The ScrumMaster Study Guide

Examining the questions usually asked by students attending Certified Scrum Master (CSM) training, this book is a compilation of the insights of the author gained through teaching nearly 100 CSM classes. It starts by introducing the concepts of Agile development and Scrum. Next, it explains how to create Scrum teams and how to assess their productivity. Considering how to sell Agile development to upper management and to customers, the book illustrates the implementation of Agile development in an organization-addressing the roles and responsibilities of various team players.

Jim Schiel has over 28 years of experience in software development, research-and-development (R&D) management, agile development, and Scrum in highly regulated industries. He has been a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) since 2005 and a Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) and Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) since 2006. Jim's career started in 1985 when he began working for Siemens Medical Solutions. He managed various development teams, ranging in size from 5 to 80 developers; he instituted iterative project management processes. At Siemens, Jim transitioned an organization of 1,200 developers from waterfall and various iterative models to agile development using Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) concepts. Jim left Siemens in 2008 to begin working as an agile coach and trainer and in 2009 founded Artisan Software Consulting. Artisan provides coaching, training, and consulting to organizations attempting large-scale transitions to agile development using lean software development principles, Scrum, XP, and kanban approaches. Jim has been training for over 7 years and has trained more than 1,100 students. He currently teaches Certified ScrumMaster courses and Certified Scrum Product Owner courses and provides workshops on advanced Scrum techniques, user stories, agile in management, and more. Jim's book, Enterprise-Scale Agile Software Development, published in 2010 by CRC Press, covers much of his experiences managing and guiding large-scale transformations.

Introduction. The Practical Guide To Scrum. An Agile Product Development Life Cycle. Release Planning and "Iteration Zero". Backlog Grooming. The Sprint Planning Meeting. The Daily Scrum Meeting. The Sprint Review Meeting. The Sprint Retrospective Meeting. Creating Backlog Agreements. Practical Advice to End the Practical Guide. Questions Frequently Asked In CSM Training. About Agile Development. About Scrum. Using Scrum. Agile Product Management. Agile Development Dysfunctions.