Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 My husband likes it so far July 14, 2008
Little weird to review a book before actually reading it. My husband is learning English with it. I observed that it has an accessible language for those who are first exploring SCRUM.
 Good but not great June 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a good book with lots of valuable information around the empirical nature of Scrum. For someone who was central to creating Scrum, the book doesn't offer much more.
It's broken up into three parts: Overview of Scrum / Why it works / Case studies.
The overview of Scrum is poor at best. There are much simpler ways to communicate it. If you don't know anything about Scrum then this book probably won't help get you started.
The "Why it works" chapters were much more interesting and valuable. It takes you through the epirical nature of scrum and why previous methodologies have failed. The most interesting part is the brief exposition around the psychological, anthropological and systematical viewpoints around Scrum. Like much of the book, this could have been written better and with more indepth information, but still meets a basic need.
The case studies and ancillary information in the last few chapters feel hasty and are of little value. Many of the examples (although based on actual events) feel contrived and are simplified so much that they aren't highly illuminating.
Overall the book wasn't the greatest but it did provide me with some value. The editing is quite poor and there are numerous mistakes throughout. The general layout of the page is also problematic and makes it difficult to read.
Most laughable however are the images and graphics. They look like they were made in MSPaint and screen capped into the book.
 Good, but Probably Not the Best for You June 19, 2008
ASDS is a very good book, but only for the few who want to be Scrum experts. The material is thorough, and not necessarily easy to get through, in part because the Schwaber and Beedle walk through every part of Scrum in detail, as well as cover situations that likely don't apply to most, and they even go through philosophical views that some may care little about. To be sure, there are gems in the book, and I learned a few important points, but I have been to ScrumMaster certification training, read two other agile books, and been mentored by a CSM/PMP. I feel the book only moved me from 80% comfort level with Scrum to 85%. If you are a consultant managing projects, or you want to teach, coach or train in this area, read the book. If you a internal project manager,product manager, or IT manager, I recommend you get Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide (The Agile Software Development Series)and read the section on Scrum. It's simpler, cleaner, and the rest of the book gives good background to agile and options you may want to consider. If you are a team or development lead, or the senior developer, get Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional). It's an even easier read, focussed solely on Scrum and gives lots of enjoyable stories of real situations the author went through, good and bad.
 The SCRUM bible April 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the one book you buy everyone on your team and tell them to read as the first step to implementing scrum. It's well written, clear, and consise. Most people only need to read chapters 2-4, 5-7 are on control theory, etc that is interesting but not required.
This is good stuff 'straight from the horses mouth'.
Great Book! April 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm the resident 'Scrum Lord' at my company and I purchased this book early on in my 'Scrum' travels. It's been a handy quick read resource for our entire company. We bought a 1/2 dozen to pass around when we got new hires so they could read up a bit before they went to our in-house training in Scrum/Agile. For folks with just a little time, we suggested they read chapters 2 and 3 to get the gist of it. If they had more time...we suggested the read the whole book. Our in house training was inspired by some of the concepts used in this book. Its a great one! All of my 'loaner copies' are checked out somewhere here at work!
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