Book SummaryScrum, by Jeff Sutherland

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Scrum

The way the business world operates, according to software developer and management expert Jeff Sutherland, is fundamentally flawed. In Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, he explains the Scrum framework, which he positions as a better time-management system than the traditional top-down approach. By using the carefully structured yet open-ended Scrum framework, a company, or any project team, can become much more efficient and productive.

Jeff Sutherland is a software developer who co-created Scrum alongside fellow software developer Ken Schwaber. A former fighter pilot and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Medical School, Sutherland has since helped dozens of businesses implement Scrum into their development process.

What Is Scrum?

Scrum is a framework made to help people and organizations efficiently solve complex problems with creative solutions. Scrum is designed to be simple, and it’s based on a simple idea: When working on a project, check in regularly to make sure you’re heading in the right direction, and remove anything that might be slowing you down. The pillars of Scrum are incremental progress and adaptability rather than following a carefully prescribed plan. Applying the Scrum framework will help companies produce more value in less time by eliminating waste and maximizing time.

How the Scrum Framework Remains Adaptable

The Scrum framework emphasizes adaptability, and as such, the Scrum framework itself is constantly evolving along with the rapidly changing worlds of business and technology. Sutherland, along with Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber, regularly updates the Scrum Guide, which they first wrote in 2010. Sutherland and Schwaber last updated the Scrum Guide in November 2020, and they reiterate the idea that the Scrum framework’s simplicity allows it to be adapted and used across multiple fields and domains.

Furthermore, this simplicity and adaptability allow for flexibility within the framework. For example, software company LinearB offers a free software tool that helps you further increase productivity, shorten development time, and increase employee fulfillment, building on the basic Scrum framework and adjusting it to suit their specific needs.

Scrum Versus a Traditional Management System

Within the Scrum framework, Sutherland advises that your team constantly inspect its methods and processes so that you can adapt to problems or changes in real time. This contrasts with a traditional project management style where you'd wait to finish a pre-planned stage and then review your results—by which time it's often too late to fix issues.

(Shortform note: In general, it's good practice to assess your work as you're working on it. Waiting to review something until after it's complete can waste a lot of time and energy. This can be used in your daily life as well. Instead of waiting until the end of the month or end of the quarter to review your own performance, why not do it every day? One expert recommends you write down your daily routine and go over it to determine how to better spend your time.)

Basic Scrum Framework

The basic techniques of the Scrum method that Sutherland outlines start with building an effective team. The next step is assessing and prioritizing the needed tasks, and then finally, approaching those tasks through Sprints—short, focused bursts of work.

Build and Maintain an Effective Team

In modern businesses, Sutherland insists, too much emphasis is put on individual achievements, rather than the team’s accomplishments. But he argues that the team, not individuals, is creating a product, so it’s important to focus on collective performance. This holistic approach to management, emphasizing teamwork, is a pillar of the Scrum framework.

Sutherland proposes three roles within a Scrum team:

1. Product Manager
2. Scrum Coach
3. Developers

Product Manager

The Product Manager creates the overall vision for the product and makes sure the product is both viable and valuable. The Product Manager’s responsibilities include determining the goal of the project and what it should look like when it's finished and creating the task list of everything that needs to be done to complete the project.

(Shortform note: In Inspired, Marty Cagan agrees with Sutherland’s basic framework of having a product manager direct the vision of the project and oversee its task list. Cagan emphasizes that the person in this role be clearly a project manager rather than a product manager—in other words, this person oversees the work and the process, not the technical details of the product itself. Although Sutherland uses the word “product” in his title for this role, he sees the role in the same way Cagan does.)

Scrum Coach

While the Product Manager is responsible for making the product valuable, the Scrum Coach is responsible for making sure the team is working as efficiently as possible. She coaches the team in the ways of Scrum and keeps the team working within the Scrum framework. The Scrum Coach does this by encouraging the team to self-organize and share knowledge and removing impediments to the team’s progress. She doesn’t assign specific tasks but instead ensures that communication is open and the team is making consistent progress.

(Shortform note: The 4 Disciplines of Execution discusses the way organizational coaches can help implement a company’s vision. An internal coach benefits an organization...

Scrum Summary Shortform Introduction

The way the business world operates, according to Jeff Sutherland, is fundamentally flawed. In Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, Jeff Sutherland explains the Scrum framework, a better management system than the traditional top-down approach. By using the carefully structured yet open-ended Scrum framework, a company, or any project team, can become much more efficient and productive.

About the Author

Jeff Sutherland is a software developer who co-created Scrum alongside fellow software developer Ken Schwaber. A former fighter pilot and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Medical School, Sutherland has since helped dozens of businesses implement Scrum into their development process. He has been a CTO or CEO for eleven software companies, during which he developed Scrum into what it is today.

