I first met Kenny Rubin when I attended his course, Certified Scrum Master Training, in late August, early September of 2011. That course was a fresh start for me. With 30 years of information technology experience under my belt, Scrum resonated deeply with me and provided a new spark of passion and enthusiasm for my IT career that I could have only dreamed of a short time ago. This book is the textbook that I was looking for that course, but it's also much more. Kenny Rubin has, in a 4-part book, given us a roadmap that describes the Land of Scrum, and then shown us all the major highways and byways that traverse the landscape.
Based on my recent, personal experience as a Scrum Master, this book has become an indispensable roadmap and companion for my Scrum journey. I've read it from cover-to-cover, and was able to, within a 5-week window, develop and prioritize a product backlog with our product owner and a new development team, plan and execute our first sprint, and begin developing a "potentially shippable product increment" using the Agile framework described in Kenny's book in a timeframe that no other methodology has been capable of. The events unfolded just-in-time and the timing of each step and the parallel support from the book was impeccable.
In the Introduction (Chapter 1), Kenny uses the Cynefin complexity model to describe the situations in which Scrum can be applied, and whether or not it makes sense to do so. This is immensely helpful up front to decide where you find yourself, and then, how to apply the material to bring success to your efforts. It's refreshing to read a book that tells you when NOT to use what's being described. When I read, "Scrum is not a silver bullet or a magic cure," I knew that the book would be useful to me and a realistic resource rather than a one-size-fits-all pitch.
The book is organized into four parts. Part I, "Core Concepts" (Chapters 2-8), gives the lay of the land. It would be worth buying the book for Kenny's definitions, terminology, and description of the mindset that makes up Scrum. It provides the orientation to the landscape, the major landmarks, and "true north" for the Scrum framework. Part II, "Roles," (Chapters 9-13) describes who you are likely to run into along the way as you travel around in the land of Scrum. Your enjoyment and application of the scrum principles will be more satisfying when you know who should be doing what, and the reasons behind the activity. Part III, "Planning," (Chapters 14-18) is the "trip planning" portion of your time spent touring around Scrum. Part IV, "Sprinting" (Chapters 19-22) is like the daily itinerary for your two-week trip in the Land of Scrum. Both Parts III and IV describe how the people playing the various Scrum roles apply the core concepts to deliver the business value sought by those using this framework.
The diagrams in the book are plentiful and clearly (and uniquely) capture the essence of the terms and narrative in a clean, uncluttered, and concise way. (The figures remind me of the Duplo toys my kids grew up playing with.) I have posted several of these in our Scrum team room for reference, and have been able to leverage them to great advantage in our working discussions. They build on themselves throughout the book so that by the time you reach the planning section of the text, you'll have a complete, graphical depiction of a Scrum cycle. I have used the Scrum framework (context) diagram (for example, see Figure 2.3) as the basis for presentations in my organization to not only describe my team's progress, but also to advocate for the adoption of Agile development.
If you're new to Scrum and want a birds-eye flyover of the landscape, Chapter Two, "Scrum Framework," is an excellent way to get grounded. Kenny defines and describes all of the key topics in a simple fashion so that the language of Scrum and its mechanics can be understood: the Scrum roles, activities and artifacts. Chapter Three, "Agile Principles," is particularly useful for teams and companies that are in the process of adopting Agile for their development method, and are familiar with the waterfall (plan-driven) style of development.
For example, the principles of Agile become clearer when compared to the classic, legacy style of development that so many of us cut our teeth on. One foundational section, "Prediction and Adaptation" (p. 37) is especially useful to understand the Agile mindset of keeping your options open. In the rest of Part I, you'll learn about: sprints and why a good definition of done is so important, user stories and what they have in common with and how they're different from requirements, the product backlog which following the metaphor, is like a fueling station for the vehicle you're driving around in the land of Scrum, estimation and velocity, your compass for your travels in Scrum, and technical debt, the extra weight, disrepair and drag that slows down our trip.
