Off the Shelf: Agile Project Management with Scrum

August 24th, 2007 · No Comments · Agile Practices

In just about every article I’ve posted so far, I’ve most likely mentioned the book Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber. You’re probably wondering why I keep referring to it. No, I don’t get $1.00 each time I cite the book (although, that would be nice). So I figured, it’s probably about I time I wrote a quick post about this book.

Who should read this book? Anyone interested in learning the basics of Scrum. No need to be a project manager type. This book is for everyone. The managers, the developers, the DBA’s, the analysts, the clients…anyone who works on any type of project can benefit from this book.

What’s inside? Ken starts off by explaining the basics of Scrum. In the first 14 pages, he covers the science of Scrum and provides a great overview of the entire process. If you read nothing else, read these 14 pages. The remainder of the book goes into detail about the various Scrum roles, planning a Scrum project, project reporting, and scaling projects with Scrum. Most of the book is filled with case studies that clearly illustrate the concepts Ken is relating about Scrum. The book concludes with 6 pages of the essential rules of Scrum.

Why it’s on my bookshelf? This is the book that made it all click for me. In my eyes, this is the bible of Scrum. All of the basics are covered in a very easy to understand way. As a ScrumMaster, any time I feel our Scrum process is slipping a little, I open the book, read a few pages, reflect on our Team’s current process, and use the guidance from this book to help make the necessary course corrections to get back on track. The book is filled with numerous case studies that provide great insight into situations that real world ScrumMasters, Scrum Teams, Product Owners, and their organizations frequently run into. I have probably read this book at least six times now as we have started on our Team’s Scrum journey. As our Scrum process matures and I reflect on the case studies in this book, I can easily recognize things that our Team, our Product Owner, our organization, and I (the ScrumMaster) have done, both good and bad. I have gained a lot of confidence by coming to realize that we’re not the only Team who has experienced the ups and downs that Ken described in the case studies. Overall, this is a great read for anyone who is interested in producing high quality, valuable products faster. If you’re considering using Scrum on your projects and you haven’t read Agile Project Management with Scrum, what are you waiting for…run out now and get this book!!! (Or just order it from Amazon)…

Here’s the skinny on the book: