The Scrum Field Guide, Practical Advice for Your First Year

Don't just 'survive' the move to agile: thrive! Discover 42 infinitely practical tips for succeeding with agile, right from the start! * *Paves the road to success with a clear plan for creating and releasing software. *Works with any agile methodology, from XP to Scrum. *Practical, actionable, concrete tips for senior managers, program/project managers, developers, and product owners. *Eliminates 'buyer's remorse' associated with bumpy agile transitions, helping teams quickly build confidence and get results. Adopting agile looks easy - on paper! In reality, though, new agile teams encounter many unforeseen challenges. Some lose confidence in their ability to succeed; others muddle through, struggling to solve problems that others have already solved many times over. In this book Mitch Lacey brings together those solutions, helping new agile developers learn from others' experience quickly and painlessly. This engaging, realistic book systematically removes the pain of agile adoption, and breaks down the barriers to rapid success. The Scrum Field Guide is organized into 42 bite-size, practical tips - each supported with highly relevant real-world examples and case studies. Lacey presents a section of tips that apply to everyone on the agile team, from leaders to customers. Next, he offers sections specific to each role - including tips for management, program/project managers, team members, and product owners. Lacey answers the questions new agile adopters ask most often - including 'can I modify standard agile processes and still be agile?' and 'how on Earth can we release software within a short timeframe if we can't even do it in a long timeframe?' Along the way, he presents proven solutions for a wide variety of common problems - from prioritizing requirements to building release plans, creating workable software iterations to getting buy-in from skeptical executives.