Further Information. References

Barcelona City Council Documentation

  • Barcelona City Council: “Guidelines for the provision of agile digital services”, 2017.

References:

Scrum

  • “The Scrum Guide”, Schwaber and Sutherland. This 17-page document is the official definition of scrum. It is highly recommend reading for an understanding of the philosophy behind this working framework, as well as its component parts and rules.

  • Scrum Pocket Guide, Verheyen. This short book of approximately 100 pages is a commented extension of “The Scrum Guide”. It is recommended reading if you would like to have good theoretical knowledge of the working framework.

  • Large-Scale Scrum, Larman & Bodde. This book describes the large-scale scrum model (LeSS) for applying scrum to numerous teams. It therefore includes advanced content. Nonetheless, it also reflexively reviews the basic concepts of scrum in detail, and also introduces many other more advanced concepts.

Defining products and backlogs

  • User Stories Applied, Cohn. This book is a practical guide to understanding what user stories are and how to make good use of them.

  • User Story Mapping, Patton. This book goes in to further detail about the usefulness of story mapping to better understand user problems and learn how to design rapid development plans that harness frequent deliveries for optimising the value offered to users.

Agile planning

  • Agile Estimating and Planning, Cohn. This book is a practical guide to the process of estimating effort in product backlogs and how to use those estimates to plan versions and sprints and oversee plans.

  • Scrum & XP from the trenches, Kniberg. This book is free to download from the InfoQ website. It is a complete and pragmatic guide on how to develop using Programming scrum and extreme programming.

  • Agile Project Management with Scrum, Schwaber. This book contains practical experiences from the co-creator of scrum in its application at various companies, and explains what went well and what went badly.

Product Owner

  • AGILE Product Management with Scrum. This book offers a good introduction to the role of product owner, its responsibilities and how to undertake the standard activities within the life-cycle of a product.

  • Scrum Product Ownership, Galen. This book explains how to perform the role of product owner, both at small and large organisations, and especially includes those aspects of organisation involving all the players.

Scrum Master

  • Scrum Mastery, Watts. This book is a quick and easy guide to correctly approaching the role of scrum master. It is a highly recommendable introduction.

  • Coaching Agile Teams, Adkins. This is an advanced reference book for any professional coach or scrum master. It is highly detailed and contains advanced concepts.

  • Succeeding with AGILE, Cohn. This book explains models for spreading agile methods within organisations. There is no unified methodology for introducing agile methods at a company; but this advice may be useful for application to the specific context of each organisation.

Other documentation consulted

Government of the United Kingdom. “Agile Delivery”, https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile-delivery

Nuottila J., Aaltonen K., Kujala J. “Challenges of adopting agile methods in a public Organization”, International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management, vol. 4, No. 3 (2016), pp. 65-85, DOI: 10.12821/ijispm040304.

Torrecilla-Salinas C. J., Sedeño J., Escalona M. J., Mejías M. “Agile in Public Administration: Oxymoron or reality? An experience report”, CAiSE Industry Track, vol. 1017 of CEUR Workshop Proceedings, pp.1-8, CEUR-WS.org (2013), online at http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1017/Paper1CAiSE_IT2013.pdf

Software Engineering Institute of the CMU. “Contracting for Agile Software Development in the Department of Defense: An Introduction” (August 2015), online at https://resources.sei.cmu.edu/asset_files/TechnicalNote/2015_004_001_442515.pdf

US Government Accountability Office. “Software Development: Effective Practices and Federal Challenges in Applying Agile Methods”, GAO-12-681, online at http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/593091.pdf

Balter B. “Towards a More Agile Government”, 41 Pub. Cont. L. J. 149, The Public Contract Law Journal (autumn 2011), online at https://ben.balter.com/2011/11/29/towards-a-more-agile-government/