…behind bringing AI into agile. Brian and Hunter trace the arc from early experiments to full-scale agents, sharing what it took to build responsibly on large language models (and what still keeps them up at night). They get into the weeds of context handling, trust and verification, dev productivity, and…

…may actually be hurting Agile teams. They discuss the risk of losing junior developer growth paths, the illusion of productivity through inflated metrics, the danger of outsourcing judgment, and how AI can quietly create communication silos inside Scrum teams. This is not an anti-AI conversation. It is a practical one.…

…is called Succeeding with Agile. I recently finished writing a chapter on the impact of the human resources and facilities groups on an organization that is transitioning to an Agile project management approach. While writing that chapter, I put together a list of all the things that I think should…

…ask how Scrum and agile address risk management. Some are concerned that agile or Scrum ignore risk management completely. Let’s see why this is the case. First, a great deal of explicit risk management becomes unnecessary when a project uses an agile approach. The short iterations, single-minded focus on working…

…our custom Scrum and agile zoom backgrounds?) Remote Software Development Teams Predate Covid It would be a mistake, though, to assume that remote Scrum began with Covid. In fact, the trend of remote work environments was growing at an incredible rate prior to lockdowns. A study from flexjobs / Global…

…we launched Front Row Agile, a site dedicated to video training courses on agile and Scrum. This has placed me in the role of product owner for the site. And recently, the team on the project criticized my story writing! It was a valid criticism, so I want to share…

…mean to say an agile team is self-organizing? And is that even the right term? Some people say teams are self-managing. To understand which of those terms might be better, let’s consider four levels of authority teams can assume. Four Ways of Distributing Authority Richard Hackman, a Harvard University professor,…

…is very common for agile teams, especially Scrum teams, to estimate both their product backlog and sprint backlogs. In this article, I’ll address: Why estimating both the product backlog and sprint backlog can be useful even though it seems redundant Why teams should estimate the two backlogs in different units…

…If an Organization Is Agile I wrote this after someone told me he’d recently taken a job with a company that had told him they were agile. But once he started there, he discovered they were quite far from being agile. This post offers three questions you can ask during…

…wear to the many agile-themed Halloween parties you’ll attend. In this post I’ll share some last-minute costume ideas you can pull together whether you’re a Scrum Master, product owner, or even a stakeholder on an agile project. This run-down of Halloween costumes for agile teams started out just for fun.…

…of dependencies on large agile projects. I’ve known and worked with Ken for over 20 years and learn something from him every time we interact. I’m sure you’ll find his thoughts interesting. –Mike Does your organization perform agile at scale, requiring the coordination of multiple collaborating entities to deliver value?…

…or client tells my agile team how long something will take. In fact, when product owners or project managers tell me how long something should take or they provide a deadline, my first instinct is often to reject their estimate, even if the estimate is higher than my own would…

…regret it later. Accurate agile planning depends on predictable team delivery. When teams take partial credit for “mostly done” sprint backlog items, their velocity is no longer as accurate or dependable. In the following video, I describe the negative imacts of “fudging” a team's velocity by taking some credit for…

…that effort? Do all Agile teams need to estimate? Join Brian Milner and Mike Cohn as they discuss estimating using Story Points in order to plan for things such as releases. Listen now to discover: 1:51 - Mike talks about the 3 reasons why would we estimate in the first…

…this episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, host Brian Milner chats with David Pereira, author of Untrapping Product Teams. Together, they dive into the common traps product teams face, the differences between project and product management, and practical strategies for prioritization. David shares insights from his book, offering advice on…