The Scrum Guide (2017) — Yes, it gets its own line. Start here!
Books
Top Suggestions
Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide (2004) by Craig Larman. One of the first agile books I recall reading. A good overview of agile from a practical perspective. His later books on scaling, including the Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) model (listed further down) are also great, but start here.
Agile Estimating and Planning (2005) by Mike Cohn. Detailed explanation of the types of planning techniques used by Scrum teams for Sprint level and release level planning. Read this book.
Agile Project Management with Scrum (2004) by Ken Schwaber & Mike Beedle. Another good starting point for project managers looking to gather ideas about their new role. Jim was one of the original signers of the Agile Manifesto.
User Stories Applied (2004) by Mike Cohn. The authority, in my opinion, on user stories and how to make agile practices work for teams. A true giant in the industry.
Succeeding with Agile (2009) by Mike Cohn. Another great one from Mike, with more advice on how to make Agile work for you
The Enterprise and Scrum (2007) by Ken Schwaber. A good read to think about how you would take Scrum to the enterprise. Pre-dates Larman and Vodde’s work to establish LeSS (2016)
Agile Release Planning – My practical methods: One real-world approach to initial agile release planning for one team (2017) Joseph Little. A decent read to learn more about release planning. https://leanpub.com/joesagilereleaseplanning
Scaling Lean and Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum (2008) by Craig Larman & Bas Vodde AND
Practices for Scaling Lean and Agile Development: Large, Multisite and Offshore Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum (2010) by Craig Larman & Bas Vodde. Both great books that describe how to use Scrum at scale. Based on real life experiences of how large companies have successfully used Scrum for big project, using lean thinking.
Scrum and XP from the Trenches (2007) by Henrik Kniberg. A great case study from an experienced Scrum practitioner and successful consultant. He talks about how Extreme Programming is used to enable high-performing Scrum teams, and is at the core of any successful approach. Consider this a guide for success.
For Scrum Masters
Agile Retrospectives; Making Good Teams Great (2006) by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen. The industry-recognized guide to retrospectives.
Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership (2009) by James Sipe and Don Frick. Ken Schwaber has said the ScrumMaster is a “Servant Leader”. This easy-to-understand book from the world of Servant Leadership encapsulates the role of ScrumMaster very well.
Crucial Conversations (2002) by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillian & Al Switzler. A classic book on communication with practical, easy-to-use tools that provide immediate results.
Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making (1996) by Sam Kaner, Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi, Sarah Frisk & Duane Berger) AND
Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders (2006) by Jean Tabaka AND
Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers (2010) by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown & James Macanufo. Of the many roles a Scrum Master must play, the role of facilitator is key. This book provides an essential framework for understanding why teams need a facilitator and is filled with tons of practical examples and techniques to become a better facilitator now.
Coaching Agile Teams (2010) by Lyssa Adkins. Lyssa’s book describes the role of Scrum Master from a variety of viewpoints, the most important of which (to me) is that of a team coach. This will challenge you as you think of Scrum Mastery at a higher level.
Agile Coaching (2009) by Rachel Davies & Liz Sedley. This is not my favorite book on the topic since it treats coaching as a collection of tricks and techniques and I am including it since it is part of the Scrum Alliance’s CSP recommended reading program. If you want better guidance on how to coach teams and individuals, read Lyssa Adkins’s book above.
The Scrum Master’s Skeleton https://trello.com/b/2Hx5dNlB/scrummasters-skeleton. Okay, this is not a book. It is a Trello board with a learning development path for Scrum Masters and aspiring Agile Coaches. Even if you are not aspiring to be a Scrum Master (yet!), is an awesome tool. Fairly self-explanatory, it has a few contributors that evolve it regularly. You can work through the lines of effort if you will, and focus on stuff at the shu level for now. Many of the books it recommends are must reads!
For Product Owners
Agile Product Management with Scrum (2010) by Roman Pichler. Resource for Product Owners on their new role and how they might leverage Scrum to develop new products. A little light if one is looking for depth, but a nice overview.
Writing Effective Use Cases (2000) by Alistair Cockburn. In it’s 20th printing, this comprehensive, but thin book is an extremely practical and useful description on how to leverage use cases for Agile teams.
Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play (2006) by Luke Hohmann. An awesome book of thinking tools that describes how to engage your customers and draw forth products that they really want. I return to the tools described in Luke’s book again and again.
Software by the Numbers: Low Risk, High Return Development (2003) by Mark Denne & Jane Cleland-Huang. Thin book published by Sun Microsystems in the mid-2000’s introduces the term minimal marketable feature (MMF) to the Agile community.
