By Dennis van der Spoel

​Most agile transformations start out bottom up. Agile coaches and trainers start to explain about VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity), and how traditional ways of project management are at odds with the demands of a VUCA environment.

​Of course, some buy-in from management is needed. So, managers get appointed an enabler role, but spend most of their time along the sidelines. And when agile transformations do not go according to expectations of the teams, it’s always the fault of management. And usually middle management gets stuck in a squeeze.

By Dennis van der Spoel

With growing concern do I watch practitioners within the agile community bashing anything that is not up their alley. As with any community, there will always be a number of persons who feel that it is their duty to ‘protect’ the community against influences they consider impure. I call those persons “the fundamentalists”. Usually, I just let them be and trust that progressive forces always overcome conservative forces if something is meant to be. It is the positive nature of change. But I cannot stay silent when populism meets conservatism in ever growing numbers. Where conservatives usually have some very strong arguments that require due consideration, populists only have wishful thinking based on a distorted worldview. 

​What I am getting at are a series of publications, of which I will highlight the four that raise the greatest concern because they seem to be well-received by the community. Those publications are: