Agile in 2026 Looks Nothing Like Scrum

That delay cost us 42,000 failed checkout attempts and a week of executive explanations. Nothing was broken in the code. The failure was procedural. The fix was ready. The sprint boundary said no.

That was the moment we stopped pretending Scrum was helping us ship.

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AI Doesn’t Eliminate Agile Teams — It Increases the Need for Great Ones - Mike Cohn

Everyone today seems eager to talk about how AI is accelerating software development. Teams are shipping faster. Individuals are more productive. Entire backlogs can be written in minutes. Estimates are a click away. Code that once took days now materializes in minutes. With all this newfound speed, it’s understandable that teams and leaders start asking whether they still need the same kinds of collaboration—or even the same kinds of teams.

Yet hidden underneath all that enthusiasm is a risk that hasn’t received enough attention. In fact, I would argue it is the risk that agile leaders should be paying the closest attention to.

https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/ai-doesnt-eliminate-agile-teams-it-increases-the-need-for-great-ones

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Scrum Is NOT Dead... It’s Obsolete?

(Did someone actually Go here?) AAAAAAAhhhhhhhh!

Stand-ups are still happening. Sprint planning still blocks calendars every few weeks. Retrospectives still end with “we should communicate better.” Jira boards are still very busy.

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I made a VERY controversial Podcast Episode on January 1st and I think people may have completely missed it! There will be 3 CRAZY-BIG changes happening on the Agile Landscape in 2026:

🚀 Prediction One: The Shift from Product Ownership to Product Management

• Broader Lifecycle Focus: Product managers will oversee the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to release.
• AI Integration: AI tools will streamline tasks, allowing product managers to focus on delivering value and happy customers.
• Expanded Roles: Expect more product manager roles and fewer traditional product owner positions.

🛠️ Prediction Two: The Evolution of the Scrum Master into the Agile Project Manager

• Holistic View: Agile Project Managers will support product managers and ensure teams focus on building the right product efficiently.
• Organizational Change Management: This will become a critical responsibility, guiding change within organizations.
• Certifications: Scrum Master certifications will still hold value but will need to adapt to this evolving role.

💻 Prediction Three: Developers Will Spend Less Time Coding and More Time on Quality and Integration

• AI-Generated Code: AI tools like ChatGPT will generate code faster, requiring developers to focus on integration and quality assurance.
• New Roles: Developers will become integrators and quality managers, ensuring seamless code assembly and high-quality releases.

🤖 Bonus Prediction: 2026 Will Be the Year AI Explodes in Agile

• AI Revolution: AI will revolutionize how we work, and those who leverage it will have a significant advantage.
• New Courses: We’re launching AI courses for Agile Project Managers, Product Managers, and Leaders to help you thrive in an AI-augmented environment.

I’m genuinely excited about what 2026 holds for the agile community. These shifts, combined with the transformative power of AI, will redefine how we deliver value. If you’re curious to learn more, join my AI classes or attend agile leadership summits where we dive deep into these topics.

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Growth Is Not Becoming Someone Else, It's About Becoming More Fully Who You Actually Are

Lena was the kind of person who could organize a project, a pantry, or a party with military precision—but she could not organize her courage.

At work, she was reliable, steady, always the one staying late to fix last‑minute mistakes. Her boss trusted her, her teammates liked her, and her performance reviews were consistently stamped with the same phrase: “Solid team player.” It was meant as a compliment, but every time she saw it, a small, restless ache formed behind her ribs.

Because tucked between her color‑coded spreadsheets and carefully labeled folders was a sketchbook she never showed anyone.

Lena drew in the margins of meeting notes. She sketched on napkins at lunch. She had ideas for children’s books, a mental library of characters and worlds that lived only in her head and in the worn pages of that sketchbook. For years, she told herself a quiet story: One day, when things calm down, I’ll really give this a try.

Things never calmed down.

One Thursday, after a long meeting, she dropped her notebook on her desk and it fell open, pages spilling out. A coworker walking by noticed a drawing of a small, determined fox wearing a too‑big backpack.

“Whoa,” he said, picking up the notebook. “You drew this?”

Lena’s first instinct was to grab it back and laugh it off. “Oh, that? It’s nothing. Just doodles.”

But he lingered on the drawing. “This is… actually really good. Have you ever thought about doing something with them?”

The question made her heart race and her stomach sink at the same time. She had thought about it—a lot. She just hadn’t done anything. She shrugged, offered a vague “Maybe someday,” and changed the subject.

That night, sitting on the edge of her bed, Lena heard a sentence in her mind that she couldn’t shake: How much longer are you going to call the things that matter to you ‘nothing’?

It wasn’t a dramatic movie moment. There was no soundtrack, no lightning bolt of clarity. Just a quiet discomfort that felt different this time—not like shame, but like an invitation.

She opened her sketchbook and flipped through the pages. There were dozens of characters: brave foxes, shy turtles, anxious owls, adventurous kids. She noticed something she’d never put into words before—almost every drawing was about someone who underestimated themselves and discovered they were capable of more.

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Outcome Mapping for Agile Teams: A Simple Way to Connect Stories to Value

What is Outcome Mapping? Find out today...

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Want To Win Big? Focus Small - Mike Cohn

Something momentous happened on December 20, 2020.
Becky Hammon made history as the first woman to ever coach a men’s team in a National Basketball Association professional game. Coach Hammon took over coaching the San Antonio Spurs when head coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in the first half.
After the game, the press asked Coach Hammon what her thoughts had been when her glass-ceiling-busting moment arrived. She said, “Honestly, in the moment I was just trying to win the game. I say this a lot, but I try not to think about the huge picture and the huge aspect of it, because it can get overwhelming.”
I love this attitude. Yes, Hammon was busting through a glass ceiling. And yes, winning the game is the big goal for her and her players. But she also knew that their best chance of winning was to focus on the short term and execute well, play by play.

It’s easy for teams–sports teams and agile ones–to get distracted by how much is riding on the outcome of their endeavor. However, great teams (and their coaches) know that the path to success is achieved one small, well-executed step at a time.

For example, some teams stall—thinking they need to have a perfect and complete product backlog written before starting a project. The perfect, complete product backlog doesn’t exist. And, if it did, it could only be written once the project is finished!

I advise these teams to reframe the question. These teams are trying to answer the question, “What should we build overall?” They instead need to consider, “What should we build next?”

Similarly, organizations stall in their agile adoption efforts waiting for the perfect project or the perfect team of people to become available.
Or they try to map out every step they’ll take on an agile transition.
I worry these organizations have a Gantt chart covering their agile transition hanging on a wall somewhere.

As with a team trying to write a perfect product backlog, an organization waiting for perfect conditions to go agile is asking the wrong question.

And now for what famed radio host Paul Harvey called “The Rest of the Story.”
When Coach Hammon’s big moment arrived in 2020, the Spurs ultimately lost the game. And that’s OK. You don’t win every game you play or make every shot you take.
But you know what Coach Hammon did in 2022? She led the Las Vegas Aces to their first WNBA Championship. Then did it again the year after that, making the Aces the first WNBA team in 20 years to repeat as champions in back-to-back years.
Be like Coach Hammon. Focus on the next thing that needs to be done while keeping the ultimate goal in mind. When you do, you maximize your chances of taking your own teams from good to great,

Success Doesn’t Happen Overnight

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The Future of the Scrum Master Role In 2026

1. The Death of the Ceremony Manager
2. AI Won’t Replace You — But It Will Replace the Version of You That Stops Learning
3. The Role Shifts from “Team-Level Support” to “Delivery System Architect”
4. The Rise of the “Hybrid Delivery Leader”
5. The End of Framework Fundamentalism
6. A New Career Ladder Emerges
7. The Future Scrum Master Is a Culture Engineer
8. What Gets Left Behind

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