@btaf45 in my case, we as a team could have done that, because we didn't have management dictating how we did anything. It was our choice to do what worked for us, and it was a valuable tool for dealing with whatever got thrown at us.

Now I'm working in a different place that dictates Agile and Scrum to be done Their Way, on top of a project that's largely waterfall-like to begin with, and I'm starting to see why people say it doesn't work.

It works, BUT, only when you're using it as the right tool for the right job and not when management decide to misapply it as a hot new planning methodology.