Scrum.org Community Podcast

What does it really take to make AI work, not just technically, but organizationally? 
In this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, host Dave West sits down with Dr. Alan Brown, researcher, advisor, and author of the new book Making AI Work for Britain, to explore the complex realities of AI adoption in large organizations and government.
Drawing on decades of experience in enterprise digital transformation from Rational Software to IBM to advising public sector institutions, Alan unpacks why AI is both an evolutionary step and a fundamental disruption, and why most organizations are struggling to bridge the gap between technological capability and organizational readiness.
Alan and Dave explore how lessons from the UK's digital government journey of consolidating demand, diversifying supply, offer a practical lens for every team navigating AI adoption today. They also dig into three principles Alan believes are at the heart of any disciplined approach to AI: value, risk, and trust and why that last one might be the most transformative idea yet for Scrum Teams.
Whether you're a Scrum Master, Product Owner, or senior leader trying to make sense of AI in your organization, this conversation offers a grounded, thought-provoking framework for moving from pilot chaos to purposeful delivery.

Book details can be found at https://futureofai.uk/
Blog: Making AI Work: What Scrum Gets Right and Organizations Get Wrong

Most Agile coaches build their careers inside large organizations — but what happens when a new opportunity calls from an unexpected direction? Scrum.org CEO, Dave West, sits down with Marina Alex, an AI & modern management expert and Founder of The SWAY Academy, who answered that call. After the enterprise market shifted in 2022, Marina pivoted her practice toward small and medium-sized businesses in Knoxville, Tennessee — and discovered what she describes as a blue ocean: many companies that have never heard of a Sprint, but are ready for one.
Along the way, Marina found that AI has become a natural entry point into these conversations. With most small businesses neither tech-heavy nor equipped with an IT department, the excitement and anxiety around AI opens the door to deeper work around team culture, structure, and customer focus. Rather than leading with frameworks, she leads with outcomes — helping business owners understand that strong teams and clear processes are what make any new technology actually stick.
Marina walks Dave through the mindset shifts, networking strategies, and practical adaptations — from one-week Sprints to sticky-note Retrospectives — that have allowed her to build a thriving practice doing work she loves, serving the local business communities that need her most.
Free Guide from Sway Systems with tips to find new clients
Connect with Marina

In this episode, Eric Naiburg and Darrell Fernandes of Scrum.org tackle a pressing question: How do you measure the impact of AI on your team? from a recent webinar focused on AI as a teammate.
They explore how AI’s role differs across organizations—from ideation and analysis to stakeholder engagement—and why its productivity gains are still evolving. The conversation highlights the importance of combining qualitative insights with quantitative metrics, including flow-based measures like velocity, to assess real impact.
They also discuss the growing responsibility of hiring managers to define AI roles clearly, set expectations, and ensure AI contributes value without disrupting team dynamics. Plus, they share how AI itself can be leveraged to help define roles, recommend metrics, and improve performance measurement.

In this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, Dave West sits down with Tomasz Maj, Head of Product Ops at Odevo, to explore how a rapidly growing property management giant is navigating the AI revolution. Odevo faces a unique challenge: managing a massive, diverse portfolio across the northern hemisphere while balancing centralized scale with local autonomy.

Tomasz pulls back the curtain on "vibe coding"—the democratization of development that allows non-technical staff to build functional tools—and how Odevo balances this "wild west" of innovation with rigorous security and GitHub-backed governance.

Key topics include:
The Operating Model of Diversity: Why Odevo chooses not to have a single "master platform" and how that fuels speed.
Vibe Coding in the Wild: How accountants and maintenance teams are using AI to solve their own data problems.
The 5-Step AI Engineer: Inside Odevo’s comprehensive training program, from prompting to agentic development.
Governance vs. Innovation: How to implement "Module Zero" (legal, GDPR, and security) without killing the creative spirit.

In this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, Eric Naiburg, COO at Scrum.org  and Darrell Fernandes, Executive Advisor at Scrum.org continue to dive into how to make AI a true teammate in product development while answering questions from a recent webinar on the topic. They explore the importance of creating a context library to store domain-specific knowledge, enabling AI to provide accurate, efficient answers. Learn how consistent definitions, thoughtful prompt engineering, and regular updates to your AI context can improve team collaboration, reduce costs, and empower Scrum Masters to guide effective AI usage.