The Scrum Fieldbook: A Master Class on Accelerating Performance, Getting Results, and Defining the Future

by J.J. Sutherland

Scrum is the secret weapon behind the success of companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, which have reshaped the world through their incredibly fast innovation, laser focus on the customer, and continuous improvement practices. Based on the five years of work in the field with companies like Toyota, 3M, Schlumberger, and Autodesk, The Scrum Fieldbook offers a hands on approach to implementing the practices of the Scrum framework among traditional, non-technology companies.

In J.J. Sutherland's first book, Scrum, written with his father, Jeff, he laid out the Scrum framework used by almost all of today's leading technology companies, based on Agile software development. The book has gone on to sell over 120,000 copies in its print and ebooks editions, and another 95,000 copies as an audio download. Since publication, the Scrum framework has exploded across the corporate world. J.J. and his team at Scrum Inc. have worked with private space companies, global oil and gas firms, banks, medical device manufacturers, and firms on the cutting edge of genetic science.

In the Scrum Fieldbook, J.J. takes leaders, managers, and employees deeper into the specific challenges and opportunities the company has faced in working with major established companies like Toyota, 3M, Schlumberger, and Autodesk. He shows how the simple scrum framework can be successfully applied to any situation, and in every industry, from automobile manufacturers in the USA and Europe, to nonprofits in Africa, from home renovation contractors in Minnesota to gas exploration companies in South America, from building fighter planes to improving the banking industry.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Leadership, Audiobook, Productivity, Software

272 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt very similar to the first book he wrote with his father. I was hoping for something more substantive. Lots of stories with few details.

[liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was an interesting read and i got some good takeaways from it, but it’s also like really agressive if that makes sense? the author lives breathes and will die on the hill of scrum which is great for him but there was a lot of discussion of war and super high stakes stories that didn’t have enough granularity to be useful. like sure scrum worked but like how? what did they actually do to implement it? seemed a little too “and just like that it worked!” for me

[Denis Vasilev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Две трети книги рассказы о том, какой скрам офигенный и только треть сколько-нибудь дельная информация

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok

too many examples, not enough scrum explanation
a good over view not a deep dive but if youre on the fencr about scrum give it a read

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master class indeed! This book is a a great contribution to learning and growth of the practice of Scrum. As I was reading it, I would think to myself how every chapter could be made into a day long workshop. That may be what was intended, but I couldn't get over how much learning you could pack into one chapter through a combination of fundamentals and great storytelling.

[Tarlan A. Latif · Rating 5 out of 5]

1990-cı illərdə #kenschwaber ilə #jeffsutherland birlikdə #scrum idarəetmə sistemini yaratdılar. Scrum #agile -a daxil olan sistemlərdən biridir. Scrum-ın əsaslarından biri komandaların özünə məsul olması və tez-tez uğursuzluğa düçarın faydalı hesab ediməsidir. Ümumiyyətlə çevik idarəetmədə məhsul kiçik hissələr şəklində təhvil verilir və müştərinin son təlabatlarına daha rahat və sürətli cavab verir. İnanc budur ki, sənin təhvil verdiyin məhsul mükəmməldirsə deməli artıq bazara gecikmisən.

Scrumda komanda Məhsul Sahibi, Scrum Master, və developerlərdən ibarətdir.

Yeri gəlmişkən, Scrum sözü #rugby oyununda komandanın bir araya gəlib topu daha irəli göndərməsindən ilhamlanaraq yaranıb. Scrumda idarəetmə və qərarvermə müşahidə, təcrübə və sınaqlar əsasında formalaşır.

Scrumın bünövrəsi 3 əsas elementdən təşkil edilir: şəffaflıq, müayinə/yoxlama, və adaptasiya.

Scrumın dəyərləri isə: cəsarət, fokus, özünü həsretmə, hörmət və açıqlıqdır. Scrumda çalışan hər kəs bu dəyərlərə hörmət etməli və fəaliyyətində bunu əks etdirməlidir.

