Same! Whenever I have to explain what agile is I start with retrospectives. It's the one rule that is mandatory. Standups, sprints, JIRA boards, grooming/refinement sessions and everything else in a heavyweight framework like scrum is there to support the principles of agile, but none of it is actually necessary. IMO every software developer should read the Agile Manifesto ( https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html ) every once in a while and consider whether their process is actually working for the team.