Scrum is a simple framework that allows us to complete projects, continuously improve, and get an early return on investment.

Author's note: I write this text as a certified scrum master with experience in international blue-chip companies dating back to 1999. That experience includes leading projects for the BBC, General Electric, Oracle, BSkyB, HiT Entertainment (responsible for Angelina Ballerina, Bob the Builder, and other titles that you love watching with your kids or siblings but won’t admit to), and Razorfish. These roles have all involved leadership on a wealth of mobile, Internet TV, and web software projects.

Life is not perfect, and the greatest lessons of all are learned by making mistakes and improving.

Although I have always endorsed The Scrum Guide as the authority on scrum and the official rulebook, some things can be learned only from experience. This is because although The Scrum Guide does teach you the scrum rules, nothing can completely prepare you for what to do when things do not go according to plan.

In my years as a software engineer, scrum master, and agile portfolio manager, my experiences and implementing continuous improvement have taught me the most. The experiences have been both good and bad. They have involved mistakes by my colleagues and, more importantly, mistakes by me. I have found that our own mistakes are often the biggest wake-up calls of all. However, I have also learned that as long as we truly inspect and adapt, we always grow hugely from our mistakes.

I wrote this book because I have found that my experiences and mistakes are also valuable to others. This is because they allow others to foresee some situations before they occur and benefit from my experience.

This book is in the form of short stories, because they are stories of my life. In addition because this format should help entertain you while enlightening you.