Review of Book: SCRUM: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland

Every business is a software business 

- Lew Cirne

Though, Jeff Sutherland's new book, SCRUM - The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time is written for general audience (people outside software development industry), it is an excellent read for folks who are involved with software development.

Inspired by the Harvard Business Review paper, "The New New Product Development Game" (Hirokata Takeuchi, Ikujiro Nonaka, 1986); drawing ideas from the Toyota Production System (Taiichi Ohno, 1988); following the US Air Force training of doing four things - Observe, Orient, Decide and Act (OODA); and employing W. Edwards Deming's PDCA Cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act), the SCRUM development process developed by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, has revolutionized the software development process in numerous companies across the world. 

In this book, instead of just explaining the SCRUM methodology, the author takes the reader through ideas and best practices that are central to SCRUM: 

• great teams (transcendent, autonomous, and cross-functional) and small teams (7 +/- 2)
• time box it, demo it or kill it
• it is crime to waste to build things that no one is going to use
• doing it right the first time
• measure output not hours
• plan reality and plan what you need to
• happiness is predictive and future-looking metric, it leads to success
• what actually make people happy: autonomy, mastery and purpose
• prioritize things
• deliver Minimum Value Product (deliver 20% of features that hold 80% of value as a fast as possible)

Stories need to meet the INVEST criteria:

• Independent
• Negotiable
• Valuable
• Estimable
• Small
• Testable

Jeff rightfully stresses the importance of Product Owner and identifies four essential characteristics of a product owner:

1. Knowledgeable about the domain
2. Empowered to make decisions
3. Available to the team, explains what needs to be done and why
4. Accountable for the value

Some interesting quotes from the book:

• Time makes up your life, so wasting it is actually a slow form of suicide.
• ... multitasking not only wastes your time but makes you stupid.
• Doing half of something is, essentially doing nothing!
• People aren't happy because they're successful, they're successful because they're happy
• Complacency is enemy of success
• Cherish the "Wise Fool" who asks uncomfortable questions or raises uncomfortable truths

In summary, SCRUM tells us to apply the following simple things to anything we do:

• Prioritization
• Single tasking
• Cross-functionality
• Review rituals

Overall, it is a very easy, interesting and inspiring read. I strongly recommend it to everyone, especially all software development professionals whether they are using agile methodologies or not. Great book!