Toptal Project Management Expert
What Is Agile? A Philosophy That Develops Through Practice
Agile’s flexibility is attractive, but its lack of specificity leads teams to misinterpret its applications. Agile expert Umar Ali explains how he helps teams prioritize values over practices.

Umar Ali
Umar is a project manager, Agile coach, and Scrum master who specializes in leading Agile transformations for organizations and teams. He leverages Agile ways of working to improve software quality and push for process and cultural improvements that allow self-organizing teams—remote, on-site, and offshore—to flourish.
Streamline Jira Workflows With These Best Practices
Jira’s flexibility can make managing projects complicated if your setup isn’t optimized for success. Use these Jira workflow best practices to strengthen the efficiency and clarity of your projects.
Kelly Provost
Kelly Provost is a business analyst and project manager with more than 20 years of experience leading Agile teams. Her former clients include JPMorgan Chase and IBM, as well as startups and organizations such as BMW Financial Services and the Ohio Department of Commerce.
Tracking the Scrum Master Growth Path
Whether you’re exploring the fundamentals or refining your leadership skills, these recommendations will help you chart a path toward becoming a true transformation expert.

Anna Zakoyan
Anna is an Agile coach, senior Scrum master, trainer, and consultant with 16 years of experience in project and team management. She has helped more than 50 companies, including SGS Digicomply, Krisp, Ucraft, HSBC, Ameriabank, and Joomag, transform how teams collaborate and how work gets done.
Tips for Effective Agile Budgeting and Forecasting
Adaptability is a core pillar of Agile. As such, Agile budget planning needs to be approached with a flexible mindset. These tips can help you deliver projects on budget without sacrificing quality.

Katie Shevlin
Katie has more than a decade of experience reporting on innovations in business and technology. She has worked on content for brands including McDonald’s, Telstra, and Hewlett Packard, and is Senior Editor of the Toptal Projects and Product Blogs.
Agile Transformations: Why Leaders Resist and How to Bring Them on Board
Agile transformations require significant organizational change, which can be unsettling for the C-suite. These tips can help Agile coaches address leaders’ uncertainty and create sustainable agility.

Andy Deighton
Andy is an Agile expert and Professional Scrum Master who has introduced and implemented Agile practices at Lloyds Bank, National Grid, and others. A former Java web developer for BMW, Andy brings his deep understanding of software development teams to his work as a coach for both startups and multinational companies.
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Hybrid Project Management: A Middle Ground Between Agile and Waterfall
Agile project management strives for adaptability, while Waterfall strives for predictability. A hybrid approach that marries the two can be challenging to implement but beneficial for some projects.

Greig O'Brien
Greig has more than 20 years of experience as a writer, editor, and publishing team leader at successful commercial and B2B titles.
Scrum Master vs. Agile Coach: Why Successful Transformations Need Both
During an Agile transformation, leaders often assume that the Agile coach role can be undertaken by a Scrum master. While they share similar traits, these roles have scopes that differ greatly.

Tony Amos
Tony is a software engineer turned Agile professional who uses his development experience to guide organizations and teams to success.
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