Wendell Killette · Agile Coach · Scrum Master · RTE · PMP-trained PM · AI Governance Advisor

Agile that shows up in the metrics.

From ceremony to ownership.

I help enterprises turn stalled Agile transformations into measurable delivery — moving teams from going through the motions to genuinely owning their outcomes, with the data to prove it. 20+ years across financial services, telecom, aviation, and federal programs.

70→92%
Sprint predictability lifted
−30%
Cycle time reduced
105–125%
Of planned work delivered
−40%
Manual reporting overhead
Zero
Audit findings, regulated cycles
The problem I solve

Most Agile transformations stall after the mechanics go in.

Standups, boards, and PI events get installed — but the outcomes never arrive. Predictability stays low, scope creeps in mid-sprint without trade-off conversations, leaders lose visibility, and teams comply with the ceremonies without owning their delivery. I close that gap, and I put a number on the improvement.

  • Predictability stuck at 60–70%, with chronic carry-over and missed commitments.
  • A new or wobbling Release Train that needs PI Planning stood up and cadence enforced.
  • No delivery visibility — manual reporting, no metrics, no early warning for leaders.
  • Compliant but disengaged teams doing Agile without being Agile.
How I coach

I don't coach by telling.

Real coaching is mostly listening — observing before I advise, collaborating so the answer belongs to the team, not to me. A team that's told what to do depends on the coach; a team that discovers it owns the work.

You don't hand a team ownership. You birth it — by listening, observing, and helping them find their own answer.
The Scrum Master as protector — removing impediments and guarding the team's focus
A Scrum Master earns trust by protecting the team. Read the framework: Trust & Protection →
My delivery framework

The Agile Lanes

Agile isn't one job — it's a system of lanes that have to move together. I map every engagement to the lanes your organization actually needs, so leaders see exactly where value is being driven and nothing drifts.

01 · 🧭 Core strength

Delivery

Core execution

Sprint execution, backlog, ceremonies, and end-to-end value stream delivery across multi-industry teams.

02 · 🔄

Governance & Alignment

Keeping the program on course

PI planning, roadmapping, risk, and AI-assisted dependency tracking across the ART — surfacing cross-team blockers before they derail delivery, and keeping leadership confident Agile isn't chaos.

03 · 🧩

Coaching & Enablement

People & capability

Team and enterprise coaching, SM/PO enablement, training, and change adoption — where transformation sticks.

04 · ⚙️

Technical Agility

Engineering excellence

DevOps, CI/CD, automation, quality, and compliance built into the flow — not bolted on at the end.

05 · 📊

Measurement & Optimization

Proving it works

Flow metrics, team health, OKRs, and continuous improvement loops that make the impact undeniable.

06 · 🧠

Leadership & Strategy

Steering the ship

Agile leadership coaching, org design, and culture shifts that turn adoption into true transformation.

🤝
07 · The foundation under every lane

People, Not Resources

“I build a Dev Family — not a Dev Team.”

The word “resource” turns people into line items. Delivery that lasts comes from people who feel seen, safe, and part of something. This lane runs beneath all the others — and it's what makes the metrics hold long after I'm gone. Culture isn't soft; it's the load-bearing wall.

People, not resources Psychological safety Belonging & shared ownership Individual growth Sustainable pace Celebrate the wins
Wendell Killette coaching a product team — refine agile practices, foster communication, remove impediments
The Agile Coach & your product team

Helping the whole product team deliver.

An Agile coach's job with a product team is specific: help the Product Manager refine agile practices — like backlog management and release planning — foster better communication between the Product Manager and the development team, and remove the impediments that slow delivery down. That's the work I do alongside your product organization.

How we can work together

Engagements built to fit the problem — not a staffing req.

Start small with a diagnostic, or bring me in ongoing. Every engagement is scoped to a measurable outcome and priced to the value it creates.

Bring me in early. The sooner I engage — at ART launch, before PI Planning, at the start of a transformation — the more risk I take off the table. Early engagement is the most cost-effective move in delivery: building it right from the start costs far less than rescuing it later.
Project-based  ·  fixed scope, fixed fee
Best first step

Agile Health Assessment

A 2–4 week diagnostic of your teams or ART — flow metrics, delivery risk, and maturity — ending in a prioritized, practical roadmap you can act on with or without me.

Engagements from $6K
Scale it up

ART / PI Planning Launch

Stand up or rescue an Agile Release Train: PI Planning facilitation, cadence, ceremonies, and a metrics baseline — so the train leaves the station and stays on the rails.

