Scrum may have won the brand-war as the most popular of Agile Methods – but is it working? Or, at least, could it work better?

An opportunity to improve is one way to put it, and that is what Matt Heusser and Markus Gärtner typically see with thier clients.

It's common to see a world where standups become boring status meetings, planning and commitments become command-and-control wishing followed by overtime. Testing stretches past the sprint boundary … and that’s just the beginning.

So let's start over from the beginning - with the current state of Scrum in mind.

Matt and Markus begin with what Scrum is from their point of view, including the problems it tends to solve. They quickly pivot to talk about the forces that conspire to restrict, compromise, and challenge organizations moving toward Scrum, and some solutions.

After that, in part II, the two talk about specific situations they have seen and solutions, in context of real organizations. They call these "nuggets", hopefully gold, or at least coal - consistent, clear and useful. 

Part III explores real case studies of organizations trying to use something like Scrum to deliver working software. These are real case studies, not just fluff, talking about what went wrong, what went right, and why those things were a fit for those organizations.

At least, that's the idea. Right now Part I and Part II are all that is ready - and the graphics need a lot of work. Instead of trying to plan everything up front, the two decided to release this to the world and gather feedback. So please, get the book, then pressure Matt and Markus to finish it.

You'd be doing them a favor.