At first glance, Agile methodology and open source development may seem like oil and water—defined sprint cycles and the unpredictable rhythms of open source appear incompatible. Scrum planning emphasizes steady velocity and predictable delivery, while community projects operate on their own timelines and thrive on decentralized contributions.

So, how can teams benefit from Agile without compromising open collaboration?

In this talk, we’ll explore how teams can bridge this gap by recognizing community-owned projects as an external dependency and focusing on what they can control in sprint planning. Using real-world examples, we’ll demonstrate practical automations that help decompose big picture goals into sprintable tasks and synchronize upstream merge requests into planning tools like Jira. With a structured approach like Scrum, teams and community projects alike will benefit from the increased focus on high-value contributions, clear acceptance criteria, and ability to intentionally allocate capacity for open collaboration.