The Great ScrumMaster

This could have been a 5 star book for me. I felt the wisdom and lessons learning oozing out of her words as I read. Maybe for those newer in their experience and study of all things agile and lean, it would be 5 stars. I think this book is more for scrum masters/agile coaches earlier in their journey mainly due to several areas where getting into more detail of the how to use the tools and situation learning could have doubled the size of this short book. Much of the material I had read elsewhere.I really enjoyed the start of the book that was more detailed for setting the tone and direction of the being a Scrum Master and her view of the progression. The illustrations are beautifully done. They are simple and clearly represent the key points of the subject area. I could not get enough of the illustrations. I especially enjoyed the material on self-organization and building teams being mindful of the possible dysfunctions.Many areas such as working within the system – level 3, the practical use of Cynefin, and going for change, scaling scrum (one page) deserved called out for more attention. For example, while the Cynefin concept was highlighted, there was no discussion of “unknown unknowns” and emergence and how that plays in out in product development and how to talk about it so the organization understands what is happening. Or how do you deal with a system that does not want to engage you in real discussion as agent of change? I know she has a wealth of experience that I would have liked to learn from. If I saw the revision with this type of detail, it would jump to front of my reading queue!

Overall, I thought the concepts presented in the book were excellent. Many are very challenging and thought-provoking, and I have discussed many of them with my team. However, it seems the book was not originally written in English and the translation into English is very poor. It's readable, but many times it feels like you're reading something written by a child, not an experienced professional. This is the only reason I hesitate to buy a copy of the book for each of my team.

First, buy "Coaching Agile Teams" by Lyssa Adkins instead of this book. You're welcome.Second, I love books, and I can only remember throwing two books into a garbage can. This book is one of them.I threw this book away for two reasons: 1) It is one of the poorest quality books that I can remember holding in my hands, and 2) I believe that any book this bad is dangerous to have floating around in the world.It is unusual to find a sales page for an author such as exists at the end of this book. I question the author's motivation. The majority of this book is either covered by the free online Scrum guide or by common sense. The remainder of the book portrays half-assed "secrets" of good Scrummasters through a dumb-person lens.With this book, you get 140 pages for $30. That's the bargain basement price of $.01 for every time you'll wish you didn't buy this book.And no, the book does not have small font. It's actually ridiculously large font. That's right, 140 pages AND ridiculously large font, so you can read all its Scrummy platitudes bright and clear. The author tries to excuse the book's brevity by saying that she wrote it so that it could be read in a weekend. But I think she actually made an error and meant to say that she wrote it in a weekend.I flipped through this book in 20 minutes and got all there was to learn, which was literally nothing.In summary, don't buy this book.

I’m just dipping my toes into the agile environment, as such this is probably not the book that would have been recommended for me, but I really feel reading this has contextualized the initial education I need to start a team, so although recommended for someone already in the agile environment, as someone who is completely inexperienced I really felt a took a lot from it. I’ll most likely revisit it when I have more experience. It’s a shorter book and references links so having it as a digital copy where those links actually hyperlink is super nice.

This book is a must-read for every Scrum Master! I've just finished reading it for the third time and although I consider myself quite experienced, I've gathered a large amount of new insights. The three levels of the Scrum Master are a useful perspective to take into account. It clearly shows the richness and potential of the Scrum Master role. The book contains clear examples, practices, and lot's of exercises you can try immediately. If you're interested in this position, this book is definitely worth reading.

This is one of the best pocket book that I have read to complement the scrum guide to scrum master. It's a book that every scrum master should read becouse it explain in a practical way his role helps new scrum master and everyone tl understand his dutties and responsabilities in one organization

I'm an Agile coach and I found this book to be particularly helpful to me in building our training for the teams that I work with. I recommend reading this book if you are a new or even an experienced ScrumMaster. I often use the section on self-organizing teams to help me explain those concepts to students in my coursework.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to embrace agile, not only for Scrum Masters. I like the way is direct and simple to understand, therefore easy to implement.

Gostei do livro e abordagem Ágil

The book is ok. The concepts are fine even though presented on a high-level. My main issue with the book is that overall the content is not much, but the book costs more than 40$. For 120pages of content, 1/3 is useless illusions and over-spacing. It’s just not worth the price.

スクラムを実践している組織において、スクラムマスターの重要性をこれほどしっかり説いた本は今までなかった。スクラムマスター、アジャイルコーチ、プロジェクトマネージャー、マネジメント必読の書と言える。昨今ティール組織やホラクラシーが隆盛しているが、その中で必要となるサーバント・リーダーシップを取る場合も本書の考えは非常に有効である。開発をしていなくとも、個人として、ヒューマンスキル（コーチング、ファシリテーション、ティーチング、メンタリング）を伸ばしたいと考えている方にもお薦めできる。スクラムマスターとは、そのようなヒューマンスキルの集大成を個人・組織に対して絶えず実践する役割だからだ。スクラムを実践し、チームがうまく回り始めると、スクラムマスターは不要だと言われることもあり、私自身もそう考えていたが、その考えは全く検討違いだったと思い知らされた。チーム、組織、会社全体へ影響を及ぼせるのがスクラムマスターである。プロダクトではなく、組織や会社が存続する限りスクラムマスターは不要にはならない。中心には「人」がいるからであり、人を繋げ、解きほぐし、調和させる必要性はなくならないからである。これこそスクラムマスターの役割だ。絶えることはない。本書で言う、"Great Scrum Master"がいる組織は、確かに強いだろうな、と思う。チーム・組織・会社全体で、正直で透明性があり、心の底から信頼しあえる仲間同士で仕事ができるようになるからだ。スクラムマスターがチームやPO、マネジメントと兼務であるケースも、よくあると思う。本書では兼務ではなくスクラムマスターはスクラムマスターであるべきと説いているが、兼務の場合のそれぞれメリットデメリットにも言及している。組織が大きくなるにつれて、スクラムマスターは複数人必要になるが、この本は一歩踏み込んでスクラムマスターグループのあり方も示唆してくれている。面白いアイディアで、スクラムマスターズランド(Scrum Master's Land)なんてのも出てくる。アジャイルのマインドセットとして、"self-organizing teams"があるが、この本はどのように自己組織化、自主経営を進めていくか考えれるきっかけになると思う。スクラムマスター個人として、どのようにして成長するべきか、何を考えて行動するべきか、必要なスキルは何かが把握でき、それぞれのスキルをどのように伸ばしていけばいいかも把握できる。特にマインドセットに関する部分は様々なエクササイズが用意されており、自分のレベルが把握でき、非常に有効である。

As someone who is recently starting / contemplating the SM role as a newbie, the CSM training was not enough. This book provides solid frameworks, ideas, tools to navigate the SM journey. Highly recommend this.

Excelente leitura, muito clara e objetiva. Indico para todos que querem entender ou aprimorar sua visão a respeito do papel do Scrum Master nas organizações.