[Quinns Pheh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scrum is an intelligent, adaptable framework for organising how a company works and delivers positive impact in the marketplace. Instead of relying on conventional hierarchical structures, Scrum Teams performed work that complete tasks in bite-sized focused Sprints. At the end of each Sprint, teams come together to review their work, classify problems, and chart out how to advance the next Sprint. Implementing this approach at a large company takes bold leadership and a lot of coordination. Still, in the end, it could deliver considerable boosts in productivity.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great follow up to Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time. By having a number of additional case studies presented in the book, it gives additional ideas for inspiration for teams that are looking to learn about what has worked in other Agile and Scrum teams. A great book whether reading or listening, but did appreciate listening to the audio version since it is read by the author.

[Jay Red · Rating 2 out of 5]

No where near the book his farther wrote to bring the scrum methodology to the masses.

As a practitioner this really taught me nothing.

A book for beginners which seems odd because this book had already been done by his farther as mentioned. Shame but not for me this one

[Reinout Ekhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn the basics of scrum and how it is applied in many of the world's industry leading businesses. I liked the amount of practical examples that were given.

[Richard F · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I was reading this book I found it interesting but I also thought I would end up writing a review like many others... Lots of anecdotes and not enough information.

But then I tried an experiment. I had noticed that there were many little pearls of wisdom scattered amongst the success stories so I started highlighting them. I started halfway through and was surprised how many I was finding - things that not only explained the hows but also the whys. And this is exactly why I decided to read this book... To get to the bottom of *why* I should keep doing these things.

For context, I have not been strictly practicing scrum and agile through my career, but I feel as though I have been unknowingly practicing some of it based on where my own thoughts on 'what makes a good software leader' overlaps with the Agile view. And whenever a framework comes along I am much more interested in the 'why'.

So I flipped back to the start of the book and continued my experiment. And there are so many gems to take away and apply that you don't realise it because they tend to get lost in the repetitive examples, name-dropping of clients and general promotion of "Scrum. Inc". And when you put these together you can see the underlying issues that the scrum mechanisms try to solve.

As it is said in the book "scrum is set up to reveal the issues that are slowing you down". And yes you could read multiple books across scrum, lean, TPS and the other related text to get the same answer, but are you going to do anything about it? At its heart I believe that scrum simply gives a set of practices that at least get you started - to at least show you where things are going wrong. And I can't really fault it for that.

So if you want to get under the hood of the 'why', then I think you will find it in this book. You will just have to do some sifting. Then you can get bust with deciding if you can do it your own way or if you should implement Scrum to get you out of the starting blocks.

[Dave Irwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. First because it tells wonderful stories and second because it gave me more of an understanding of both agile development processes and Scrum as a team. I have worked for a fintech firm for the past 5 years and there are some aspects of Scrum that I was just not aware of. The limitations of the roles on a scrum team being one of them.

I was genuinely not aware that there were only three roles.

The fact that there were case studies, interesting tidbits, best practices, and both success and failures of the system highlighted in the book, makes me like it even more. While I don't think I will be studying to be a scrum master anytime soon, this book highlights excellent principals and workflows I will bring to my own team, as well as understand some of the responsibilities of my colleagues a little more.

Favourite lesson: What to do in a riot.

First don't panic. blind fear is what gets people trampled and killed. Second: find something hard that cannot be knocked over, like a lamppost. The crowd will part around you and you can take a breath to come up with a plan to get out of the noise and fear.

Other lessons
A. Waterfall project management vs. agile development. Differences and limitations.
B. Don't dither, do. At one level it doesn't matter what you do as long as you do, so you can learn and move forward.
C. Don't wait. Act.
D. Context Switching Laws: Interruptions to your workflow/concentration can derail you for up to 30 mins.
E. Voices: Voice of Fear - Fear of failure and what people think of you when you fail. Lesser fears destroy motivation. Voice of Judgement - Confirmation of our actual beliefs. Voice of Cynicism - Cynicism will kill an organization.
F. Conways Law - Organizations that design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich habe das Buch via Bookbeat als Hörbuch "konsumiert", wobei ich mehrfach zurückgespuhlt habe um Passagen zu wiederholen.

Mir hat dieses Buch bei weitem besser gefallen als seiner Zeit "Die Scrum Revolution".

Es gab viele Aha Momente und Anregungen zur Reflexion von Erfahrungen und Beobachtungen.

---

Mir hat es gefallen, dass es nicht um Scrum als die Bibel ging sondern als Framework, dass sich den Unternehmen anpasst.

