Project Management Isn't Magic

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"Project management isn’t magic. But high-caliber project management professionals can apply the tradecraft to organizations’ strategic initiatives and consistently complete them on-scope, on-budget, on-time, and on-satisfaction. Which is sort of magical."

— Scott M. Graffius, CEO, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ is a professional services firm. We partner with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. We provide project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches to development and delivery. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage.

For more information, you can
review what we do, see who we are, visit our newsroom, read additional stories from our blog, and check out our diverse infographics (each brief article includes a link to a downloadable infographic):


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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.

Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them s
trengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are in the digital media kit at https://AgileScrumGuide.com. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, and other retailers, distributors, and partners.

Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.

He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.

Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For additional information on Scott's speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

Scott resides in Los Angeles, California.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

For more information, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Agile Project Management Expert Scott M. Graffius to Speak at Techstars Startup Week

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Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, will be speaking at Techstars Startup Week. He will be presenting "Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage." The talk will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 4, 2018, at The Box Riverside (also known as The Box Theater) in Riverside, CA. For more information and to register for the event, please visit https://ie.startupweek.co.

Techstars Startup Week provides presentations, workshops, events, and mentoring sessions designed to inspire, educate, and advance startups and others in the local entrepreneurial community.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional/waterfall, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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At the End of a Sprint on a Scrum Project: Two Scenarios

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Take a look at the results at the end of a sprint on a Scrum project. There are two scenarios. Both have the same user stories with the same story points for each:

  • User story 1: 13 story points
  • User story 2: 8 story points
  • User story 3: 3 story points
  • User story 4: 5 story points
  • User story 5: 1 story point
  • User story 6: 3 story points
  • User story 7: 1 story point

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Scenario A


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Here are some details on A:

  • User story 1: 70 hours of work performed, 5 hours of work remaining
  • User story 2: 51 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the Definition of Done [DoD])
  • User story 3: 45 hours of work performed, 13 hours of work remaining
  • User story 4: 29 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 5: 3 hours of work performed, 2 hours of work remaining
  • User story 6: 30 hours of work performed, 17 hours of work remaining
  • User story 7: 4 hours of work performed, 1 hour of work remaining

A is summarized as:

  • 232 hours of work was performed, and 38 hours of work remains
  • 2 user stories were done, and 5 user stories were not completed

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Scenario B

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Here are some details on B:

  • User story 1: 75 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 2: 51 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 3: 58 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 4: 29 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 5: 5 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 6: 14 hours of work performed, 33 hours of work remaining
  • User story 5: no work performed, and five hours of work remaining

B is summarized as:

  • 232 hours of work was performed, and 38 hours of work remains
  • 5 user stories were done, and 2 user stories were not completed

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What Counts

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Scrum requires teams to build an increment of functionality during every sprint. Only work meeting the Definition of Done (DoD) is counted as complete, demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and is potentially shippable.

There were two scenarios. Both had the same user stories with the same story points for each, and the same amount of work hours performed. Yet the outcomes were dramatically different. In A, 2 user stories were done--and are to be demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and are potentially shippable. In B, 5 user stories were done--and are to be demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and are potentially shippable. B is the better scenario.

A possible explanation for the differences between the two situations is that the Scrum team in B may have done a better job of limiting Work in Progress.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" Author Interview of Scott M. Graffius for Literary Titan

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for his book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

On March 16, Literary Titan published their review of Agile Scrum—“The book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully”—and they gave it five stars. On April 6, the program honored Agile Scrum with their Gold Award.

Today, Literary Titan published an
interview I did for them. It's titled "That Fantastic Agile Transformation Experience: Scott M. Graffius Author Interview," and you're invited to check it out.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Receives Gold Award from Literary Titan

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for his book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

On March 16, Literary Titan published their review of Agile Scrum—“The book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully”—and they gave it five stars.

Literary Titan periodically provides additional recognition for select works. Today, the program honored
Agile Scrum with their Gold Award. Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Thank you to Literary Titan for the award.

A press release from Scott M. Graffius, the author of the book, is located
here.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Press Release from New Apple: Technology Guide "Agile Scrum" Wins Top Honors

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum took first place in the Technology category of the New Apple Awards last year. I'm grateful for the honor, and I'm thrilled that the program continues to feature the book. Today, New Apple published a new press release about the book—"Technology Guide 'Agile Scrum' Wins Medalist Honors in New Apple Independent Book Awards." You can see the story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/749081

Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen—the technical editors—for helping to make the book more clear, consistent, and valuable.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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New Video: Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage

Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, an Inc. Verified Business, is the author of the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. A video minisode—related to Agile/Scrum—was published today. This is an update on the video.

A new 1-minute video, Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage, was just published. It is live at https://vimeo.com/259429846 (and it can be played below).


Agile Scrum Guide | Minisode | Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Video: Product Increment and a Mininimum Viable Product Approach

Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, an Inc. Verified Business, is the author of the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. A video minisode—containing excerpts from Agile Scrum—was published today. This is an update on the video.

A new one-minute video, Product Increment and a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Approach, is live at https://vimeo.com/258176585 (and it can be played below).


Agile Scrum Guide | Minisode | Product Increment and a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Approach from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, Receives Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) Designation

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, an
Inc. Verified Business, received the Certified Scrum Professional® (CSP®) advanced designation from the Scrum Alliance®. It's based on having fulfilled 70 or more hours of approved education/training, already holding recognized Scrum credential(s) (CSM® and CSPO® in his case), and documented successful professional experience with agile/Scrum in the last five years (consulting engagements with a fantastic client in the entertainment business—the inspiration for his book—contributed towards it).

For more information on Scott, visit
scottgraffius.com.

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.












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Potentially Shippable Product Increment (PI) and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Approach

Potentially Shippable Product Increment

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Scrum requires teams to build an increment of functionality during every sprint, and the increment must be potentially shippable because the Product Owner might decide to release it at the end of the sprint.

  • The product increment is the sum of all backlog items completed during the current sprint
  • Potentially shippable is defined by a state of confidence or readiness
  • Shipping is a business decision: shipping may or may not occur at the end of the sprint (new functionality may be accumulated via multiple sprints before being shipped)

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Minimum Viable Product Approach

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The product increment may or may not be marketable. However, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach is sometimes used to help test marketable ideas. MVP is a product release strategy which can be used in Scrum (or another framework). The term was created by Frank Robinson, and popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries.

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Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (http://bit.ly/scrumone) says:

"The MVP has just those features considered sufficient for it to be of value to customers, and allow for it to be shipped or sold to early adopters. Customer feedback will inform future development of the product."

Here are a few examples of then-startups use of an MVP:

  • Facebook: The first product (originally called Thefacebook) tested traction of students connecting with their college/class and posting messages. Other features—built on the initial success—came later.
  • Groupon: It launched with a WordPress site and PDFs emailed to early subscribers. The test proved successful, and the company subsequently built its voucher system and backend.
  • Spotify: The initial product was simple desktop app, tested in a closed beta. The MVP proved to be of interest to consumers, and more features followed.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Wins First Place in Business at Florida Book Festival

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum by technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker and author Scott M. Graffius won first place in Business at the 2018 Florida Book Festival. This is the sixteenth first place award for the book.

