Scrum: A Smart Travel Companion - A Pocket Guide

by Gunther Verheyen

This pocket guide is the one book to read for everyone who wants to learn about Scrum. The book covers all roles, rules and the main principles underpinning Scrum, and is based on the Scrum Guide Edition 2013. A broader context to this fundamental description of Scrum is given by describing the past and the future of Scrum.

The author, Gunther Verheyen, has created a concise, yet complete and passionate reference about Scrum. The book demonstrates his core view that Scrum is about a journey, a journey of discovery and fun. He designed the book to be a helpful guide on that journey.

This Pocket Guide is also an essential study aid for training for Scrum certifications:

Certified Scrum Master (ScrumAlliance)

Certified Scrum Product Owner (ScrumAlliance)

Professional Scrum Foundations (PSF, Scrum.org)

Professional Scrum Master (PSM, Scrum.org)

Genres: Nonfiction, Management, Business, Computer Science

122 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Gunther Verheyen is a seasoned Scrum practitioner. He assists, serves, advices, suggests on many things Scrum. He works with teams, individuals, executives. He facilitates unlearning and learning. He thinks, reflects, wonders and wanders.

After a career as a consultant he shepherded the Professional series of Scrum.org, the home of Scrum, while also leading its European operations. Gunther left Scrum.org in 2016 to further his path as an independent Scrum caretaker.

In 2013 Gunther published the acclaimed book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide (a smart travel companion)”. Ken Schwaber recommends his book as ‘the best description of Scrum currently available’ and ‘an extraordinarily competent book’. In 2016 the Dutch translation of his book was published as “Scrum Wegwijzer (Een kompas voor de bewuste reiziger)”.

When not travelling for Scrum and professional software development, Gunther lives and works in Antwerp (Belgium).

Reviews

[Ricardo Castañeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helps understand the basics of SCRUM. I was expecting it to be much more deep into the artifacts, rules, and ceremonies, in order to be able to apply it on day to day projects. Although I understand that might not be the purpose of this book.

[Bene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Verheyen provides an interesting perspective at how Scrum has adapted since its beginnings. The book contains a good mixture of input to the ceremonies as well as a good discussion of how to implement the values.

Short, concise and easy to read. A must have for a scrum master!

[Cannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great information. Written in chloroform.

[Anatolii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Не открывает много нового по сравнению со Скрам-гайдом. Добавляет пару примеров и наставлений. Полезно прочитать перед PSM I. Или как первая книга по скраму. На pocket guide тянет только размером. Желание возвращаться к этой книге нет.
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Doesn’t open a lot of new in comparison with Scrum-guide. Adds a couple of examples and tutorials. It is useful to read before PSM I or as the first book on Scrum. For me this is not a pocket guide because there is no desire to often return to this book.

[Denis Enrique Barreto Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book, simple y directo

Con mucho aporte para entender el porqué de cada rol, evento, artefacto, cuando entendamos este nuevo paradigma ágil y saber que scrum es un medio para serlo podremos cambiar empresas a todo nivel.

[Mads Troels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently the best book available explaining Scrum. Highly recommended if you want to learn Scrum or want to take your thinking to the next level.

[Karl Metivier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice pocket book about scrum and agile development. Also, if you want to go beyond the official Scrum Guide, this book offer many interesting insights.

[Nenad Vitorović · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short and effective overview of Scrum indeed.

[Tim Dellas · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the book is short and transports truth about Scrum and how to use and implement it, I didn't find it revealing much. This might be just me having enough experience with Scrum, or it might be that the views expressed are not exceptional. Also, it's pricey for a short ebook, which might be as it's recommended as a read for the later Scrum Master certifications, as the author was involved with the exam questions. This was also the reason why I picked it up – but I quickly realised that I'd pass the PSM2 without this. Wouldn't recommend this, but for beginners – and there are better books for those.

[Jozef · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heerlijk kort boekje dat de essentie van Scrum uitlegt, 99 kleine bladzijden (formaat A6). Je kan het om een dag uitlezen.
Toch op mijn honger blijven zitten, over een aantal termen blijft hij vaag: wat is precies een burndown chart. Hij spreekt daarover maar legt niet uit wat het is en hoe het werkt. Ik heb het op Wikipedia opgezocht en die wist me gelukkig wel een goed antwoord op te leveren.
Hij heeft ook een nogal naïeve kijk op hoe industriële projecten werken, hij denk dat daar nog altijd de theorien van Taylor worden toegepast, quod non.

