Notes: Scrum, the Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

I’m not much of a reader, but the book Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland had me glued. I took notes for what I found to be the most interesting and actionable pieces of information. Before I toss my notes in the recycle bin, I will publish this here for easy reference. For a more thorough deep-dive, I highly recommend purchasing the original source material.

The document aims to be condensed notes: small, bite-sized reference material of summation points without elaboration, connecting thoughts, or associated data.

Agile manifesto

1. Support people over processes.
2. Produce products that work instead of relying on documentation for “what you’re supposed to do.”
3. Collaborate with customers instead of negotiating with them.
4. Respond to changes instead of following a plan.

Sprint demonstrations

End each sprint by demonstrating progress for stakeholders.

• Is the product heading in the right direction? Were there any new discoveries? What are the new priorities?
• Determine the team’s velocity.
• How do you improve working together next sprint? What got in your way?
• Show progress to stakeholders, including customers.

Ask your customers:

• Is this what you want?
• Does this solve at least a piece of your problem?
• Are we going in the right direction? If not, change the plan.

Scrum master

A scrum master should maintain the following mindset:

• Keep the team excited about and focused on the goal.
• Keep the team pushing toward the same goal.
• Obliterate anything in the team’s way. Improve processes.
• Celebrate any of the team’s successes. Individual contributions are team successes.

Each scrum meeting, the scrum master should spend 15 minutes asking:

1. What did you do since last scrum to help the team finish the sprint?
2. What are you going to do before next scrum to help the team finish the sprint?
3. What obstacles are…