We’ve covered a lot of ground in this introduction; congratulations for getting this far. Next up is the first chapter of the book, The Scrum Core as Patterns. In this chapter, you get better acquainted with Scrum, starting with our first pattern (¶1 The Spirit of the Game) which is followed by a definition of Scrum using the patterns in this book.
As we wrote earlier, you do not have to read the book cover to cover but we do recommend you read the first chapter. Chapter 1, The Scrum Core as Patterns helps to familiarize you with what may be new to you (patterns) through something familiar (Scrum). However, you don’t have to start there. Here are some other options you might like to try.
Read through one of the sequences. They give you an overview of the patterns in the language and one way to order their use.
Skim all the patterns by reading just those parts of the patterns that appear in boldface.
Start with an element of Scrum your team is struggling with, read that pattern and the patterns that refine it, then use these to improve how you are working.
Find a pattern that matches where your teams are and see what refines this position in the pattern languages.
Read through the Patlets, which are short summaries of all the patterns in the book (and in a few other books).
Flip through the book and stop at a pattern that looks interesting or has an interesting title (¶20 Oyatsu Jinja (Snack Shrine) usually grabs attention).
After you have spent time reading, reflecting, and trying the patterns, we invite you to read Composing Your Own Pattern Language.
No matter how you start, we do recommend having a pencil and some sticky notes at hand. Take advantage of the whitespace in the book to write your thoughts. Use the sticky notes to mark pages you want to come back to. We know when a book has had an impact on us because it is worn from many readings; we hope that is the case for your copy.
Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber. The Scrum Guide. ScrumGuides.org, http://www.scrumguides.org (accessed 5 January 2017).
Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber. The Scrum Guide. ScrumGuides.org, http://www.scrumguides.org (accessed 5 January 2017).