By Nico Schellingerhout and Jeroen Jan Elzinga

Agile.

A word that once promised transformation, but is now often met with cynicism.

“Agile doesn’t work anymore.”
“SAFe isn’t real Agile.”
“We do Scrum, so we’re Agile… right?”

Somewhere along the way, the essence got buried under certifications, frameworks and rituals. We stopped asking why we do things and started ticking boxes instead.

Perhaps it’s time to pause. Not to argue about definitions again, but to listen, reflect and reconnect with the why that made Agile so powerful in the first place.

For me, that reconnection starts with three deceptively simple questions.

What are we actually trying to achieve?

Too often, we rush towards solutions before we’ve properly understood the problem. Take a common example:

“We need better Portfolio Management.”

Fair enough. But why? A deeper line of questioning might reveal:

• Why better Portfolio Management?
  Because we serve multiple clients and struggle to align releases.
• Why is alignment so difficult?
  Because clients want certainty about long-term delivery.
• Why is that a challenge?
  Because deliveries are often late or incomplete.
• Why does that happen?
  Because issues only surface late in the process.
• Why so late?
  Because we only test once the full scope is complete.

What started as a portfolio problem turns out to be a delivery problem. That shift reveals a more meaningful goal: we want to release on demand, without conflicts in planning or priorities. That’s a very different conversation. And one that brings us much closer to real change.

2. What are we holding on to — and should we still be?

Transformation isn’t just about doing something new. It’s also about letting go of old assumptions, habits and sometimes entire systems that no longer serve us.

In many organisations, the process still looks like this:

• project-based, phased delivery
• designed for predictability, control and traceability
• considered necessary for compliance

But look more closely, and the picture shifts. Regulation may require traceability, but not necessarily rigid phases. A phased approach assumes we can define everything upfront. In dynamic environments, that assumption rarely holds.

That’s where space opens up for new ways of thinking and working:

✅ Treat your product as a living system, not a fixed end state.
✅ Keep traceability current throughout, rather than documenting it all at the end.
✅ Embrace change continuously, rather than in large, infrequent batches.

Letting go isn’t easy. But that’s often exactly where real progress begins.

3. Which approach fits your goals and your context?

Only once you’ve clarified your goals and challenged your assumptions does the next question become relevant: what approach will actually help us succeed? Notice the word approach. Not method.

Scrum, SAFe and LeSS are tools. Not goals in themselves. The real goal is to build a system that works for your context, your constraints and your ambitions.

Back to the earlier example:

• the goal is on-demand release capability
• the constraints are traceability, governance and compliance
• the challenge is scaling governance not only up but also down, so that small, frequent and traceable changes can flow through the system

A system that supports these goals, constraints and challenges doesn’t emerge by itself. It requires thoughtful design. And it requires people who are engaged, empowered and aligned.

Moving forward: the honest work of change

Agile still has the power to transform organisations. But only when we stop chasing checklists and start working from intention again. If you’re serious about making change happen, start here:

Go back to first principles

Understand the why behind Agile, not just the what.

Work with a guide

Not someone who arrives with a standard solution, but someone who helps surface the right questions.

Invest in your people

Lasting change grows from within. You can’t fully outsource it.

Stay curious

Keep questioning assumptions. Agile comes alive where curiosity is given space.

Over to you

• What’s your experience?
• Where have you discovered hidden assumptions in your own organisation?
• What ways of working are no longer helping you?
• What why question still needs to be asked?

Let’s open the conversation.

Real change doesn’t happen in isolation. It grows when we learn and connect.