Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum

I recommend this book to those who are trying to spread Scrum into an organization.In the introduction to the book Mike Cohn states that the book is not for those new to Scrum or for purists. He says it is for those who have started Scrum and have run into problems.The book is divided into 5 parts:Part I Getting StartedPart II IndividualsPart III TeamsPart IV The OrganizationPart V Next Steps.Succeeding with Agile walks you through how to spread Scrum in your organization and how to get better at Scrum along the way.The author points out that being successful at rolling out Scrum can be difficult:"But there are certain attributes of transitioning to Scrum that make it more difficult than most other changes. They are as follows:* Successful change is not entirely top-down or bottom-up.* The end state is unpredictable.* Scrum is pervasive.* Scrum is dramatically different.* Change is coming more quickly than ever before.* Best practices are dangerous."Cohn also points out that departments outside of Engineering may have issues with Scrum:"Finance groups will have to reconcile company policies on capitalizing or expensing with the way Scrum projects run. Sales will want to consider altering how they communicate date and scope commitments and may change how they structure contracts. With more groups affected by a move to Scrum, there is more chance for resistance and certainly more chance for misunderstandings. These add up to make transitioning to Scrum harder than other changes."But for all of the difficulties, Scrum is very popular with stakeholders. Cohn says:"One reason stakeholders are so satisfied is that time-to-market is reduced when using an agile process like Scrum. This faster time-to-market is enabled by the higher productivity of agile teams, which is in turn the result of the higher quality seen on agile projects. Because employees are freed up to do high-quality work and because they see their work delivered sooner into the hands of waiting users, job satisfaction goes up. With higher job satisfaction comes more engaged employees, which leads to more productivity gains, initiating a virtuous cycle of continued improvement."Many organizations try to keep the role of Project Manager while also using Scrum. In the book, Mike Cohn argues against that:"On Scrum projects we acknowledge the untenable role of the project manager and eliminate it. Eliminating the role, though, does not mean we can do away with the work and responsibilities."He says that the responsibilities that were carried out by the Project Manager are shifted to the Team, the ScrumMaster and the Product Owner.The author notes that while the Scrum framework does not prescribe software development methodologies, Scrum teams have found certain practices improve the product. He writes:"...we will look at common technical practices used by Scrum teams to improve the quality of their work: test-driven development, refactoring, collective ownership, continuous integration, and pair programming. While I just referred to these as common practices, the truth is that they are not so common. These practices are well regarded and lead to higher quality, but because they can be hard to put into practice, they are used less often than they should be."Cohn also points out that planning is just as essential in Scrum as it is in other methodologies. He says:"Planning is a fundamental aspect of Scrum. Scrum teams commit to always working on the features with the highest value. To do this, the team and product owner must have an estimate of how much a feature will cost to develop; otherwise they are prioritizing on desirability alone. Similarly, it is important to estimate how long a feature will take to develop--a feature that misses a critical market window will deliver much less value. Clearly, for a Scrum team to live up to its promise of working in priority order, planning must be an essential practice."However, he points out that planning is not a one time acivity but is an ongoing one, where the plans are continually revised.Cohn also warns against trying to achieve quality by testing after the fact:"Scrum teams make testing a central practice and part of the development process rather than something that happens after the developers are 'done.' Rather than trying to test quality after a product has been built, we build quality into the process and product as it is being developed. W. Edwards Deming was an American professor and consultant best known for his work in Japan emphasizing the impact of quality on cost and productivity. He maintained that quality could not be added to a product later. He wrote that we should 'cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality. Improve the process and build quality into the product in the first place' (2000, 23)."Overall I learned a great deal from the book and enjoyed reading it.

I bought 5 books on Scrum, including this one and I expected all of them to be a bit of a slog through jargon and dry descriptions. Not so.This one is very well written. He is just plain practical in his recommendations. None of the fanatical "you must do this" of extreme programming, he simply makes the case for each step/process based on his experience. This one is particularly useful for me. I've been on a scrum team for over a year, recently became a scrum master and this book answers a lot of my questions about what should be going on. I just attended Mike's certified scrum master training and this book had me well prepared. Between the book and the class, I'm not even vaguely concerned about taking the exam.I actually can't think of any downsides to this book. it's well reasoned, well laid out, well written, well edited, thoroughly covers all the topics and it's from a guy who still spends a lot of time in the trenches, so his observations and recommendations are pretty current. This one will end up on my "frequently referenced" shelf.

After reading this book I have emerged with a split personality of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Agile methodology as presented by Mr. Cohn contains a very valuable information based on his personal experience that can be utilized on many development projects and is written in a very light, easy to read language that will not make you tired after reading 15 pages. However it also contains extreme simplifications that makes me wonder whether Mr. Cohn is trying to sell Agile a little too hard. In too many cases my own experience (20 years in PM and total 27 years in software development) goes against many examples presented in the book.Let me pickup just one few example from the book.Mr. Cohn makes the case (page 237) that "With written document we do not iterate over the meaning as we would in conversation".Written documentation is a living document which captures all conversation we had with our company sale people, with customer (as customer business people and end users who are people that will use the system for their daily work) that is the basis for user acceptance test. Such document does not have to be developed 100% before starting implementation but needs to be 100% created and approved (signed off by customer) long before you finish the last line of code.Verbal conversations capture a lot of details that need to be separated into reality and customer dreams. Try to go to the court of law and resolve these differences based on conversations ( or loose documentation) that took place over many days with many people.I will not go over the issue with defining folder length ( on the same page 237) which made me laugh and cry at the same time. It is example of poor definition and not the example of why we need less documentation. This book has many rather childish examples like this one (see booking hotel on page 236) promoting Agile when Agile can stand on its own rather well).Final thought: If you are seriously considering diving into the world of Agile development, you should read this book, no question about it.I believe that this book is worth the price, it is worth to spend time reading but be aware that like all software development methodologies is not a silver bullet and it is a bag of new, interesting ideas and a lot of ideas that might have limited application in your environment. So "improvise and overcome" (Heartbreak Ridge, Sergeant Thomas Highway).

O livro tem uma abordagem pratica que é bem interessante. Saiu um pouco da teoria e coloca e discute situacoes praticas. Recomendo.

Veramente un ottimo libro ricco di spunti e esperienze concrete. È adatto a chi applica già la metodologia di sviluppo Scrum e vuole aumentare la scala dei propri team. Ho ritrovato molte situazioni che sto vivendo anch’io. E ci sono suggerimenti utili in proposito.

This book for intermediate to advance level in scrum. Not for the faint hearted starting out. For basics of scrum and agile, look elsewhere.

One of the best Agile books out there out there. Unlike other books, Cohn provides practical guidance for dealing with common issues when migrating to Scrum. Recommended for anyone looking to learn about Agile from a practical and pragmatic perspective.

Very good book. But not for very beginners. The books from Mike Cohen will be very interesting. You will not get bored while reading. It is based on Practical real world examples.