Reviews for Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum (Addison-Wesley Signature)

1. A 'how to' manual for scrum

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2010

   If you're new to scrum of been doing it for a while this book will help you improve your practices.
   
   Whilst you can read it front to back it is designed so that you should be to use it like a reference book and pick it up and read just what you need.
   
   The only thing that I found was missing was any advice on interacting with sales and where a team is dealing with multiple product owners but I don't know of any book that covers this at the present time.
   
   A really good book that is a must for any budding scrum master, product owner or scrum coach.

2. New masterpiece on agile adoption

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12nd, 2010

   Mike Cohn's books have always been great resources of inspiration for me: Both in my early agile days, where I transformed from being a traditional project manager to a newborn ScrumMaster, as well as today where I, as a Certified Scrum Coach, helps clients to excellence in agile product development. Cohn's latest book: "Succeeding With Agile Software Development Using Scrum" is no exception to this - in fact, I consider this book to be the best I have ever read in the area of broad covering what is necessary in order to succeed with agile development.
   
   When stating "broad coverage", I by no means indicate that this book is a brief description of the relevant subjects. On a contrary, it is more than 400 pages full of insights, details and suggestions on how to succeed with agile implementations in organizations of diverse sizes and cultures. Cohn has done a great job in compiling the essence from many sources and combine it with his own experiences and significant opinions into this masterpiece. There are other books that dig deeper on single subjects (like the up-coming books by Roman Pichler and Lyssa Adkins) which Cohn respectfully are suggesting as additional reading by the end of each chapter.
   
   As Cohn states at the very beginning: "This is not a book for those who are completely new to Scrum or agile". I agree. If you are looking for an introduction to Scrum, you should turn to other sources like the official Scrum Guide or one of Ken Schwabers books, just as long as you remember to come back to this one after gaining experience on your own. This book is filled with descriptions and figures that help even well experienced and highly certified agile practitioners to get the clear picture!
   
   In each chapter, Cohn has included small time-outs named "Things to try now" and "Objection". The first type helps the reader to reflect on his (or should I rather say "her"?) current practice, as well as give concrete suggestions on things that can be done in order to add some positive change. I have personally found many grains of gold that I will apply to my own practice. The second type, "Objection" is actually quite unique. In those sections, Cohn puts himself in the shoes of the skeptical stakeholder and state reasons why Scrum is not working - or at least not is going to work in MY organization (I am just reminded of having similar objections myself the first time I heard about Scrum - luckily I was wrong!). Of course he also takes the time to answer back on each objection by acknowledging the problem behind the objection and providing pragmatic solutions that easily can be implemented.
   
   Reading the book is just like getting a Dan Brown novel in your hands - in fact, I have put "The Lost Symbol" on hold for the benefit of this one! It is written in a clear language with well-described examples and the humor you always sense whenever you read or have live experiences of Cohn. You will get enormous value where either you read it from start to finish or handpick chapters whenever needed.
   
   This one will be one of my primary references for quite a while. Well done, Mike!
   
   Bent Myllerup
   Certified Scrum Coach, Project Management Professional and Certified Systemic Coach.

3. Well Done Mike

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2009

   For a while I was wondering why Mike has not published a book on a heated topic for a number of years, but now I know why !!
   
   In "Succeeding with Agile" you get to enjoy a collection of ideas and more importantly structure on how to truly embrace agile within any organization. It is very obvious that a large investment in time to research to explain key topics with regards to the implementation of Scrum has been undertaken. I also value the reference material at the end of each chapter to guide my learning to expand upon any topic that graps my attention.
   
   This is an intermediate book and an understanding of the Scrum framework armed with some experiences and scars in trying to implement agile will make this book a valuable asset in your library.
   
   Well done mike, great job.

4. I liked this ... loads.

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   In this book, Mike Cohn, moves away teaching you HOW to do agile, towards HOW to IMPLEMENT Agile so that it works and sticks. This is an excellent book. Very practical and pragmatic; based on loads of experience in the real world.