Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: It's a good overview of Agile, but feels a bit contrived
Comment: I generally like this book, and find it's content helpful. However, the examples chosen for the book focus on "broken" situations that seem to go beyond just project management and development methodology, and demonstrate that somehow magically, Scrum saves the day.
While I like the optimism and positive-thinking these examples encourage, it doesn't match reality. When I walk into a messy, complex situation, apply Scrum, and the world doesn't turn to pink roses, I'm left wondering if I did something wrong...I'm frustrated...I'm angry...I'm confused. The examples setup an expectation of outcomes that is too high to be reached generally, and I think some examples of failures and lessons learned would have rounded out this book much better.
In the real-world, "perfection is the enemy of success" and I think that's what I find missing from this book. All of the outcomes represent a perfect implementation of Scrum to solve the problem in the example.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good intro to Scrum
Comment: Great introduction to Scrum, what situations are ripe for Scrum and examples of where it has been successful - I heartly recommend.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Our new project really benefited from this book
Comment: I've been doing .NET programming for 5 and a half years now, and have practiced Agile in various degrees - all well short of what I believe Agile methodologies recommend. I have wanted to implement many more Agile methodologies, but not yet been in a manager/CTO position to ensure that these practices would be implemented.
Recently, I have been hired to do just that with a startup company. I turned to this book to help me understand the roles, meetings and project artifacts that I need to introduce to truly have an agile development environment (Scrum in particular) as our team grows.
This book really helped me to do just that, and also did it in a way that I found to be very intuitive. By relating past experiences, Ken showed me how using Scrum - in the various positions and responsibilites - moved projects forward in positive and very visible ways. I am still reading the later chapters, and still loving it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Helps get the grasp of what scrum is
Comment: I've read this book short after taking Boris Gloger training of Certified ScrumMaster. It has numerous case studies of Ken's role as ScrumMaster in several companies. I don't know if it's a good book for someone that was not trained or studied scrum at all, but for someone that already has some small background on the topic it's a very good book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Complete overview of Scrum process
Comment: I have enjoyed reading this book. The overview of Scrum is based on analysis of case studies and provides a complete vision on how to manage the software development using "art of possible". The book targets beginner as well as intermediate experienced Scrum practitioners. Being not new to the Scrum process I had several practical "How to?" questions. While answering some of them, some questions remain unanswered. The questions remaining were:
* would Scrum work when requirements are complex, and code is complex?
* Is Scrum the best method for developing complex products which comply to complex industry standards and regulations?
* What to do with defects encountered during the SPRINT? Write them into Backlog List? Etc.
* Usability of Scrum approach: The overlapping nature of Team member role implies that he analyzes requirements, architects and designs the software, tests the software, writes documentation. It is hard to find people with skills all-in-one.
I decided to take a ScrumMaster Certification Course from www.scrumalliance.org. Co-incidentally Ken Schwaber will be the speaker :D
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