Connect with [Jeff Sutherland]:

• Scrum website
• Bio
• LinkedIn
• Twitter *...

Scrum Summary What Is Scrum?

Scrum is a framework made to help people and organizations efficiently solve complex problems with creative solutions. Scrum is designed to be simple, and it’s based on a simple idea: When working on a project, check in regularly to make sure you're heading in the right direction, and remove anything that might be slowing you down. The pillars of Scrum are incremental progress and adaptability rather than following a carefully prescribed plan. Applying the Scrum framework will help companies produce more value in less time by eliminating waste and maximizing time.

Jeff Sutherland is a software developer who created the Scrum method as a better way of developing products than the traditional methods. Published in 2014, Sutherland released Scrum almost twenty years after he first introduced the Scrum framework to the world in 1995. During this time, Sutherland refined and honed the Scrum method as he watched his ideas go from relative obscurity in the business world to the mainstream.

How the Scrum Framework Remains Adaptable

The Scrum framework emphasizes adaptability and as such, the framework itself is constantly evolving along with the rapidly changing...

Scrum Summary Scrum Versus a Traditional Management System

Within the Scrum framework, Sutherland advises that your team constantly inspect its methods and processes so that you can adapt to problems or changes in real time. This contrasts with a traditional project management style where you'd wait to finish a pre-planned stage and then review your results--by which time it's often a huge hassle or too late to fix issues.

(Shortform note: In general, it's good practice to assess your work as you're working on it. Waiting to review something until after it's complete can waste a lot of time and energy. This can be used in your daily life as well. Instead of waiting until the end of the month or end of the quarter to review your own performance, why not do it every day? One expert recommends you write down your daily routine and go over it to determine how to better spend your time.)

Sutherland argues that this traditional style, widely called the Waterfall Method, causes more problems than it solves. It relies on extensive planning and linear progression, which Sutherland claims is an inefficient way to manage a complex, creative project.

Waterfall Method...

Shortform Exercise: Examine Your Experience With the Waterfall Method

We’ve all probably used the Waterfall method at some point in our lives. As Sutherland says, it's an extremely common strategy that has been used for decades. How well has the Waterfall method worked in your experience?

Think of a time when you used the Waterfall Method, or something similar, to tackle a project. This could just be a simple project you did yourself or something you did with a team. When planning, did you include every task you needed to complete? Did you estimate how long each would take? How long did the planning process take?

Scrum Summary Principle 1: Base Your Plan on Reality

One reason Sutherland says the Waterfall method doesn’t work is that it’s an exercise in unrealistic optimism: It’s hopeful to think that through careful planning you can know exactly how to do something and how much time, effort, and manpower it will take. Unfortunately, when that plan meets with reality, it almost always falls apart. With Scrum, Sutherland creates a framework based on the way humans actually work, taking into account what we struggle with and what we’re naturally good at.

What We’re Bad At

Under the right circumstances, people can do amazing things. We’re capable of complex thought and creative problem-solving that can change the world. In many ways, though, our brains are very limited. We simply aren’t able to do some things no matter how hard we try. It’s important to understand our limitations if we wish to achieve greatness.

(Shortform note: In the past century, work, school, and even daily life have grown increasingly complex, demanding more and more of our mental energies. Research suggests human intelligence may be leveling off. As our brains near their optimal capacity, [we may have to...

Scrum Summary Principle 2: Build and Maintain an Effective Team

In modern businesses, Sutherland insists, too much emphasis is put on individual achievements, rather than the team’s accomplishments. But he argues that the team, not individuals, is creating a product, so it’s important to focus on collective performance. This holistic approach to management, emphasizing teamwork, is a pillar of the Scrum framework. Sutherland describes the three common characteristics of successful teams. He then explains the three roles within a Scrum team and the specific things they should do to create value.

Three Traits of Successful Teams

Sutherland gives us three common characteristics of effective teams:

Ambition

When creating a product, a team must aspire to be great. Without ambition, or what Sutherland calls transcendence, it’s impossible to achieve great things. Just the decision to strive toward a higher goal can be enough to rise above mediocrity. From a leadership perspective, it's vital to instill in your team a common objective and to explain why that objective is worth pursuing.

Sutherland says one way to inspire your team is to challenge them. Set lofty goals, ones worth achieving, and the team will have a strong...

Shortform Exercise: Reflect on Your Teamwork

Most of us use teamwork almost every day, whether it be at school, work, or home. Sutherland advises that team members should be allowed the freedom to choose their assignments and direct their actions and that teams should be kept small—no more than nine members. Reflect on some experiences you’ve had working with others.

