Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast – BONUS Agile Tour Vienna 2025: Building Community-Driven Agile Excellence

Host: Vasco Duarte
Guests: Robert Ruzitschka (Senior Principal Engineer, RBI), Sabina Lammert (Founder & Agile Coach, Lead Venture), Richard Brenner (Agile Coach, past guest)
Release Date: August 30, 2025

Episode Overview

This special episode centers on Agile Tour Vienna 2025—an annual, community-driven Agile conference in Vienna. Host Vasco Duarte engages organizers Robert Ruzitschka, Sabina Lammert, and Richard Brenner in a lively discussion about the event’s mission, what makes it unique, the value of strong local Agile communities, and the current challenges facing the Agile world. The conversation combines practical insights with personal reflections, offering a glimpse into both the conference’s distinctiveness and the enduring need for community-oriented Agile events.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Agile Tour Vienna?

• Personal Journeys to Organizing

  • Richard shares his progression from attendee, to speaker, to organizer, highlighting a sense of “giving back” (02:49).
  • Quote:
    "It was kind of an honor to join this organizing team because I knew the tour so long … it was like a great thing for me to now give something back to the community." —Richard (03:36)

• Event Mission & Community Focus

  • Sabina emphasizes Agile Tour Vienna as “an event from the community for the community,” prioritizing grassroots input over corporate interests (03:44).
  • Quote:
    "It feels always like coming back to a family and everyone is really supporting each other." —Sabina (04:38)
  • Robert stresses the balance between a local focus and the inclusion of ideas from external speakers to keep the community vibrant (04:48).

2. What Makes It Different?

• Community-Driven, Not Sales-Pitched

  • Sabina contrasts it with other conferences, noting the participation of real practitioners and peer-to-peer learning (06:06).
  • The design deliberately facilitates interactions, networking, and informal peer coaching during breaks (07:00).

• Local Meets Global

  • The event intentionally invites international speakers while highlighting Vienna’s unique Agile context (07:10).

• Intimate Scale & Atmosphere

  • Sabina, Richard, and Robert express pride in the event's more intimate size, which makes networking genuine and personal (12:38).
  • Quote:
    “We are, at the end of the day, you know, new people...because it is so small. So you have a lot of opportunities to get in touch one with another. And this is what I like a lot compared to other conferences that try to get bigger and bigger.” —Sabina (12:38)

3. What to Expect at Agile Tour Vienna 2025

• Program Composition

  • Language Diversity: Always at least one English-language track for international attendees, and several German-language talks (08:29).
  • Topical Breadth: Sessions span engineering, team coaching, business agility, product topics, and more, determined by what the community currently cares about (08:29).

• Highlighted Speakers & Workshops

  • Keynote by Dave Farley — Emphasized as a major draw for engineering-focused attendees (10:23).
  • Talks & Workshops from Local Experts — Ensures value and relevance for the local Agile scene (10:23).
  • Comic Agile Workshop — “Real human creativity” as a counterbalance to tech fads like AI (10:23).
  • Keynote by Mirela Moose on Product Operations — Addressing a trending area for the community (13:51).
  • DevOps Game Workshop — Experiential DevOps learning through playful simulation (13:51).

• Hospitality & Venue

  • The event is held in the historic “Europa House” (an old castle), described as magical and contributing to a high-quality experience (12:38).
  • Noteworthy amenities: famous barista bar and “fast lane” for coffee aficionados (11:49).

• Post-Event Resources

  • All talks are recorded and published for free on YouTube and the Agile Tour Vienna website, supporting wider access and learning (15:16).

4. Current Challenges Facing the Agile Community

• From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility

  • Richard reflects on layoffs and shifting industry perspectives, advocating for contextually-driven, pragmatic agility:
    “The biggest challenge is that we go from concept based agility to context based agility. There is no one framework to rule them all ... We go away from the big transformations to solving concrete problems.” (16:44)

• “Agile is Dead” & Valuing Adaptability Over Rigid Methods

  • Sabina rebuts the “Agile is dead” claim, stressing the importance of value-based, reflective thinking, complex problem solving, and ongoing inspection and adaptation (19:22).
  • Quote:
    “A solution from today might not be the right solution in three weeks or three years. So we have constantly to challenge ourselves to reflect and … adapt.” —Sabina (20:44)

• Resilience & Discipline in Challenging Times

  • Robert cautions that crises can trigger regression to old patterns. He advocates using events like Agile Tour Vienna to reinforce community knowledge, values, and constructive discipline (21:16). “In times of crisis, people fall back to very old school patterns ... We need to keep up the spirit.” —Robert (22:30)

• Host’s Reflection on Discipline

  • Vasco underscores the “enormous amount of discipline” Agile brings to software engineering, challenging misconceptions of Agile as lax or undisciplined (22:30–25:25).
  • Quote:
    “Continuous integration. Think about the amount of discipline that you need … I’ve never seen so much discipline as I’ve seen in Agile teams.” —Vasco (23:25)

Memorable Quotes & Key Timestamps

• 02:49 — Richard: “It was kind of an honor to join this organizing team because I knew the tour so long … to give something back.”
• 04:38 — Sabina: “It feels always like coming back to a family and everyone is really supporting each other.”
• 12:38 — Sabina: “You have a lot of opportunities to get in touch one with another … compared to other conferences that try to get bigger.”
• 16:44 — Richard: “The biggest challenge is that we go from concept based agility to context based agility ... There is no one framework to rule them all.”
• 20:44 — Sabina: “A solution from today might not be the right solution in three weeks or three years. … we have constantly to challenge ourselves to reflect and … adapt.”
• 22:30 — Robert: “In times of crisis, people fall back to very old school patterns ... We need to keep up the spirit.”
• 23:25 — Vasco: “I’ve never seen so much discipline as I’ve seen in Agile teams.”
• 25:53 — Robert: “At least there is a different kind of discipline, one that I would consider enabling us to do better things in a more sustainable way … I’m happy we were able to get rid of the second one [discipline forced upon us].”

Where to Learn More / Connect with Speakers

• Richard Brenner: LinkedIn
• Sabina Lammert: LinkedIn | leadventure.de (free workshop resources)
• Robert Ruzitschka: LinkedIn | Substack (link in show notes)

Conclusion

This episode offers a compelling look at Agile Tour Vienna’s unique community-centric approach—an environment built for genuine connection, learning, and mutual support. The organizers balance local flavors with top-tier international content, all while reflecting deeply on the evolving challenges and opportunities of the Agile movement in 2025. Their emphasis on humility, real experience, reflective practice, and the right kind of discipline frames the conference as a vital touchstone for the Central European Agile community and beyond.

For show notes, event links, and more, visit scrummastertoolbox.org.