Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional) (Paperback)

by Ken Schwaber (Author) "Software development is a complex endeavor..." (more)
Key Phrases: agile project management, empirical process control, scaling infrastructure, Daily Scrum, Product Owner, Sprint Backlog (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Apply the principles of Scrum, one of the most popular agile programming methods, to software project management—and focus your team on delivering real business value. Author Ken Schwaber, a leader in the agile process movement and a co-creator of Scrum, brings his vast expertise to helping you guide the product and software development process more effectively and efficiently. Help eliminate the ambiguity into which so many software projects are borne, where vision and planning documents are essentially thrown over the wall to developers. This high-level reference describes how to use Scrum to manage complex technology projects in detail, combining expert insights with examples and case studies based on Scrum. Emphasizing practice over theory, this book explores every aspect of using Scrum, focusing on driving projects for maximum return on investment.

About the Author
Ken Schwaber is the co-creator of Scrum. He is one of the leaders of the agile process revolution, as a signatory of the Agile Manifesto and founder and director of the Agile Alliance. He has been in the software development industry for more than 30 years and teaches and speaks at many conferences, including OOPSLA & Software Development.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (March 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073561993X
• ISBN-13: 978-0735619937
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,645 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book! Learn Scrum by reading stories of its use, February 26, 2004

By	Michael Cohn "agile developer" (Lafayette, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Agile Project Management with Scrum is a wonderful book. The author, Ken Schwaber (one of the originators of the Scrum process), informs us through case studies and anecdotes. If you like learning by example, this book is for you. Scrum is quite likely the best starting point for most companies interested in pursuing an agile development process. The readability and excellent anecdotes in this book make it a fantastic starting point for any journey into agile development.

I loved seeing how Schwaber applied Scrum in many varying situations. Rather than introducing each case study one at a time, the book is organized around key areas. Multiple anecdotes are given for each key area. Throughout each chapter, Schwaber brings the anecdotes together in Lessons Learned sections and the chapters conclude by helping point out the conclusions we learn to draw from the anecdotes.

I appreciated that Schwaber was not shy about mentioning projects that didn't go perfectly-including one he got fired from for being too zealous in his role of sheepdog guarding his flock of developers.

Although this book is ostensibly about software development, Scrum has its roots in general new product development and can (and has been) applied to a wide variety of development projects. A problem with a process like Scrum is that it is best learned by "feeling it" rather than being told about it. There are many subtle differences between Scrum and a more command-and-control management process. Learning Scrum by reading a book filled with examples like this is the best way to get the feel for how to use it on your own projects.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real world guide to implementing Scrum correctly., March 4, 2004

By	Victor Szalvay (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Our organization recently implemented Scrum, and although the
Beedle/Schwaber book was great to get us off the ground on Scrum
theory, we immediately had many questions once we actually tried to implement it in real life projects. I agree with the notion that Scrum is conceptually easy to understand, but actually quite complex to implement correctly. The scrum forum has been helpful, but we really needed a cohesive reference of situational problems. The APMWS book really hit the nail on the head and delivered what we needed the most: a practical guide to Scrum with anecdotes and "what happens if..." situations from real world Scrum implementations. This came just in time for us, and we are feeling more confident for our upcoming certification class.

The appendices in the back are also very helpful. The "Rules"
appendix is perfect as a quick introduction to Scrum for new Team
members and Product Owners. It's actually quite detailed for being such a short appendix.

Also, for newbies the three main Roles are very nicely explained. We had some misconceptions that were immediately addressed by this book.

Anyway, from a Scrum newbie that is faced with implementation issues, thanks to Ken for putting together a real world implementation guide.

39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good general introduction to the concepts, January 24, 2005

By	D. Laffineuse (York, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book was an easy read and provided a fair but light treatment of Scrum. The numerous examples provide a good illustration of some of the key concepts of the method and help in better understanding implementation issues and lessons learned. This being said, a complete understanding of Scrum requires additional reading above and beyond this book, and most importantly a good solid (if not many) attempt at applying it in the real world. For individuals interested in Scrum, I would also recommend a very active discussion group to which the book's author and many other Scrum aficionados contribute regularly: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumdevelopment/