Advanced Scrum Case Studies: Real-World Situations and How to Address Them

This book contains case studies of how to apply the Scrum framework in real world situations. Cases include problems of Agile transformation, onshore-offshore teams, scaled Scrum, cross-team dependencies, cross-functionality, self-management, Scrum mastery, product ownership, Sprint planning, engineering management, road maps and stakeholders. It is useful preparation for advanced Scrum certifications.

This book is taken from case discussions of the Silicon Valley Professional Scrum meetup group. This group is made up of more than 2,000 Scrum practitioners from around the world. It is organized by Frederik M. Fowler, who holds a Doctor of Scrum (DS) certification from Silicon Valley Scrum.com and a Professional Scrum Master level III (PSM III) certification from Scrum.org.

Each case poses a problem to be solved. The problem takes the form of “Here is a particular scenario. As a Scrum practitioner, how would you deal with it?” Each case is taken from an actual situation encountered by either Fred Fowler or one of the members of the meetup group. The 15 cases presented in the book are taken from the group’s discussions.

The cases involve problems experienced by a variety of types of organizations. Some cases involve major multinational companies and some involve small start-up ventures. For each case the basic challenge facing the organization is described, the applicable parts of the Scrum framework are explained and a recommended strategy is outlined to put the organization on track to solve it’s problem.

This book is not for Scrum “beginners”. It assumes a basic knowledge of the Scrum framework in order to have the case discussions make sense. It does, however, contain a quick “refresher” section listing the roles, artifacts and events that make up the Scrum framework.

For those people who have mastered the basics of Scrum, this book is the key to unlocking advanced mastery of the Scrum framework. In Scrum we learn by doing. This book contains the collective experience of many advanced Scrum professionals. It is well worth the effort to study these cases and learn from them.