Fiction and Nonfiction

I’m having a blast working on my new book about scrum for web and mobile development for SitePoint. I decided to take a slightly offbeat approach to the subject, and incorporate a little fiction into the work.

It’s easy to list out the details of how scrum works, and explain abstractly why it’s such a useful system for supporting web and mobile development teams. It’s something else to make the process come alive for the reader. So I decided to dust off my fiction writing skills and give the team in the book a little color.

I’ve created a set of characters derived broadly from the interactions of engineers, product managers, designers, executives, and others I’ve worked with or coached over the years. I’m trying to show how real people work together, what problems they face, and how they can use the tools of scrum to deal with them.

Scope creep? Covered.

Technical debt? Covered.

Insecurity? Covered.

Unrealistic expectations? Covered.

So far the editors seem to like what I’m doing.

By showing realistic situations, fears, challenges, and accomplishments, I’m hoping to make the subject more concrete. I also want to address some of the concerns about scrum that I’ve read from people who may have had strong negative experiences.

I truly believe that scrum, properly applied by people who don’t think that it’s either going to magically give them the team they always dreamed of having, or that it is a management plot to steal an engineer’s freedom, can be powerful and effective.

Don’t read yourself into any of the characters; more than the names have been changed….

 

Published by M. David Green

The host of Hack the Process, M. David Green is a writer and agile coach.

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