Mike Cohn
Author, Agile Practitioner, and Founder of Mountain Goat Software
I have spent my career helping software teams work in ways that are more collaborative, adaptable, and realistic.
I began using Scrum in 1995 and founded Mountain Goat Software to help teams apply agile ideas to the realities of developing products. Since then, I have worked with organizations ranging from startups to some of the world’s largest companies.
I am the author of User Stories Applied, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. I also co-founded the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance.
Today, I focus on designing Mountain Goat Software courses, developing our trainers, and creating practical guidance through articles, videos, tools, and my weekly tips.
Using Scrum since 1995
Co-founder of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance
Author of three influential agile books
From Programmer to Agile Practitioner
I began my career as a programmer working in C and C++. I later wrote books about Java and moved into technology leadership roles at companies ranging from startups to the Fortune 40.
That experience gave me a broad view of software development. I understood the technical work, but I also saw how unrealistic plans, unclear priorities, poor communication, and management decisions made that work harder than it needed to be.
I had always worked iteratively, but running my first Scrum project in 1995 gave me a clearer way to think about product development.
Scrum created frequent opportunities to learn, adjust plans, improve the product, and change how the team worked together. It gave teams a way to make progress without pretending everything could be known in advance.
I became convinced that these ideas could help many more teams, provided people understood the reasoning behind the practices. That has shaped my work ever since.
Helping Shape the Agile Community
I was a founding member of the Agile Alliance and a co-founder of the Scrum Alliance. I served on the boards of both organizations and co-taught the first Certified ScrumMaster course with Ken Schwaber in 2003.
Those organizations helped Scrum and agile reach a much broader audience.
My own work has focused on what happens after the initial introduction: how teams plan when the future is uncertain, how they split work without losing value, how they use estimates responsibly, and how leaders create conditions in which teams can succeed.
I have spent decades exploring questions such as:
- What makes a useful user story?
- How should teams plan when much of the future remains uncertain?
- How can large pieces of work be split while preserving value?
- What should an estimate communicate?
- How can leaders support teams without taking over?
- How should Scrum be adapted without weakening it?
Useful answers require principles, experience, and judgment. Those are the qualities I try to bring to everything I write and teach.
Books by Mike Cohn
My books grew from problems I repeatedly encountered while working with software teams.
User Stories Applied
User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development explains how teams can use stories to understand user needs, plan releases and sprints, and keep conversations focused on value. The book helped establish many of the user story practices teams continue to use today.
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Agile Estimating and Planning
Agile Estimating and Planning presents a practical approach to estimating, planning, and forecasting in uncertain environments. It covers story points, velocity, release planning, sprint planning, prioritization, and ways to create useful plans without pretending the future is completely predictable.
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Succeeding with Agile
Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum focuses on adopting and improving Scrum across teams and organizations. It addresses the technical, organizational, and leadership changes needed to make Scrum useful beyond a single team or pilot project.
Learn MoreSpeaking and Industry Leadership
I have keynoted every major agile conference and have spoken to software and product organizations around the world.
My presentations focus on practical ways to improve Scrum, user stories, estimating, planning, product ownership, and agile leadership.
The questions audiences ask have also influenced my work. They reveal where teams are struggling, where common advice is failing, and which ideas need to be explained more clearly.
What Guides My Work
Agile practices should help people make better decisions.
A user story should lead to a useful conversation. An estimate should help someone decide what to do. A sprint review should produce feedback that affects the product. A retrospective should change how the team works.
The practice has little value once its purpose has been lost.
That is why my work emphasizes principles and judgment. Teams need enough understanding to decide what to do when priorities change, work proves harder than expected, stakeholders disagree, or a textbook answer does not fit.
I want people to understand the ideas well enough to use them without needing an outside expert beside them.
My Role at Mountain Goat Software Today
My primary role today is shaping what Mountain Goat Software teaches and how we teach it.
I design our courses, exercises, and supporting materials. I select and train our instructors and continue working closely with them as the courses evolve.
Mountain Goat Software trainers deliver our private courses live online and in person. They are experienced agile practitioners who have been carefully prepared to teach the material and help participants apply it to their own work.
I remain involved by:
- Developing and updating course content
- Training and supporting our instructors
- Reviewing feedback from participants and clients
- Creating new examples, tools, and exercises
- Refining how difficult agile concepts are explained
- Keeping our teaching practical and grounded
This allows more teams to benefit from my work while receiving training from an instructor who can focus fully on their participants and organization.
Practical Guidance You Can Use
I have been writing about agile and Scrum since 2005.
The Mountain Goat Software resource library includes hundreds of articles, guides, videos, presentations, and free tools covering:
- Scrum
- User stories and story splitting
- Product backlogs and refinement
- Story points, estimating, and planning
- Product ownership
- Agile leadership
- Team collaboration
- Forecasting and uncertainty
I also send one practical agile tip by email each Thursday. Each tip focuses on one idea a team or leader can put to use.
Away From Work
I live in northern Idaho with my wife and our Havanese dogs.
I enjoy chess, working out, spending time on the lake, and collecting more hot sauces than any household reasonably needs.
Bring This Approach to Your Teams
Mountain Goat Software offers private training for intact teams, groups of teams, product owners, Scrum Masters, and leaders.
Every course reflects the practical approach I have developed through decades of writing, teaching, and working with software organizations. Courses are delivered live online or in person by trainers I have selected and prepared.