One of the strongest books I read this year. Well written and to the point, it dives deep into motivations behind the elements of Scrum.
While the book focuses on “pure” Scrum, many of its ideas are applicable beyond Scrum as well.
Scrum is a way to build fast-moving, cross-functional teams. Some of the basic elements are:
Further reading: Microsoft published a research paper that _discusses practical concerns of implementing Scrum in software engineering teams. It’s a good read._
Shuhari 守破離. Breaks down mastery of Japanese martial arts into three stages.
Cross-functional teams. Small autonomous teams, also called feature teams, are the best way to organize work if you want to move fast. Instagram recently moved to this model. There are a few reasons for this kind of team:
Use Planning Poker for effort estimation. Planning poker gets the best of the team’s collective wisdom when estimating. At the same time, it helps with preventing herd mentality and can surface diverging perspectives on implementation.
Process improvements are a part of the process. _Kaizen_s are a fantastic idea for two reasons. First, by making process improvements a core part of the process they’re improving, you can make sure that they get priority. Second, by making it explicit that everyone needs to come up with _kaizen_s, you increase the chance of soliciting good ideas from teammates.
The product owner needs to have enough time for the role. Jeff Sutherland recommends against appointing senior executives to be product owners. The reason is that a product owner is a time-consuming role. Senior executives tend to be time-constrained, so they might not be the best fit.