Mike Cohn ---SCRUM and XP from the Trenches FOREWORD

[b] How we do SCRUM ? Great book by Henrik Kniberg[/b]
<<SCRUM and XP from the Trenches>>
URL : [url]http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/scrum-xp-from-the-trenches[/url]
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[b] FOREWORD BY MIKE COHN[/b]
Both Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) ask teams to complete some
tangible piece of shippable work by the end of each iteration. These
iterations are designed to be short and timeboxed. This focus on
delivering working code in a short timeframe means that Scrum and XP
teams don’t have time for theories. They don’t pursue drawing the perfect
UML model in a case tool, writing the perfect requirements document, or
writing code that will be able to accommodate all imaginable future
changes. Instead, Scrum and XP teams focus on getting things done.
These teams accept that they may mistakes along the way, but they also
realize that the best way to find those mistakes is to stop thinking about
the software at the theoretical level of analysis and design and to dive in,
get their hands dirty, and start building the product.
It is this same focus on doing rather than theorizing that distinguishes this
book. That Henrik Kniberg understands this is apparent right from the
start. He doesn’t offer a lengthy description of what Scrum is; he refers us
to some simple websites for that. Instead, Henrik jumps right in and
immediately begins describing how his team manages and works with
their product backlog. From there he moves through all of the other
elements and practices of a well-run agile project. No theorizing. No
references. No footnotes. None are needed. Henrik’s book isn’t a
philosophical explanation of why Scrum works or why you might want to
try this or that. It is a description of how one well-running agile team
works.
This is why the book’s subtitle, “How We Do Scrum,” is so apt. It may
not be the way you do Scrum, it’s how Henrik’s team does Scrum. You
may ask why you should care how another team does Scrum. You should
care because we can all learn how to do Scrum better by hearing stories of
how it has been done by others, especially those who are doing it well.
There is not and never will be a list of “Scrum Best Practices” because
team and project context trump all other considerations. Instead of best
practices, what we need to know are good practices and the contexts in
which they were successful. Read enough stories of successful teams andhow they did things and you’ll be prepared for the obstacles thrown at you
in your use of Scrum and XP.
Henrik provides a host of good practices along with the necessary context
to help us learn better how to do Scrum and XP in the trenches of our own
projects.
Mike Cohn
Author of Agile Estimating and Planning and User Stories Applied for
Agile Software Development.
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