De kracht van Scrum is a Dutch language book that gives a good introduction to the Scrum project management method. It is written as a novel in order to be easy to read, and is a highly recommended book for those who have to start working with Scrum. It is a good present for those relations that think about using scrum in their next project. An English version also exists, called ‘The power of Scrum’.
De kracht van Scrum is written by Rini van Solingen en Eelco Rustenburg, with a foreword by Scrum inventor Jeff Sutherland. It is a novel, in which the main character Mart misses a flight and then meets Pekka, a Finnish guy that knows everything about a new project management method. It is definitely not Jane Austen, but the novel provides a nice background to include all the scrum and agile explanation.
The business novel genre
If, after this book, you like the idea of a business novel, you should also check out the books by Eliyahu Goldratt. His book ‘The goal’ is probably the classic business novel. It is about Lean manufacturing (or theory of constraints as he calls it). One of his next books, Critical chain, shows how he would do project management. In all of these cases, the purpose of the narrative is to make the books less pedantic or boring. A well known Dutch language business novel is “Onze ijsberg smelt!” about the organizational side of change.
On corporate shift, we are thinking about creating a series of book reviews about books that we would recommend. Do you have books you recommend and think we should offer here? Mail us (otterloo at gmail . com ) with your suggestions and your books will be featured here.
About the author: Sieuwert van Otterloo (twitter: @entreprenl) gives management advice with a focus on IT-enabled business and invests in startups via Otterloo Ventures.
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