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The Zombie Scrum Survival Guide

Are you experiencing Zombie Scrum too? Zombie Scrum is something that looks like Scrum from a distance, but is anything but on closer inspection. There is no working software after a Sprint, stakeholders are not involved, teams have little autonomy and nobody is trying to improve.

Don't give up! The Zombie Scrum Survival Guide is here to help. We - Christiaan Verwijs, Johannes Schartau and Barry Overeem - poured all our creativity, experience, strategies and insights into a single book that gives you what you need to start recovering today. Our book is richly illustrated by Thea Schukken.

4 Reasons To Get Our Book

Understand Scrum

Get crystal clear on Scrum, and how Zombie Scrum often starts when the purpose of Scrum is misunderstood in four key areas: ship it fast, build what stakeholders need, continuous improvement and team autonomy.

By Scrum Masters

We wrote this book as Scrum Masters, for Scrum Masters. We draw from our experience as Scrum Masters, share personal stories and present the research we've done with hundreds of Scrum Teams.

Powerful experiments

We help you start small and where it matters the most. Try one or more of the 41 powerful and engaging experiments to start your recovery today - many of them based on Liberating Structures.

Even for the worst cases

We wrote our book with the most traditional and rigid organizations in mind, where you probably have little autonomy yourself. Create transparency with our book and help others see the effects of Zombie Scrum.

Available Editions

Regular Edition

  • The book, with 320 pages filled with insights, illustrations, experiments and personal stories
  • A digital first aid kit with additional experiments, exercises and posters
  • A Zombie Scrum sticker set
€31.95

Plus Edition

  • The book, with 320 pages filled with insights, illustrations, experiments and personal stories
  • A physical first aid kit with additional experiments, exercises and posters
  • A digital version of the first aid kit
  • A Zombie Scrum sticker set
€125,-

All prices are excluding 21% VAT (only for countries in the EU) and shipping costs. We ship globally.

What readers say

Ton Sweep
Ton Sweep
Scrum Master @ NS

The Zombie Scrum Survival Guide is like a bathroom cabinet: a well-lit mirror that merciless reflects the situation, with cures, quick fixes, and painkillers inside.

Ton Sweep

Agile Book Club
Agile Book Club
Paul & Justyna

This book is a huge recipe book to help teams who are stuck [...] that makes it so absolutely valuable. We highly recommend it. listen to the podcast

Ton Sweep

Saskia Vermeer-Ooms
Saskia Vermeer-Ooms
Scrum Master @ Snappet

Every scrum master will recognize the situations described in this book. The practical experiments are explained very well, topped off with funny illustrations, it is a very pleasant book to read.

Christian Hofstetter
Christian Hofstetter
Agile Coach @ Swisscom

The Zombie Scrum Survival Guide is beautifully different from other books as it does not offer solutions. Instead, it focuses on asking powerful questions and experiments, that are way more impactful and suit the complexity of the domain.

Tabata Renteria
Tabata Renteria
Agilist @ SAP CX

The book is a must-read for any team member willing to become more self-aware on how not to fall into the Zombie Scrum trap and is a meta for Scrum Masters.

Jacob Rasmussen
Jacob Rasmussen
Scrum Master @ Topdanmark

This book not only gives insights, but also practical suggestion on how to experiment together with your teams to improve your way of working. I wasn't even done with the book before I had planned the first couple of experiments. The journey has just started, and I'm feeling energized and optimistic

Tom Suter
Tom Suter
Scrum Master @ Haufe

I found it a very tiring book to read because it made me constantly jump out of my chair, to put the great idea, suggestions, and advice directly into practice. Great job guys!

Simon Flossmann
Simon Flossmann
Professional Scrum Trainer @ Scrum.org

This book is for all Scrum practitioners who are disappointed that Scrum doesn't unfold its full potential. It helps sense possible causes and gives a ton of tangible interventions to start changing this today.

Blog

Actual stakeholders? Or just your audience?

There is a big difference between a stakeholder and someone with an opinion about the product. This post is all about what makes a real stakeholder. And more importantly, how to find them.
Read this post

Why Zombie Scrum Teams Don’t Ship Fast

In environments with Zombie Scrum, people don’t understand why it’s important to ship fast and how it's necessary to reduce the risk inherent to complex work.
Read this post

How the Efficiency Mindset Leads to Zombie Scrum

How the Efficiency Mindset (more speed, more output, and more efficiency) that is prevalent in so many organizations can easily mess-up your work with the Scrum Framework.
Read this post

Meetups & Events

The Purpose of Scrum

During this meetup, you discover how Zombie Scrum compares to Scrum as intended. Together, we'll explore the underlying purpose of the Scrum framework, and how Scrum is all about navigating complex problems and reducing risk.
Sign up

Build What Stakeholders Need

During this meetup, we explore the common symptoms of Zombie Scrum related to not building what the stakeholders need. We discuss the causes and reasons for not involving stakeholders, with the purpose of understanding why this is happening.
Sign up

Ship It Fast!

While shipping fast doesn't guarantee success, it helps organizations find out faster whether their ideas are actually valuable, and adjust the product strategy based on feedback. This meetup is all about shipping fast, and how it's your best survival strategy when faced with complex work. We also explore the reasons - and excuses - that we often encounter for not doing this.
Sign up

How Is Your Team Doing?

Diagnose your team for free

Is your team suffering from Zombie Scrum? Something that looks like Scrum from a distance, but is missing a beating heart of valuable software. Invite your team and find out with our symptom tracker

Diagnose your team
Zombie Scrum
Professional Scrum

Ship It Fast

5.8

Build What Stakeholders Need

6.0

Improve Continuously

5.6

Self-Organize

6.2
This data represents the averages of over 2.500+ Scrum Teams. The ranges represent the 25-75% percentiles.

First Aid for Zombie Scrum

The first response to Zombie Scrum might be to panic, run around and hide below your desk. That doesn't usually work. So we created a simple poster that tells you exactly what to do, in clear and simple language.

Get the free poster