Testimonials

Read what our delighted customers are saying!

“Anyone who has had Scrum training or has been part of a Scrum team will find Essential Scrum to be a great follow-up read. It dives into the details of how to become more agile through implementing Scrum processes, and it explains exactly how to break down complex projects into manageable initiatives (or ‘sprints’). Ken Rubin provides a wealth of relevant case studies on what worked—or what didn’t—in a variety of organizations. The simple layout and businesslike graphics make it easy to scan quickly and find specific topics. Any organization that is seeking to evolve from a traditional waterfall approach toward a more agile methodology will find Essential Scrum a definitive guidebook for the journey.

Instructor (Ken) has very extensive knowledge on this and it shows. Understands our questions well and explains and justifies our concerns well.

I am convinced that Essential Scrum will become the foundation reference for the next generation of Scrum practitioners. Not only is it the most comprehensive introduction to Scrum available today, but it is also extremely well written and easy on the eye with its fantastic new visual Scrum language. If that isn’t enough, Ken shares a range of his valuable personal insights and experiences that we can all certainly learn from.

Ken was great. I would recommend the class to anyone.

Agile coaches, you’re gonna be happy with this book. Ken Rubin has created an indispensable resource for us. Do you have a manager that just doesn’t ‘get it’? Hand them this book and ask them to flip to Chapter 3 for a complete explanation of how Scrum is less risky than plan-driven management. It’s written just for them–in management-speak. Want to help the team come to a common understanding of Scrum? The visual icon language used throughout this book will help you help them. These are just two ways this book can aid you to coach Scrum teams. Use it well.

Excellent course. Gave our team excellent insight into process. More importantly the business was in the class and gained excellent insight.

Ken's development background proved to bring a needed credibility to this topic as well as his real life experiences.

Great course! I was a skeptic, but am now convinced!

Great teaching ability, lots of interesting training techniques. Handles class with ease, confident, expert in his field. Thanks!

The book is a comprehensive overview of Scrum. It goes from the principles of agile through the mechanics of sprints to the roles on a Scrum team and all the way up to topics like technical debt and portfolio management with Scrum. A very helpful aspect of the book is the detailed "visual language," Ken created while writing the book. He created icons for every possible aspect of Scrum and these are used to make up dozens and dozens of figures to illustrate all the work and knowledge flows of a Scrum project. His diagrams definitely go well beyond the typical double-loop depiction of Scrum. (See the rest of the review at http://tinyurl.com/9rbhbph)

Very professional, thorough, and pragmatic approach that helps motivate team to adopt and adapt while making Scrum doable.

Ken Rubin continues to provide clarity and insight into adopting agile in a pragmatic way. In one hand he holds the formal or ideal Scrum definition, and in the other, the pragmatic application of it. He brings the wisdom of his workshops and years of experience to the table for you to read in his latest book. If you are about to start out on your agile adoption journey or are seeking guidance midcourse, grab a copy.

One of the best courses I have ever attended. The instructor had a wonderful knowledge base and used very relevant examples from his personal experience.

Educational and motivating, knowledge unfolds and builds in a logical manner. Instructor willing and able to modify presentation based on class needs.

This was an extraordinarily well moderated class. Ken got through a significant amount of material, kept us focused, was entertaining, and adapted to our (gaming) industry.

We thought we knew Scrum, but this class was an eye-opener.

It’s therefore good to have Ken Rubin’s new book Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process (Addison-Wesley, 2012). It explains in clear and simple terms what exactly is Scrum, how and why it works and where and how to implement it. The book is well-written and engaging. What I particularly like are the many illuminating and elegant images. (from Forbes http://t.co/1jVE9B8x)

I really enjoyed this course. Ken did a great job - always had great stories to relate to every piece of information. Great job! I would recommend to others.

The course was excellent. The subject matter directly applied to our business and sparked engaging discussions.

I'm glad to get to learn this material from a recognized expert. The fact that my company brought Ken in gives me some confidence in their commitment to Scrum.

An excellent course, loaded with great practical advice on doing Scrum in the real world.

Very good course for the team; detailed and very useful strategies which the team can use right away. Thanks Ken - really great experience.

The class is three days but it felt like 6 hours. I love it. This class is the best of the best. Max value for the money.

Adoption of Scrum is most successful when everyone involved—even peripherally—with product development has a good understanding of the fundamentals. Essential Scrum provides an ideal overview of both the big picture and the details in an accessible style. It is sure to become a standard reference.”

If you’re new to agile development or to Scrum, this book will give you a flying start. The examples and descriptions are clear and vivid, and you’ll often find yourself asking a question just before the book addresses that very topic.

