Agile 2. Adrian Lander

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Foreword

      You can recognize a great book by its ability to make obvious what is wrong with existing worldviews and to add new insights or nuances to change or improve this worldview. I believe Agile 2 meets these criteria easily. It is an easy read not only for those new to the subject of agility, but also for die-hard professionals who are looking for something “beyond” the basic Agile concepts that are at times dogmatic and often being misused in practice.

      In this era of digital disruption and an ever-growing world full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, it becomes increasingly important for organizations to become more agile. The Agile Manifesto, originally intended in 2001 to disrupt traditional, not-too-effective software development practices, has inspired many organizations over the past decades to change their ways of working, affecting both work cultures and structures. Its popularity was boosted by a growing workforce consisting of millennials and Generation-Z professionals who demand more autonomy, ownership, and the opportunity to make meaningful impact. Over the past decade, the “Agile movement” has gained increasing momentum and also moved beyond the realm of IT.

      A side effect of its success and growth was that all kinds of Agile frameworks, doctrines, and certifications popped up to standardize and monetize the discipline. The original Agile values and principles, being high-level on purpose, gave ample room for various interpretations of the core paradigms. During my career I have worked with many different Agile coaches and consultants, and I was always surprised by how much discussion and fanatic debates arose among them with regard to how to live certain Agile values or implement specific practices. This tribalism led to confusion among non-Agilists, and this hampers Agile transformations significantly. I thus see a clear need for a comprehensive Agile idea set that is both pragmatic and nuanced by nature. Enter Agile 2.

I was happy to find out quickly that the authors do not claim to have written yet another Agile doctrine or “Bible.” Instead, they have written a pragmatic companion guide that will be useful for managers and specialists alike. It is packed with hands-on tactics and practices that can help leaders and specialists in organizations to grow to a next level of agility, while preventing cargo-cult behavior or avant le lettre implementations that often do more harm than good.

      One of my key drivers for cofounding the DevOps Agile Skills Association (DASA) in 2016 was building a comprehensive view on how to create high-performance IT organizations. The popularity of DASA stems largely from the six DevOps and Agile principles that advocate continuous improvement, customer centricity, autonomous multidisciplinary teams, and product thinking. Following these principles often results in a digital and organizational transformation that typically goes far beyond choosing a standard Agile framework or adding some basic Agile rituals to the mix. To transform successfully to high-performance, organizations need a more mature take on and guidance on what it means to really “be Agile” at scale. Providing this guidance is one of this book's core differentiating features.

      Over the past decade I learned firsthand as a consultant, trainer, and senior leader the importance of building the right type of leadership in the organization and creating a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and innovation. What I like about Agile 2 is that both the importance of leadership and learning are advocated strongly. It provides many tangible ideas to reimagine an organization's leadership culture. I wish that I had this book on my nightstand five years ago. It would have helped me greatly in understanding why certain things happened—or did not happen—during the organizational transformations I was leading.

I like the fact that the authors do not intend to reinvent the wheel, but are keen on building on what is already working. Some of the key Agile values and principles are powerful to this day, but application in practice often needs some additional clarity and lots of examples. The authors nicely provide nuance to how to interpret Agile principles and values while referring to many interesting, and more recent, bodies of work. The authors hit the nail with addressing key topics that are haunting many organizations, leaders, and teams, such as how to collaborate, communicate, value both experts and generalists, and commit team capacity. They rightfully argue that how to adopt certain principles or how to interpret certain values depends on your organization's needs and its current level of maturity. Using this book as your Agile guide, you can aim and navigate your transformation in a more tailor-made way, resulting in more business value. I expect this book to be found on many nightstands in the coming years.

       Dr. Rik Farenhorst

      Senior IT Exec | Trainer | Coach | Speaker | Writer on Creating High-Performance Digital Organizations | Co-founder of DevOps Agile Skills Association (DASA)

      Utrecht, The Netherlands

      December 2020