel sheet. He would then pick the next important task to do. No priortities, no color coding, no gantt chart - just linear list of what needs to be done and what could be done in the next week. He stored the things we couldnt do on a "backlog" excel sheet. Every meeting we would pull out the main excel sheet and he would decide whether he needed something brand new to be built or something from his "backlog" excel sheet. I never had to look at the backlog at all. We would keep releasing the software weekly and delivering features. It was the best business relationship I've ever had in my life.