Who We Are

Tamara Runyon

Tamara Runyon is a Scrum trainer, enterprise Agile coach, and founder of Applied Scrum. Whether teaching Scrum to individuals in one of her CSM or CSPO workshops, or helping enterprise organizations adopt and scale Agile practices, Tamara is committed to arming people with the power to make a difference in their workplaces. 
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With over 30 years of experience in business management and software development, Tamara has been bringing Scrum to the masses for more than 15 of those years. She has worked with globally-known companies such as Intel, Key Bank, CapitalOne, Gerson-Lehrman Group, Sandia, Washington Mutual, and many more. She has authored and contributed to several Agile industry publications, including being the lead author of the research paper AgileEVM - Earned Value Management in Scrum Projects. Her techniques in Agile EVM are now used by major corporations in the defense industry. 

Learn more about Tamara's leadership and training credentials. 

Tommi Johnstone

Tommi Johnstone is the acting ScrumMaster and Jill-of-all-trades for Applied Scrum. Among other things, she manages operations, coordinates classes, and generally does whatever needs doing. With a strong background in Scrum and Agile, including time spent coaching and supporting Agile teams, Tommi is passionate about organizational change and delights in providing a foundation from which Applied Scrum can make the world of work a better place. 

Tommi is also the founder of TommiWorks LLC, where she helps solopreneurs and small businesses grow and thrive with her organizational superpowers of herding cats and putting ducks in rows. In addition to helping small businesses implement their dreams, she enjoys quilting, gardening, reading and learning Japanese. 
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Tommi lives in a century-old house in Portland, Oregon with a nurse-hero husband, a codependent dog and a tailless cat. 

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Joann Liang

Joann is the newest addition to Applied Scrum since this past February, with just over a year of marketing experience. Joann is the lead for Applied Scrum's monthly newsletter, putting together curated Agile content that will help expand Applied Scrum's digital footprint.

After her last role, Joann found an opportunity to expand her interest into digital marketing and is gaining momentum quickly through a mix of nonprofit and corporate work. Joann believes storytelling is a business essential and hopes to bring organizations in front of wider audiences by amplifying mission values and the clients who've benefit from them. 
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Fun fact: Joann is also a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) '21 alumna through Tamara's program, and is the Product Owner for these newsletters! 

What We Do

​At Applied Scrum, a division of Agile Project Management, Inc. (APMI), we work with teams and organizations to create a better way of working. We know that focusing on the human side of software development creates happier, more productive teams producing higher quality products that clients love.

While much of our work is with software development teams, we are also passionate about bringing innovation to new and non-traditional industries that may benefit from the Scrum framework. Most recently, APMI engaged in a multi-year study with the University of Oregon to introduce and adapt Scrum for use in the academic scientific research environment, resulting in a unique new version of the framework that we termed LabScrum.

Whether bringing these tried and true methods to software development or exploring the use of Scrum in unique industries, we carry decades of knowledge, research, and real life experience with us everywhere we go. 

We provide expert training, coaching, and consulting services to organizations of all sizes and skill levels as they progress on their Agile journey. Our premier Enterprise Agile coach and Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainer, Tamara Sulaiman Runyon, supports and facilitates management teams as they discover, plan, and implement their Agile transformation roadmap for organizational change. Services range from management, program, and team coaching and consulting to both certified and non-certified training in a variety of Agile disciplines . 

Applied Scrum is wholly owned by Advanced Project Management, Inc. (APMI).