Copyright © 2012 by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Schwaber, Ken.

Software in 30 days: how Agile managers beat the odds, delight their customers, and leave competitors in the dust/Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-20666-9 (pbk.); ISBN 978-1-118-22854-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-24090-8 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-26574-1 (ebk)

1. Agile software development. 2. Scrum (Computer software development) 3. Computer software–Development. I. Sutherland, Jeffrey Victor. II. Title. III. Title: Software in thirty days.

QA76.76.D47S3223 2012

005.1–dc23

2011050969

To Ikujiro Nonaka, Babatunde A. Ogunnaike, and
Hirotaka Takeuchi for their inspiration and guidance.

About the Authors

Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber are the creators of Scrum, a software development process that delivers software functionality in 30-day increments. Scrum was born when Jeff and Ken presented a paper at the OOPSLA conference in Austin, Texas, in August 1995. This paper, “Scrum Development Process,” was the result of their collaboration prior to that point. The works of H. Takeuchio and I. Nonaka in their seminal works on lean knowledge creation, bottom-up intelligence, and teamwork had profoundly influenced Jeff. Babatunde Ogunnnike had profoundly influenced Ken in his work on industrial process control and the applicability of complexity theory and empiricism to software development.

In addition to being Scrum's creators, Jeff and Ken have also served as its wards. With their guidance, Scrum has evolved over time; more recently, they have developed ways to speed up Scrum's systematic evolution based on community experience and input. In “The Scrum Guide,” found in Appendix 2 of this book, Jeff and Ken offer the complete definition of Scrum.

Dr. Jeff Sutherland is the chief executive officer of Scrum Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offering training, guidance, and coaching to companies across the globe. Jeff is a distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy and a Top Gun of his USAF RF-4C Aircraft Commander class. Jeff has advanced degrees from Stanford University and a PhD from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is also a senior advisor to OpenView Venture Partners, helping them implement Scrum and agile practices in all their portfolio companies. Jeff has extended and enhanced Scrum at many software companies and information technology (IT) organizations over the years.

Ken Schwaber is a software development professional, having spent the past 40 years of his life as a programmer, analyst, consultant, product manager, and business owner. Early in his career, Ken tried unsuccessfully to make waterfall software projects successful; he later developed an alternative to waterfall. Ken has spent the past 20 years developing Scrum and working with organizations around world to help them take advantage of it. Ken is one of the original signatories of the Agile Manifesto and the founder of the Agile Alliance and the Scrum Alliance. He is currently working to improve the software profession through Scrum.org. Ken and his wife, Christina, live in the Boston area. He is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and has completed additional study in computer science at the University of Chicago and in business at the University of California at Los Angeles Anderson School of Management.

Acknowledgments

This book would not be what it is without the excellent copyediting of Arlette Ballew, the overall direction of Richard Narramore, and the laser focus of Carey Armstrong.

Introduction

We, Jeff and Ken, have been in the software industry, collectively, for 70 years. We have been software developers, managers in IT organizations and software product companies, and owners of both product companies and service organizations. More than 20 years ago, we created a process that lets organizations deliver software better. Since then, we have helped hundreds of organizations do the same. Our work has spread further than we have ever imagined possible, being put to use by millions of people. We are humbled by the extent of its adoption, and we are awed by the feats people have accomplished using it.

This is not the first book we have written on the topic of building software. It is, however, the first book we have written for people who do not themselves build software. This book is instead for leaders within organizations that depend on software for their survival and competitiveness. It is for leaders within organizations that can benefit from developing software rapidly, incrementally, and with the best return on investment possible. It is for leaders who face business and technological complexity that has made the delivery of software difficult. We have written this book so that these leaders can help their organizations achieve these goals, enhance their internal capabilities, improve their product offerings, and more.

This book is for chief executive officers (CEOs), executives, and senior managers who need their organizations to deliver better software in less time, with lower cost, greater predictability, and lower risk. For this audience, we have a message: You may have had negative experiences with software development in the past, but the industry has turned a corner. The software profession has radically improved its methods and its results. The uncertainty, risk, and waste to which you are accustomed are no longer par for the course. We have worked with many software organizations that have already turned the corner; we want to help you do so, too.

In this book, we show you how to create business value using a process that delivers complete pieces of software functionality at least every 30 days. This book will show you how you can prioritize the functionality you want and have it delivered á la carte. It will show you how to gain transparency not only into business value, by tracking functionality delivered against functionality desired, but also into the health of the software development process and your organization as a whole. The tools in this book will help you work with your software organization to get up to speed with modern practices and begin to deliver the results you've been expecting all along.

This is software in 30 days.

Section I

Why Every Business in the World Can Produce Software in 30 Days