Preface

Welcome to the start of your new journey into Scrum, and perhaps even into yourself. The patterns you’ll find here are tools that can help you not only to discover Scrum, but help you gain deeper insight into how and why it works. Much of that discovery will take you deep inside the practices and beliefs of your organization. It may challenge much of your current worldview, while at the same time making you feel at home.

Some of Scrum’s origins lie in Japanese culture and Buddhism. Driving even more deeply, those who view Scrum as a way of work life rather than just as a method are more likely to find fulfillment in their Scrum journey. Zen Buddhists used the story of the Ten Bulls as a metaphor for the Zen journey into one’s self. The bull has long been a symbol of reflection that predates its appearance in Chinese Buddhism in the eleventh century. The story metaphorically connects the pragmatic with the idealistic through pictures originally drawn by the twelfth-century Zen master Kaku-an Shu-en, where a simple person grows from a reductionist world of bulls, whips and effort to melt into nature and the world, ultimately to emerge like Putai—the laughing Buddha.