I just finished reading the book Scrum and XP from the Trenches by Henrik Kniberg.
It’s one of the best book I’ve read about an agile methodology. It’s good because the author does not only explain the principles of the methodology but also gives you a valuable feedback about his day-to-day experience and best practices using Scrum.
Under the leadership of Henrik Kniberg they experimented with different team sizes, different sprint lengths, different ways of defining “done”, different formats for product backlogs and sprint backlogs, different testing strategies, different ways of doing demos, different ways of synchronizing multiple Scrum teams, etc. They also experimented with XP practices — different ways of doing continuous build, pair programming, test driven development, etc, and how to combine this with Scrum.
A very good reading to anybody looking for a methodology that works and who’s thinking about using Scrum for they next project. I’m seriously thinking about giving a presentation in my company so that we can use that process.
I’m curious to know how many of you have experienced working with an agile methodology like Scrum or XP?
UPDATE: Read a more in depth review of this book on Tech IT Easy.
UPDATE (2007/12/15): I’ve been using Scrum in my company for about two month now and it definitely helps you to get projects done.



Comments
hey you should come next week at the web development book club to present this book. i am very interested and I think everyone would be too.
That’s a really good idea. Could you remember me when is the meeting?
Hey Fred,
I have just done one blog post on http://techiteasy.org I didn’t know you were planning to.
I sent a mail to TIE people before you published, where I commit to this Scrum blog post so pls dont think i’m a copy cat.
Hi Cecil,
No problem, I’d like to know your opinion about Scrum. I liked the book; very pragmatic. Scrum seems to be very fun to use.
Mike (a friend of ours) said to me he’s using Scrum in the company (a spinoff of Electronic Arts) he work for. He enjoy it!
BTW your post on TIE is not yet online.
That was my first one for TIE so I was more comfortable having the TIE crew to review it first. It is now online.
Hey many thanks for motivating me to read the book !
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I worked with an agile iterative development methodology I assembled myself inspired by CSC Index’s “Re-engineering for fast-cycle results”. It worked extremely well. I used JAD and RAD with Andersen’s Method/1 methodology for Systems development and migration.
Thanks for the comment Josh.
We all agree that going agile is the way to go and taking the good parts of different methodologies to make your own is definitely a good choice. Some methodologies are too aggressive to be taken as a whole.
As far as I’m concerned, I think we’ll try to go with Scrum in my company — or a part of it.
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