@mikebowler.ca
Helping organizations improve how they deliver value for over 25 years. Using a mix of agile technical practices (XP), workflow design, and applied psychology/neuroscience. When not doing any of that, he can often be found in the woods with a camera.
JiraMetrics v2.22 has been released. Lots of subtle improvements specifically for Scrum boards, and general bug fixes. Full changelog at jirametrics.org/changes/
What is this? If you use Jira and want actionable insights into your data, this open source tool will give you that.
The foreground is a snowy forest that had been burned in a forest fire decades earlier. Dead tree trunks stand up with no branches or foliage. In the background, is a sunset with pastel colours from purple to orange and yellow.
It was three years ago today that I took this photo. It's one of my favourite sunset photos and is also a sharp reminder of a mistake I made that could have had serious consequences. It’s a time that I should have quit and didn’t.
unconsciousagile.com/2025/05/20/k...
Nothing quite like digging into a poorly designed API to bring out the sarcasm. Today, I dig into the Jira API to get sprint data.
agiletechnicalexcellence.com/2026/01/29/j...
Goodhart’s Law says that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
Frequently when I talk about that, everyone nods their heads and then immediately makes a target out of the measures they’re looking at.
Continued at improvingflow.com/2026/01/20/g...
As you've undoubtedly picked up by now, I talk a lot about neuroscience, psychology, hypnosis, body language, etc as they relate to Agile methods. I'm frequently asked what books I recommend as an introduction, so I maintain a list, and I've just updated it again
unconsciousagile.com/2021/06/13/r...
If we want to make better decisions, we first need to recognize our own biases, and I talk about some of those biases in this article.
improvingflow.com/2026/01/06/c...
When faced with the question of “when will we be done?”, the most factually accurate answer we can give is one from a probabilistic forecast. Yet counter-intuitively, despite being the most correct answer, it’s not what people want. They want a deterministic answer, even if it’s less accurate.
In fairness, that happened when search engines appeared as well. And when sites like Stack Overflow or Wikipedia arrived. The key thing that seems different this time is that we're less critical of the answer we're given. It's just accepted without considering accuracy.
Cover of book, Software Estimation Without Guessing - Effective Planning in an Imperfect World
Here's a deal for you:
My book, Software Estimation Without Guessing - Effective Planning in an Imperfect World
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pragprog.com/titles/gdest...
Growth vs Fixed mindsets and how AI is reinforcing the wrong one.
unconsciousagile.com/2026/01/05/g...
It’s also a set of foundational skills that underpins much of what we do in the coaching world, even though we almost never discuss it in those terms.
Continued on my blog: unconsciousagile.com/2024/01/04/w...
Actual hypnosis has been used to remove fears and phobias, to heal trauma, and increase confidence or happiness. It’s provided pain management, even during surgery. It’s been used to change behaviours, to improve sports performance, and to help people quit smoking and other addictions.
You may have even seen a live hypnosis show, and while there will certainly be real hypnosis being done, most of what you’re going to notice is showmanship and entertainment.
Today, January 4, is World Hypnosis Day. If you’re like most people, all you know about hypnosis is what you’ve seen on TV or in movies, and while entertaining, that’s mostly wrong.
The things I write about here are a great examples of Explicit Knowledge. They're things that can be easily taught through the written word or perhaps in a video. Then there is Tacit Knowledge that can only be learned through experience and I wrote about that: unconsciousagile.com/2025/12/05/t...
Who had "adversarial poetry as an attack vector for AI" on their 2025 bingo card?
arxiv.org/html/2511.15...
While I'm promoting things, my Retrospective Magic video course is still 50% off this week, for Black Friday.
www.retrospectivemagic.com
Social media is often a firehose. If you like the things I write and don't want to miss any of them, then sign up for my free email newsletter at the link below. As a bonus, you'll get a copy of my video course Flow Metrics Basics.
funnel.gargoylesoftware.com/newsletter
Do we want to do the bare minimum or do we want much better than that?
I've written more about this motivation model:
unconsciousagile.com/2023/05/21/m...
We could give them what they're asking for, or we could try to get them even further to the right. The best results would come from being Intrinsically motivated, but anything further to the right will be a win.
When someone is asking for a deadline, that tells us that they're currently Amotivated and they want at least some motivation. That deadline will shift us into External motivation which will at least get us moving forward, even if it's the least effective way possible.
The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) motivation model identifies six different stages of motivation ranging from Amotivation (not motivated at all) all the way through to Intrinsic (the work is enjoyable for it's own sake).
I heard “It’s easier to get things done when there is a deadline”, and that tells me something about motivation, or more specifically, lack of it.
If you've ever taken one of my classes then there's a good chance you know what I mean when I say "sometimes we just need to pick up the fax machine". If you haven't heard this one yet, then buckle up for a crazy story.
unconsciousagile.com/2025/11/18/j...
Small clusters of LEGO representing different ideas, all linked by different kinds of physical connectors.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released a great case study on how they used LEGO® Serious Play® to do threat modeling around digital identity. I've written about that here: unconsciousagile.com/2025/11/11/L...
A single waterfall that splits into multiple smaller falls as it comes down the hill.
More waterfalls, today in Naramata, BC, Canada
In the days that we wrote user stories on physical cards, we deliberately handed out small pieces of paper and large sharpies. We deliberately wanted fewer words on the card.
People who write stories in systems like Jira often miss that point. Those tools allow us to write novels, and so we do.
I wrote about risk management, illustrated with a hike through grizzly bear country. improvingflow.com/2025/07/27/r...
One of the mistakes we make is assuming that people will make logical and rational decisions to optimize for the perfect overall outcome.
I wrote about this, with an example from a recent hiking trip at unconsciousagile.com/2025/08/05/o...
Helmcken Falls in #WellsGrayProvincialPark. One of the tallest in Canada, with a drop of 140m