The competition was open to works from small, medium, large (including the Big Five), and independent presses as well as self-published authors. Judging was conducted by a panel of industry professionals, and placements were determined based on overall excellence. Winners will be honored at a gala on Saturday, February 24 in Orlando, Florida. Graffius is scheduled to attend and speak at the ceremony.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Technique for Ordering the Product Backlog: Factoring Business Value and Risk

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Scrum is the most popular agile project development and delivery framework. In Scrum, the product release backlog (sometimes referred to as the product backlog) is a list of features, user stories, bugs to be fixed, and/or other requirements. The Product Owner is the ultimate holder of the backlog. The Product Owner prioritizes items, and different methods can be employed to help accomplish that work. This brief article focuses on the technique of factoring business value and risk.

Each item in the product release backlog would be rated as either high or low in two dimensions: business value and risk. It is suggested that high business value, high-risk items are worked on first. While that may seem counterintuitive, the earlier this work is done, the sooner the team will move to mitigate the issues and unknowns—leading to a higher quality product. If there's a failure, it will occur early and relatively inexpensively.

An ordering of priorities is illustrated above, and it follows:

1. High business value, high risk.
2. High business value, low risk.
3. Low business value, low risk.
4. Low business value, high risk.

Alternatively, other prioritization methods—such as the MoSCoW ranking model— may be used. MoSCoW will be highlighted in a subsequent article.

This content is an abridged excerpt from the award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Update on 12 January 2018

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

This is an overview and quick update on
Agile Scrum.

There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most methodologies fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to best meet their business needs and effectively manage projects.

With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions,
Agile Scrum helps the reader:

• Implement and use the most popular agile framework—Scrum
• Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement
• Support innovation and drive competitive advantage

This guide is for those interested or involved in innovation, project management, product development, software development or technology management.

• It's for those who have not yet used Scrum
• It's also for people already using Scrum, in roles such as Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Development Team members (business analysts, solution and system architects, designers, developers, testers, etc.), customers, end users, agile coaches, executives, managers, and other stakeholders

For those already using Scrum, the book can serve as a reference on practices for consideration and potential adaptation.

Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. Honors to date include 15 first place awards in national and international competitions.

  • First Place Winner, Business-General Category, 5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Business Category, 2016 London Book Festival
  • First Place Winner, Business Category, Fall 2016 Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards
  • First Place Winner, Informational (Business) Category, 2017 Feathered Quill Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 2016 New Apple Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 2017 Independent Press Award
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 11th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
  • First Place Winner, Business Category, 2017 Pacific Rim Book Festival
  • First Place Winner, Green/Conscious Business Category, 2017 Bookvana Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 2017 Book Excellence Awards
  • First Place Winner, Business Reference Category, 14th Annual Best Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 2017 New York City Big Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Science & Technology Category, 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Workplace Category, 2017 Human Relations Indie Book Awards

Additional awards—along with reviews and more—are located in the digital media kit at
AgileScrumGuide.com.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Listed on 22 Best Scrum Books of All Time

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum
made the list, "22 Best Scrum Books of All Time." Thank you, Roy Povarchik and Book Authority!



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Online Bonus Content Updated 30 December 2017

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Online bonus material—containing an ever-growing list of supplemental content that comes free with the purchase of
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions—was updated today. Information on Agile/Scrum related blogs and podcasts were added to Select Resources. Instructions on how to access the online bonus material are provided inside both the ebook and the paperback book.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Wins Gold at Human Relations Indie Book Awards

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
Human Relations Indie Book Awards announced the results of its 2017 competition today, and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions won the gold (first place) in the Workplace category.

The contest was open to English-language books in print from small, academic, and independent presses as well as self-published authors. Entries were assessed on presentation, organization, and content—including the human relations message conveyed. Publications judged as outstanding are credited with awards.

Including this new honor,
Agile Scrum has received 15 first place awards from national and international competitions. Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Online Bonus Content Updated 28 November 2017

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

Online bonus material—containing an ever-growing list of supplemental content that comes free with the purchase of
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions—was updated today. A new quiz was added to the list. Instructions on how to access the bonus material are provided inside the ebook and inside the paperback book.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 26 November 2017

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



The trailer for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions was updated. Content in the Seen In and Honors sections were refreshed. The video is tight—the total run time remains 30 seconds. The video is above and at https://vimeo.com/178858753.

Agile Scrum helps technical and non-technical teams deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Takes First Place in Science & Technology at Royal Dragonfly Book Awards

vGGG9B Royal Dragonfly lowerres

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

November 16 was an especially fortunate day for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. As noted in an earlier post, it won first place in the Technology category at the 2017 New York City Big Book Awards. The same day, the book took first place in Science & Technology at the 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards. The contest was open to English-language books in print from around the world from all presses including self-published authors. Books were rated on content, readability, and innovation by judges with expertise in the categories over which they presided. Exceptional books are honored with awards.

Including this new honor, the publication has received 14 first place awards from national and international competitions.
Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book.

A press release on the book—distributed on November 15 (the day before this win)—is located at Yahoo Finance at
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/scott-m-graffiuss-award-winning-204000210.html.




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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Wins First Place in Technology at New York City Big Book Awards

vGGG9B NYC lowerres

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
by Scott M. Graffius won first place in the Technology category at the 2017 New York City Big Book Awards. The competition was open to books in print and audiobooks from all authors and presses. Contestants ranged from independent authors to works from publishing giants. Entries were rated on presentation, editorial quality, and audience appeal. Works judged as best of the best are honored with awards.

Including this honor, the publication has received 13 first place awards from national and international competitions.
Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book.

A press release on the book—distributed on November 15 (the day before this win)—is located at Yahoo Finance at
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/scott-m-graffiuss-award-winning-204000210.html.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Press Release: "Scott M. Graffius's Award-Winning Book on Agile Scrum Helps Organizations Drive Competitive Advantage"

1 - PR Newswire  PR - exc - v171115B LOWRES

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

There's a press release for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, and distribution started earlier today. You're invited to take a look—here’s the source: http://www.ireachcontent.com/news-releases/scott-m-graffiuss-award-winning-book-on-agile-scrum-helps-organizations-drive-competitive-advantage-657789663.html.

As of the time of this post, the press release been picked up by Yahoo Finance (
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/scott-m-graffiuss-award-winning-204000210.html) and 117 additional sites. Distribution continues.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 10 November 2017

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.


The updated 30-second trailer for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is live at https://vimeo.com/178858753 (and can be played above). Changes to the trailer include the addition of a new award—first place in the Business Reference category at the 14th Annual Best Book Awards—and revised formatting.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Took First Place in Business at Best Book Awards

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
14th Annual Best Book Awards named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by project management expert, consultant and author Scott M. Graffius as the first place winner in the Business Reference category. The annual competition is open to English-language books from all authors and publishers. Over 2,000 contestants ranged from first-time, self-published authors to bestselling works from publishing giants including Wiley, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, St. Martin's Press, Penguin Random House, and Hachette Book Group. A panel of publishing industry experts judged entries, and outstanding books are honored with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Scott M. Graffius Featured in BEA Author Showcase

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

I'm thrilled to be included in the BEA Author Showcase. The feature (here) relates the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, and suggestions for aspiring authors.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Techniques for Gathering User Stories

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In Scrum, user stories act as requirements. Each story represents a portion of business value that a team can deliver in an iteration. A common format is: “As a (role), I want (goal) so that I can (reason).” Here's an example: “As a customer, I want shopping cart functionality so that I can buy items online.” User stories are captured in the product release backlog. This short article focuses on techniques for gathering user stories.

The following methods can help the Product Owner gather material for user stories:

Interviews: Ask a diverse group of users—or anticipated users if the product/service does not yet exist—open-ended questions containing "how" or "why." For example: "How would you pair this device with your iPhone?”

