Scrum A Pocket Guide – 4th edition E-Book

Gunther Verheyen

• Herausgeber: Van Haren Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 148

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

This pocket guide to Scrum is the one book for everyone who wants to learn or re-learn about Scrum. The book describes the framework as it was designed and intended, with a strong focus on the purpose to the rules and adding an historical perspective to Scrum and the Agile movement. As the balance of society keeps shifting from industrial labor to digital work, complexity and unpredictability keep increasing. The need for agility through Scrum increases equally, in and beyond software and product development. This 4th edition of Scrum - A Pocket Guide, while introducing some changes in terminology, more than ever offers the clarity and insights on Scrum that many organizations need, more than ever. It will help people and their organizations properly shape their Scrum, regardless of their domain or business. Scrum – A Pocket Guide is an extraordinarily competent book. It flows with insight, understanding, and perception. This should be the de facto standard handout for all looking for a complete, yet clear overview of Scrum without being bothered by irrelevancies.(Ken Schwaber, Scrum co-creator) The author, Gunther Verheyen, is a seasoned Scrum practitioner (2003). He has been employing Scrum since 2003. He was partner to Ken Schwaber and Director of the Professional Scrum series at Scrum.org. He is the founder of Ullizee-Inc and engages with people and organizations as an independent Scrum Caretaker on a journey of humanizing the workplace with Scrum.

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Scrum - A Pocket Guide4th edition

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Colophon

Title:

Scrum - A Pocket Guide – 4th edition

Subtitle:

A Smart Travel Companion

Author:

Gunther Verheyen

Reviewers:

Ken Schwaber (Scrum co-creator, Scrum.org)David Starr (Agile Craftsman, Microsoft)Ralph Jocham (Agile Professional, effective agile.)Patricia M. Kong (Business Agility Enterprise Solutions, Scrum.org)Blake McMillan (Principal Consultant, Improving)Dominik Maximini (Agile Leadership Coach, ValueRise Consulting)Bhuvan Misra (Agile Mason)

Publisher:

Van Haren Publishing, ’s-Hertogenbosch-NLwww.vanharen.net

Lay-out and design:

Coco Bookmedia, Amersfoort-NL

ISBN Hard copy:

978 94 018 1221 4

ISBN eBook (pdf):

978 94 018 1222 1

ISBN ePub:

978 94 018 1223 8

Edition:

Fourth edition, first impression, August 2024

Copyright:

Gunther Verheyen & Van Haren Publishing

Although this publication has been composed with most care, neither author nor publisher can accept any liability for damage caused by possible errors and/or incompleteness in this publication.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by print, photo print, microfilm or other means without written permission by the publisher.

Foreword by Ken Schwaber

An outstanding accomplishment that simmers with intelligence.

Scrum – A Pocket Guide is an extraordinarily competent book. Gunther has described everything about Scrum in well-formed, clearly written descriptions that flow with insight, understanding, and perception. Yet, you are never struck by these attributes. You simply benefit from them, later thinking, “That was really, really helpful. I found what I needed to know, readily understood what I wanted, and wasn’t bothered by irrelevancies.”

I have struggled to write this foreword. I feel the foreword should be as well-written as the book it describes. In this case, that is hard. Read Gunther’s book. Read it in part, or read it in whole. You will be satisfied.

Scrum is simple, but complete and competent in addressing complex problems. Gunther’s pocket guide is complete and competent in addressing understanding a simple framework for addressing complex problems, Scrum.

Ken, 22 August 2013

Preface

The use of lightweight, Agile methods continues to gain traction with Scrum being the most widely adopted framework. The general level of interest in Scrum is already huge and still its use keeps expanding, in and beyond software and (new) product development.

Transforming an organization’s way of working to Scrum represents quite a challenge. Scrum is not a cookbook ‘process’ with detailed and exhaustive prescriptions for every imaginable situation. Scrum is a lightweight framework of principles, rules and values that thrives on the people employing Scrum. A major potential of Scrum is that it forms the stable foundation for the discovery and emergence of practices, tools and techniques and optimizing them for a specific context.

The benefits realized through Scrum depend on the will to remove barriers, think across walls and separations and embark on a journey of discovery.

That journey implies understanding the rules of Scrum to know how the game is played. Although there is ultimately nothing more powerful to learn Scrum than by going out and playing, this book also aspires to be your companion along the way, all the way. This book shows how Scrum implements the Agile mindset, what the rules of the game of Scrum are and how these rules leave room for a variety of tactics to play the game. The ambition of describing all these aspects is to make this book worthwhile for people, teams, managers and change agents regardless of whether they are already doing Scrum or want to embark on their journey of Scrum.

My own journey took off in 2003 with eXtreme Programming wrapped in Scrum and has inevitably been a cobblestone path. I have used Scrum with many teams, in various projects and initiatives, at different scales and at different organizations. I have worked with large and small enterprises and I have coached individual practitioners and teams as well as executive management. I have partnered with Ken Schwaber, co-creator of Scrum, while shepherding the ‘Professional Scrum’ trainings, courseware and assessments of Scrum.org. I am gratified that in 2016 I was able to continue my journey of humanizing the workplace with Scrum as an independent Scrum Caretaker.

