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Your search returned 5 matching documents
Agile Software Development with Scrum
by
Ken Schwaber,Mike Beedle
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Prentice Hall
1 edition
October 2001
158 pages
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Reviewed by Frank Carver, June 2002
      (6 of 10)
This book is a strange mixture of trendy agile methodology and dusty corporate management. My guess is that it has been hurriedly re-edited based on an old draft to try and catch the Extreme Programming (XP) bandwagon.
Scrum is fundamentally a management technique, aimed at getting the most from development teams. As such it shares some principles with the new programming methodologies but, tellingly, many of the things which can lower the stress and help make software development fun are absent. There's no "40 hour week", developers are encouraged to put in whatever is necessary, even if it means working all night. There's no "Pair Programming", and mere programmers are actively discouraged from contacting the customers or users to get instant answers and decisions.
Where Scrum scores is in heavyweight, bureaucratic organizations, and its team isolation techniques can help to get a more extreme approach off the ground. Be prepared to abandon it like a first-stage booster if you do get XP into orbit, though.
The production quality of this book is poor. The illustrations are laughable pixelated screen dumps, and the same information could have been got across in a book half the size.
If you are a team leader of a project in chaos, and need a way out, this might be just what you need. But don't ever forget that your team are people, not just "resources".
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Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional)
by
Ken Schwaber
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Microsoft Press
1 edition
March 2004
192 pages
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Reviewed by Jeanne Boyarsky, April 2012
 (7 of 10)
"Agile Project Management with Scrum" is a series of case studies to make points about using Scrum properly.
The book begins with an overview of Scrum. The majority of it is introducing a company and showing how they (mis) used Scrum. It's an excellent example of learning from the mistakes of others rather than repeating them on your own.
This really gets called out in the lessons learned section for each case study. I would have liked some tips on how project managers should deal with "insulating the team" from problems. One example was extreme where he hired an investigator to track down someone with the knowledge that went on a planned vacation. Someone should have asked for it beforehand. Scrum isn't supposed to be about individual heroes and I felt this was space that could have been used for a common scenario.
In one diagram, there is a typo of "Spring" instead of "Sprint". It doesn't detract from the reading at all, but I was entertained because I do that a lot!
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Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum (Agile Software Development Series)
by
Craig Larman, Bas Vodde
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Addison-Wesley Professional
1 edition
December 2008
368 pages
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Reviewed by Jeanne Boyarsky, February 2009
(7 of 10)
"Scaling Lean & Agile Development" has a subtitle "Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum." The vast majority of the book applies to software development in general (or at least agile development) and is not specific to Scrum. Two chapters are dedicated to Scrum and some others mention it in passing. Much more space was dedicated to lean practices and Toyota's approach. Which makes sense since "Lean" made the title and "Scrum" made the subtitle.
I liked the emphasis on experiments - ideas to try or avoid. They are spelled out before the book starts and then become the subtitles. I also liked the emphasis on systems thinking and fallacies.
A few points particularly resonated with me including the dangers of lines of code as a metric, the dangers of specialization and discussion of a programming interview.
The book reads like a good textbook. It's not hard to read. There are lots of references to others books (and part two of this book.) It has a good mix between theory and experience. Weighted towards experience - almost like an MBA textbook, but more fun to read.
And it mentions someone from JavaRanch. You'll have to read the book to find out who.
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Addison-Wesley Professional
1 edition
December 2008
368 pages
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Reviewed by Lasse Koskela, March 2009
 (8 of 10)
"Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum" is the
first of two books co-authored by the same duo. This first volume covers the underlying theory needed
for understanding the dynamics of scaling agile development to large organizations, including one of the
best introductions to Systems Thinking that I remember reading.
Indeed, the first part of this book is all about thinking tools such as Systems Thinking, Lean Thinking,
and Queuing Theory. Throughout the book, the authors refer back to these theories when they try to
illuminate the "what" and "why" of various dynamics.