Observation: Watch people using the product/service.

Prototyping: Use tools such as sticky notes, PowerPoint, and wireframes to illustrate ideas, show preliminary versions of the product, and facilitate discussions.

Surveys: Employ surveys where the Product Owner verbally asks respondents pre-determined questions, or questionnaires where items are presented via forms (online or in hard copy format).

Workshops: This is a type of brainstorming where the group identifies as many user story ideas as possible. To support getting a high quantity of ideas, it is suggested that participants should not agree/disagree with or assess items during the workshop.

The above content includes excerpts from the book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 20 October 2017

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



The 30-second book trailer for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (https://vimeo.com/178858753) was updated. The “Featured In” portion incorporates mentions of award placement news on sites of ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates. For example, ABC 7 (WZVN TV) lists the results of the 2017 Book Excellence Awards—where Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions took first place in Technology—on their site.

Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. Honors include 11 first place wins in national and international competitions. It’s
available in paperback and ebook formats at Amazon.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.












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Video: Technical Debt — Including Top 7 Causes, and How to Avoid It


Agile Scrum Guide | Minisode | Technical Debt from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



This (
https://vimeo.com/238528947) is a “minisode” on technical debt. It’s a 60-second video version of an article on the same topic published earlier in this blog.

The content is an abridged excerpt from the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Review and Examination Copy Programs Updated on 10 October 2017

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The review and examination copy programs were updated. It's now easier and quicker than ever for members of the media and instructors to request a complimentary paperback copy of
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.

For members of the media:
bit.ly/2gbU2uY.
For instructors:
bit.ly/2gcKYG4.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions provides those interested or involved in innovation, project management, product development, software development or technology management with an authoritative roadmap to easily and quickly implement Scrum, the most popular agile project management and delivery framework. It helps technology and business teams deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which drives competitive advantage.

Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. The Midwest Book Review wrote, “
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is an all-inclusive instruction guide that is impressively 'user-friendly' in tone, content, clarity, organization, and presentation.” To date, honors include 11 first place awards in national and international competitions.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3


Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in 2017 Book Excellence Awards ― Technology Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
2017 Book Excellence Awards named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius as the first place winner in the Technology category. Sponsored by Literary Excellence Incorporated and based in Canada, the competition is open to English-language books in print, e-books and audio books from all publishers including self-published authors. The international program judged entries on overall quality and appeal to the target audience, and outstanding works are honored with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Seven Causes of Technical Debt and How to Avoid It

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This is a brief introduction to technical debt—including top causes and how to avoid problems.

Technical debt (also known as code debt and design debt) is a term used to describe the eventual consequences of a technical design or development choice made for a short-term benefit but with subsequent consequences. An example is writing suboptimal code to meet a deadline, knowing that the code will have to be rewritten later to make the software maintainable.

Technical debt may have one or more causes, such as:
1. Time pressures
2. Overly complex technical design
3. Poor alignment to standards
4. Lack of skill
5. Suboptimal code
6. Delayed refactoring
7. Insufficient testing

Over time, those factors result in the accumulation of technical inefficiencies that need to be serviced in the future. Unchecked technical debt may make the software more expensive to change than to re-implement.

Technical debt can be avoided or minimized by not taking shortcuts, using simple designs, and refactoring continuously. When there’s technical debt, the team should make the items visible by registering entries in the product release backlog, where the matters will be evaluated and prioritized for resolution.

This content is an abridged excerpt from the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Agile Scrum Velocity

point search velocity lowerres

Velocity is a simple but powerful method for measuring the rate at which Scrum teams deliver business value. To calculate velocity, simply add up the estimates (usually in story points) of the features, user stories, requirements or other backlog items completed in an iteration. Only work completed per the definition of done counts.

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Velocity, Actual

Actual velocity is the sum of the team’s delivery of completed work during an iteration, usually measured in story points.

Example 1: A team completed work on three out of three stories in a sprint:

• Completed story “A” had 3 points
• Completed story “B” had 5 points
• Completed story “C” had 8 points

The sum of the three completed stories is 16, so the velocity is 16.

Example 2: A team completed work on two out of three stories in a sprint:

• Completed story “X” had 2 points
• Completed story “Y” had 5 points
• Incomplete story “Z” had 5 points

Only completed stories count. The sum of the two completed stories is 7, so the velocity is 7.

Velocity values may fluctuate from iteration to iteration, but the values often stabilize for teams after they’ve completed between three and six sprints.

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Velocity, Planned

Planned velocity is the historical velocity for the team. It is sometimes called the estimated velocity or ideal velocity. If the team has not done any iterations before, there is no historical data, and planned velocity does not yet apply. If there is historical data, sum all the velocity values and divide by the number of iterations to obtain the mean average, and use that value as the planned velocity. Using a simple method like the preceding one is advised, especially when starting out with Agile Scrum. Some organizations use alternatives—such as a three-point moving average, trimmed mean average or the median average—for planned velocity.

This content is an abridged excerpt from the award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Review and Examination Copy Request Forms Simplified on 4 September 2017

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

Complimentary softcover copies of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions are available to media outlets and instructors.

Review copies are available for members of broadcast, print or online media including writers, reporters, producers, and editors—managing editors, assignment editors, and planning editors. The review copy request form was simplified. It's located
here.

Examination copies are available for instructors at an accredited university or college who wish to consider the publication for adoption. The examination copy request form was also simplified. It's located
here.

Requests are subject to availability and approval.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Timeline for "Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" by Scott M. Graffius

stacks-image-79f176d-1200x604

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

A timeline of major milestones for
the book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, is available here.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 23 August 2017

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.


The updated, 30-second trailer for Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is shown above and it is available at https://vimeo.com/178858753.

Changes include two additional awards—First Place in the Business category at the 2017 Pacific Rim Book Festival, and First Place in the Green/Conscious Business category at the 2017 Bookvana Awards. Those honors to covered in separate entries earlier in the blog.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Added New Quiz to Online Bonus Content on 23 August 2017

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Online bonus material—containing an ever-growing list of supplemental content that comes free with the purchase of
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions—was updated today. A new quiz was added to the list.

Instructions on how to access the bonus material are provided inside the ebook and inside the paperback book.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is Silver Medal Winner in 2017 Global Ebook Awards ― Technology Category

stacks-image-2484e92-1200x604

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
by Scott M. Graffius received recognition from the 2017 Global Ebook Awards. Graffius' ebook won the silver in the Technology category (and also the bronze in the Business category).

Established in 2011, the competition is open to English-language ebooks from all publishers including the Big Five—Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette—and self-published authors. Judging was conducted by librarians, professional critics and other industry professionals with experience in the category they evaluate. Ebooks were assessed on design, content, and overall appeal for the target audience. Awards shine a light on the best books available in digital format.


Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Let's Connect

exc-li-badge-19093011-lr-squashed

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in 2017 Bookvana Awards ― Green/Conscious Business Category

vGGG9B Bookvana lowerres

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The 2017 Bookvana Awards named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius as the winner in the Green/Conscious Business category. The awards program honors publications that cultivate and elevate our business and personal lives. The competition is open to English-language books from small, medium, large, and independent presses as well as self-published authors. A panel of publishing industry experts judged entries, and outstanding books are celebrated with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

exc-li-badge-19093011-lr-squashed

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is Bronze Medal Winner in 2017 Global Ebook Awards ― Business Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
by Scott M. Graffius received recognition from the 2017 Global Ebook Awards. Graffius' ebook won the bronze in the Business category (and also the silver in the Technology category).