In the meantime, evolving this book has turned into a journey in itself. I created the first edition in 2013. I remember how I described the Scrum Values in that first edition. In 2016 they were added to the Scrum Guide. In that first edition I also pointed out that the traditional three questions of the Daily Scrum are a good, but optional tactic. That optionality was added to the Scrum Guide in 2017 and the questions were not mentioned anymore in the 2020 edition, taking away all doubt that they are indeed optional.

However, more and bigger challenges keep surfacing. The balance of society keeps drastically and rapidly shifting from industrial (often physical) labor to digital (often virtual) work. In many domains of society, the unpredictability of work increases incessantly. The industrial paradigm is rendered useless, definitely, for many types of work. The need for the Agile paradigm is bigger than ever, and thus the need for a tangible framework like Scrum to help people and organizations increase their agility in performing complex work in complex circumstances.

Scrum is increasingly being discovered and appreciated as this ‘empirical framework that enables people to derive value from complex challenges’, more than as only a way to deliver (software) products. More and different people ask for guidance on their journey of Scrum, often in domains beyond software and new product development. It required a more generic description of the rules of Scrum, different words, other angles to the known set of rules. This is why I created the second edition of this book in 2019.

The focus of the third edition (2021) remained on clarifying the intent and purpose of the rules and roles in the framework, but it also introduced some changes in terminology. I learned from my readers that when Scrum is explained from its roots in software development it makes sense for people in other domains. I have learned from my readers that my book offers the, more than ever needed, foundational insights for people and their organizations to properly shape their Scrum, regardless of their domain or business.

Yet, as the ‘doctrine of improvability’ says: “There must be a better way.”

My initial ambition with this fourth edition was to slightly improve the cohesion of my description of the rules of the game. This is reflected in my revised Scrum Game Board: all aspects of Scrum are now captured in that one visual (section 2.5). I obviously could not resist making some small updates and edits to what I wrote before, even to the parts I thought I would never touch again. It resulted in a complete update with much more refinements than originally anticipated and even a new section (“eXtreme Development”, section 3.6). I am continuously uncovering better ways of explaining Scrum. . .

I thank Ken Schwaber for the foreword and his review for the original (2013) edition and all other reviewers for their much-appreciated feedback on the subsequent editions. I thank all translators for their past and on-going efforts to spread my words in different languages. I thank all at Van Haren Publishing, and especially Ivo van Haren, for allowing me to express my independent Scrum Caretaker view on Scrum.

Enjoy reading.

Gunther independent Scrum CaretakerJune 2013, August 2018, November 2020, May 2024

Reviews

This Scrum Pocket Guide is outstanding. It is well organized, well written, and the content is excellent. This should be the de facto standard handout for all looking for a complete, yet clear overview of Scrum.

(Ken Schwaber, Scrum co-creator, August 2013)

Gunther has expertly packaged the right no-nonsense guidance for teams seeking agility, without a drop of hyperbole. This is the book about agility with Scrum I wish I had written.

(David Starr, Agile Craftsman, June 2013)

During my many Scrum training activities I often get asked: “For Scrum, what is the one book to read?” In the past the answer wasn’t straightforward, but now it is! The Scrum Pocket Guide is the one book to read when starting with Scrum. It is a concise, yet complete and passionate reference about Scrum.

(Ralph Jocham, Agile Professional, June 2013)

“The house of Scrum is a warm house. It’s a house where people are WELCOME.” Gunther’s passion for Scrum and its players is evident in his work and in each chapter of this book. He explains the Agile paradigm, lays out the Scrum framework and then discusses the ‘future state of Scrum.’ Intimately, in about 100 pages.

(Patricia M. Kong, Business Agility Enterprise Solutions, June 2013)

I recommend reading Scrum – A Pocket Guide early in your Scrum journey to help you gain a deeper understanding of why Scrum works and how the values and principles can positively impact the lives of your team as well as the health of an organization. Reading it later in your journey is great too… except for the feeling of regret wishing you had read it earlier.

(Blake McMillan, Principal Consultant, August 2018)

It is hard to find concise, to the point literature about Scrum. Most authors circle around the core topics instead of naming them. Gunther chose to break this pattern, enlightening us with the knowledge of the truly important parts of Scrum. When starting on your Scrum journey, make sure to take a copy of this guide along with you.

(Dominik Maximini, Agile Leadership Coach, August 2018)

“Small in size, big on value.” Gunther’s pocket guide to Scrum is one of the few books that I possess in both hardcopy and e-book format so that I have it with me all the time. It is a good read and a great companion to the Scrum Guide. Highly recommended for ambitious travelers!

