Julie Chickering
PMP, Certified Scrum Trainer, Accredited Kanban Trainer & Agile Coach
About Julie Chickering
PMP, Certified Scrum Trainer, Accredited Kanban Trainer & Agile Coach
Julie Chickering embodies the ideal of the servant leader — pragmatic, not dogmatic. She teaches Agile the way it was meant to be: as a pathway to business agility, not just framework compliance. The most important learning in her classes happens beyond the Scrum Guide and Agile Manifesto — in the space where real-world techniques, mindsets, and strategies enable true agility.
Julie began her career as a support agent at Sabre (part of American Airlines) before moving into development team roles. She joined one of the company’s first Agile pilot programs and quickly became hooked on agility’s power to transform businesses. After earning her ScrumMaster® certification in 2005, she returned to American Airlines as an Enterprise Agile Consultant. Since then, she’s built a career as an expert enterprise coach, in-demand trainer, and Agile thought leader.
With a strong background in traditional project management, Julie earned her PMP® certification early in her career and spent years leading complex projects using classical methodologies. She knows the strengths and limitations of waterfall approaches first-hand, which makes her uniquely relatable to project managers stepping into Agile. Her students often comment that Julie “speaks their language” — able to connect the dots between PMBOK-style planning and Agile practices in a way that feels practical and grounded. She also holds the PMI-ACP®, deepening her expertise across the full spectrum of project delivery approaches.
Her Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM) students don’t just pass the exam — most crush it on the first try and leave with skills they can apply immediately. Her Certified Scrum Product Owner® (CSPO) students learn to see Scrum through a business lens, focusing on practices that drive customer value and measurable impact. And in her Scrum Better with Kanban (SBK) courses, Julie brings hybrid agility to life. One student summed it up best:
Julie’s command of the material is nothing short of breathtaking. She didn’t just teach; she dismantled the wall between theory and practice, revealing the hidden levers of team efficiency… with unmatched mastery, she guided us through an interactive learning journey that shattered old assumptions and replaced them with pragmatic, actionable insights.
Not just interested in getting her course attendees to pass the exam, Julie offers coaching in each of her classes, so that attendees can learn practical lessons to apply in their workplaces. She strives to create a safe learning environment for all her students, so that they can feel comfortable asking questions, giving feedback, and “sharing the air.”
This is Julie’s style in every course — CSM, CSPO, Advanced CSM or Scrum Better with Kanban. Whether students are learning Scrum foundations, deepening product ownership skills, or blending Kanban and Scrum, she creates interactive spaces where learners leave with practices they can apply right away.
Julie is a Certified Scrum Trainer® (CST), Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT), PMP, and PMI-ACP. She has shaped Agile practices since 2004, bringing leadership experience across industries from Sabre and Travelocity to Rally Software and the Fortune 500. Along the way, she was mentored by Agile pioneers such as Jean Tabaka and Jim Highsmith, lessons she now pays forward to her students.
I believe in the art of the possible. Learning from Agile Manifesto signatory Jim Highsmith and other leaders in this space early in my career shaped what was possible for me. I hope I can pass on not just my knowledge, but my enthusiasm for learning and developing the world of Agile.
She also served as president and board member of the Agile Leadership Network (ALN), a global nonprofit dedicated to expanding Agile’s impact through community.
Julie’s mission is clear: ditch the dogma, fuel true agility, and turn Agile knowledge into business-changing results.
The Scrum Kanban Practitioner course offered by Kanban University and Scrum Alliance, led by Julie Chickering CST, PMP, PMI-ACP of Hyperdrive wasn't just another certification—it was quite a seismic shift in how I think about project delivery. Julie's command of the material is nothing short of breathtaking. She didn't just teach; she surgically dismantled the wall between theory and practice, revealing the hidden levers that control a team's efficiency. With an unparalleled mastery, she guided us through an interactive learning journey that shattered old assumptions and replaced them with pragmatic and actionable insights. Her zest for Agile is commendable, and it made every moment of the course feel like a pivotal discovery. Her consistently questioning the opinions of the attendees at every step of the course helped us gauge the problem(s) from distinct angles/perspectives along with the ponder over the rationale behind the actually appropriate solution(s). The content itself was an explosive deep dive into hybrid agility. We didn’t just learn about concepts; we learned how to wield them. We uncovered the power of visualizing flow to expose bottlenecks, the strategic necessity of setting Work in Progress (WIP) limits to accelerate delivery, and the predictive power of lead time to build unshakable confidence with stakeholders. These weren't just principles; they were tools for unlocking a new level of performance. If you are ready to stop just practicing Scrum and start mastering it, this course is not an option—it's a requirement. This is the single best investment you can make in your professional development this year. I cannot recommend it highly enough!
Overview
About Julie Chickering
- Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), Scrum Alliance
- Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute
- PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Project Management Institute
- Accredited Kanban Trainer, Kanban University
- Certified Profit Streams Trainer (CSP-T), Applied Frameworks
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