In Part II, Chapter 10, "ScrumMaster," what I read was particularly useful to me as a new one of these. Though the responsibilities of this role are a bit daunting, Kenny's description afforded the right perspective. An example of this balance comes in the section in which he describes being an agile coach for the scrum team. If a member faces a problem that they can solve, the ScrumMaster's attitude is, "I'm not here to solve the problems for you; instead, I'm here to help you solve your own problems." (By the way, "If the problem is an impediment that the team can't resolve, the ScrumMaster takes ownership of getting it resolved.")
If you're a product owner, member of the development team, or manager, the rest of Part II contains similar gems and pearls of wisdom to understand the part you play on the scrum team and that, to use a Jim Collins construct, you're one of the "right people on the bus."
To adopt the mindset of agile planning, I strongly recommend a read of Chapter 14, "Scrum Planning Principles" in Part III. I say this because this is one of the areas in which Scrum practitioners take the most grief from its opponents. The argument goes that agile methodology doesn't, can't or won't fit in to their organization because there's no planning involved. Kenny dispels this rumor by masterfully articulating the Zen of agile planning. I can best sum this up by citing a passage on page 248, "When developing using Scrum, we don't believe we can get it right up front, so we don't try to produce all of the planning artifacts up front." Simply put, this calls out the "elephant in the room belief" held by dogmatists of the waterfall approach that massive Gantt charts can't possibly be wrong because they're so detailed.
The rest of Part III is further support that Scrum development leverages the right kind of planning across all levels and timeframes of the product development lifecycle. Figure 15.1 on page 257 is an excellent illustration of these levels (and the description in the following pages). It shows that Scrum planning happens from the point of view of a strategy, a portfolio, a product, a release, a sprint, and down to the daily activities of the development team.
One of the areas that I was confused by when first learning about Scrum was where the actually tasks were parked. There didn't seem to be much, if any, discussion about them, and my waterfall bias rendered the expectation that no real work could be done in a scrum until the tasks were defined and assigned. I discovered, by reading in Chapter 19, "Sprint Planning" that task planning in Scrum terms defined by Kenny is called, "Acquiring Confidence." Because the development team is empowered to commit to the goal of a sprint, it's imperative that they do so with a high degree of confidence.
Often, in plan-driven development, a pile of tasks are assigned to (unloaded on) a developer without much discussion of the precision of the estimates of how long someone thinks it might take to complete the task, or with minimal regard to their current capacity. In Scrum (described on page 344), the development team breaks down "the product backlog items down into the tasks that are required to complete them to the Scrum team's agreed-upon definition of done." Because of the development team's participation in the definition and sizing of the User Stories (see "Planning Poker," Chapter 7, page 129), the work to be done, a developer's commitment to an estimate of a task's duration is much stronger, even if the estimate is wrong. Kenny paints this value quite well.
Chapters 20, "Sprint Execution," 21, "Sprint Review," and 22, "Sprint Retrospective," round out Part IV of the book. These chapters, respectively, are analogous (if you stretch the landscape metaphor) to the current Interstate being traveled, a new car showroom, and a rest area for motorists along the way. Kenny provides the key signposts to watch for along the way to ensure that your sprints go as much according to plan as possible, and avoid unnecessary hazards and detours.
In Chapter 23, "The Path Forward," Kenny concludes the book with some gourmet food for thought. Our desire when adopting something new is usually to find a pattern or template that we can copy and follow thus avoiding known hazards. We try to find those "best practices" like wild game, and shoot it, dress it and can it for later consumption. Kenny points out the latitude that exists when undertaking to use Scrum eliminates that need. On page 396 he writes, "Throughout this book I have used the term practice to mean a core or essential aspect of Scrum. An approach is a particular implementation of a Scrum practice. When people ask me about best practices, I take that to mean best approaches." Later he writes, "Approaches, therefore, are unique to each team..."
