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Get Agile!: Scrum for UX, Design & Development
Scrum is a project management tool enabling people with different skill sets to strategize together. This manual is aimed at everyone who works on interactive products in a design and development environment. It contains all of the basic information required for getting started with the project management method Scrum, but also offers a number of in-depth chapters looking at topics which even the most experienced Scrummers have trouble with on a daily basis. If you are experienced, you will find the advanced tips and tricks useful. If you are just considering Scrum, this book will most certainly get you enthusiastic.
176 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 2014
13 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 21, 2013
The title of the book is a bit misleading. I bought the book because I was curious how they combined UX, Design and Development during a sprint. Although this topic is covered, the book is more about the scrum process itself. For people who are new to scrum this book provide you all the basics you need with good real-life examples. In the end of the book you'll find a couple of interviews with people from different disciplines with a URL to the video-interviews. I hope they will write a new book where they will provide more insight in the process of combining UX, Design & Development using Scrum.
July 6, 2017
As a practitioner in an agency, I didn't find this book particularly useful. I think it tries to do too many things, and gets a bit confused about its purpose along the way. With a field constantly evolving, and the entire book written from the perspective of one agency in one country, it probably is the sort of book that doesn't age or scale well.
If you read it as a "what we did and how it worked for us" you might get a couple of ideas to try yourself in a similar setting. Those little tips and tricks you only get from experience are where this book probably shines. They even offer up a model for how they changed scrum teams and lengths based on trial and error, but for a novice not even used to scrum methodologies it can get confusing fast.
So if you're looking for a primer on scrum and/or agile, and best practices, there are better books out there for get the fundamentals. Use those, and apply them to your particular working environment as suits. Scrum and agile methodologies aren't rocket science, and shouldn't require such lengthy guides for those in agency, rather than startup environments.
If you read it as a "what we did and how it worked for us" you might get a couple of ideas to try yourself in a similar setting. Those little tips and tricks you only get from experience are where this book probably shines. They even offer up a model for how they changed scrum teams and lengths based on trial and error, but for a novice not even used to scrum methodologies it can get confusing fast.
So if you're looking for a primer on scrum and/or agile, and best practices, there are better books out there for get the fundamentals. Use those, and apply them to your particular working environment as suits. Scrum and agile methodologies aren't rocket science, and shouldn't require such lengthy guides for those in agency, rather than startup environments.
November 30, 2019
Makkelijk leesbare introductie in de scrum methodiek, waarom je het zou moeten doen en wat de impact is op de processen en producten in een digitaal bureau.
December 7, 2022
Give me a wide view and also technical perspective about scrum..
September 9, 2018
They forgot about testers.
July 8, 2013
This is at least the third book on Agile Design that I've read. The first two were Lean UX and Agile Experience Design. Of the three this is the book I most enjoyed and found most relevant.
I found myself 'wanting' to like the book Lean UX the most. It was concise, focused topic, and I almost begrudgingly brought myself to reading Get Agile! it's thin form factor, I interpreted as devoid of any useful depth on the subject. I was wrong, but wrong mostly in my approach.
While this book is a quick read, it is not so much a book on the subject of agile design, as it is a work book on effectively implementing the scrum flavor of agile. So as previous reviewers have mentioned this is a somewhat misleading title because the focus is on 'scrum' and it does not focus on UX especially. But it also doesn't ignore design, which most Agile books do. So this gets a plus in that column from me.
The chapter entitled 'Sprint 0' is a crucial chunk of the boo. And it unintentionally outlined all the symptoms that I've seen many agile implementations struggle with: 1. not defining done 2. not taking the time for upfront UX work 3. how to deal with epics.
Additionally the chapter entitled Sprinting Secrets does a great job highlighting the tensions that arise with Agile.
Overall this is a 4 star 'guidebook' on getting started with Agile. You need to come to this with a foundational understanding of agile (I recommend User Stories Applied), and with a team or organization that has already agreed or is adopting agile already. This book will help you critique you're own process and improve it.
Because of its brevity, I'm not sure if this book could be five stars, but the additional critiques to note is that this book focuses on the scrum implementation of agile, it is written assuming that the audience is works as a consultancy and finally the chapter 5 'go sprint' makes explicit assumptions that you are following their implementation closely.
All in all this is the book to begin with when trying to troubleshoot the design and agile process at your company. THough you like me, may find that the staggered approach works best (Which they seem to guard against)
I found myself 'wanting' to like the book Lean UX the most. It was concise, focused topic, and I almost begrudgingly brought myself to reading Get Agile! it's thin form factor, I interpreted as devoid of any useful depth on the subject. I was wrong, but wrong mostly in my approach.
