Over the years I’ve read a lot of books about agile development and Scrum, and most concentrate on the methodology rather than what you’re trying to achieve. This book is a refreshing change because it concentrates on the end result and how to use Scrum to achieve it. (View Highlight)
The very fact that this is different to the majority of books on Scrum says a lot about the sector. Maarten Dalmijn makes a very insightful observation in the introduction where he points out that Scrum doesn’t tell you what to do; it helps to show what’s going on, and that Scrum isn’t about doing better Scrum, it’s about improving the ability of Scrum teams to deliver value. (View Highlight)
Part one of the book has the title ‘why goals matter’, and chapter one is all about the unknown. Dalmijn has an extremely readable style and is good at recounting stories to explain the concepts he’s wanting to explore. Chapter one’s title of ‘imperfect plans, flawed execution, and unpredictable results’ sets out the premise that building software is an exercise in dealing with uncertainty and complexity. (View Highlight)
Chapter two, titled ‘more friction, more surprises’ introduces the Cynefin framework, and explains how it can be used to establish your working domain and decide on the best strategy. Next comes a chapter on ‘countering friction by leading with intent’, where Dalmijn again looks at military history to illustrate how to deal with friction and uncertainty. (View Highlight)
