Coming soon · Book Profile
Scrum the Art of Doing Twice
Scrum is a lightweight, team-based framework—derived from Toyota's lean manufacturing, combat aviation's OODA loop, and studies of high-performing teams—that lets organizations deliver twice the work in half the time by embracing iteration, transparency, and continuous improvement.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Written by Scrum's co-creator Jeff Sutherland, this book argues that the traditional way we plan and manage work—detailed Gantt charts, Waterfall phases, command-and-control hierarchies—is fundamentally broken, producing massive waste and demoralized workers. Drawing on his experiences as a fighter pilot, cancer researcher, and technology executive, Sutherland lays out Scrum: a system built around small, cross-functional, autonomous teams working in short fixed-length Sprints, holding brief Daily Stand-ups, prioritizing a Backlog by value, and reflecting each cycle to improve. Through vivid case studies—the FBI's Sentinel project, a car company, a pharmaceutical giant, Dutch classrooms, and Ugandan farmers—he shows how Scrum accelerates any human endeavor while making people happier. If you want to escape the futility of wasted effort and produce great work faster, this book gives you both the why and the how.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A manager, team leader, or knowledge worker who wants to get meaningful work done faster and better without burning out or wasting effort.
- The problem
- Projects run late, over budget, and often fail to deliver what people actually want. They feel frustrated, demoralized, and trapped in a wasteful, dehumanizing system where much of their effort produces nothing.
- The plan
- Pick a Product Owner, a Team, and a Scrum Master.
- Create and prioritize a Product Backlog by value.
- Estimate work relatively (Fibonacci/Planning Poker), not in hours.
- Plan and run short fixed-length Sprints toward a Done, demonstrable increment.
- Hold a 15-minute Daily Stand-up to expose progress and impediments.
- The payoff
- Teams deliver 200–400% more value in far less time with higher quality. · Work has purpose, waste is eliminated, and people are happier and more engaged. · The organization becomes transparent, adaptive, and able to change the world.
See our guide
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Additional reading
- The Race · Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Listed in the book's front matter, this book further explores the concepts of the Theory of Constraints in a business narrative format.
- It's Not Luck · Eliyahu M. Goldratt
A sequel to The Goal, this book applies the Theory of Constraints and the Thinking Processes to marketing, sales, and business strategy.
- Critical Chain · Eliyahu M. Goldratt
This book applies the Theory of Constraints to the domain of project management, challenging conventional methods like the critical path method.
- The Choice · Eliyahu M. Goldratt
This later work distills the core philosophy behind the Theory of Constraints, focusing on the power of clear thinking to remove conflicts and improve any situation.
- The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement · Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt
This novel is the primary blueprint for The Phoenix Project. It introduces the Theory of Constraints and the Socratic teaching style that Erik employs to guide Bill through his transformation.
- Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation · Jez Humble and David Farley
This book codifies the technical practices required to build the 'deployment pipeline' that Erik advocates. It provides the 'how-to' for achieving the fast, low-risk, automated deployments that are central to the First and Second Ways.
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable · Patrick Lencioni
Steve directly uses this book's 'personal histories exercise' to build a foundation of trust and vulnerability within his IT leadership team, a critical cultural prerequisite for the collaboration required by DevOps.
- Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results · Mike Rother
This book explains the philosophy behind creating a culture of continuous improvement through daily practice and repetition. It forms the basis of the Third Way and is what Patty implements with her two-week improvement cycles.
- Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software · Michael T. Nygard
This book details architectural patterns for building resilient, stable, and manageable applications. The Unicorn project team implicitly follows these principles to create a service that can withstand the pressures of production, unlike the fragile Phoenix application.
- Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business · David J. Anderson
It provides the theory and practical application of using Kanban systems to manage knowledge work, which Patty successfully uses to improve flow and predictability for IT service requests.