Think of a team project you had to complete in which you weren’t allowed much freedom. Now think of another team project in which you and the other team members had more say in how to complete it. Which of these was more fun, challenging, and effective? Do you think a team can have too much freedom?

Scrum Summary Principle 3: Prioritize the Work

When starting a project, Sutherland says the first step is to develop the overall vision you have for your company: what problems you’re going to solve, what you’re going to make, how you’re going to make it. Once you know what you want to build, you must prioritize the things you need to do according to the value they bring to the project.

Assess What Tasks Are Needed and Rank Them

Sutherland says the first thing to do is to create a task list, or what he calls a “backlog”: a list of all the things that need to be done to make your vision a reality. The task list should include every possible task that might be needed for the end product.

Then, with the task list complete, go through the entire list and rank each item by importance. To do so, ask the following questions:

• What will have the biggest impact?
• What is most important to the customer?
• What will make the most money?
• What items are the easiest to complete?

Once you have a clear picture of which tasks will bring the most value in the least amount of time, begin working on those tasks.

Traditional project methods would take these tasks and make a big roadmap for completing the project. The Scrum...

Shortform Exercise: Make a Task List

See how much writing down your daily tasks can help your productivity. Then think about how using a task list changes when in a group.

Make a list of the things you need to do tomorrow and then order them by importance.

Scrum Summary Principle 4: Using Sprints

A Sprint is the core process within Scrum. Sprints are fixed lengths of time, usually one or two weeks, in which the team works on a particular task or tasks. The key values of the Scrum framework are developed and maintained inside Sprints. Sprints are where the work gets done, where value is created, and where people turn ideas into reality.

(Shortform note: Sutherland and Ken Schwaber introduced the term “Sprint” in the essay “SCRUM Development Process,” which they first presented in 1995. Since then, the idea of working in Sprints has become ubiquitous in business management circles. Jake Knapp wrote a book on Sprints in 2016. We also see it show up in news articles that claim working in sprints will “transform your productivity,” and recommend working in short bursts even in your personal life.)

Sutherland gives us four phases to a Sprint cycle.

Phase 1: Plan

At this stage you should have a prioritized task list and a...

Shortform Exercise: Demonstrate Your Work

Use this exercise to think about how demonstrating can change the way you work.

Describe a time you had to demonstrate something to a group of people, whether it be a school project, work presentation, or just a painting in a local art gallery.

Scrum Summary Principle 5: How Sprints Help Maximize Time

Time is limited, and one of the biggest challenges of a successful business is figuring out how to maximize it. The Scrum framework is designed to maximize time by utilizing Sprints. Sprints help the team build things quickly, get constant feedback, and adjust accordingly.

Deliver Value Quickly

Sutherland refers to a rule in product development that is proven time and time again: “80 percent of the value is in 20 percent of the features.” This means that in almost any product, the majority of the value lies in only a fifth of the components. The goal of Scrum is to build that 20 percent first. To do this, the first item completed in a Sprint should be something that generates revenue immediately, if possible. The idea is to deliver something of value to the customer in the shortest amount of time, even if it's only a tiny bit of value.

(Shortform note: The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who noticed that 80% of land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. The Pareto Principle can be [applied to many areas of business and finance, as well as on an individual...

Scrum Summary Principle 6: Why Happiness Matters

Sutherland stresses the importance of happiness in a workplace. Not only is it morally preferable, he says, it actually increases productivity.

Sutherland states that happy people are more successful in virtually every aspect of life. Happy people live longer, healthier lives, and are more likely to have a higher income and be more creative. He argues, though, that happiness does not necessarily come from success. Instead, it leads to success. In other words, if a team is happy, they’ll be more productive. If a team is unhappy, their productivity will decline. Therefore, Sutherland advises that you should take steps to make sure your team is happy.

(Shortform note: Research confirms Sutherland’s assertion that happiness leads to success rather than the reverse. Psychologists have found that happy attitudes and mentalities not only correspond with but in fact precede successful outcomes, indicating that a happy outlook brings about success, instead of success bringing about happiness.)

Happiness, he argues, comes from the pursuit of a goal rather than the attainment of it. Businesses, and society in...

Shortform Exercise: Would You Rather Be Happy or Successful?

People generally think success leads to happiness, but Sutherland argues this isn’t necessarily true. Think deeply about what makes you happy.

Based on your personal experience, what is the relationship between happiness and success? (Do you feel like you’re more successful when you’re happy, and/or that you’re more happy when you’re successful? Does the answer to this depend on your definition of happiness? Do you feel like you get less done when you're going through a rough time or in a bad mood?)