Das hier auch skalierte Teams angesprochen wurden. Unternehmen mit mehreren Scrum Teams oder gar den Schwierigkeiten von Unternehmen und ihre schrittweise Wandlung hin zur Agilität. Wie auch zum Abschluss negative Beispiele.

Dieses Buch hatte den Fokus darauf, "das Doppelte in der Hälfte der Zeit" zu schaffen.

Eine der Hauptstellschrauben war es den Fokus auf wenige Projekte / Backlog Items zu lenken, damit diese abgeschlossen werden.

Einen Punkt den ich aktuell sehr interessant ist, da ich mich gerade auf die Zertifizierung von Scrum mit Kanban vorbereite und Kanban durch die zusätzliche Einführung von Work-in-Progress (WIP) Limit ja auch dieses Mittel nutzt um den Fokus zu steuern. Mit dem Ziel durch eine kürzere Durchlaufszeit mehr abzuschließen.

Ich empfehle das Buch für alle die sich mit agilen Frameworks und Unternehmenstransformation beschäftigten.

[Scott Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may very well be the saving grace to the 15+ years of Ken Schwaber's, Dr. Sutherland's and, Alistair Cockburn's nearly two decades of insistence that Scrum is a "methodology" whose "mastery" requires dogmatic adherence. (An insistence finally reversed when they admitted Scrum is an "intentionally incomplete" *framework* - this year.)

JJ Sutherland's book SHATTERED that perception (and the damaging insistence related to it) that Scrum implementations are an "All or Nothing" type of thing. In many ways I think of this book as both a revival of Scrum and a wake-up call to the current "powers" within the (now) Agile "industry".

This book doesn't beat anyone over the head with ridiculous ideals and contrived ritualistic "ceremonies". Instead, it just provides inspiration to simply go out and implement Scrum principles, values, and events in a way that works for each individualized practical application's needs.

Thank you, JJ, I hope to see you on the field while insurgents like myself collaborate and work diligently to smash the silos and elitism the "Agile industry" has created -- in the pursuit of profits. You truly do possess an Agile mindset. Perhaps someday you can teach your father how to be an Agilist again.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fieldbook in a real sense — "a notebook for keeping field notes in surveying." Sutherland, through case studies, examples of successes and failures, and demonstrations of unexpected applications of Scrum to work well outside of software development, helps the reader to understand the value of the agile Scrum approach. This is not a book about 'how to do Scrum.' But this is a book about why Scrum works, and how, practically, it can work well and how it can go wrong.

It's also very readable, with chapters that have backlog actions and takeaways, and interesting stories from Sutherland's work as a reporter in the field.

Recommended to anyone who's already immersed in the field, and looking to broaden their understanding of its value and why, or looking to debug implementations gone wrong.

[Dmitry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Название книги на первый взгляд может ввести в заблуждение. Под "практикой" подразумевается большой перечень примеров, удач и проблем применения Скрам в организациях различного типа. Как успешно с помощью Скрам военные США ремонтируют технику, или музей в Нидерландах реорганизовывает выставки. Описываются препятствия для внедрения данного подхода, пути преодоления сопротивления персонала, и многое другое. Но если вы ждете что после прочтения этой книги сможете внедрять Скрам у себя - это не так. Данная книга скорее мотивирующая, показывающая что гибкий подход к управлению может применяться не только в сфере ИТ, а и в любой другой.

[Ryan Barretto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that teaches you how to avoid a lot of the problems in organizations and get productive results with the same people who were working earlier.

The examples shared are crystal clear, and there is no pulling of punches when, right at the start, the author tells you that whatever you are expecting to happen will be wrong.

The Scrum methodology is easy to understand and not so easy to implement, mainly because of egos and communication in the organization.

I recommend anyone who is starting an organization or heading a team to buy this book and run this process. There are benefits waiting to be had.

[Chintushig Tumenbayar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Мэдээлэл технологийн эрин үед бизнес орчин юу юунаас млүү хурдтай урагшилж байгаа билээ. Энэ үед өөрсдийн арга барилаа сайжруулах шаардлагатай өөрийн эрхгүй нүүр тулж ирж буй тул энэ аргыг сонирхон судаллаа.