Engagements from $12K
Move a number

90-Day Transformation Sprint

A focused intervention on one outcome — lift predictability, cut cycle time — with a clear before-and-after so the impact is undeniable.

Engagements from $8K / month
Contract & fractional  ·  ongoing
Embedded

Scrum Master

Full- or part-time Scrum Master for one or more teams — running delivery, removing impediments, and coaching toward independence.

From $100 / hour
High-leverage

Fractional RTE / Agile Coach

Senior coaching across your program a few days a month — keeping the train on track, leaders informed, and teams maturing. Maximum impact, minimum overhead.

From $150 / hour
See it on an 8-team train →
Ongoing partnership

Coaching Retainer

A monthly retainer for continuous team and leadership coaching, office hours, and metric reviews — steady momentum without a full-time hire.

From $6K / month
Program level  ·  one accountable owner
The capstone engagement

Delivery Management

One accountable owner for delivery across your teams — not just for the ceremonies running on time. It is the role my four add up to, and I take it end to end: plan and cadence, cross-team dependencies, governance and forecasting, release readiness, and the metrics that prove it landed. Available fractional or embedded.

What the role covers →
  • Scrum Master — servant leader, team enabler
  • RTE — orchestrator, aligner, flow driver
  • Agile Coach — teacher, mentor, culture shaper
  • PMP-trained PM — planner, risk manager
Engagements from $8K / month
Portfolio level  ·  funding, flow, and constraints
Above the team board

Portfolio Management Coaching

Team velocity tells you how a team is doing — not where the organization is stuck. I coach leadership and Portfolio Owners on the level above: cycle time, throughput and lead time read across value streams, WIP limits agreed before the over-commitment, XL epics sliced into work that actually ships, and funding moved off the project and onto the value stream. Most of it gets committed during PI Planning, where expectations are ironed out in the open.

How I coach the portfolio →
  • Portfolio flow metrics — the bottleneck, named
  • WIP & capacity — commit to what you can finish
  • Epic & feature slicing — deliverable, not aspirational
  • Lean & value stream budgeting — fund outcomes
Engagements from $8K / month
AI Governance advisory

Governing AI delivery is the next frontier for Agile leaders.

Governance at the speed of delivery.

AI is already inside your PI cadence. Teams are shipping AI-enabled features with undefined Definition of Done criteria, no governance checkpoints, and delivery leaders who cannot articulate risk to stakeholders. I bring the governance vocabulary and practitioner credibility to close that gap — certified in ISO/IEC 38507:2022 AI governance, grounded in NIST AI RMF principles, and hands-on with the AI tools your teams are actually building with.

  • Certified: ISO/IEC 38507:2022 AI Governance, with working knowledge of NIST AI RMF principles
  • Builder + governor: I don't just govern AI teams — I build with these tools directly
AI Governance Coaching — Agile by Killette: delivery team and leadership perspectives on governing AI end to end
The AI Governance imperative in every delivery team. Open the card full size
The delivery reality

AI is already in your sprint backlog. Governance isn't.

Definition of Done

No Definition of Done for AI features

Teams are shipping AI-enabled stories with no acceptance criteria for model behavior, bias, or explainability. Your DoD needs an AI governance layer.

Leadership

Delivery leaders without AI risk vocabulary

When the CIO asks about responsible AI in your ART, can your RTE answer? I can — and I can prepare your delivery leaders to answer it too.

Regulated programs

Federal & regulated programs require it

OMB guidance, VA data modernization, and AOUSC modernization programs are intersecting with AI. Zero audit findings means zero AI governance gaps.

Certifications & practitioner experience

The rarest combination: framework knowledge and hands-on delivery.

  • ISO/IEC 38507:2022AI Governance AI Governance for Organizations
  • Introduction to AI GovernanceAI Governance Foundations of responsible AI oversight
  • PMI Gen AI for Project ManagersAI Delivery Generative AI applied to delivery practice
  • CSM + CSPAgile Delivery Certified Scrum Master + Certified Scrum Professional
  • NIST AI RMF principlesFederal AI Governance Working knowledge — federal program context
40%
Reduced manual ART reporting via Copilot automation
20+
Years enterprise Agile delivery across regulated environments
Zero
Audit findings across all federal & financial delivery programs

Ready to build AI governance into your delivery cadence?

Book a 30-minute conversation. I'll assess your team's current AI delivery posture and where governance gaps are hiding in your PI cadence.

Book a governance call

Remote · Available immediately · Financial services · Federal programs · Enterprise Agile

Why work with me

Twenty years of results — not a résumé of frameworks.

