Best resources for learning about Agile quickly
October 2, 2018 7:54 AM   Subscribe

I have an interview for a product owner role in a large company that makes enterprise software. I have software and product management experience but have never done formal agile. I need to come up to speed quickly so I can at least show that I've done my homework. What are some good books, articles, and other online resources that will get me familiar with Agile terminology and best practices?

There is a huge amount of material out there. Please help me winnow down to the best, so I can use my time as efficiently as possible.

In addition to near-term cramming, I am also interested in training courses or other in-depth material. I may not get this first position, but I expect to be looking at other product owner jobs in the future.
posted by Winnie the Proust to Computers & Internet (10 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by heigh-hothederryo at 8:03 AM on October 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: One more request: recommendations for a good Product Owner Certification that I could get.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:16 AM on October 2, 2018


I think of the product owner role as more scrum specific so read up on that methodology. Lots of other agile practices like kanban don't specify it but individual implementations may have such a person to get work onto the board.
posted by JonB at 9:04 AM on October 2, 2018


These ought to get you started:

A Brief Overview of the Scrum Framework

Intro to Scrum in Under 10 Minutes
posted by allkindsoftime at 9:15 AM on October 2, 2018


Since it's a "large company", they probably use some method of scaling the scrum methodology to a larger organization.
So you could read up on how the PO role fits into scaled agile systems. e.g. SAFe or Scrum @ Scale.
posted by kidbritish at 9:15 AM on October 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


I really like Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell. Martin Fowler's work is also a great resource.
posted by neushoorn at 9:20 AM on October 2, 2018


I'm not a developer, but for any technical issue, read up on the certification.
posted by theora55 at 9:55 AM on October 2, 2018


I am a certified product owner and am now working in a hybrid framework having come from a more traditional project management background:

1. I recommend Scrum for Dummies as a fairly digestible if a bit wordy/preachy intro and overview of Scrum. I, too, think of the Product Owner role as being more Scrum specific than other Agile frameworks. Same author has a book on Agile project management which I haven't read.

2. I also like the this blog that Mike Cohn writes for a more "quick" bites approach to Agile and/or Scrum.

3. For certification, my org paid for me to take an in-person training course from one of the vendors listed here. I also have colleagues who went with this exam-based option. Some folks apparently do both. What theora55 linked in her answer is actually PMI's agile practitioner certification which you would be able to possibly qualify for down the line, but is in my mind a more general type of certification than I think you're asking for.

Hope that helps!
posted by sm1tten at 1:28 PM on October 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


I've not read it, but the Head First series is generally well regarded, and you can get the eBook version of Head First Agile for very little (along with a bunch of other Head First books) in a Humble Bundle.
posted by Candleman at 10:19 PM on October 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thank you all. These are exactly the kinds of pointers I was looking for. Marking this resolved.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:58 AM on October 13, 2018


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