“Technical excellence” and “good design” might sound like luxuries. Or even speed bumps, especially when Agile pushes for quick delivery. But here’s the cold, hard truth: cutting corners on quality for the sake of speed is a fool’s errand. Real agility—the power to react fast and effectively to change—rests on solid, well-designed, and carefully built code.

Clean, modular, and well-tested code is easy to understand, change, and expand. This drastically cuts down the cost and risk of adding new features or adjusting to evolving needs. On the flip side, technical debt—all those rushed decisions, shoddy code, and missing tests—acts like quicksand. It slowly but surely drags down how fast you can develop and makes future changes brutally difficult. Keep investing in quality. Keep designing well. That way, teams ensure their software stays flexible and maintainable. It won’t crumble under its own weight when new challenges hit. This commitment to quality isn’t a detour. It’s the express lane to staying agile for the long haul.