I highly recommend this book! I read the Kindle version from Amazon on my iPad using the Kindle app, and made extensive use of the digital highlighter, and captured several notes. It won't make you a seasoned expert on Scrum: that comes with time and experience. What it will do is provide a well thought out and insightful map with which you can start your journey in the Land of Scrum.
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From the Publisher
Kenny Rubin's "Essential Scrum" - An Easy Read!
Customer Reviews
Excellent! Best book I've ever read about Agile/Scrum
"Well, written, complete and thorough. This really explains the purpose of Agile, and all the details of scrum. I've read quite a few books on this topic, but this is by far the most informative, and complete. Covers everything. And is well written, and enjoyable to read. Great book!" —The Z Man
Wanting a deeper understanding of the “why” behind some of the best Scrum practices?
"The books' easy-to-understand format, clear iconology and detailed diagrams makes complex concepts easy to digest. The basic principles that support the best Scrum practices are presented in a simple and coherent way that will enable the beginner to the Scrum expert to put into practice practical applications that drive real value." —Richard James Hoxie
Well Written
"This book covers Scrum in wonderful detail. One thing I haven't seen mentioned much - it's also very easy to read and generally extremely well-written. This is not a super dense, difficult-to-get-through-but-worth it book. It's actually just easy to read, information-dense, and super worth it." —uzair
It's the book to go agile completely, the scrum way!
"Highly illustrative and its graphics helped me to remember processes during my PMP certification exam which I passed above target in all the 3 domains." —James Ashaye
Add vlue to your teams
"This book covers BOTH the basics as well as providing you with an explanation of the framework so that you can begin applying scrum principles with your teams and projects. This is an EXCEPTIONALLY written manual on how to perform and ensure that you are adding value to your teams." —P. Caroll
This is the Scrum book to get
"I'm a professional Agile/Scrum instructor, and I've developed and teach a custom Agile/Scrum course. I use Ken's book Essential Scrum to help the topic come alive for my students. Ken's book is one of the best I've found on Scrum! His practical application and explanations help to provide much-needed context to the Scrum framework. I particularly find that his illustrations are absolutely wonderful in helping someone understand the topic - and I would expect my students would agree." —Lance Foust
Great reference book
"A very good comprehensive book for scrum and agile principles. The way it is written is so easy to follow and the examples and illustrations are very useful." —Raghda Eldessouky
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| Essential Scrum | The Scrum Field Guide | The Great ScrumMaster | Agile Project Management with Scrum | Succeeding with Agile | |
| A practical guide to the most popular agile process | Advice for your first year and beyond | Fast, focused, practical guide | Real-world lessons | Proven, practical guidance to making Scrum work in any organization | |
| Kenneth Rubin | Mitch Lacey | Zuzana Sochova | Ken Schwaber | Mike Cohn | |
| "This book serves as an indispensable guide, helping teams choose among the billions of possible ways of implementing Scrum and finding one that leads to success." — Mike Cohn, author of "Succeeding with Agile", Certified Scrum Trainer | "…I can definitely recommend Mitch’s book! I am confident that you will find my book and this book to be good compliments to one another, even (and especially) where the two differ on particular issues or approaches." -- Kenneth Rubin | "[Sochova] fills an important gap in providing practical advice and tools for ScrumMasters who wish to improve their craft. The book is full of powerful tips sure to help any ScrumMaster." — Mike Cohn | "This book is an excellent guide for anyone looking to improve how he or she delivers software, and I recommend it highly." — Mike Cohn, author of "Succeeding with Agile", Certified Scrum Trainer | "By reading this book, you will find that Mike brings up issues that you never thought of, offers advice on how you might handle situations, and helps you define new roles on your team." -- Tim Lister, Principal, The Atlantic Systems Guild, Inc |
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A absolute must - the Scrum bible
Reviewed in Australia on October 14, 2015
