Summary

In February 2026, Thoughtworks hosted a workshop called 'The Future of Software Development' in Deer Valley, Utah, deliberately echoing the 25th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto. About 50 invited participants—Thoughtworkers, software pundits, and clients—gathered for a day and a half of Open Space conference focused on how AI and LLMs are reshaping the profession. Fowler chose not to synthesize the discussions into a single narrative, instead distributing his insights across several fragment posts. The event was held under Chatham House Rule, limiting attribution of comments.

Key Insight

The software industry sees AI and LLMs as a potentially Agile Manifesto-scale inflection point, warranting a similar gathering of practitioners to chart the profession's future direction.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 2

  While it was held in the mountains of Utah as a nod to the 25th anniversary of the writing of Manifesto for Agile Software Development, it was a forward-looking event, focusing on how the rise of AI and LLMs would affect our profession.

• 2

  About 50 or so people were invited, a mixture of Thoughtworkers, software pundits, and clients - all picked for being active in the LLM-fuelled changes.

• 2

  I haven't attempted to make a coherent narrative of what we discussed and learned there.

Tone

reflective