Agile 101: Practical Project Management
You’ve heard about Scrum and all that Agile buzz. You know it works. You know that everyone uses it, from start-ups to multinationals, and that the latest public tenders call for its use. Yes, even your competition uses it. You’ve read a lot on some blogs and websites, even attended a talk about the method, but it still scares you a little. There’s some weird lingo and not much actionable stuff. If you want to make sense of Scrum, this is your book. I will try to explain project management from a practical point of view, and as entertainingly as possible. I will avoid any terms that might sound strange to a Scrum newbie.
The book is filled with anecdotes and real life stories arising from dozens of projects, big and small. They will be used to explain, in a compelling way, just what you need to understand the philosophy behind this method. You will finally dare to implement it in your projects. Then your projects will meet their goals, not only for your company but also for your client — and your clients will want to hire you again when they need a Scrum Master for their projects.
With Agile 101 you’ll learn:
- The main advantages and disadvantages when implementing Scrum. The things you should bear in mind and those you should avoid.
- How to make agile estimates.
- How to handle the project’s budget while allowing your client to modify the required functionality.
- The lessons I have learned during my years as a software development professional. I will tell you what I did right but also what I did wrong, so that at least you don’t make the same mistakes I did.
- Tips and tricks to prepare for the Professional Scrum Master certification (PSM I), so you improve your chances of landing better jobs.
Author bio
Antonio Martel, in his role as agile project manager, has worked in the fields of security (police), environmental management, and business intelligence for Spanish software development companies. He has been developing software for local and regional public entities in Spain, but also for international projects led by Scandinavian enterprises. His first book, Gestión práctica de proyectos con Scrum, reached #1 at Amazon Spain (across all genres), and remained in the Top 100 for five consecutive days. It has reached #1 at Amazon.com across several categories at the same time, peaking at #3 in the “Project Management” category, not just for ebooks in Spanish but for all kinds of books in every language.
He is also author of the book Certificación Professional Scrum Master (PSM I) and the blog www.antoniomartel.com, where he writes about improving productivity for software development departments through the use of Agile methodologies.
