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bittersweet_symphony's review against another edition
4.0
Scrum is the second-most important book I have read regarding my professional development. Our team has been using a scrum approach to project management and team culture for the past several months--our production "velocity" has increased significantly since we started. Scrum fits neatly in the same camp as Lean Start-up and any other "agile" methodology or framework.
I recommend this book to anybody looking for a more human-centered approach to personnel management and product/service delivery. Scrum allows for team members to be more autonomous, creative, and inspired. It books team morale and a powerfully enriching team culture. Or, rather, applying Scrum principles to the proper culture leads to a very productive and successful team--organization and society (toward the end of the book Sutherland even talks about how Scrum is being used to improve schools, civil society, and alleviate poverty).
This framework was codified in the 90's, and has been implemented by some of the most successful companies in the world (Google, Amazon, Toyota). Scrum moves beyond Gantt Charts, embracing "uncertainty and creativity." Removing waste is a moral imperative--doing so allows us to live/work purposefully toward creating something that improves our lives and those of everybody around us.
At the heart of Scrum lies a frequent focus on feedback. Effort (and heart) is not wasted on going the wrong direction. The mantra is "fail small, and fail often." I can't recommend this book enough to people who tackle projects as a team.
The secret to Scrum is that "humans want to be great. People want to do something purposeful--to make the world, even if just in a small way, a better place. The key is getting rid of what stands in their way, removing impediments to their becoming who they're capable of becoming."
I recommend this book to anybody looking for a more human-centered approach to personnel management and product/service delivery. Scrum allows for team members to be more autonomous, creative, and inspired. It books team morale and a powerfully enriching team culture. Or, rather, applying Scrum principles to the proper culture leads to a very productive and successful team--organization and society (toward the end of the book Sutherland even talks about how Scrum is being used to improve schools, civil society, and alleviate poverty).
This framework was codified in the 90's, and has been implemented by some of the most successful companies in the world (Google, Amazon, Toyota). Scrum moves beyond Gantt Charts, embracing "uncertainty and creativity." Removing waste is a moral imperative--doing so allows us to live/work purposefully toward creating something that improves our lives and those of everybody around us.
At the heart of Scrum lies a frequent focus on feedback. Effort (and heart) is not wasted on going the wrong direction. The mantra is "fail small, and fail often." I can't recommend this book enough to people who tackle projects as a team.
The secret to Scrum is that "humans want to be great. People want to do something purposeful--to make the world, even if just in a small way, a better place. The key is getting rid of what stands in their way, removing impediments to their becoming who they're capable of becoming."
zachnachazel's review against another edition
5.0
This was a really great introductory read as expected on the history, application, and value of Scrum methodology. There are a few chapters in particular that were helpful as someone functioning as a Scrum Master at a company transitioning to Agile, and I would definitely recommend this book to others even if you're not planning to make the switch.
lumleyisaac's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book, but the author does not really touch on failures of Scrum. This leads to an echo chamber of the author discussing success after success without showing any situations in which this methodology struggled. Because of this, it feels like half a book.
kshane1298's review against another edition
5.0
Key Takeaway:
1. Planning is useful, but do not follow blindly, inspect and adapt.
2. Shu Ha Ri - (Sha) learn the rules first, (Ha) then make innovations, (Ri) discard the forms internalizing the rules, and make decisions almost unconsciously.
3. Teams - Groups should at maximum have 7 members. They should have 3 characteristics: Purpose, Autonomy, Cross-functionality
4. Time - Break down tasks into sprints, review the plan at the end of each sprint, and make adjustments
5. Waste - Do not multitask, do right the first time and work efficiently
6. Plan - Plans do not always do as planned, make adjustments and iterations. Use "planning poker" to quickly estimate work that needs to be done
7. Happiness - Happier people are more productive. Create a happiness metric, and keep everything transparent
8. Prioritise - Create a backlog first, listing all the things you want to add to the project, decide which will yield the highest result, and deploy your product as fast as possible so as to take in feedback and make adjustments. Charge a fee for the product so as to understand if people are willing to pay for the product
9. Change the World - Scrum can be used in all aspects of life, in education, poverty, government, etc.
- One main takeaway I realized after reading this book is that you can make your goals dynamic, in the sense that you can make a goal, build systems or small steps towards that goal, and also change or adapt the system according to what the present situation requires.
1. Planning is useful, but do not follow blindly, inspect and adapt.
2. Shu Ha Ri - (Sha) learn the rules first, (Ha) then make innovations, (Ri) discard the forms internalizing the rules, and make decisions almost unconsciously.
3. Teams - Groups should at maximum have 7 members. They should have 3 characteristics: Purpose, Autonomy, Cross-functionality
4. Time - Break down tasks into sprints, review the plan at the end of each sprint, and make adjustments
5. Waste - Do not multitask, do right the first time and work efficiently
6. Plan - Plans do not always do as planned, make adjustments and iterations. Use "planning poker" to quickly estimate work that needs to be done
7. Happiness - Happier people are more productive. Create a happiness metric, and keep everything transparent
8. Prioritise - Create a backlog first, listing all the things you want to add to the project, decide which will yield the highest result, and deploy your product as fast as possible so as to take in feedback and make adjustments. Charge a fee for the product so as to understand if people are willing to pay for the product
9. Change the World - Scrum can be used in all aspects of life, in education, poverty, government, etc.
- One main takeaway I realized after reading this book is that you can make your goals dynamic, in the sense that you can make a goal, build systems or small steps towards that goal, and also change or adapt the system according to what the present situation requires.
jess_mango's review against another edition
4.0
My work life is pretty much scrum, scrum , scrum. I've been using scrum at work for around 5 years now and received my scrum master and product owner training from this book's author Jeff Sutherland and his colleagues.
I received a copy of this book a couple of months ago and finally got to read it in the past few days. It is a pretty quick read so would make a great introduction to the history and basics of scrum. Since I've been scrumming for around half a decade I was already familiar with the concepts but was able to glean a few new ideas to try to implement with my teams. I recommend this book to anyone looking to make their projects run more efficiently.
I received a copy of this book a couple of months ago and finally got to read it in the past few days. It is a pretty quick read so would make a great introduction to the history and basics of scrum. Since I've been scrumming for around half a decade I was already familiar with the concepts but was able to glean a few new ideas to try to implement with my teams. I recommend this book to anyone looking to make their projects run more efficiently.