Description:
Are you a software developer? Do you manage software developers? Are you using scrum? Are you thinking of using scrum? Then you must have this book!Scrum is the most popular agile software development process in use today, but implementing it has proven difficult for many people. Dan and Doug wrote this book in order to help people with their implementations of Scrum.Both Dan and Doug have trained and coached thousands of people, most of whom are already using Scrum. In spite of the fact that they have read about Scrum, have been trained or coached in Scrum, and are using Scrum, their most common complaint is that they need help to do it right. And, Dan and Doug have found, many (if not… most) of them need some help. This book is for them and others like them.This book is not an introductory text. Dan and Doug assume that those who read this book know, or think they know, something about Scrum. This book takes a deep, exploratory, look into the Scrum framework, and offers advice about how to think about it, and how to use it. Some of this advice is philosophical, some is pragmatic, some is practical, and some of it is controversial. The controversies happen because Dan and Doug are brutally consistent and true to the essence of Scrum. This book is not the result of an academic exercise; every suggestion or conclusion in this book is grounded in real-life issues they have encountered, and suggestions that they have made for teams and people they have coached or trained. This book contains both pragmatic advice and the philosophical underpinnings justifying that advice.Scrum is a development framework that is very demanding of its adherents. Scrum is easy to understand, but doing it successfully (one might even say 'right') is very difficult. Scrum's 'out of the box' process is just good enough to allow Teams, Organizations, and Individuals to develop software successfully while their 'process personalities' are maturing and becoming more scrummish. Once their personalities have changed, then they can adapt Scrum for their own situations and realities. This book focuses on helping you become more scrummish and discusses some of the adaptations you will make as you mature.
Author bio:
Dan Rawsthorne has developed soft¬ware in an agile way since 1983. He has worked in many different domains, from e-commerce to military avionics. He has a PhD in Mathematics (number theory), is a retired Army Officer, and a Professional Bowler and Coach. Dan is very active in the Agile/Scrum community and speaks quite often at confer¬ences and seminars. He is a transformation agent, coaching Organizations to become more successful through agility. His non-software background has helped him immeasurably in his coaching: his formal training in mathematics guides him to look for underlying problems rather than focus on surface symptoms; his military background helps him under¬stand the… importance of teamwork and empowerment; and his work with bowlers has helped him understand that coaching is a two-way street.Doug Shimp has worked in the technology field since 1992 and has played many key roles on software teams, including Coder, Tester, Analyst, Team Leader, Manager, Coach, and Consultant. Doug's passion is for team learning to improve product development, and he is a leader in the area of agile/Scrum transitions and applied practices. He believes that the core basis for applied agility is that 'You must see the result for it to be real; otherwise it is all just theory...' Much of his experience with teamwork and agility comes from outside the software field, including an earlier career as an owner/manager of a painting company - which enabled him to learn about small-team dynamics in a very hands-on way.