For Developers & Testers
Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams (2008) by Lisa Crispin & Janet Gregory. While tester is not a new role on an Agile team, how their work is performed is different. Both Lisa and Janet are real-life, everyday testers with sound advice.
Three Pillars of Agile Quality & Testing: Achieving Balanced Results in your Journey Towards Agile Quality (2015) by Bob Galen. The three pillars approach to testing, flipping the triangle for test strategy, and shift left approach to agile testing are critical concepts for quality with an agile approach.
Test-Driven Development: By Example (2000) by Kent Beck. Great walk through of how to do test-driven development (TDD) by the developer who popularized the concept. You can even code along with the book to really grasp the concepts.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship (2008) by Robert Martin. Uncle Bob” Martin was another early leader in Extreme Programming. Scrum teams rely on technical excellence to achieve higher levels of performance and Uncle Bob’s book points the way.
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (1999) by Martin Fowler. If you were to practice the techniques explained in this book, within 6 months you would be a better coder than 90% of the software developers in the market today.
For Trainers
The Ten-Minute Trainer: 150 Ways to Teach it Quick and Make it Stick (2005) by Sharon Bowman AND
Training From the Back of the Room: 65 Ways to Step Aside and Let Them Learn (2008) by Sharon Bowman. If you want to know why this class was so good, thank Sharon Bowman and her awesome book! This book revolutionized the way I think about instruction.
Blogs, Articles, or Decks Worth Reviewing
Agile Software Development, A History – The Atlantic, 12.8.2017 — Really good take on the birth of the Agile Manifesto and where we are today. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/12/agile-manifesto-a-history/547715/
The New New Product Development Game — HBR, 1986 Issue, Hirotaka TakeuchiIkujiro Nonaka. The Article that inspired Sutherland to develop a new way to run software projects. https://hbr.org/1986/01/the-new-new-product-development-game
SCRUM Development Process — Ken Schwaber’s paper from the 1995 OOPSLA Conference. First documentation of Scrum http://www.jeffsutherland.org/oopsla/schwapub.pdf
Scrum Handbook — Jeff Sutherland, 2010, developed from the Scrum Papers under the Scrum Training Institute. This was the training arm of Jeff’s enterprise before founding Scrum, Inc. and developing Scrum@Scale http://www.scrummaster.dk/lib/AgileLeanLibrary/People/JeffSutherland/scrumhandbook.pdf
Scrum Guide-Reordered — Developed by Stephen Wolpers while preparing to pass the PSM III exam, this takes pieces of the Scrum guide and groups them thematically, placing all concepts related to something like stakeholders in the same place. https://age-of-product.com/scrum-guide-reordered/
The Scrum Primer — Pete Deemer et. al, 2012. A quick review of key concepts from the scrum guide. http://scrumprimer.org/scrumprimer20.pdf
The Scrum Papers — Maintained by Scrum, Inc. Lots of info here, if you want to take the time to read all 224 pages. http://34slpa7u66f159hfp1fhl9aur1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/scrumpapers.pdf
Scrum Reference Card — Michael James & Luke Walter http://scrumreferencecard.com/ScrumReferenceCard.pdf
10 ways to Screw Up with Scrum and XP — entertaining deck from Henrik Kniberg https://www.jfokus.se/jfokus08/pres/jf08-10WaysToScrewUpWithScrumAndXP.pdf
Scrum Basics (1 hr) from Samantha Laing & Karen Greaves, Growing Agile http://growingagile.thinkific.com/courses/scrumbasics
Introduction To Agile Methods, Student Guide — Evan Leybourn, founder of The Business Agility Institute https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/rmBCEGUGS346Oq
14 Observations of Good Scrum Practice — Carlton Nettleton http://lookforwardconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/ScrumObservations.pdf
Agile 101 Info Page for The Agile Alliance https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/
Scrum — Agile Alliance, their take on Scrum, as defined in the Scrum Guide https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/scrum
Scrum FAQ — CPrime. Listed on the resources page of their site. You will have to register with them to download this, but worth a read in my opinion. https://www.cprime.com/resource/white-papers/scrum-faq-2/
Agile in a Nutshell — Infographic poster from Dandy People https://dandypeople.com/blog/free-kit-agile-in-a-nutshell-poster/
How to Form Teams? A Story of Self-Designing Teams, December 5, 2013, by By Ahmad Fahmy and Craig Larman http://www.ahmadfahmy.com/blog/2013/12/5/the-rise-of-the-team
Websites with well organized, useful resources
http://www.iterationsofjason.com/2018/04/getting-started-with-agile/ Jason Schreuder — if I do say so myself 🙂
https://agilecoachinginstitute.com/agile-coaching-resources/ Lyssa Adkins, my first and favorite agile coach trainer.