Established in 2011, the competition is open to English-language ebooks from all publishers including the Big Five—Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette—and self-published authors. Judging was conducted by librarians, professional critics and other industry professionals with experience in the category they evaluate. Ebooks were assessed on design, content, and overall appeal for the target audience. Awards shine a light on the best books available in digital format.


Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Let's Connect

exc-li-badge-19093011-lr-squashed

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 11 August 2017

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.


The updated, 30-second trailer for Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is shown above. Changes include the addition of the IndieBRAG award and a revision to the closing image.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3


Let's Connect

exc-li-badge-19093011-lr-squashed

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Receives Recognition from IndieBRAG

vGGG9B IB IndieBrag Medal lowerres

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius was awarded the Book Readers Appreciation Group (B.R.A.G.) Medallion for excellence in independent publishing. The indieBRAG program uses book clubs and individuals in the United States and around the world to evaluate works. Books judged as excellent receive the B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree designation.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is Silver Medal Winner in 2017 CIPA EVVY Book Awards ― Business Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

On Saturday night, August 19, the Colorado Independent Publishers Association recognized author Scott M. Graffius at its
23rd Annual CIPA EVVY Awards in Denver, Colorado. Graffius was bestowed a silver medal in the Business category for his book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. CIPA is a nonprofit cooperative of authors, book publishers and industry professionals; and the EVVY awards program is named after CIPA founder, Evelyn Kaye. The competition is open to books in print, e-books and audio books from around the world. Entries were judged by a panel of literary agents, authors, editors, critics, and business leaders. Outstanding works are credited with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Receives Medal from 2017 FAPA President's Book Awards

vGGG9B FAPA Silver lowerres

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

On Saturday night, August 5, the Florida Authors and Publishers Association presented its annual President’s Book Awards. FAPA bestowed a silver medal in the Business category to Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. FAPA is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that is dedicated to providing the highest quality of information, resources, and professional development to members and others interested in the writing and publishing profession. Librarians, book industry professionals, and educators judged entries. Books demonstrating excellence in design, content and production were honored with awards.


Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 3 August 2017

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.


The updated, 30-second trailer for Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is shown above.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in 2017 Pacific Rim Book Festival ― Business Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The 2017 Pacific Rim Book Festival named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius as the winner in the Business category. The annual competition is open to works from small, medium, large, and independent presses as well as self-published authors. Judging was conducted by a panel of industry professionals, and placements were determined based on overall excellence. Winners will be honored at a gala on August 18, 2017 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, home of the first Academy Awards ceremony. Graffius is scheduled to attend and speak at the gala.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Scott M. Graffius Selected as Featured Author by BookWorks

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

I’m honored that BookWorks selected me as a
Featured Author. I was named for my favorably reviewed and award-winning non-fiction title, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. Established in 2010, BookWorks is an international online community for authors and publishing industry professionals.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is Silver Medal Winner in 2017 Literary Classics International Book Awards ― Instructional Category

vGGG9B LC Silver lowerres

Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

The 2017 Literary Classics International Book Awards presented Scott M. Graffius with a silver medal in the Instructional category for his publication, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. Literary Classics is dedicated to furthering excellence in literature. The judging committee was comprised of experts with backgrounds in publishing, writing, editing, design, and illustration. Books of exceptional merit promoting vision, creativity, and learning are honored with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Reviewed by PM World Journal

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The PM World Journal wrote, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is a must-have for a project manager wanting to introduce Scrum to the organization.” I’m thankful for the excellent review.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Reviewed by Literary Classics

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Literary Classics wrote, “A-type personalities (those inclined to avoid instruction manuals) and non-readers will rejoice upon discovering this guide which makes getting started with Agile Scrum a breeze.” I’m thankful for the wonderful review.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Awarded Seal of Approval from Literary Classics

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Literary Classics awarded Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions with their Seal of Approval.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.
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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is Silver Medal Winner in 2017 North American Book Awards ― Business Leadership and Management Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
2017 North American Book Awards presented Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions with the silver medal in the Business Leadership and Management category. The competition is open to works published in North America by small, medium, large, and independent presses as well as self-published authors. Each entry was evaluated by three judges with expertise in the corresponding genre, and books of outstanding merit are honored with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in the 11th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards ― Technology Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
11th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards named Scott M. Graffius' publication, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, as the winner in the Technology category. The prestigious awards program is open to English-language books in print from small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors. The competition was judged by experts from all aspects of the book industry including writers, editors, and publishers. "We are proud to announce the winners and finalists whose books truly embody the excellence that this award was created to celebrate," said Ellen Reid, founder of the NIEA.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in the 2017 Independent Press Awards ― Technology Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
2017 Independent Press Awards named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius as the winner in the Technology category. The competition is open to works from small, medium and large publishers including books issued by imprint brands (Bantam, Penguin Press, Doubleday, Scribner, Addison-Wesley, Viking, and Harper Business to name just a few) of the Big Five (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette). Works from independent presses and self-published authors are eligible as well. Entries were judged by publishing industry professionals, and awards credit books of exceptional merit.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in the 2016 New Apple Book Awards ― Technology Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
2016 New Apple Book Awards named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius as the first-place medalist winner in the Technology category. The annual competition is open to English-language publications from small presses and self-published authors. A panel of judges identified works of excellence, and the best of the best are honored with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in the 2017 Feathered Quill Book Awards ― Informational Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
2017 Feathered Quill Book Awards recognized author Scott M. Graffius' title, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, as the gold/first-place award winner in the Informational (Business) category. The competition is open to works from small, medium, large, and independent presses as well as self-published authors. The judging panel was comprised of industry professionals including authors, reviewers, editors, and literary publicists. Winners were selected based on multiple factors including book cover art, ability to engage the reader, layout and design, illustrations, editorial quality, and production excellence.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in the 2016 London Book Festival ― Business Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
2016 London Book Festival selected author Scott M. Graffius' publication, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, as the winner in the Business category. The competition honors the best of international publishing. It is open to works in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian from small, medium, large (including the Big Five — Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette), and independent presses as well as self-published authors. Judging was conducted by a panel of industry experts, and winners were determined based on overall excellence. Awards will be presented to winners in London, England on February 9, 2017. Graffius is scheduled to attend the awards ceremony.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

Agile Scrum is available in ebook and paperback formats at Amazon. For more on the book, visit agilescrumguide.com.

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© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in the Fall 2016 Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards ― Business Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Scott M. Graffius was honored by the
Fall 2016 Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards. Graffius' title, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, was named Best Book in the Business category. The awards program assesses works from small and independent presses as well as self-published authors on content, quality, writing style, presentation, and cover design. Award winners were selected based on overall excellence.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

Agile Scrum is available in ebook and paperback formats at Amazon. For more on the book, visit agilescrumguide.com.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in the 5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards ― Technology Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards recognized Scott M. Graffius' book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, as a winner in the Technology category (and also the Business-General category). The competition was judged by experts from all aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, designers, and copywriters.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available at Amazon. For more on the book, see the digital media kit at agilescrumguide.com.

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Let's Connect

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© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius is First Place Winner in the 5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards ― Business-General Category

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards recognized Scott M. Graffius' book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, as a winner in the Business-General category (and also the Technology category). The competition was judged by experts from all aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, designers, and copywriters.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available at Amazon. For more on the book, see the digital media kit at agilescrumguide.com.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Awarded Five Stars Designation from Readers' Favorite

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Readers’ Favorite awarded Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions with the best-in-class Five Stars designation.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in digital and print at Amazon. For more on the book, see the digital media kit at agilescrumguide.com.