(Bhuvan Misra, Agile Mason, November 2020)

Table of contents

1    THE AGILE PARADIGM

1.1   To Shift or not to Shift

1.2   The origins of Agile

1.3   Definition of Agile

1.4   The iterative-incremental continuum

1.5   Agility can’t be planned

1.6   Combining Agile and Lean

2    SCRUM

2.1   The house of Scrum

2.2   Scrum, what’s in a name?

2.3   Is that a gorilla I see over there?

2.4   Framework, not methodology

2.5   Playing the game

2.6   Core principles

2.7   The Scrum values

3    TACTICS FOR A PURPOSE

3.1   Visualizing progress

3.2   The Daily Scrum questions

3.3   Product Backlog refinement

3.4   User Stories

3.5   Planning Poker

3.6   eXtreme Development

3.7   Sprint length

3.8   Scrum in the Large

4    THE FUTURE STATE OF SCRUM

4.1   The power of the possible product

4.2   The upstream adoption of Scrum

ANNEXES

Annex A: Scrum Glossary

Annex B: Scrum Reference Card

Annex C: References

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INDEX

1 The Agile Paradigm

■  1.1   TO SHIFT OR NOT TO SHIFT

The software industry was for a long time dominated by a paradigm of industrial views and beliefs, based on and consisting of old manufacturing routines and theories. An essential element in this landscape of beliefs, views and practices was the Taylorist1 conviction that ‘workers’ can’t be trusted to intelligently, autonomously and creatively perform their work. Such ‘workers’ are expected to do no more than carry out pre-defined executable tasks. Their work must be prepared, designed and planned by more senior staff. And then still, hierarchical supervisors are expected to vigilantly oversee the execution of these carefully prepared tasks. People are treated as resources. Quality is assured by admitting the good and rejecting the bad batches of outputs. Monetary rewards and similar extrinsic motivators are used to stimulate desired behavior. Unwanted behavior is punished. The old ‘carrots and sticks’ strategies.

Figure 1.1 The Industrial Paradigm

The serious flaws of the old paradigm in software development have been known and well documented for a long time. In particular, the Chaos reports of the Standish Group [Standish, 2011; Standish, 2013] have over and over revealed the low success rates of the traditional approach in software development. The shortcomings and errors resulting from the application of the industrial paradigm in software development are well beyond reasonable levels of tolerance. The unfortunate response was to lower the expectations. The definition of ‘success’ in the industrial paradigm is the combination of on time, within budget and including all predefined scope. It became accepted that only 10-20% of software projects were successful. Although these success criteria can be disputed, it is the paradigm’s promise. It became accepted that quality is low and that over 50% of features of traditionally developed software applications are never used [Standish, 2002; Standish, 2013].

Although it is not widely and consciously admitted, the industrial paradigm did place the software industry in a serious crisis and gave it a bad reputation. Many tried to overcome this by fortifying the industrial approach even more. The exhaustiveness of upfront work was increased. More plans were created, more phases scheduled, more designs made, more control and other meetings planned, more signatures demanded, hoping that the actual execution would be done more effectively. As the success rates did not increase as a result of this fortification of the industrial paradigm, it was assumed that the instructions still were not clear and not detailed enough. And the core idea remained that the ‘workers’ needed to be directed. Even more detailed instructions were given. Supervision was increased and intensified. And so on. It is a vicious circle which did not lead to many improvements. The serious flaws, defects and low quality remained and had to be tolerated.

It took some time, but inevitably new ideas and insights started forming to finally overcome the significant anomalies of the industrial paradigm.

The seeds of a new world view were already sown in the 1990s. But it was in 2001 that these resulted in the formal naming of ‘Agile’, a turning-point in the history of work. A new paradigm was born, in the realm of the software industry. It is a paradigm that thrives upon heuristics and creativity, upon (restoring) the respect for the creative nature of the work and the intelligence of the ‘workers’. In the meantime, it is expanding to many other domains of society.

Figure 1.2 The Agile Paradigm

But even the software industry still has good reasons to keep embracing the new paradigm. The traditional flaws are significant and widely known while the presence of software in society grows exponentially, making it a critical aspect of our modern world. However, by definition, a shift to a new paradigm takes time. And the old paradigm seems to have deep roots and a considerable half-life time. An industrial approach to software development continues to be applied, taught and promoted as the most appropriate one, despite the clear flaws and failures.

Many say that Agile is too radical and they, therefore, propagate a gradual introduction of Agile practices within existing, traditional processes and procedures. However, there is reason to be very skeptical about such gradual evolution, a slow progression from the old to the new paradigm, from industrial to Agile.

The chances are high that such a gradual evolution will never go beyond the surface, will not do more than just scratch that surface. New names will be installed, new terms and new practices will be imposed, but the fundamental thinking and behaviors remain the same. Essential flaws remain untouched; especially the disrespect for people and the continued treatment of creative, intelligent people as mindless ‘workers’, as ‘resources’.

The preservation of the traditional foundations also keeps existing data, metrics and standards in place, and the new paradigm will be measured against those old standards. Different paradigms by their nature, however, consist of fundamentally different and mutually exclusive concepts and ideas. No meaningful comparison between the industrial and the Agile paradigm is possible. No meaningful measurement of Agile against the old standards is possible.

It requires honesty to accept the serious flaws of the old ways. It requires leadership, vision, entrepreneurship and persistence to embrace the new ways, thereby abandoning and replacing the old thinking.

A gradual shift to introduce the Agile paradigm results factually in a status quo situation that keeps the industrial paradigm intact.