Scrum: Pain Points & Resolutions – summing it all up

In this series I’ve covered how to overcome problems in relation to Time, Management, Support, Planning & Scheduling and integration into the wider business.

This list is by no means definitive and your circumstances will most likely be different but hopefully you’ll have some ideas on how to tackle issues as they arise.

Another area where you run into problems is adoption of the various agile technical practices that you can use such as Test Driven Development, pair programming, continuous integration, etc but there are many articles, blogs & books out there that will help you overcome these type.

When it comes down to it the main way to resolve problems you run into is through communication, be sure to talk to people. You can often resolve problems and issues by talking to the people involved it is when the lines of communication break down that the problems become insurmountable.

Additional resources

I’ve included here some resources I’ve found useful as I’ve been progressed with scrum and agile.

Books

•  Succeeding with Agile by Mike Cohn – this book will tell you how to do scrum in the best way possible.  Mike has years of experience which he’s distilled into this book.
• Scrum and XP from the Trenches by Henrik Kniberg – doesn’t tell you how to do scrum but provides tips & hints on how to do Scrum/XP better.
• Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change by Kent Beck – I read the first edition but a second edition is out now, a short book that explains the principles and practices relating to XP.
• Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit by Mary & Tom Poppendick – a good book on the Lean methodology covering all aspects of Lean.

Blogs

•  Scrum Log – Jeff Sutherland, one of the founders of scrum, personal blog
• Implementing Scrum – a good blog/site that uses cartoons for examples
• Henrik Knibergs Blog – strangely enough written by Henrik Kniberg
• Mike Cohens Blog – succeeding with Agile – Mike Cohen’s blog
• Net Objectives Blog – posts generally written by Allan Shalloway who runs Net Objectives but sometimes other members of staff blog as well.  Posts cover scrum, kanban, lean, etc
• xProgramming.com – Ron Jefferies, father of XP, blog

Articles/Presentations

• 10 Ways to Screw Up with Scrum and XP – Presentation by Henrik Kniberg based on his book Scrum and XP from the Trenches, worth watching as Henrik is brilliant.
• Scrum guide  - ‘definitive’ guide to scrum by the gents who came up with it Ken Schwaber & Jeff Sutherland
• Mountain Goat Software articles – Mike Cohn’s web site has a whole range of articles about scrum
• Pichler Consulting – Roman Pichler’s web site has several articles, videos/pod casts and presentations