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© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Reviewed by Readers' Favorite

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Readers’ Favorite wrote, “The book is excellent.” I’m thankful for the review.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in digital and print at Amazon. For more on the book, visit agilescrumguide.com.

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© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.












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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Reviewed by BookViral

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

BookViral wrote, “A clear and authoritative roadmap for successful implementation, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is strongly recommended.” I’m thankful for the excellent review.

Agile Scrum is available in digital and print at Amazon. For more on the book, visit agilescrumguide.com.

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Let's Connect

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© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Reviewed by Midwest Book Review

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
Midwest Book Review (in Volume 16, Number 7) wrote, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is an all-inclusive instruction guide that is impressively 'user-friendly' in tone, content, clarity, organization, and presentation.” I’m thankful for the wonderful review.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available at Amazon. For more on the book, see the digital media kit at agilescrumguide.com.

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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Receives Recommended Rating from US Review of Books

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The US Review of Books awarded their Recommended rating to Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. I’m thankful for the excellent designation.

Agile Scrum is available at Amazon. For more on the book, visit agilescrumguide.com.

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Author Scott M. Graffius Launches Book on Agile Scrum to Help Organizations Successfully Deliver Projects with Fast Time-to-Market

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update related to the book.

There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most methodologies fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices engage sequential development, while agile models involve iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to best meet their business needs and successfully manage projects.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions provides those interested or involved in innovation, project management, product development, software development or technology management with an authoritative roadmap to easily and quickly implement Scrum, the most popular agile project management and delivery framework. It encompasses a powerful set of principles and practices that help teams deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement.

Agile Scrum is available at Amazon. For more on the book, visit agilescrumguide.com.

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“Agile Scrum" Guide Nabs Silver Medal from Readers' Favorite

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with that client was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum won the silver medal in the Business/Finance category at the 2018 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards. A press release from Scott is located here and the news is presented below as well.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
by Scott M. Graffius helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products at astounding speed with rapid adaptation to change and continuous improvement which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. The latest accolade comes from the 2018 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards (https://readersfavorite.com/2018-award-contest-winners.htm), which awarded Agile Scrum with the silver medal in the Business/Finance category. With thousands of entries ranging from New York Times bestsellers to works from first-time self-published authors, the program is one of the largest book competitions. Graffius will be presented with the silver medal on stage at a gala in Miami, Florida on Saturday, November 17, 2018.

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About the Author

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Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, author, and international speaker. He is the Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
, a management consulting firm. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. For more information on Scott, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
(http://Exceptional-PMO.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.

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Yahoo Finance: Scott M. Graffius to Speak on Agile Scrum at Techstars Startup Week

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Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, will be speaking at Techstars Startup Week. A press release, distributed today, was carried by Yahoo Finance and other media outlets. You can read it on Yahoo Finance here.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions Featured in Success Story by BEA

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The Book Excellence Awards features Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions's Scott M. Graffius, author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, in a story. The article highlights factors contributing to the book's success — including credit to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. You can check out the story at https://www.bookexcellenceawards.com/scott-graffius-success-story.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Public Speaking Engagements for CEO Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. This article provides an overview of his
prior speaking engagements.

(For a list of both prior and upcoming speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.)

The most recent event is shown first.


techstars

Scott spoke at Techstars Startup Week, where he presented "Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage" to an audience of startups and others in the entrepreneurial community on October 4, 2018.

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Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) on September 13, 2018.

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vegas

Scott facilitated an interactive workshop, “Retrospectives and Continuous Improvement in the Agile Scrum Framework,” at a private event in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 25, 2018.

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inland

Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Inland Empire Chapter (PMICIE) on August 14, 2018.

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Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C) on June 28, 2018.

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LA

He was a guest speaker on agile project management at an event of the Project Management Institute Los Angeles Chapter (PMI-LA) on July 25, 2017.

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london

Scott gave an interactive talk on innovation and project management at a private meeting in London, England on February 9, 2017.

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For more information on Scott’s speaking engagements including a list of prior and upcoming engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets. Additional information is available at:
http://Exceptional-PMO.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Graffius's book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement -- which supports innovation while driving competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at: https://AgileScrumGuide.com.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions (
http://Exceptional-PMO.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 1

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the first installment of the eight-part story.

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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 1: The Call

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The assistant to the executive vice president (EVP) of technology for a division of a global entertainment company contacted me by phone. I was told that I was referred by someone who knew me and thought I would be a good fit for contract work. A one-hour consultation with the EVP was scheduled for the next day. I then received an email with several attachments including a non-disclosure agreement which needed to be executed and brought to the meeting.

I brought the documents to the session. The EVP explained that his division of the company was experiencing an alarming trend of problems with project management. He reported that deliverables were not meeting expectations, there was a marked decline in satisfaction, and
this was characterized as "the straw that broke the camel's back"a highly skilled and very well-respected team member quit, citing the problems as her reason for departure.

After an hour with the EVP, we agreed to extend the meeting (initially, my complimentary consult) an additional hour (billable time). I learned that this division of the company previously used a traditional plan-driven/waterfall approach for development and delivery. The EVP explained that things worked reasonably well then and that they were "close enough" to being on-scope, on-budget, and on-time that team members and stakeholders were satisfied.

The EVP explained, however, that he wanted to adopt a model (Scrum) employed by some of the other divisions of the company. The EVP said that he conducted a search for a value-added reseller (VAR) to help his group move to agile. A VAR-partner of a popular software solution was selected, and the VAR transitioned the group to Scrum. Reportedly, very few problems surfaced during the VAR's contractual engagement, which ended two weeks into the first sprint (then, the duration for sprints was four weeks). Many problems surfaced subsequently, however. The VAR had been gone for two months at the time of my meeting with the EVP.

The EVP asked me to make things right. I explained that change depends on many people and multiple factors and that a specific end result could not be guaranteed. I suggested, however, that I'd be honored to work with his group in the first step
an assessmentwhich would help inform the subsequent work of foundational planning. The objectives of the assessment include working closely with the EVP, the Scrum Team and stakeholders to understand their goals—and the environment, roles and practices. He asked me when I could start. I asked him when he needed me, and he replied "immediately." I agreed to start the next day.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 2: The Goals.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.












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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 2

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the second installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the first post, you can find it here:
Part 1: The Call.

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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 2: The Goals

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Highlights related to the goals follow.

The executive vice president (EVP) identified his top three desired outcomes:

  1. Accelerate the development and delivery of products and services—to be faster than the earlier baseline of 6-12 months,
  2. Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team—to be the same or better than it was earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach, and
  3. Improve the satisfaction of stakeholders—to also to be the same or better than it was earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach.

I individually met with and carefully listened to each member of the Scrum Team. There were recurring themes. We then met as a group and I asked them to identify their top two or three goals. They discussed the matter, voted, and decided on these:

  1. Meet or exceed the expectations of management, and
  2. Deliver valuable products.

I individually met with executives from different departments (the stakeholders). In every case, they related that things were OK with the earlier traditional/waterfall approach, but that things were worse now. The stakeholders indicated that, with the earlier approach, someone on the project team worked with their group to gather requirements, and around 6-12 months later the results were deployed. However, it was reported that with the then-current approach, the projects' purpose and requirements were not understood, and that what was produced was unusable. The goals of the stakeholders were:

  1. For them or their representatives to be as—or more—involved as earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach, and
  2. Get a usable product as often as—or more frequently than—earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach.

