This book is a valuable, practical, no-nonsense addition to the Agile literature. Co-authors Andrew and Phuong-Van quickly get down to brass tacks in covering a very broad software development and management landscape. In valuable detail, they cover Agile foundations, finance, management buy-in, Agile requirements, architecture vision, product owner role, focused testing, teamwork, Agile management, and how to adapt Scrum without destroying it, and they top it off with a readiness assessment tool.

I see two major groups of people who will find this book really useful: those coming from a more traditional plan-driven mindset and those coming from a newer Agile mindset. The strength of this tome is that it is practical without being dogmatic, and therefore provides a bridge to the others’ thinking for people in both these groups.

For those of you coming from a traditional, plan-driven background, there are several wonderful sections of information. The material on visioning architecture; creating smart requirements for the Scrum Product Backlog; being an effective product owner in true Agile, servant leader mode; focusing on automated, regression, and integration tests; being an enthusiastic and productive team member; and adapting Scrum without killing its Agile core will serve two purposes. On one hand, it should provide warmth and comfort if your heart has been chilled by myths that Agile teams are lacking in essential software development disciplines. On the other, it will expose you to some of the really critical soft stuff: the wonderful people, team and leadership elements of Scrum that have made it so popular with the rank and file and enlightened managers alike.

For those of you coming from a newer Agile mindset, especially if you may not have been exposed to more traditional rigor, the material that covers considering earned value in particular and finance in general, creating an architecture vision and applying it to the Scrum product backlog, and performing criteria-based estimation as an addition to planning poker should help expand your thinking without raising your hackles. The treatment of traditional rigor here is quite sensible and appropriate, and I really believe that you should have no issues with finding a way to apply some of these proven traditional techniques almost immediately on your projects.

If you’re a project manager, developer, tester, product manager, business analyst, or in fact, anyone involved with software development, you will find that this book helps you understand the nitty gritty of work on Scrum teams with a very focused practicality. It is a comprehensive work that I believe you will enjoy, no matter where your starting point.

I met Andrew in one of my ScrumMaster classes, and was quickly impressed by the depth of his knowledge and the sincerity of his viewpoints. Quite frankly, he could have taught the class, and his humility in sharing his knowledge was remarkable. Along with co-author Phuong-Van, Andrew invites you on an exciting journey into Agile management and development. I hope you will accept the invitation.

Sanjiv Augustine

Author, Managing Agile Projects

Certified Scrum Trainer

Co-Founder, Agile Project Leadership Network

President, LitheSpeed