I definitely think the content and the discussion will help me be a better Product Owner, help me support my teams better, and ultimately produce better products for our customers.

Extremely helpful and informative. Loved your easygoing yet firm presentation style and the way you let us know our problems are not unique. The practical explanations and exercises really helped bring the points home.

Really appreciated your willingness to go off the "prepared" materials to answer questions and clarify points.

It was an awesome two-day training. Ken Rubin did a great job. Thank you!!!

Fast pace, excellent pacing!

Thank you so much! Your class was fun, interesting and practical!

This was the best and most valuable course I have ever had during my 28 years of work experience. I feel very strongly that Scrum will greatly help us to develop software that will better serve and more rapidly will meet the needs of our customers.

Ken's course was an excellent, comprehensive view into the practices of Scrum. I wish we had taken this class sooner.

I was very impressed with how competently the instructor applied Agile within real-life, practical contexts. His experience and knowledge were evident.

Very good course. Excellent instructor.

Really enjoyed. Presented in a very accessible manner. Good fun - nice venue. Would happily recommend.

Thanks for bringing the questions we sent into the discussion and making it even more relevant.

Excellent course.

This was an extraordinarily well-moderated course. Ken got through a significant amount of material, kept us focused, was entertaining, and adapted to our industry.

I really enjoyed this course. Lots of material covered and Ken did an excellent job at making it interesting and keeping us all engaged. I learned a lot about Scrum and feel that I am ready to apply the knowledge.

Amazing course...now I want more!

Your slides were excellent and laid out in a very digestible, intuitive fashion. Great job!

I generally don't give out all high marks - the class was outstanding. Best class I have ever attended.

Ken is an excellent instructor. Not only is he a subject matter expert, he he also exudes an infectious enthusiasm that makes you want to try Scrum out.

Very well paced and informative. Put a lot of different aspects of Scrum into better perspective for me.

Great course. Very informative, even the second time. Thanks, Ken!

Developing software is hard. Adopting a new way of working while in a project is even harder. This book offers a bypass of many of the pitfalls and will accelerate a team’s ability to produce business value and become successful with Scrum. I wish I had this kind of book when I started using Scrum.

Best training I've had in this company.

Excellent! Perhaps the best course of its type I've attended.

Wow! Ken made me feel great when I participated. This material is tough and he helped us digest it easily and in an entertaining way.

There are lots of books on Scrum these days, but this book takes a new angle: a reality check for software practitioners. Ken uses real-world examples and clear illustrations to show what makes a solid foundation for successful agile development. Readers will understand the value of building quality in, and the reality that we can’t get everything right up front; we must work incrementally and learn as we go. It might have ‘Scrum’ in the title, but the book leverages effective practices from the larger agile universe to help managers and their teams succeed.

Probably the best and most well presented training course I've attended in my career.

First rate knowledge in a first rate presentation. Great exercises. and Best agile training I have ever taken. Thank you so much, you've helped a lot.

I thought this was a great class. It was very informative and the material was presented in a way that was easy to understand.

As a professional trainer, I am rarely impressed with other trainers. In this case, I was blown away. Great job!

Excellent training. I would attend again and still find value. Thank you!

Ken is very knowledgeable on the subject matter with the practical experience to back it up. Well done!

The class is a perfect mix of theoretical, by-the-book instruction and real world, knee-deep-in-the-mud examples. Relevant and concise insights abound.

I’ve reviewed a number of agile books in the past few years, so the question of ‘Do we really need another one?’ always comes to my mind. In the case of Ken's book, I very much believe the answer is ‘yes.’ Getting the benefit of different, experienced perspectives on commonly encountered and needed material is valuable. Ken has one of those valuable perspectives. One unique aspect of the book is an interesting ‘iconography’—a new icon language for Scrum and agile that Ken has created. I believe you’ll find value-added material in this book to expand your ideas for how Scrum can be applied.

Excellent course. Gave our team excellent insight into process. More importantly, the business was in the class and gained excellent insight.

Felt the instructor was by far the best I have had in my career. He knew the material and explained it in a way so easy to understand and apply.

Highly recommend to teams using an Agile (Scrum) development process.

Ken unpacks a wealth of wisdom and knowledge in Essential Scrum, providing valuable and comprehensive insights to the practical application of agile/Scrum. Whether you’re new to agile or are looking to reach a greater maturity of continuous improvement in your organization, this is a definitive handbook for your toolbox.

Ken was very impressive and a great instructor. There was a ton of information presented and he did a fabulous job with it.

Excellent course. I really feel that I strongly understand Agile and Scrum now and can now effectively put it in practise.

I can now do Agile - and I know why!

Ken Rubin provided Scrum and Agile related coaching and training for more than two hundreds companies ranging from startups to Fortune 10. He wrote Essential Scrum book with an intention to provide a common understanding of Scrum for every team member involved with Scrum. The new book is very comprehensive and covers just about everything about Scrum for beginner and expert. The book take a new angle on Scrum and uses real-world examples to show what makes a reliable foundation for successful Agile development. It is extremely well written and most likely will become the base reference for future Scrum practitioners. I strongly recommend Ken Rubin’s book to anyone who wants to start using Scrum or wants to improve their software development process.

Ken Rubin managed to write the book that I want everyone associated with Scrum development to read! He covers everything you’ll need to know about Scrum and more!

Excellent class overall, one of the best I've taken. Perfect length and depth.

Excellent introductory course to Agile and Scrum. Any company considering introducing Agile should take this course.

Ken's well-structured explanations have a clarity to them that echoes the sensibilities of Smalltalk—the development environment with which he worked for years and from which both Scrum and Extreme Programming were born. This book pulls together a thorough set of agile management principles that really hit the mark and will no doubt guide you toward a more effective agile approach.

This has been the most useful, well paced course I have taken outside of an academic setting.

This was the most valuable training I've had since completing my Certified BA course at Villanova University.

Ken has an amazing presence and world-class presentation skills.

Very comfortable with the training. Ken has an entire career to pull from, so the material was relevant and real. Felt like he was consulting, not just training.

Wow!

Ken Rubin taught the best formal training course I have ever attended. He never let a question go unanswered and his years of experience lead to invaluable advice.

Corporate IT leadership, which has been slow to embrace agile methods, would benefit immensely from giving a copy of this book to all of their project and delivery managers. Ken Rubin has laid out in this book all the pragmatic business case and process materials needed for any corporate IT shop to successfully implement Scrum.

Ken did an excellent job in providing a sound Scrum foundation with real life experiences and examples. Great class!

This is one of the best investments I have made for my team as we transition to Scrum. I now know what we have to do.

Loved it. Great training style and pace, looking forward to putting this to practical use.

Very nice job. I really appreciate the stories about what other companies and teams face and their problems.

This class was fantastic. Mr Rubin is a fabulous instructor. He has an insightful grasp of the material and how to best teach it.

The instructor was terrific. Very knowledgeable about the subject matter and a great teaching style. We had a tough and rather rowdy team, the instructor was able to field tough questions and bring everyone to a high level of understanding and acceptance.

Great course. I feel like I can be an effective participant in any Scrum role today. Thanks a bunch!

I was very impressed with this course. Very, very practical and well done.

I really appreciated that Ken swapped out a couple of topics in response to class discussion. The planning poker demo was really helpful.

One of the best, most comprehensive descriptions of the core Scrum framework out there! Essential Scrum is for anyone–new to or experienced with Scrum–who’s interested in the most important aspects of the process. Ken does an excellent job of distilling the key tenets of the Scrum framework into a simple format with compelling visuals. As a Scrum coach for many teams, I continually reference the material for new ways to help teams that are learning and practicing the framework. I’ve seen Scrum continually misinterpreted and poorly implemented by big companies and tool vendors for more than ten years. Reading this book will help you get back to the basics and focus on what’s important.

Great course! Would recommend to all my co-workers involved in Agile projects.

A fantastic and stimulating course, fast-paced and involving and covered every possible question and element which cropped up. A great building block in order to implement Agile fully in the organisation.

Wish we could have had one more day! Such a great, thorough introduction to Scrum. I will buy the book and start using it right away.

Best course to date. Instructor had total command of material. Presented it clearly, paced the class perfectly.

Wish I had this course when I first went to Agile. The course taken when I was first trained on Agile was no where near as good as this course. Excellent presentation and materials.

Ken's extensive experience as a consultant, trainer, and past managing director of the Scrum Alliance is evident in this book. Along with providing the basics and introduction to Scrum, this book addresses the questions of masses—what happens to project managers? Essential Scrum helps us understand the big picture and guides how organization leaders can support and be involved with their Scrum teams for successful agile transformations.

Great class, and I would definitely like to take additional classes led by Ken.

Excellent presentation skills with in depth knowledge made this training exceptionally worthwhile!

This class greatly exceeded my expectations, and I feel like I have so much practical knowledge to implement.

Fantastic course & instructor - excellent presentation skills, really "sold" people on Agile.

Excellent balance of theory and hands-on activities. A non-IT person will understand Agile/Scrum at end of this course and his/her role in it.

I have taken several Scrum courses. The material has never been as clear as it is to me now. Ken is very natural and engaging, and is a very talented speaker and teacher. He also contextualized the material very well to my industry.