Here's a recap of everyone's goals. The EVP wants the development and delivery of products and services to be faster than 6-12 months, improved satisfaction of the Scrum Team, and improved satisfaction of stakeholders. The Scrum Team wants to meet or exceed expectations of management, and deliver valuable products. The stakeholders want (themselves or via their representatives) to be more involved in requirements/user stories and get useable project-delivered products more frequently than every 6-12 months.

Everyone permitted their goals to be shared with others. After discussing the subject with the EVP, I wrote the goals on oversize paper and posted it in a common area proximate to the Scrum Team and accessible to the stakeholders.

Highlights on the environment, roles, and practices—primarily focused on the Scrum Team—follow.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 3: The Environment.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 3

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the third installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 3: The Environment

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Highlights on the environment including roles and practices
primarily focused on the Scrum Teamfollow.

I learned that the Scrum Team was composed of 16 people: one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and 14 Development Team members. Both the Scrum Master and the Product Owner explained that they were familiar with agile, but that they had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the value-added reseller (VAR). The Development Team consisted of 14 people: a technical architect, a UI designer, a business analyst, seven developers, three testers, and a technical writer. Eleven of the 14 members of the Development Team had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the VAR. Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, 15 were local (at an office in the greater Los Angeles area), and one
the Product Ownerwas based out of her office in Paris, France.

Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, two
the Scrum Master and the Product Ownerwere full time on the project. All of the others were allocated about 50% on the project.

I was given a copy of the training binder left by the VAR. I was told that the contents—about 500 pages—reflected the totality of the training and reference material. The training session, led by the VAR, was attended by the Scrum Master and the all of the Development Team members. The executive vice president (EVP) attended portions. The Product Owner attended portions, listening by phone. The first page in the binder covered the Agile Manifesto, the second page was a two-column table which compared and contrasted waterfall and Scrum (e.g., waterfall freezes scope, Scrum freezes schedule), and the third page showed success rates of waterfall vs. Scrum (e.g., 29% of waterfall projects fail vs. 9% of agile projects). The remaining pages provided information about the VAR company and detailed instructions on how to use their software product. That constituted the training.

The Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team reported that they followed the training and instructions provided by the VAR. I won't delineate the then-current roles further or describe all of the events and artifacts. However, some examples follow.

The Product Owner created a product vision statement and stored it in the software, but nobody else remembered seeing it.

The Product Owner created a product backlog in the software, but nobody else claimed to have seen it.

The Scrum Master facilitated a Sprint Planning event where the Development Team estimated work in terms of complexity, and the results were recorded in the software tool. It was reported that
due to the time differencethe Product Owner did not attend Sprint Planning meetings.

It was communicated that during Sprint execution, the Scrum Master would ask the Development Team if they had any notable progress; and only if the answer was yes, there was a Daily Scrum. As a result, the Daily Scrum event occurred around once or twice a week. When the meeting took place, the Scrum Master did a quick interview with each member of the Development Team and noted the results in the software tool.

I was told that the team followed the recommendation of the VAR for the sprint duration of four weeks.

The Sprint Reviews were attended by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner (remotely), all of the Development Team members, and the EVP. However, the other stakeholders did not attend the events. On average, about half of the work planned and committed to the sprint was "done." Both "done" and not-"done" items were demonstrated at the Sprint Review.

The Scrum Master reported that the team did conduct a Retrospective event at the end of each sprint and that the results were saved in the software tool. When I reviewed the information, I saw comments such as "we worked very hard" under the what went well category. Everything under the "what didn't go so well/opportunities for improvements" category were ideas for enhancement requests for the software tool. I was informed that the VAR instructed staff to convert everything that didn't go well into a suggestion for a future general release of the software or a request for a custom enhancement of the software.

None of the work from any of the sprints was released.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 4: The Options.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 4

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the fourth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 4: The Options

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After gaining a broader and deeper understanding of the organization including their Scrum implementation, I met with the executive vice president (EVP) and we discussed next steps. I presented three options:

  • No change,
  • Revert to the earlier waterfall-only model, or
  • "We can try different things" (aligned with the value of openness) with the objective of improving their agile implementation and achieving their goals.

I said, "we can try different things" because while I believed that changes would likely result in improvements, success could not be guaranteed. I also said, "we can try different things" because any meaningful change would require the cooperation and collaboration of many people. The EVP decided on the third option: trying different things.

The doing of "different things" started with training. I first met with the EVP. I then met with the Scrum Master in several one-on-one meetings. And since he was committed to education and improvement, he later on completed the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) training and certification. The Product Owner was unable to attend the office in person for one-on-one training, but we communicated by phone and Skype. The EVP soon decided that the Product Owner needed to be co-located with the Scrum Team. He found a new Product Owner within the organization. I met with the new Product Owner in multiple one-on-one sessions. And—similar to what occurred with the Scrum Master—since the new Product Owner was committed to education and improvement, he subsequently completed the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) training and certification. I delivered training to the Development Team as a group. It included an overview and more in-depth coverage of certain topics such as pair programming and technical debt. Later on, some Development Team members completed the Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) training and certification. Stakeholder training follows next.

I delivered a one-hour overview of Scrum to the executive stakeholders in a group session. The attendees asked questions and made comments throughout the meeting. One stakeholder suggested that we do what the American Management Association says is best for Scrum. Then other attendees mentioned additional potential sources for information on agile. I explained that different organizations may have their own perspective on what works well for agile/Scrum, and that one way to go (I mentioned this in part to continue their engagement, involvement, and buy-in) is to look to the Scrum Alliance, a leading authority on the subject, but also see if others have ideas that are aligned with the authority and also fit the desired future state of the organization. I committed to doing the research and the stakeholders thanked me in advance.

I already had a library of 76 items on agile/Scrum—consisting of material from the Scrum Alliance, Project Management Institute, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Gartner, KPMG, Harvard Business Review, IEEE, MIT, Forbes, and many others. I expanded it to include sources mentioned by stakeholders during the training session and I diligently reviewed all of the content. The diverse sources identified several values and practices as being central in successful Scrum implementations, and such factors were typically consistent with guidelines from the Scrum Alliance. I then met with each of the stakeholders individually and presented them with a summary of information from the Scrum Alliance and others.

I facilitated a follow-up group meeting with the executive stakeholders. Information from the one-hour training and the diverse sources was summarized. The stakeholders concluded that the central problem with the then-current implementation was that people were not following good practices. They then discussed, voted, and identified what they viewed as the high-level top 10 success factors for a Scrum implementation at the organization based on the previously presented information. In no particular order, the top 10 items were:

  • Support from management;
  • Each member of the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) is 100% allocated to the project;
  • There is an agile coach, agile Project Management Office or agile Center of Excellence;
  • Satisfaction is a crucial metric;
  • The Scrum Team has no more than 11 people;
  • The Scrum Team is co-located;
  • There are consistent practices and processes;
  • There is a digital wallboard or other information radiator;
  • There are frequent and high-quality interactions; and
  • There is continuous improvement/inspect and adapt.

Some of the items overlap/are not mutually exclusive, and the items are not exhaustive. I thanked the executive stakeholders for their support, and I told them that the 10 factors are built into the go-forward plan. The stakeholders expressed their appreciation.

