[kbknight]

A lot to like in here (the criticism of POs and agile certifications and treating the devs who build a system as lowly implementors is well placed), but there's nothing anti-agile about having a plan.

Healthy agile is not having no plan. Healthy agile is having a plan which the team owns and can change.

The problem is when management, instead of having some visibility into the plan, thinks they own it and have any say in it beyond answering prioritization and business-y questions.