This is a review of Mike Cohn’s latest book Succeeding with Agile. You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon.
There is one aspect of this book that needs to be made clear; this is not a book for beginning your Agile or Scrum journey. Mike is clear about that when he says:
This book is not for those who are completely new to Scrum or Agile … Nor is this book for purists … This book is for pragmatists -Mike Cohn, Succeeding with Agile
Although not suitable for the beginner, it is an invaluable book for Scrum Professionals (CSP) and Coaches (CSC). Succeeding with Agile is a comprehensive look at Agile practices and patterns, with a sweeping scope from small pilot projects to large organizational rollouts. It’s littered with great examples and stories from the field. The scope and depth of this book is truly inspiring.
Succeeding with Agile is broken into five parts: Getting Started, Individuals, Teams, The Organization, and finally Next Steps. The biggest section is Part 3 Teams comprising of about 150 pages. The next biggest section is Part 4 The Organization which takes up approximately 100 pages. Each section provides advice in addition to interesting examples and case studies.
Much of what is documented is well understood by the Agile and Scrum communities, but where Succeeding with Agile shines is that it’s all in one book. Not only that, but is a lot of great advice that I haven’t seen anywhere else … in Chapter 19 Coexisting with other approaches, for example, Mike talks about compliance. He says:
Because complying with standards such as t hese is rarely optional, scrum teams must govern themselves with how best to comply, starting in some cases with the question of whether doing so will even be possible with a Scrum process. -Mike Cohn, Succeeding with Agile
Good honest advice that’s practical and realistic without the hype and evangelism. I can honestly say that I’ve been impressed with Succeeding with Agile. It’s a tour de force of all things Agile and I would strongly recommend it for all Scrum Professionals and Coaches.