[Dávid Molnár · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts with an introduction to agile and lean and then focuses on Scrum. Concisely describes it, summarizes the rules, roles, events and artifacts. Clarifies why burn-down charts are no longer included in the Scrum Guide, why refinement meetings are optional and in the end tries to give some information about the future of Scrum.

This is a short book (around 100 pages). Don't expect it to go into too much detail.

[Miguel Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well crafted material, very clear, with many suggestions and worth having as reference material, on issues associated with Scrum. As an agilist, I think it is a good text to start in Scrum implementations, since it takes a walk through the principles and values of the framework, showing relevance of these aspects by putting them into practice for the conformation of the team.

[Mella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best version for beginner

As a newbie on Scrum and I have read some of scrum books. I think this book is one of the best version. Gunther can deliver the simple explanation of what is the most important on scrum. I can easily understand what is the fundamental side of scrum only in a few days.

[Sevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The house of Scrum is a warm house. It's a house where people are WELCOME.

In the house of Scrum people from different backgrounds, in different roles, with different skills, talents and personalities work, learn and improve together. The house of Scrum is an inclusive house of warm, open and collaborative relationships.

Hope the book can be updated according to the new Scrum Guide (2020).

[Ranvir Desai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good short authoritative introduction to Scrum and the terminologies related. I could not skim it like other nonfiction books, it is well written. Indeed some parts are written in academic language, so much so that sometimes I lost what was the thought meant to be conveyed.

Recommended to scrum team members, and those who'd like to revise what it is all about.

[Dominique || dominiquetravels · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this small comprehensive book about Scrum in two hours, following which I did the PSM I exam . I passed it with flying colours because the book is excellent in explaining the most important parts of the Scrum framework. Highly recommended if you work with Scrum like I do!

[Nicolas Leroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains all you need to know about scrum in a nutshell. It’s a good overview, with added information regarding lean or other interesting literature. Recommended if you want to know more about scrum!

[Dan Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic scrum book

This is a great reference for anyone considering or already part of a Scrum transformation. It is great further reading for anyone already working within any of the scrum roles.

[Gustavo Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book to get some overview of Scrum and some insights on how to understand some practices and why they are done that way. Unfortunately, lacking examples of corner cases and expectations on those. Easy and fast to read, worthwhile.

[Haktan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scrum Guide ya da benzeri kaynaklarla scrum'a giris niteligindeki bilgileri edinmis ve daha fazlasini ogrenmek isteyenler icin guzel bir kitap. Ben bu kitaptaki bilgilerin cogunu farkli kaynaklardan ogrendigim icin cok etkilenmedim ama yine de not aldigim, yer yer etkilendigim bolumler oldu.

[Wilson Gov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful small book about Scrum. I thought I wouldn’t learn anything new after few years of experience from the book. But I was wrong. It has taught me how to describe Scrum and it’s values in a eloquent way.

[kimmie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic resource for those familiar with scrum and looking for a refresher or prepping for a certification. My team is working toward their PSPO I certification and have found this book to be helpful.

[Ankit Agrawal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives the complete philosophical view on scrum but doesn't justify is price tag.

[Bogdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good "on top of Scrum guide" reading.

[Prasad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pocket guide indeed..

A must read book for all scrum practioners and aspirants. The book compliments and elaborates the scrum guide with insights into core scrum framework.

[Fabio Sanches · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-read for all Agile practitioners.

[Dinesh Saini · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great book on scrum

Gunther insights on a scrum is marvelous and this book helps me all the scrum concepts. Must read book for every scrum enthusiasts

[Alexander Lesnevsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Translated the first, and then the second edition of this book to Russian for Alpina Publishing house.
Awesome. Highly recommend.

[Thiago Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito bom. Livro bem didático e com a essência do scrum. Recomendo.

[Francisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complement book to scrum

This book gives to the reader a good complement to Scrum Guide making a little more deep explication about his principles and values.