For several weeks I was collecting a list of the best agile books for scrum masters. I started to ask some communities on social networks where I got a lot of feedback! The contribution was so high that I received more than 100+ unique books. I decided to divide them into 5 different categories – Books for: Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Agile Developers, Leadership & Agile Coaching. In this blog post I will start with the Top 30 Agile Books for Scrum Masters.
The list is ordered based on reviews and ratings on Amazon and GoodReads. If you think that there is an important book that should be added to that list, leave a comment after the list.
Top 30 books for scrum masters recommended by the community
| # | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable |
Patrick M. Lencioni
|
| 2 | Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change |
Kent Beck
|
| 3 | Agile Estimating and Planning |
Mike Cohn
|
| 4 | Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team |
Patrick M. Lencioni
|
| 5 | Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great |
Esther Derby
|
| 6 | Succeeding with Agile |
Mike Cohn
|
| 7 | The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software |
Jonathan Rasmusson
|
| 8 | Scrum and XP from the Trenches |
Henrik Kniberg
|
| 9 | Agile Software Development with Scrum |
Ken Schwaber
|
| 10 | Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit |
Mary Poppendieck
|
| 11 | Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process |
Kenneth S. Rubin
|
| 12 | Coaching Agile Teams |
Lyssa Adkins
|
| 13 | Agile Coaching |
Rachel Davies
|
| 14 | The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice for Your First Year (Agile Software Development Series) |
Mitch Lacey
|
| 15 | Scrum Guide |
Ken Schwaber & Jeff Sutherland
|
| 16 | Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game |
Alistair Cockburn
|
| 17 | Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time |
Jeff Sutherland
|
| 18 | #Workout: Games, Tools & Practices to Engage People, Improve Work, and Delight Clients |
Jurgen Appelo
|
| 19 | Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products |
Jim Highsmith
|
| 20 | The People’s Scrum: Agile Ideas for Revolutionary Transformation |
Tobias Mayer
|
| 21 | Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances |
J. Richard Hackman
|
| 22 | The Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do (BK Business) |
Mark Miller
|
| 23 | The Lean Mindset: Ask the Right Questions |
Mary Poppendieck
|
| 24 | The Human Side of Agile – How to Help Your Team Deliver |
Gil Broza
|
| 25 | Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders |
Jean Tabaka
|
| 26 | Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives |
Luis Gonçalves & Ben Linders
|
| 27 | Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership |
Geoff Watts
|
| 28 | The Professional ScrumMaster’s Handbook |
Stacia Viscardi
|
| 29 | 30 Days to better Agile: Effective strategies for getting results Fast using Scrum |
Angela Druckman
|
| 30 | Becoming a Catalyst: Scrum Master Edition: Using Everyday Interactions to Accelerate Culture Change |
Len Lagestee
|
My personal Top 5 books for Scrum Masters that I recommend:
| # | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agile Software Development with Scrum |
Ken Schwaber
|
| 2 | #Workout: Games, Tools & Practices to Engage People, Improve Work, and Delight Clients |
Jurgen Appelo
|
| 3 | Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators |
Patrick M. Lencioni
|
| 4 | Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time |
Jeff Sutherland
|
| 5 | Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances |
J. Richard Hackman
|
If you think that there is an important book that should be added to that list, leave a comment! I would love to hear from you!
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great list
a couple of additional books I usually recommend for a more rounded view:
maybe a bit late to the party, but anyway:
My recommendations are not necessarily Agile books per se, but, imo, important background reads:
Very famous on delivering software in general: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13629.The_Mythical_Man_Month?from_search=true
On Lean and Agile in general:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10127019-the-lean-startup?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13078769-running-lean?from_search=true
DSMD: http://www.dsdm.org/dig-deeper/book/dsdm-atern-handbook
On agile and testing (behaviour driven dev): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12409185-the-cucumber-book?from_search=true
Hi marcel,
I will consider your books in my next lists! Thanks for the contribution ;-)
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As a Scrum Master I would like to add some visual facilitation books.
The following two are great but in german, i haven’t found any english versions
*BIKABLO ISBN: 978-3-940315-21-2
*UZMO ISBN: 978-3-86881-517-7
more to read than to use is this one in english:
*Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity ISBN: 978-0470601785
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Two seminal books that changed my outlook of organizational life and software development:
– The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – What a great way of communicating the good old principles in a refreshingly new way
– Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide – For a exam prep book, there is so much amount of knowledge to gain about Scrum that I could not get from other mainstream Scrum books.
The list is long. Though I liked your short top five, I would argue if books like ‘Five Dysfunctions’ (that is otherwise a seminal book on its own subject) are ‘top books’ for scrum. Scrum is based on empiricism theory and collaborative product building. As such, these books don’t qualify.
My top recommendation would be only these two books:
1. Elements of Scrum By Chris – A lucid but high quality description of scrum
2. A Lightning Introduction to Scrum (free book) by Mohammed Musthafa or its paid variant Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam guide – Authentic version of scrum in simple language
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Hey,
Thanks for putting together this post onTop 30 Agile Books for Scrum Masters.It is a great read. I particularly find your thoughts about The Professional ScrumMaster’s Handbook interestig.
Keep up these insightful posts.
Cheers!