The second part focuses more concretely on how to scale a product development organization. It starts with
a thorough, seminal chapter on Feature Teams and continues with more general discussion of what makes teams
work. True to their style of writing, these chapters are full of references to related research. Knowing
the authors, I expected nothing less. After team work, the authors move on to discussing a scaling
technique called "Requirement Areas", specialization, organizational impediments, even budgeting and HR.
The third and last part of the book is essentially an appendix containing the "Scrum Primer" by
Gabrielle Benefield and Pete Deemer. Personally, I think this appendix could've been left
out, considering that most readers should already be familiar with Scrum.
Again, this book is perhaps the most thoroughly researched text on agile development I've read (and I've
read most of them) and the authors clearly know what they're talking about. Having said that, it is also
quite a heavy read considering that it's only some 300+ pages. I read it in one day, barely leaving the
couch but I can imagine that others might not enjoy the theory-heavy approach as much.
With that said, while it's not full of the kind of concrete tips we'd like to see, this book does offer
a strong foundation for understanding how to scale and how not to scale up organizations for agile
development. I highly recommend it to leaders, change agents and agile coaches involved in large-scale
transitions.
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The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice for Your First Year (Agile Software Development Series)
by
Mitch Lacey
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Addison-Wesley Professional
1 edition
March 2012
416 pages
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Reviewed by Jeanne Boyarsky, May 2012
  (10 of 10)
"The Scrum Field Guide" is a nice way to get started with Scrum. It covers the practices through useful stories and advice. Heavier on the advice side. The stories seem realistic and highlight important points.
I liked the tables and tips provided. For example how to estimate the first time and how to map pre-Scrum roles. And I loved that there was a whole chapter on "done." I also liked the concept of corporate mandates being a tax on your time.
I also liked the practical advice and explanations such as why it is a bad idea for the product owner and Scrummaster to be the same person. Along with what compromises in roles are better to make than others.
I only spotted one typo (first vs last on page 205), but easy to see what was intended.
I will definitely be recommending this book to my teammates!
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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.
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Addison-Wesley Professional
1 edition
March 2012
416 pages
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Reviewed by Matthew Brown, May 2012
(9 of 10)
This engaging book doesn't try to teach you what Scrum is - it's quite open about that - though it doesn't assume too much knowledge either (and there is an appendix describing the Scrum framework). What it does do is give practical advice. It's targeted at people who are about to adopt Scrum, or have recently adopted it, and it aims to give solutions to the specific problems that everyone is likely to come up against at some point.
The chapters can be read independently, and each one follows the same format. Firstly, there's a story about a development team that encountered a problem related to the theme of the chapter. Often they'll solve that problem, but not always. Then there's a description of an approach to solving that problem, and an analysis of the factors to consider to make sure the approach is successful.
What I particularly like about this book is that it is grounded in realism. While the ideal scenario for Scrum may be a fully aligned company with dedicated teams and supportive senior management, many people have to cope with less than perfect realities. There might be clashing organizational structures and cultures, team members with other responsibilities, legacy systems to support, and so on. This book recognises the real obstacles agile teams might meet, and suggests realistic ways of combating them. Along the way you'll also get good advice about putting the various agile practices to work.
I'd recommend this to anyone thinking of using Scrum, or anyone already using it who's finding the going less than perfect and is wondering where it all went wrong.
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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.
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Scrum Shortcuts without Cutting Corners: Agile Tactics, Tools, & Tips (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn))
by
Ilan Goldstein
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Addison-Wesley Professional
1 edition
July 2013
208 pages
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Reviewed by Jeanne Boyarsky, August 2013
(9 of 10)
"Scrum Shortcuts without cutting corners" was an enjoyable read. It consists of 30 tips that can be read in any order. As I read, I had a mix of reactions:
Of course, doesn't everyone do that
I wish we did that
Good idea
I like the dose of reality - for example recognizing fractional team members exist. There was colorful language - "pretty waterfall along the way", "Scrummer-fall" and "attention deficit disordered puppies" (which probably is politically incorrect but a really funny phrase).
I also liked the warnings. The definition for good vs evil metrics is quite useful.
Most importantly, I have a bunch of items to suggest at future retrospectives. Definitely worth the read!
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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.
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