My Pocket Guide to Scrum

People learn about Scrum in various ways. Some read books. Some read my book:

“Scrum – A Pocket Guide (A Smart Travel Companion)“

• Read a PDF excerpt from my book. It holds the foreword by Ken Schwaber, a short note by the early reviewers, the content table and the first chapter (‘To shift or not to shift’). A taste.
• Get the full version at Amazon, Amazon UK, Van Haren’s webshop (the publisher), Bol.com. Or use good old Google.

My book serves to help the reader make better use of the tool that Scrum is.

My book introduces the rules and roles of Scrum while emphasizing their purpose. People can more effectively employ Scrum from an understanding of the purpose, rather than from mechanically following the ‘process’.

People are more capable of using Scrum to their advantage when understanding that Scrum is a framework laying out the boundaries within which people can deal with complex problems. My book distinguishes the rules of Scrum from tactics to apply the rules. My book has some examples on tactics, and where tactical decisions within the Scrum framework are required.

My book presents no universal truths, gives no universally applicable answers on generic questions, although I get asked such questions over and over again.

How long should Sprint Planning be? And the other meetings? How much time does the Product Owner role take? Is the Scrum Master role a full-time occupation? Should a team be available full-time? How must we organize when the team is distributed? How much time of a Sprint should a team spend on testing? What should be in the definition of Done? How many business analysts are needed in the team? What if… ?

I am extremely wary of being an ‘expert’ providing certainty where there isn’t. My book is a book for people on a journey to discover what Scrum can do for them. Hence its subtitle. My book does not map out your route. Your route is unique and distinct.

My book adds some historical perspective to Scrum, describes the roots of Scrum, how Scrum fits the Agile movement and what some future challenges of Scrum are.

My book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide” is not an expert book. It is not a book for experts. It is not a book by an expert. My book is a book by an eternal novice seeking mastery. I hope you like it. I hope it helps you seek mastery too.

Meanwhile I am in the process of creating a follow-up book. I will still not provide false precision. I might tell some stories about what worked for me, given context and time.

Gunther