Navigating Hybrid Scrum Environments (eBook)

Fred Fowler has been developing software in Silicon Valley for more than 35 years and has been using the Scrum Framework since 2006. He is one of only about 50 individuals in the USA who holds the prestigious “Professional Scrum Master level III” (PSM III) certification awarded by Scrum.org. In 2013 he left his post as VP and CIO of a Silicon Valley 150 company to devote his time to teaching and coaching Scrum/Agile. Since then he has helped both startups, not-for-profits, and Fortune 500 organizations, teaching more than 300 people in the USA, India, China, and Central America.

Contents 5
About the Author 7
Acknowledgments 8
Introduction: The “Why” Part of Scrum 9
Part I: The Overall Approach Behind Scrum 12
Chapter 1: What Is Scrum? 13
The Definition of Scrum 15
Methodologies and Frameworks 16
Complex Problems 17
Software Development Is a Complex Problem 18
Summary 18
Chapter 2: Scrum Theory 19
How Effective Is the Scrum Framework? 21
Summary 22
Chapter 3: Scrum and Waterfall 23
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? 24
The .CSS File from H*LL. 28
A Small Change 30
Summary 31
Part II: The Components of Scrum: The Scrum Roles 33
Chapter 4: The Scrum Team 34
Products, Not Projects 35
Cross-functionality 36
Self-organization 37
Summary 39
Chapter 5: Scrum Team Roles 40
The Product Owner 41
Product Owner Characteristics 41
Common Product Ownership Dysfunctions 43
The Product Owner as PM 43
The Product Owner “Committee” 44
The Product Owner Without a Product 45
Product Owner Commitments 46
Summary 47
Chapter 6: The Scrum Development Team 48
Self-organization 50
Team Size 52
Colocation vs. Geographic Distribution 54
Summary 54
Chapter 7: The Scrum Master 55
Teaching People to Solve Their Own Problems 57
Servant Leadership 57
Impediments 58
Summary 60
Part III: The Components of Scrum: The Scrum Artifacts 61
Chapter 8: Scrum Artifacts 62
The Sprint Increment 63
Summary 64
Chapter 9: The Product Backlog 65
The Definitive “Wish List” for a Product 65
The “User Story” Form 67
Acceptance Criteria 68
Other Forms: Behavior-Driven Development 69
The Product Backlog as a Forecasting Tool 70
The Product Backlog as a Status Reporting Tool 71
Summary 72
Chapter 10: The Sprint Backlog 73
The Scrum (Kanban) Board 74
The Sprint Burndown Chart 75
Summary 76
Part IV: The Components of Scrum: The Scrum Events 77
Chapter 11: Scrum Events 78
“Time-boxing” 80
Summary 81
Chapter 12: The Sprint 82
Sprints Are Continuous and Contiguous: They Keep on Going and There Is No “in Between” 83
Sprints Must All Produce “Done” Increments of Product 83
Once Agreed To, the Length of the Sprint Should Not Be Changed 84
Every Sprint Is Like Every Other Sprint There Are No “Special” Sprints
The Definition of “Done” 86
Summary 87
Chapter 13: The Sprint Planning Meeting 88
Defining the Sprint Goal 88
Selecting PBIs 89
Creating the Sprint Backlog 89
Understanding the Development Team’s Capacity 90
Story Points 91
Product Backlog Refinement 92
Summary 93
Chapter 14: The Daily Scrum 94
Common Dysfunctions in a Daily Scrum 95
Summary 97
Chapter 15: The Sprint Review 98
A Common Misconception 98
The True Purpose of the Sprint Review 99
An Example 100
Summary 101
Chapter 16: The Sprint Retrospective 102
The Three Questions 103
Summary 105
Part V: Conclusion 106
Chapter 17: Conclusion 107
Appendix A: Scrum for Projects 110
Measuring Value 111
Summary 113
Appendix B: Scaled Scrum 114
Why Have More Than One Team Work on a Product? 115
Cross-functionality vs. Self-organization 116
The Nexus Framework 116
Summary 118
Appendix C: Scrum for the Program and Portfolio Levels 119
The Product Owner Is an Investor 120
Program and portfolio owners Should Be Investors Too 121
Summary 122
Index 123