Scrum Values
The Story Behind “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” - Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 8
15 April 2019
The Story Behind Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions — Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the final installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
- Part 1: The Call;
- Part 2: The Goals;
- Part 3: The Environment;
- Part 4: The Options;
- Part 5: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog;
- Part 6: The Pilot – Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution; and
- Part 7: The Pilot – Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
Part 8: The Success
By adopting an agile mindset and providing improved engagement, collaboration, transparency, and adaptability via Scrum's values, roles, events, and artifacts, the results were excellent. After one sprint, satisfaction ratings for the Development Team and stakeholders were higher than the target. After three sprints, the output of the Scrum Team became consistent and predictable, satisfaction increased even further, and all of the seven goals mentioned earlier were achieved. Here's an overview:
🎯 Goal 1
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP (executive vice president)
- Desired outcome: Develop and deliver products and services faster than 6-12 months
- Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)
🎯 Goal 2
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
- Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 3
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
- Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the stakeholders
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 4
- Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development Team)
- Desired outcome: Meet or exceed the expectations of management
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 5
- Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team
- Desired outcome: Deliver valuable products/services
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 6
- Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
- Desired outcome: For stakeholders or their representatives to be more involved in requirements
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 7
- Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
- Desired outcome: Get useable products delivered more frequently than 6-12 months
- Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)
The EVP, Scrum Team, and stakeholders declared the pilot a success and they made this implementation of Scrum the preferred approach for the development and delivery of products and services going forward.
In addition to achieving the goals summarized above, the agile transformation also supported the organization's efforts to innovate and drive their competitive advantage. It became more successful. As the business grew, so has the number of Scrum teams. Originally numbering one, the division presently has six Scrum teams.
This concludes The Story Behind Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions — Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company. The agile transformation experience was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, continuous improvement, and more. It has garnered 17 first place awards and credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, and a detailed list of awards are in the digital media kit.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius is offered in digital and print formats around the world.
Agile Scrum in ebook format (ASIN: B01FZ0JIIY) is available in:
- Australia from Amazon
- Brazil from Amazon
- Canada from Amazon
- France from Amazon
- Germany from Amazon
- India from Amazon
- Italy from Amazon
- Japan from Amazon
- Mexico from Amazon
- Netherlands from Amazon
- Spain from Amazon
- United Kingdom from Amazon
- United States from Amazon
Agile Scrum in paperback (ISBN-13: 9781533370242) is for sale in:
- France from Amazon
- Germany from Amazon
- Italy from Amazon
- Japan from Amazon
- Spain from Amazon
- United Kingdom from Amazon and The Book Depository
- United States from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, AbeBooks, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, Hudson Booksellers, Savoy Bookshop & Café, Compass Books at SFO/Books Inc., Books & Books - Miami, Laguna Beach Books, Diesel Bookstore, and University Press Books - Berkeley.
- and from other retailers, distributors, and partners around the world
For press, please visit AgileScrumGuide.com.
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2020 Updates to the Scrum Guide: 7 Key Changes, and Why There's No Impact to the Award-Winning Book Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
24 November 2020
Countless organizations and resources are vanguards of agile including Scrum. Many take guidance from the Scrum Guide, which is periodically revised. An updated version was released on November 18, 2020. This article highlights the key changes in the Scrum Guide. And it covers what impact — if any — those updates have on the award-winning publication, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.
The update to the Scrum Guide includes seven key changes. They are:
- The update is less prescriptive. For example, it removed the implied requirement of questions during the Daily Scrum.
- Before, the Scrum Team was comprised of the Development Team (the people doing the work), Scrum Master, and Product Owner. Now, the Scrum Team is composed of developers (the people doing the work), the Scrum Master, and the Product Owner.
- The update introduces the Product Goal.
- More information on the Definition of Done, and the Sprint Goal. (The Product Goal is covered above.)
- Before, the Development Team was referred to as self-organizing. The update uses the term self-managing and it notes that developers should choose who, how, and what to work on.
- “Why?” was added to the sprint planning topics. So, there are now three: what, how, and why.