Асуудлыг ийм өөр өнцөгөөс харах хэрэгтэй байдаг талаар ойлголт үнэхээр байгаагүй гэдгээ хүлээн зөвшөөрч байна. Хуралдах биш богино зөвлөгөөн хийж тухайн өдрийхөө төлөвлөөг гаргааг баг тус бүр өөрсдийн асуудалдаа тохирсон шийдлээ боловсруулах үйлдлийн цаана ийм олон ойлголт мэдэж байх хэрэгтэйг сая л ойлгож байна.

[Lynn Smollin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty Good. Read this after passing the PSM I certification




This book, written by the son of one of the co-creators of the Scrum framework, gives some great insight into using Scrum. I would start with their first book to really get a good grip on how Scrum was created. There is more history there. This book is more about how Scrum works for all work. Many stories about how Scrum was implemented. The chapter on Fear was really good. Overall, I would say that this would be a foundational text for your journey toward Scrum certifications

[Kalle Rosti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book interesting and insightful, having worked with Agile development since around 2015 and being a Certified Scrum Product Owner.

Good and clear summary of what Scrum is (and is not) with interesting examples and cases. A bit self-aggrandizing at times - ”the world would be a better place if everyone just did Scrum” type - but if you can look past that, a good read. Also a good introduction if someone’s unfamiliar with Agile/Lean/Scrum.

Sub chapter ”How Scrum Works” is probably the best summary of Scrum I have read.

[Davi Sousa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s no coincidence that the word ‘practical’ is in the title of the book; the text delivers exactly what it promises. It clearly defines key concepts and supports them with realistic examples, helping readers understand how to apply Scrum effectively. Notably, the book also provides examples of potential pitfalls, emphasizing the importance of fully adhering to the methodology and embracing the necessary changes in values and behavior to ensure successful outcomes. Additionally, there are valuable lessons for managers, underscoring the need for them to be leaders first and foremost.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite the degree of aha of the first book that his father wrote but certainly a good follow up with useful further context setting of the principles and more strategies to really appreciate scrum and how to do it properly. Perhaps better for beginners. Definitely the last third felt more philosophical than practical and more examples of success than how to. Overall though worth the read to further appreciate some nuances to help you start with scrum and do it properly.

[Zhivko Kabaivanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Scrum Fieldbook (2019) is a practical, hands-on guide to the scrum organizational framework within the Agile mindset.

This concise manual recaps how scrum works to increase work velocity and to ensure any team delivers the right impact for the business.

It also explains how to implement Scrum in any organization across all industries from software to home renovation and even to the military.

[Cassius Duarte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estava cético sobre esse livro, uma vez que já havia lido "Scrum: a arte de fazer o dobro na metade do tempo" e esperava que fosse uma revisão desses conceitos. Me enganei completamente: J.J. Sutherland consegue nos levar em uma viagem onde ele nos mostra implementações e casos de sucesso inéditos, enriquecidos por uma incrível narrativa, que fará com que você não parte de ler até que o livro acabe.

[Adam Morrissey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. In an Agile transformation, we get complacent and heavy on the rituals — not value oriented. Great book that gives you the view of several Agile companies and industries. Some gold nuggets in the first 100 pages. Will revisit what I underlined every few months as a check on my Agile practice.

[Kendra Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to the audiobook on Libby. I learned so much about Agile, Lean, and Scrum in this book. Very entertaining, and and a great companion to studying for CAPM for PMP through the Project Management Institute. Loved the real world examples of people and corporations growing by expecting change, being collaborative, and teams taking pride in their work.

[Eimantas Janutėnas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for introduction to SCRUM and I especially liked that SCRUM was not only talked about as a software development methodology but something that can apply to different sectors.

But at times, some paragraphs were written more as wishful thinking rather than data-based facts (or at least, the data was not really presented, just the "trust me bro")

[Belinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

As this is the first book of scrum i read and my knowledge of scrum was still limited, i found this book quite helpful for a newbie like me to grasp what scrum is, how does it works. What i really like is it gives so many instances how scrum is being implemented in diverse fields, even in the most traditional company, along with the impact it gives.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are concrete ideas and inspirations in this book, and I am saving this to read again with a notebook and planner. Also, a wonderful human ending to challenge and inspire all of us to go out and be better people.

[Matthew Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a clear picture on why Agile and how it can work to transform my entire organization in a scaled sustainable way. I highly recommend for business leaders who are considering what a scaled Agile / Scrum organization would look like. Great examples while also being easy to read.