This engaging book offers a deep dive into the origins of Scrum (dating back to the early 90s), penned by one of its co-creators, Jeff Sutherland, in collaboration with his son, J.J. Sutherland.
Setting aside the debate on the applicability of traditional, agile, or hybrid approaches and the fact that Scrum was initially forged to address the challenges in software development, any project manager, leader or team member must understand this framework.
The book elucidates the rationale behind each team role (Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team), the events (Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Reviews, and Retrospectives), and the Artifacts. It highlights the essence of Scrum—its rhythm and flow—and discusses team dynamics, estimations (emphasizing relative estimation), prioritization, and much more.
Beyond software development, the book showcases practical applications of Scrum in personal projects (like planning a wedding), community initiatives, education, government, and more. It revisits the seminal article from the Harvard Business Review that inspired Scrum, "The New New Product Development Game," by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka.
The book's digestibility is enhanced by summaries at the end of each chapter. After exploring the whys of Scrum, Sutherland offers guidance on implementing it, serving as a valuable complement to the publicly accessible Scrum Guide at https://scrumguides.org/.
I make a special note of the mention of the "Shu Ha Ri" concept and its relation to Scrum: "I emphasize this because there are certain rules in Scrum, and you would do well to learn and transcend them (...). However, the paradox of these rules is that they eliminate boundaries, create freedom—and for many, freedom can be daunting." In my opinion, it suggests Sutherland's view that once the principles of Scrum (Transparency, Inspection, Adaptation) are mastered and internalized, teams are free to creatively utilize Scrum to boost productivity, enhance transparency, deliver value, and foster continuous improvement ("kaizen").
In response to the complexity of our current challenges, it's imperative to evaluate our repertoire of practices, methods, and tools to define the most suitable approach to achieve each project's objectives.
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