Welcome back! We're kicking off the new year with a post on Agile Project Management. I've been speaking a lot to folks recently about Scrum and how to think about incorporating it into your team structure.
One form of Agile project management, Scrum is an iterative development process that focuses the development team on the highest priority work and increases the product/project manager's ability to forecast timelines and delivery. For Web Services, it has improved our project estimates and helped us to work in a more focused way on our larger projects.
If you want to learn more about Scrum, there are a lot of great resources out there. These are some of my favorites.
Websites
Agile Atlas
Agile Atlas is a website created by the Scrum Alliance to provide descriptions of all terms and processes involved in scrum. From the site's About page: "The purpose of this site is to provide an 'encyclopedia' of information about Agile and related methods.... The "center" of the site is 'Core Scrum'. This is a Scrum Alliance supported description of Scrum. It is consistent with other definitive descriptions, and is the basis for the Scrum Alliance's CSM test."
Training and certifications
Scrum Alliance
The Scrum Alliance is a membership organization that encourages and supports the widespread adoption and effective practice of Scrum. It is the organization that certifies scrum professionals and is a great place to find out about upcoming training and read articles about scum practices. If you are a member of the Scrum Alliance, you also have access to additional articles.
Learn about the Scrum Alliance
Agile Learning Labs
Agile Learning Labs is the group that I did all of my Scrum training with. Their training is fun and experiential, I highly recommend. They also have a robust blog that they manage and host regular agile meet ups with interesting speakers.
A few books
Elements of Scrum
This is a super easy read compared to a lot of books on the same or similar subjects. It's the best selling Scrum book out there and I highly recommend it!
Agile Software Development with Scrum
A classic in the Scrum arena, recommended to me by others on Stanford campus.
Agile Project Management for Dummies
This was my introduction to Agile and I think it's another friendly read for those who want to learn more about Agile practices. It's a bit of a misnomer, though, since it really focuses on only Scrum.
At Stanford
Stanford Agile Community of Practice & Email List
Every few weeks, some of the people on campus interested in and/or practicing Agile get together to discuss practices. If you are interested in joining, contact me and I'll connect you with the organizer.
On Youtube
Check out this video that I've included in previous posts: Agile Project Management in a Nutshell