The EVP and I conducted a mini-retrospective on the training sessions. The EVP was enthusiastic about what we've done so far, and he said that morale had improved. He authorized company-paid CSM, CSPO, and CSD trainings and certifications for staff (mentioned earlier). The EVP said we could advance to the next stage: piloting changes. I asked if he was open to terminating the use of the software tool introduced by the value-added reseller (VAR). He initially said that so much time and money had been invested in it that it would be hard to justify doing so. I said it differently: "We can try different things" could mean putting the software tool
on vacation for a period. He agreed. We moved to the pilot—which involved doing many things differently. Examples follow.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 5: The Pilot — Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 5

story-behind-the-book---exc---c5-lowerres-squashed

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the fifth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 5: The Pilot — Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog


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We advanced to the pilot—which included doing many things differently. Examples follow.

The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing a product vision statement. He opted to use the template attributed to Geoffrey Moore. The Product Owner created a draft of the vision and sent it with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and finalized the product vision. He wrote the statement on oversize paper and posted it in a prominent location where the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) and stakeholders could easily see it.

The Product Owner and I then discussed techniques on creating and maintaining a product roadmap/release plan. He opted for a simple table with four rows and four columns. The rows included:

  • Name (the title of the product or major release),
  • Goal (the reason for creating it),
  • Features (a high-level list of features), and
  • Estimated number of sprints.

For the columns, there was one for each quarter of the year. Similar to what was done with the product vision, the Product Owner sent the plan with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and the plan, wrote it on oversize paper, and posted it next to the product vision statement.

Aspects of team formation were covered already. The new Scrum team totaled 11 people. All were co-located and 100% allocated to the project.

The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing and maintaining the product backlog. He opted to employ a simple table format with six columns:

  • ID#,
  • User story/description,
  • Category (he decided on four types: feature, bug, technical debt, and other),
  • Story point estimate for complexity,
  • Priority based on business value, and
  • Status.

To help with user stories, the Product Owner often referenced the INVEST (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable) model developed by Bill Wake. For priority, the Product Owner initially used the MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, or Won't have). Later, the Product Owner found the business value/risk method (where each item is rated as high or low in two dimensions—business value and risk, ...) to be the most beneficial, and the Product Owner continues to use that approach today. In a session facilitated by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner presented the user stories to the Development Team, and participants provided story points (using physical cards for the exercise) for estimates of complexity of each item. Later, the team tried t-shirt sizing (S, M, L, and XL designations) for estimates of complexity, but they decided to return to story points.

Previously, sprints were four weeks in length. Now the team was using the shorter duration of two weeks. A key benefit was that the Scrum value of focus was improved.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 6: The Pilot — Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.












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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 6

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the sixth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 6: The Pilot — Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution

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The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint planning techniques. The Scrum Master decided that the meeting event would be handled via two separate sessions—part 1 (what will be committed to for the upcoming sprint) and part 2 (how to accomplish the work identified in part 1).

For sprint planning part 1, the timebox (not to exceed duration) for the meeting was calculated as:

  • 2
  • multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
  • which equaled 4 hours for the event.

The Scrum Master made the following information visible during the event: start and end dates for the sprint, (after a sprint was completed) the results of the last sprint review event, and (after a sprint was completed) the results from the last sprint retrospective event. The Product Owner reminded the Development Team about the product vision statement, and the Product Owner shared the sprint goal (such as "implement shopping cart functionality ..."). The Development Team determined their capacity in work hours for the upcoming sprint. It was calculated as:

  • the number of people in the Development Team
  • multiplied by the number of project productive hours (which excluded time outside the sprint such as company meetings, trainings, vacation time, etc.) per workday
  • multiplied by number of workdays in the sprint.

(Estimation via story points, and prioritization by the Product Owner were already taken care of.)

For each item in the product backlog, participants discussed the user stories/requirements including acceptance criteria, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and anything else requiring a conversation to get a good understanding of the item. The Development Team then committed to the entries which they thought could be completed in the upcoming sprint. The technique they employed involved asking "Can we do this first item in the product backlog?" If the answer was yes, they selected it and proceeded to the next item and continued until the team believed that no more work could be done in the sprint. After the Development Team had worked together and had data on actual velocity (the number of story points completed in a sprint), they also considered that historical metric—comparing it with story points for items in the sprint. The Product Owner updated the product backlog, identifying the items committed by the Development Team to be done for the upcoming sprint.

For sprint planning part 2, the timebox for the meeting was calculated as:

  • 2
  • multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
  • which equaled 4 hours for the event.

The Scrum team created the sprint backlog. It had the following columns:

  • ID#,
  • Description,
  • Story points,
  • Task information (meetings, designs, coding, code review, testing, etc.),
  • Estimation in hours (they adopted the practice that if effort is greater than eight hours, split the task into smaller ones),
  • Owner (where members of the Development Team self-assign tasks),
  • Status, and
  • Hours of work remaining.

During the meeting, the Scrum team compared the total estimated work hours for the sprint with the Development Team’s capacity (mentioned under the part 1 meeting) for the sprint. If the Development Team believed that the sprint backlog contained too much work to be done during the sprint, they collaborated with the Product Owner to remove one or more items. If the Development Team believed they could handle more work during the sprint, they worked with the Product Owner to move one or more of the high priority items from the product backlog to the sprint backlog.

The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint execution. Select examples of what was decided and done are highlighted next.

The Development Team set up a task board (also known as a Scrum board) to reflect the work in the current iteration. They went with a simple format. The board depicted work in rows and columns where rows included work items, and columns reflected status (To Do, Doing, and Done). Work was addressed from top (highest priority) to bottom, and work migrated from left to right on the task board as it progressed. The task board is also covered in the daily Scrum meeting.

The Scrum Master decided to use a sprint burndown chart to track and communicate progress during the sprint. He set it up and updated it each workday, usually immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.

The Scrum Master created an impediment backlog to capture things preventing the team from progressing or improving. This backlog was updated daily, typically immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.

At the daily Scrum meeting event, the Development Team shared status, plans, and any impediments. Before this pilot with changes, the team was not conducting the daily Scrum (or updating the task board, burndown chart, and impediments backlog) consistently. Under the pilot (and subsequently), the Development Team met for up to 15 minutes (timebox) each workday, and it was conducted at the same time (10:00 a.m.) each day. At this daily stand-up session, the Development Team and the Scrum Master met where the task board, sprint burndown chart, and impediment backlog were posted. Each Development Team member described what he/she worked on since the last Scrum meeting, and he/she updated the task board. Next, the same Development Team member explained what he/she would work on that day, and he/she updated the task board. Lastly, the same Development Team member reported any impediments. (The Scrum Master recorded any issues in the impediments backlog. If a discussion was required, it took place immediately after the daily Scrum. The Scrum Master helped resolve impediments.) The steps were repeated for other members of the Development Team.

The Scrum Team built an increment of functionality during every sprint, and the increment was potentially shippable because the Product Owner might decide for it to be implemented at the end of the sprint. Said differently, potentially shippable is defined by a state of confidence or readiness, and shipping is a business decision. Commencing with the pilot, the organization started releasing products as often as every sprint (two weeks).

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 7: The Pilot — Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 7

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the seventh installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 7: The Pilot — Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective

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The Scrum team—Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team—and I discussed techniques for the sprint review. The event is sometimes referred to as the sprint demo. The timebox (not to exceed duration) in hours for the meeting was calculated as:

  • 1
  • multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
  • which equaled 2 hours for the event.