1

Outcomes you can measure

Predictability 70%→92%. Cycle time cut 30%. Sustained 105–125% delivery. Reporting overhead down 40%. I lead with numbers because that's how leaders decide.

2

Proven under pressure

Delivery through audit and compliance at Charles Schwab, USAA, LPL Financial, and the IRS — zero audit findings. If your environment is high-stakes, I've been there.

3

I coach to ownership

I take teams through the full Shu-Ha-Ri arc so they can run without me. The goal isn't to be needed forever — it's to leave you stronger.

4

AI-Enabled Delivery + Responsible Governance

I don't just advise teams on AI — I build with these tools directly, and I hold the governance credentials to keep that work inside responsible AI standards. How I govern AI delivery →

5

Team and program scale

From a single Scrum team to a 15–17 person onshore/offshore train as RTE — I operate wherever the bottleneck actually is.

6

The human element

I lead as a servant-leader and motivator. Metrics improve, but so does morale — teams that celebrate their wins keep delivering long after I'm gone.

Trusted across regulated, high-stakes delivery

Delivered as Scrum Master, RTE, and Agile Coach across financial services, telecom, aviation, healthcare, and federal programs.

In their words

What colleagues & leaders say

Teammates, program leaders, and the clients who engaged me — in their own words.

One of his most notable strengths is his ability to foster a team culture grounded in psychological safety… genuine care for teammates as people, not just contributors within a process.
Dave Martin
Sr. Manager, Software Development & Engineering · STS
A year and a half at Charles Schwab as our Scrum Master… a remarkable ability to drive productivity while maintaining a positive, inclusive team culture.
Warren Gonsalvez
Sr. Business Systems Analyst · Charles Schwab
A highly effective Senior Scrum Master, well respected by his teams and leadership at LPL Financial… a person that could be counted on at all times.
Charles Cain
Executive Coach, ICF PCC · LPL Financial
About Wendell

Agile transformation leader, coach, and motivator.

I've known my purpose since I was thirteen: to help.

That's not a line from a leadership course — it's just true. Helping people is, honestly, my dopamine; it's where my joy comes from. Most people draw a line between their work happiness and their personal happiness — I never learned how. For me the joy is the same whatever the source: help a neighbor, help my family, help a team find its footing, and it all lands in the same place.

That's why servant leadership isn't a style I put on for work. It's who I am — and it's the reason it works. When I coach a team I'm not managing resources or running a playbook; I'm doing the thing I've wanted to do my whole life: helping people become the best version of themselves, together. The metrics follow — but the reason I show up is the people.

For more than 20 years I've partnered with executives and teams to turn modernization initiatives into real business outcomes. I help organizations decide where to begin, streamline operations, implement responsible AI governance, optimize processes, upskill their people, and build capabilities that last well beyond the engagement.

My foundation is engineering: a BS in Electronic Engineering (DeVry Institute, 1984), followed by years as a field engineer and in quality and process improvement before I ever ran a standup. That's why release readiness, test strategy, and non-functional requirements are conversations I have rather than escalate.

I hold CSM and CSP certifications, Leading SAFe training, PMP training, Coaching Skills for Leaders & Managers, Jira Align Program Essentials, Jira Fundamentals, Kanban — Lean Scheduling & JIT, and PMI Gen AI for Project Managers — plus two AI governance credentials: Introduction to AI Governance and AI Governance for Organizations: Applying ISO/IEC 38507:2022. I've coached teams through SAFe, Scrum, and Kanban at enterprise scale. Based in Keller, TX — available for on-site, hybrid, or remote engagements.

See the full track record Download my résumé (PDF)
Teams at work

Delivery is a team sport.

Real teams, real wins — the part of delivery that doesn't show up on a burndown.

Agile by Killette

The Manifesto

Delivery is a human endeavor. So this is what I build for:

  • Ownership through ceremony
  • People over resources
  • Outcomes over activity
  • Honest conversation over comfortable silence
  • Sustainable pace over burnout
  • Teams that run without me over dependence

And through all of it, one commitment never moves: to deliver measurable value — the client's ROI.

From ceremony to ownership. — Wendell Killette
Wendell Killette teaching the Agile by Killette Manifesto to a team
Free resources & field notes

Practical tools, not just talk.

A growing library from the field — frameworks, playbooks, and an interactive diagnostic you can use today, whether we work together or not.

Let's move a number.

Whether your transformation has stalled, your train is wobbling, or you just need a seasoned pair of hands — start with a conversation. No agency, no markup, no runaround.

Email wendell@agilebykillette.com Call 469-774-2233 Connect on LinkedIn

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