https://www.ebgconsulting.com/agile.pdf Ellen Gottesdiener, a list of resources from her site. Too much to explain.
https://www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager/ Johanna Rothman, the pragmatic manager series of blogs is eminently useful. And as a manager of anything — people, projects, products. Johanna always has great ideas to share.
https://www.jpattonassociates.com/category/quick-references/ Jeff Patton, this links to the quick reference guides, all useful. There is other stuff there, too.
https://retromat.org/en/ Corinna Balduf. Comprehensive and well-maintained retrospective format archive — you can subscribe to to their mailing list, or scroll through formats for each stage of the retrospective. Last time I checked, Retromat contains 137 activities, allowing for thousands of combinations and they are constantly adding more.
http://www.scrumcasestudies.com/ Dozens of case studies of firms using Scrum, culled from many sources
https://sevawise.com/tools/games/scrum-roles Virtual Scrum Roles Game (use this to test your knowledge on the three roles of Scrum)
https://sevawise.com/tools/games/scrum-values Virtual Scrum Values Game (use this to test your knowledge on the five values of Scrum)
https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/agile-glossary/ Comprehenseive glossary of agile terms. Many of them appear in the subway map in supplemental material.
http://agilecomplexificationinverter.blogspot.com/2011/09/exercise-definition-of-done.html A great blog on DoD/DoR, with many useful links. Also has a game you can play with a software team to sort out both.
https://scrumdictionary.com/term/business-owner/ Dan Rawsthorne and Doug Shimp. Built by two CSTs. Very searchable and comprehensive.
https://agilepainrelief.com/agile-resources (Mark Levison) Mark is a self-proclaimed agile archivist. He collects tons of resources, all listed on his site. You could spend months here.
Top 10 Podcasts
- The Agile Uprising — Depth and Breadth
This one has a whole team of well- known and very active hosts: Ryan Lockard, Andrew Leff, Colleen Johnson, James Gifford, Jay Hrcsko, Troy Lightfoot, Andy Cleff, Mike McCalla, Jason Cusack, Andy Bacon, Chris Murman, Paul Elia. They do both panels and interviews. Also they famous for successfully interviewing 14 of the 17 authors of the Agile Manifesto to recreate the story. Lots of great ideas across many areas to explore here.
- Meta-Cast — Dynamic Duo
Josh Anderson and Bob Galen are local to Raleigh, and I have worked with both of them so their wisdom is near and dear to my heart. They also have nearly a decade of history together at various firms and they are always ready to share their great experience on transformations with you. They are entertaining and have a great dynamic as long-time friends in the agile community.
- Agile for Humans — All-Star Guests
Ryan Ripley interviews top experts like Lisa Adkins, Josh Kirievsky, Esther Derby, Ron Jeffries, and others to interview and gather insights from.
- Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast — SM Skills
Vasco Duarte interviews other Agile coaches and experienced Scrum masters from all over the world. These are short episodes which focus on a broad range of team coachign skills, suitable for scrum masters and agile coaches.
- Agile Amped – The World of Agile
Powered by SolutionslQ – “world’s largest provider of Agile transformation”. This is a quality podcast that explores topics and features agilists from all over the world. They do a great job of following international and regional conferences to mine for fresh ideas.
- Engineering Culture by lnfoQ — Engineering Culture
InfoQ, the people behind lnfoQ.com and the QCon conferences are talking with the industry leading experts about culture, tech, devops, product development in the form of an interview. You get a lot of variety from this one, and it is another great way to follow along with new ideas coming out of conferences and the broader agile community.
- Modern Change Management – Change Management
Hosted by Jason Little, author of Lean Change Management, this podcast focuses on Agile transformation, culture, and organizational change.
- Agile in 3 Minutes — Getting Started
Amitai Schleir describes this as the simplest podcast that could possibly work. These micropodcasts are only 3 minutes long. He covers some basic but crucial agile concepts in a very succinct way. If you are new to Agile and don’t know where to start, Agile in 3 Minutes will certainly help you.
- The Agile Pubcast — Unscripted
Paul Goddard and Geoff Watts never write scripts and never know where the discussion would go. Instead, they grab some beer and talk about anything imaginable in the agile space.
- Deliver It Cast — Product Ownership
Probably the best (and one of the few) podcasts directed toward product owners. The host, Cory Bryan, and perfectly selected guests (Roman Pichler, David Hussman, Geoff Watts, etc.) share their experience and talk about delivering value.