The Art of Scrum

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Scrum: Overview

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. The Agile Principles

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 3-25

   3. The Scrum Framework

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 27-34

   4. Scrum Roles

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 35-54

   5. Scrum Team Structures

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 55-61

   6. Scrum Ceremonies and Artifacts

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 63-94

3. Scrum: The Scrum Master’s Perspective

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95

      PDF

   2. The Scrum Master’s Responsibilities and Core Functions

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 97-131

   3. The Scrum Master’s Interaction with Other Roles

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 133-146

4. The Scrum Master’s Skill Sets

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 147-147

      PDF

   2. Soft Skills of the Scrum Master

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 149-161

   3. Technical Skills of the Scrum Master

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 163-180

   4. Contingency Skills of the Scrum Master

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 181-187

   5. Putting It All Together

      • Dave McKenna

      Pages 189-210

5. Back Matter

   Pages 211-218

   PDF

Learn the nuts and bolts of scrum—its framework, roles, team structures, ceremonies, and artifacts—from the scrum master’s perspective.

The Art of Scrum details the scum master’s responsibilities and core functions in planning and facilitating the ceremonies and artifacts of a scrum team: sprint planning, sprint execution, backlog refinement, daily standups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives. It analyzes the scrum master’s interactions with other scrum roles, including the product owner, development team members, other scrum masters, and the agile coach. 

Scrum Master Dave McKenna catalogs the three skill sets that you must master to be successful at binding teams and unleashing agility: soft skills, technical skills, and contingency skills. You’ll benefit from the author’s examination of these skill sets with insights and anecdotes drawn from his own experience as an engineer, agile coach, and scrum master. He illustrates common mistakes scrum masters make, as well as modeling successful strategies, adaptations to changes, and solutions to tricky problems.

What You'll Learn:

• How scrum masters facilitate the agile ceremonies
• How scrum masters align scrum teams to sprint goals and shield them from interference
• How scrum masters coach product owners to build a backlog and refine user stories
• How scrum masters manage contingencies such as intra-team conflicts, organizational impediments, technical debt, emergent architecture, personnel changes, scope creep, and learning from failure.

Who This Book Is For:



The primary readership is scrum masters, product owners, and dev team members. The secondary readership is scrum stakeholders, including executive sponsors, project managers, functional and line managers, administrative personnel, expert consultants, testers, vendors, and end users. The tertiary readership is anybody who wants to know how build an agile team that consistently delivers value and continuous improvement.

• ScrumMaster
• scrum team
• facilitator
• burndown
• velocity
• Agile Manifesto
• Agile Coach
• 12 Principles
• Product Owner
• agile ceremonies
• servant leader
• waterfall
• daily standup
• Definition of Done
• user stories
• sprint planning
• sprint review
• retrospective meeting

“This practitioner-oriented book does an admirable job of describing the duties and spirit of the scrum master. The author presents his experiences and insights on being a scrum master in a conversational manner, peppered with anecdotes and asides. Reading this short book is like sharing ideas with an experienced colleague over a preferred beverage. If you aspire to be a scrum master or want to have a better understanding of the role, it is worth a read.” (A. Hevner, Computing Reviews, May, 2017)

• CA Technologies , Aliquippa, USA

  Dave McKenna

Dave McKenna is a certified ScrumMaster and Agile Coach who has worked in the information technology field for more than 20 years. A United States Air Force veteran who started his career in IT unboxing IBM and Apple computers in a Computerland store, McKenna eventually became a Novell Certified Network Engineer and worked his way into a Sustaining Engineer position at CA Technologies. In 2009 he began his ScrumMaster journey which continues today.

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