Top 5 Books to learn Scrum, Sprint, and Agile in 2024 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, Are you a senior Java developer who wants to become a Scrum Master to advance in your career? Well, at this time, a person needs to wear many hats for job security. You not only have to perform your duty as a Software developer, I mean coding and debugging, but also need to support your application as Level 2 or Level 3 Support. You also need to wear a project management or product development hat, which involves talking to stakeholders and clients. If this is not enough, you may need to play the role of Scrum master in your daily Scrum meeting and drive your Sprint review and Sprint planning meeting. To do all these, you must understand Agile methodologies and how the process works.

You also should have a good knowledge of what is Scrum and what is the purpose of a Scrum meeting, remember it's not a regular meeting where discussion can go long. Instead of doing trial and error and finding your feet, I suggest you first read some excellent books to understand the Agile principles, tools, and methodologies, including Scrum.

After many requests from my readers who are also experienced Java developers with more than 5 to 10 years of experience and wanted to become a Scrum master, I decided to share some good books about Agile Process and Scrum methodologies.

In this article, you will find 5 such books. These books will not only give relevant theory, vocabulary, and terminology but also provide Practical experience from various Scrum meetings the author has conducted and attended.




5 Best books to learn Scrum and become a Scrum Master

Without wasting any more of your time, here is my list of the 5 best books to learn Scrum methodology. These books will also help you to become a Scrum Master in your organization. Along the way, I have also shared the best Scrum courses which you can combine with these books for active learning. As per my experienced, a combination of book and course + project is the best way to learn Scrum and Agile. 


1. Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide

This is probably the most popular Scrum book out there. It's been recommended to me by so many people who have been practicing Agile and Scrum for years and I must say that I wasn't disappointed with the book.  The Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process by Kenneth S. Rubin is full of practical advice for Scrum Master and Scrum Practitioner.

Whether is about keeping your scrum meeting short or what to say and what not to say during your chance on scrum meeting and how to gauge the progress, all sorts of practical information you will find in this book.

If you are leading a team or playing the role of Scrum Master or preparing for a Scrum Master certification exam, you should read this book. It's one of the best materials to learn Practice Scrum for your team and company. Btw, If you are going for Scrum Master Certification then you can also combine this book with the Scrum Master Certification Prep courses by Paul Ashun on Udemy





2. Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

This is one of the premier Scrum books that has been recommended to me by many Scrum experts both online and offline. This book is created by Jeff Sutherland, one of the founders of Scrum.

The book not only teaches you how to implement Scrum but more importantly why and how part which you need to understand before you are going to implement Scrum on your team. The book is very easy to read, just like a novel which means you can go through this book over a couple of weekends.

In short, one of the best books to learn Scrum or anyone who wants to understand the philosophy of Scrum. If you want, you can also combine this book with the Agile Fundamentals: Including Scrum and Kanban course on Udemy to get some practical and hands-on experience.







3. Scrum: a Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction

This is another fantastic book to read on Scrum. This book is created by Chris Sims and Hillary Louise Johnson. Chris is a certified Scrum trainer and Agile coach while Hillary is an author and former business journalist who has written on technology before.

The book is a blend of both Chris and Hillary's skills, while Chir's immense Scrum knowledge makes the book valuable, Hillary's skill ensures that all the technical jargon, concepts reach you and the book still remains easy to read.

If your team is switching to Agile and Scrum and you want to understand what Scrum really is then I Suggs you read this book, you will learn more about Scrum in half an hour than you won't after spending hours reading any other book or blogs.

If you want, you can also combine this book with the Agile Scrum Mastery course to learn more about the Practical Scrum process and tips. It will teach you how to become both agile and Scrum experts in just a few hours.  This course nicely complements this book.




4. The Elements of Scrum 

If you are looking for a storybook to learn Scrum then I would recommend this book to you. This book is another gem by Chris and Hillary, authors of the previous book and this is more inspiring than previous ones.

This book is full of practical examples, stories, anecdotes to learn the principles, practices, and pitfalls of the Scrum framework.  You will learn about where and how Scrum came and how different it is from traditional meetings and processes, and more importantly what benefits and advantages the Scrum framework provides.

While this is a great book for Scrum beginners, it also holds a lot of practical lessons for experienced Scrum practitioners, Tech leads, Team Lead, and Scrum masters.  If you like to read tech novels like Phoenix Project then you'd ill love this book.




5. Scrum Basics: A Very Quick Guide to Agile Project Management 

This is a Kindle book to learn about Scrum Framework and Agile Project Management practices.
Created by Tycho Press this book provides a simple overview of Agile practices and Scrum.  You will learn about Scrum practices with helpful and intelligent diagrams and visualization.

This is a great book for people doing leadership jobs like project managers and Scrum masters, while you need to have some technical aptitude to understand this book but business people can also be benefitted.

If you are a project manager and looking for a short book to quickly understand the scrum framework, processes, and practices then this book is for you.  If you want, you can also combine this book with these best Agile and Scrum courses to get some practical exposure and hands-on experience.



That's all about the best books to learn Scrum methodology. These books are great resources for programmers and developers who participate in Scrum meetings and work on companies where the Scrum framework is followed. You can also read this book to become a Scrum Master, which is also a very sought-after position and very good for your career advancement.

Other Recommended Books for Programmers

Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these best Scrum, Agile, and Sprint books worth reading then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.

P. S. - If you prefer online courses and you need a free course to learn Agile and Project management then you can also check out this list of 5 Free Agile Courses for Programmers. It contains free courses from Udemy, Pluralsight, and Coursera on Agile, Scrum, and Project management.

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