- Unnecessarily complex information was removed.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions notes: “This guide incorporates the values and principles of agile along with information on typical successful Scrum implementations and best practices.” With a bibliography referencing 116 sources, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions was deliberately based on a large and diverse range of sources for the better. Here's just one example among many. While the Scrum Guide was silent on velocity, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions covers the topic: “For example, velocity — the most popular metrics — is not used by some people. However, this guide covers velocity and other leading practices.”
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is definitively not a restatement of a solitary source such as the Scrum Guide. Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions was thoughtfully designed to be “a refreshingly clear and easy to follow guide” based on typical successful implementations and best practices from a multitude of sources.
So, what is the impact — if any — of changes to the Scrum Guide on Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions? That’s covered next. The scale of 0-10 is used, where 0 represents no impact and 10 indicates a significant impact.
Item 1: Less Prescriptive
- Scrum Guide: The update to the Scrum Guide is less prescriptive. For example, it removed the implied requirement of questions during the Daily Scrum.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book was already non-prescriptive. While it is centered on leading practices, it notes: “Every aspect does not need to be followed to the letter. Just as a value of agile is ‘individuals and interactions over processes and tools’ and a principle is ‘inspect and adapt,’ whatever approach you decide to use should be adjusted as appropriate to your unique circumstances.” That’s just one example.
- Impact: 0.
Item 2: The Team
- Scrum Guide: Before, the Scrum Team was comprised of the Development Team (the people doing the work), Scrum Master, and Product Owner. Now, the Scrum Team is comprised of developers (the people doing the work), the Scrum Master, and the Product Owner. Simply put, “Development Team” was changed to “developers.”
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: This label change should not impact how a Scrum Team works together. (Note: while the change may have been an attempt to simplify matters, calling them something other than developers may have been even better. In Scrum, developers are defined as those who do the work. However, for many people, a technology developer/engineer immediately comes to mind.)
- Impact: Between 0 and 1.
Item 3: Product Goal
- Scrum Guide: The update introduces the Product Goal.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book already covers the Product Goal.
- Impact: 0.
Item 4: Definition of Done, and the Sprint Goal
- Scrum Guide: More information on the Definition of Done, and the Sprint Goal. (The Product Goal is covered above.)
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book already suitably covers the Definition of Done (including seven examples, and more) and the Sprint Goal.
- Impact: 0.
Item 5: Self-Managing
- Scrum Guide: Before, the Development Team was referred to as self-organizing. The update uses the term “self-managing” and it notes that developers should choose who, how, and what to work on.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book already covers the who, how, and what to work on.
- Impact: 0.
Item 6: Added “Why?” to Sprint Planning
- Scrum Guide: “Why?” was added to the sprint planning topics. So, there are now three: what, how, and why.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book already covers the “why” via the sprint goal during sprint planning.
- Impact: 0.
7. Unnecessary complexities
- Scrum Guide: Unnecessarily complex information was removed.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book was conscientiously built to be “a refreshingly clear and easy to follow guide.” Unnecessary complexities were never included, so they don’t need to be removed.
- Impact: 0.
The updates to the Scrum Guide are helpful. However, as delineated above, they have no impact on the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.
Hailed as “a must-have” and “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully” and “a superbly written and presented guide that is applicable across a broad range of businesses from consumer products to high-tech,” award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by author Scott M. Graffius is a refreshingly clear and easy to follow guide based on typical successful implementations and best practices from a multitude of sources. The 2020 updates to the Scrum Guide have no impact on Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. Several updates to the Scrum Guide involved adding information that was already provided by Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management consultant, practitioner, award-winning author, and international speaker. Content from his books, speaking engagements, and more has been used by businesses, governments, and universities, including: Gartner, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a Top 20 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Agile. His full-length bio is available at: https://bit.ly/bio-smg.
Follow @scottgraffius
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Scott M. Graffius is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards an it has been featured by over 30 media outlets and publications. The book is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the United States and around the world. To learn more, visit AgileScrumGuide.com.
★★★★★
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- Read additional articles in our blog
- Visit our digital media kit
- See Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions on Amazon
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