While this book is a quick read, it is not so much a book on the subject of agile design, as it is a work book on effectively implementing the scrum flavor of agile. So as previous reviewers have mentioned this is a somewhat misleading title because the focus is on 'scrum' and it does not focus on UX especially. But it also doesn't ignore design, which most Agile books do. So this gets a plus in that column from me.
The chapter entitled 'Sprint 0' is a crucial chunk of the boo. And it unintentionally outlined all the symptoms that I've seen many agile implementations struggle with: 1. not defining done 2. not taking the time for upfront UX work 3. how to deal with epics.
Additionally the chapter entitled Sprinting Secrets does a great job highlighting the tensions that arise with Agile.
Overall this is a 4 star 'guidebook' on getting started with Agile. You need to come to this with a foundational understanding of agile (I recommend User Stories Applied), and with a team or organization that has already agreed or is adopting agile already. This book will help you critique you're own process and improve it.
Because of its brevity, I'm not sure if this book could be five stars, but the additional critiques to note is that this book focuses on the scrum implementation of agile, it is written assuming that the audience is works as a consultancy and finally the chapter 5 'go sprint' makes explicit assumptions that you are following their implementation closely.
All in all this is the book to begin with when trying to troubleshoot the design and agile process at your company. THough you like me, may find that the staggered approach works best (Which they seem to guard against)
August 30, 2015
Een boek van op mijn werk, en het zag er wel leutig van layout uit, en ik dacht: lezen.
Euh neen dus. Proper van layout, op een “binnen een paar jaar ziet dit er soooo 2010s uit” manier (niet dat daar iets tegen is natuurlijk), maar bijzonder zeer licht van inhoud.
Heel erg veel foto’s, en nog eens voor de zoveelste keer een rehash van de basics van Agile en scrum, of toch zoals dat op het werk van de auteurs werkt. Niets in de diepte, en niet erg veel dat ik ervan kon opsteken.
De titel is ook bijzonder misleidend: specifiek over UX en design wordt ergens helemaal achteraan een klein beetje gesproken, en het komt er zo ongeveer op neer van “breid uw sprint 0 wat uit”.
Weinig of niets over voortschrijdende UX-inzichten, over de praktische wisselwerking van design en development: nee, niet mijn ding.
Euh neen dus. Proper van layout, op een “binnen een paar jaar ziet dit er soooo 2010s uit” manier (niet dat daar iets tegen is natuurlijk), maar bijzonder zeer licht van inhoud.
Heel erg veel foto’s, en nog eens voor de zoveelste keer een rehash van de basics van Agile en scrum, of toch zoals dat op het werk van de auteurs werkt. Niets in de diepte, en niet erg veel dat ik ervan kon opsteken.
De titel is ook bijzonder misleidend: specifiek over UX en design wordt ergens helemaal achteraan een klein beetje gesproken, en het komt er zo ongeveer op neer van “breid uw sprint 0 wat uit”.
Weinig of niets over voortschrijdende UX-inzichten, over de praktische wisselwerking van design en development: nee, niet mijn ding.
April 5, 2013
A good introduction to applying Scrum in software development, and a lot of ideas for techniques that could be used on your Scrum team. The book describes how Scrum is implemented at Fabrique, a Dutch design agency. It's an easy read, but it may not be what you're looking for if you want in-dept theoretical information on Scrum.
January 18, 2015
Good book if you're looking for an intro no Scrum for web projects, with a good few insights. I was looking for more hands on and practical advice and was disappointed. If you have knowledge of Scrum it is a bit pointless.
Also, the pretty photos are definitely undermined by the lime-green on white.
Also, the pretty photos are definitely undermined by the lime-green on white.
August 7, 2013
Great primer for anyone new to Scrum Agile in an interactive field. The book provides a very high level overview of the processes and nomenclature associated with Agile. I especially appreciated the examples which gave context to the book's material.
May 20, 2022
Didn't expect it to be a beginner's guide to scrum, but it is and probably a competent one, but I was expecting more so a little disappointed. Color of header text was horrible and sometimes completely unreadable.
June 24, 2013
Actually a useful book on agile. Idealistic, but useful.
October 20, 2013
Part of my reading list to get better aquainted with agile ways of working. Not bad, but there are better books around.
May 12, 2014
this is such a great book! I helped me working on my thesis!
March 14, 2015
A very good but also very basic introduction to Scrum. I expected more insight into specific examples and workflows of a scrum team.
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November 6, 2016nmnn
October 14, 2014
A must read for scrum masters and lean PMs. Well crafted and easy to follow.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews