In the pattern language movement, this book, long under development, is worth noting:
Jeff Sutherland, James O. Coplien, and The Scrum Patterns Group, A Scrum Book: The Spirit of the Game, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Release 1.0 2019, ISBN: 978-1-68050-671-6, https://pragprog.com/book/jcscrum/a-scrum-book
The hardcopy book is also available via Amazon, at https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Book-Spirit-Game/dp/1680506714
For background, there’s an interview with Jeff Sutherland and Jim Coplien as " Q&A on A Scrum Book: The Spirit of the Game" | Ben Linders | June 29, 2019 | InfoQ at https://www.infoq.com/articles/book-review-scrum-spirit-game/
The Scrum Book has two pattern languages:
- The Product Organization Pattern Language; and
- The Value Stream Pattern Language
The long development period for the 2019 publication dates back to 2008, when there was a preliminary meeting at VikingPLoP 2008. The second meeting at ScumPLoP 2010 meeting was described as the “world’s first topically focused PLoP” to capture patterns of Scrum practice.
The work of the worldwide community has been conducted in the wiki way.
- At http://scrumbook.org/ is a “backup collection of the material for the forthcoming book”, with only the “Published Patterns” (reflecting agreement up to 2019). This links back to the drafts at https://sites.google.com/a/scrumplop.org/published-patterns/ .
- The ongoing work, tracking regular meetings of the community, is at http://www.scrumplop.org/ . A link there “To the Patterns” goes the “Published Patterns Home”, as well as a “Works in Progress Home” that is password protected.
The scale of the decade that passed between the initiation of the project and a bound copy of the book may be compared to that of Christopher Alexander.
- A Pattern Manual (1967) was the charter for the Center for Environment Structure at Berkeley.
- A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (1977) is volume 2 of the series from the CES.
- The Timeless Way of Building (1979) was officially published as volume 1, two years later.
The effort required for major works should not underestimated.
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.” From his book, “The Road Ahead,” published in 1996. [via “The quotable Bill Gates” | Nancy Weil | June 23, 2008 | PC World at https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/225699/quotable_bill_gates/