Participants included the Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team, and stakeholders. All of the stakeholders (the executives mentioned in earlier parts of the story) were invited to and attended the sprint review. At the session, the Product Owner welcomed attendees and communicated the agenda. He pointed out the sprint goal, which was displayed on the wall in the meeting room. Next, the Development Team listed the work that was committed to the sprint. They then listed the work that was completed and the work that was not completed. For each completed story/feature, the Development Team demonstrated the "done" working functionality and answered questions. Stakeholders were invited to interact with the "done" working functionality and they did so. Then the entire group reviewed the product backlog and collaborated on what to do next. The Product Owner incorporated feedback into the Product Backlog. It involved adding new items to the backlog and/or re-prioritizing existing items. After the sprint review, the Scrum Master incorporated any feedback related to problems into the impediments backlog.

The Scrum Master and I discussed techniques for the sprint retrospective event. The timebox in hours for the meeting was calculated as:

  • 0.75
  • multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
  • which equaled 1.50 hours for the event.

At the sprint retrospective, the Development Team identified what went well, what didn't go well, and improvements to be implemented in the upcoming sprint—an example of inspection and adaptation. For improvements to be implemented, each member of the Development Team wrote their top one, two or three suggestions on sticky notes. Each idea got its own sticky note. Then the Development Team grouped the sticky notes into categories/themes, and they discussed the items and voted to determine the top one (initially limited to one, later it was raised to two) for adaptation and improvement. The Development Team committed to the change and the Scrum Master recorded the information.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions concludes with Part 8: The Success.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 8

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the final installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 8: The Success

By adopting an agile mindset and providing improved engagement, collaboration, transparency, and adaptability via Scrum's values, roles, events, and artifacts, the results were excellent. After one sprint, satisfaction ratings for the Development Team and stakeholders were higher than the target. After three sprints, the output of the Scrum Team became consistent and predictable, satisfaction increased even further, and all of the
seven goals mentioned earlier were achieved. Here's an overview:

🎯 Goal 1
  • Source: This goal was identified by the EVP (executive vice president)
  • Desired outcome: Develop and deliver products and services faster than 6-12 months
  • Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)

🎯 Goal 2
  • Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
  • Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 3
  • Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
  • Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the stakeholders
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 4
  • Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development Team)
  • Desired outcome: Meet or exceed the expectations of management
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 5
  • Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team
  • Desired outcome: Deliver valuable products/services
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 6
  • Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
  • Desired outcome: For stakeholders or their representatives to be more involved in requirements
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 7
  • Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
  • Desired outcome: Get useable products delivered more frequently than 6-12 months
  • Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)

The EVP, Scrum Team, and stakeholders declared the pilot a success and they made this implementation of Scrum the preferred approach for the development and delivery of products and services going forward.

In addition to achieving the goals summarized above, the agile transformation also supported the organization's efforts to innovate and drive their competitive advantage. It became more successful. As the business grew, so has the number of Scrum teams. Originally numbering one, the division presently has six Scrum teams.

This concludes
The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

at-ebook-new-on-ipad-with-coffee-donut-yellow-background-new2-lr-squashed

Scott M. Graffius, Principal Consultant and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, provides a revealing first-hand account of an organization's agile journey in his new book, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change. This is Graffius' second book.

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About the Author

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Scott M. Graffius is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Graffius' first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, garnered 17 first place awards. Graffius and Agile Scrum have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. He regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world. Additional information is available at https://www.exceptional-pmo.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

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Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 978-1072447962) provides a revealing behind-the-scenes story about an actual successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company.

The award-winning book — a quick (60-90 minute) read — is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the
United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.



It's on Amazon's "Hot New Releases" list as shown in the screen shot.

at ebook Amazon Hot New Releases v190523 LR

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions


Exceptional_PPM_and_PMO_Solutions_-_We_Provide_Client_Organizations_-_-v220205-MtnTopSuccess-EXC-EA-LR-SQ

Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a
Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Trailer for "Agile Transformation" (TRT: 30 Seconds)



Based on a true story,
Agile Transformation by Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ Principal Consultant and CEO Scott M. Graffius provides a revealing behind-the-scenes account of a successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company. You're invited to watch the trailer for the book. The total run time is 30 seconds.

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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

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Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 978-1072447962) provides a revealing behind-the-scenes story about an actual successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company.

The award-winning book — a quick (60-90 minute) read — is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the
United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.



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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions


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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The firm provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more consistent realization of business results. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Gartner Featured Content by Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions CEO Scott M. Graffius

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The photo was taken during Gartner VP Cathleen Blanton’s session on IT Governance at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Orlando, Florida on October 20, 2019.

The quote on metrics ("If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view.") is from
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step InstructionsScott M. Graffius, Author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors.

The whole context of the presentation was on governance and decision-making. Cathleen conveyed that the idea for the slide pictured was that if you measure something that matters, you can use those metrics to drive better behavior through visibility and focus.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. He is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott is the author of two award-winning books on agile project management,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242) and Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 978-1072447962). Scott's content has been used by businesses, governments, and universities—including Gartner, Cisco, RSA, Ford, LITE-ON Technology Corporation, Liberty Mutual Group, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, James Madison University, Santa Clara University, Brigham Young University, Texas A&M University, The Open University, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, and others. He regularly speaks at in-person and virtual online conferences and other events around the world. Additional information is available in Scott’s full bio at https://www.exceptional-pmo.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.

There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.

With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions,
Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle worldwide. Some links by country follow.


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About
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

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Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.

Based on actual events,
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.

The award-winning book by
Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle worldwide. Some links by country follow.



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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions helps client organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The firm provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid models. While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides a Delighted Client Guarantee™. For details, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

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About Cathleen Blanton

Cathleen Blanton, Vice President at Gartner, is a member of their Public Sector Government team. She focuses on U.S. Federal agencies, covering strategic planning, governance, and ensuring IT enables businesses and mission value. Cathleen specializes in helping CIOs position themselves to partner with executive counterparts on the issues that help their organizations achieve outcomes in both efficiency and mission effectiveness. She takes an approach that is both pragmatic and tailored to organizations’ culture. For more information, visit
https://www.gartner.com.

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About Gartner IT SymposiumXpo

Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo is billed as “the world's most important gathering of CIOs and IT executives.” The conference enables more than 9,000 attendees to shape the future of IT and business strategies. For details, visit
https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/na/symposium-us.

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About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. Their products and services include research, executive programs, consulting, and conferences. Gartner equips business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities today and build the successful organizations of tomorrow. To learn more, visit
https://www.gartner.com.

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Let's Connect

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© Copyright 2020 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Scott M. Graffius to Speak on Team Leadership at PMI Netherlands Chapter

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, will present "Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility" at a virtual event of the Netherlands Chapter of the Project Management Institute on Thursday, January 21, 2021.


Scott's speaker reel video, and details on his speaking engagements, are available
here.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management consultant, practitioner, award-winning author, and international speaker. Content from his books, speaking engagements, and more has been used by businesses, governments, and universities, including: Gartner, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a Top 20 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Agile. His full-length bio is available at:
https://bit.ly/bio-smg.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions


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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions helps client organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The firm provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides a Delighted Client Guarantee™. For details, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

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About the Netherlands Chapter of the Project Management Institute

The Netherlands Chapter of the Project Management Institute endeavors to deliver maximum value to its members and other stakeholders by providing an environment — inclusive of activities and events — supporting the development, certification, and networking of current and aspiring project, program, and portfolio management professionals. To learn more, visit the Chapter's website at https://pmi-nl.nl.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2021 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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