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Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process, 1st edition

Published by Addison-Wesley Professional (July 26, 2012) © 2013

  • Kenneth S. Rubin

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If you want to use Scrum to develop innovative products and services that delight your customers, Essential Scrum is the complete, single-source reference you’ve been searching for. Leading Scrum coach and trainer Kenny Rubin illuminates the values, principles, and practices of Scrum, and describes flexible, proven approaches that can help you implement it far more effectively.
Whether you are new to Scrum or years into your use, this book will introduce, clarify, and deepen your Scrum knowledge at the team, product, and portfolio levels. Drawing from Rubin’s experience helping hundreds of organisations succeed with Scrum, this book provides easy-to-digest descriptions enhanced by more than two hundred illustrations based on an entirely new visual icon language for describing Scrum’s roles, artifacts, and activities.
Essential Scrum will provide every team member, manager, and executive with a common understanding of Scrum, a shared vocabulary they can use in applying it, and practical knowledge for deriving maximum value from it.

List of Figures xxv

Foreword by Mike Cohn xxxi

Foreword by Ron Jeffries xxxiii

Preface xxxv

Acknowledgments xxxix

About the Author xliii

 

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

What Is Scrum? 1

Scrum Origins 3

Why Scrum? 4

Genomica Results 4

Can Scrum Help You? 5

Closing 10

 

Part I: Core Concepts 11

 

Chapter 2: Scrum Framework 13

Overview 13

Scrum Roles 14

Scrum Activities and Artifacts 16

Closing 28

 

Chapter 3: Agile Principles 29

Overview 29

Variability and Uncertainty 32

Prediction and Adaptation 37

Just-in-Time Work 43

Validated Learning 44

Work in Process (WIP) 48

Progress 54

Performance 56

Closing 58

 

Chapter 4: Sprints 61

Overview 61

Timeboxed 62

Short Duration 64

Consistent Duration 67

No Goal-Altering Changes 69

Definition of Done 74

Closing 78

 

Chapter 5: Requirements and User Stories 79

Overview 79

Using Conversations 81

Progressive Refinement 82

What Are User Stories? 83

Level of Detail 86

INVEST in Good Stories 88

Nonfunctional Requirements 93

Knowledge-Acquisition Stories 93

Gathering Stories 95

Closing 98

 

Chapter 6: Product Backlog 99

Overview 99

Product Backlog Items 100

Good Product Backlog Characteristics 101

Grooming 104

Definition of Ready 108

Flow Management 110

Which and How Many Product Backlogs? 112

Closing 118

 

Chapter 7: Estimation and Velocity 119

Overview 119

What and When We Estimate 120

PBI Estimation Concepts 123

PBI Estimation Units 128

Planning Poker 129

What Is Velocity? 133

Calculate a Velocity Range 134

Forecasting Velocity 135

Affecting Velocity 135

Misusing Velocity 137

Closing 138

 

Chapter 8: Technical Debt 139

Overview 139

Consequences of Technical Debt 141

Causes of Technical Debt 144

Technical Debt Must Be Managed 148

Managing the Accrual of Technical Debt 149

Making Technical Debt Visible 153

Servicing the Technical Debt 155

Closing 162

 

Part II: Roles 163

 

Chapter 9: Product Owner 165

Overview 165

Principal Responsibilities 166

Characteristics/Skills 171

A Day in the Life 174

Who Should Be a Product Owner? 176

Product Owner Combined with Other Roles 181

Product Owner Team 182

Closing 184

 

Chapter 10: ScrumMaster 185

Overview 185

Principal Responsibilities 185

Characteristics/Skills 188

A Day in the Life 190

Fulfilling the Role 191

Closing 193

 

Chapter 11: Development Team 195

Overview 195

Role-Specific Teams 195

Principal Responsibilities 196

Characteristics/Skills 198

Closing 211

 

Chapter 12: Scrum Team Structures 213

Overview 213

Feature Teams versus Component Teams 213

Multiple-Team Coordination 218

Closing 223

 

Chapter 13: Managers 225

Overview 225

Fashioning Teams 227

Nurturing Teams 231

Aligning and Adapting the Environment 233

Managing Value-Creation Flow 235

Project Managers 237

Closing 243

 

Part III: Planning 245

 

Chapter 14: Scrum Planning Principles 247

Overview 247

Don’t Assume We Can Get the Plans Right Up Front 248

Up-Front Planning Should Be Helpful without Being Excessive 248

Keep Planning Options Open Until the Last Responsible Moment 249

Focus More on Adapting and Replanning Than on Conforming to a Plan 249

Correctly Manage the Planning Inventory 251

Favor Smaller and More Frequent Releases 252

Plan to Learn Fast and Pivot When Necessary 254

Closing 255

 

Chapter 15: Multilevel Planning 257

Overview 257

Portfolio Planning 259

Product Planning (Envisioning) 259

Release Planning 261

Sprint Planning 264

Daily Planning 264

Closing 265

 

Chapter 16: Portfolio Planning 267

Overview 267

Scheduling Strategies 270

Inflow Strategies 275

Outflow Strategies 280

In-Process Strategies 283

Closing 285

 

Chapter 17: Envisioning (Product Planning) 287

Overview 287

SR4U Example 290

Visioning 291

High-Level Product Backlog Creation 294

Product Roadmap Definition 295

Other Activities 298

Economically Sensible Envisioning 299

Closing 306

 

Chapter 18: Release Planning (Longer-Term Planning) 307

Overview 307

Release Constraints 311

Grooming the Product Backlog 315

Refine Minimum Releasable Features (MRFs) 316

Sprint Mapping (PBI Slotting) 316

Fixed-Date Release Planning 318

Fixed-Scope Release Planning 323

Calculating Cost 325

Communicating 326

Closing 330

 

Part IV: Sprinting 333

 

Chapter 19: Sprint Planning 335

Overview 335

Approaches to Sprint Planning 338

Determining Capacity 340

Selecting Product Backlog Items 343

Acquiring Confidence 344

Refine the Sprint Goal 346

Finalize the Commitment 346

Closing 346

 

Chapter 20: Sprint Execution 347

Overview 347

Sprint Execution Planning 349

Flow Management 349

Daily Scrum 354

Task Performance—Technical Practices 355

Communicating 356

Closing 360

 

Chapter 21: Sprint Review 363

Overview 363

Participants 364

Prework 365

Approach 368

Sprint Review Issues 372

Closing 373

 

Chapter 22: Sprint Retrospective 375

Overview 375

Participants 377

Prework 378

Approach 380

Follow Through 391

Sprint Retrospective Issues 392

Closing 393

 

Chapter 23: The Path Forward 395

There Is No End State 395

Discover Your Own Path 396

Sharing Best Practices 396

Using Scrum to Discover the Path Forward 397

Get Going! 398

 

Glossary 401

References 423

Index 427

 

Kenneth S. Rubin provides Scrum and Agile training and coaching to help companies develop products more effectively and economically. A Certified Scrum Trainer, he has trained more than eighteen thousand people on Agile and Scrum, Smalltalk development, managing object-oriented projects, and transition management. He has coached hundreds of companies, ranging from startups to the Fortune 10. Rubin was the first Managing Director of the worldwide Scrum Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on successful Scrum adoption. His diverse development roles have included successful stints as Scrum product owner, ScrumMaster, and developer. Rubin’s executive management roles have included CEO, COO, VP of Engineering, VP of Product Management, and VP of Professional Services. He is the author of Succeeding with Objects (Addison-Wesley, 1995).

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