Scrum has been around for two decades. During the first decade of agile, the adoption of agile and Scrum have grown incredibly. The survival and prosperity of many people and organizations depend on software. Scrum has been a key tool for teams and organizations to deal with the increased criticality of software.
But the dependence of businesses and society on software has increased even more. Software is eating the world. Complexity and unpredictability continue to increase. The urgency to improve remains.
The key for future success is still Scrum. We are not Done with Scrum just yet. The key to employing Scrum professionally is creating Done Increments of product, where “Done” reflects releasable in production. This requires professional development, proper practices and standards, cross-functional collaboration, and inner-Sprint feedback loops. It might take another two decades to actually get there.
In his session, Gunther Verheyen explores the system called ‘Scrum’, how it has helped, and how it can continue to help.
Gunther is a seasoned Scrum professional. He works for Scrum.org, the home of Scrum, where he shepherds the Professional series. He represents Scrum.org and Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber in Europe.
Gunther Verheyen
Gunther Verheyen is a longtime Scrum practitioner. After a career as a consultant, in 2013 he started shepherding the Professional series of Scrum.org, while also leading its European operations. Gunther left Scrum.org in 2016 to further his path as an independent Scrum caretaker.
Gunther ventured into IT and software development after graduating in 1992. His Agile journey started with eXtreme Programming and Scrum in 2003. Years of dedication followed, of using Scrum in diverse circumstances. As from 2010 Gunther became the inspiring force behind some large-scale enterprise transformations.
Gunther left consulting in 2013 to partner with Ken Schwaber, Scrum co-creator, at Scrum.org. He is Professional Scrum Trainer, shepherded the ‘Professional Scrum’ series, worked with Scrum.org’s global network of Professional Scrum Trainers, and is co-creator to Agility Path and the Nexus framework for Scaled Professional Scrum.
Gunther left Scrum.org in 2016 to continue his journey of Scrum as an independent Scrum caretaker.
Gunther Verheyen - Scrum WegwijzerIn 2013 Gunther published his much-praised book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide (a smart travel companion)”, by Ken Schwaber recommended as ‘the best description of Scrum currently available’ and ‘an extraordinarily competent book’. In 2016 the Dutch translation of his book was published as “Scrum Wegwijzer (Een kompas voor de bewuste reiziger)”.
When not travelling for Scrum, Gunther lives and works in Antwerp (Belgium). He is happy spending much of his time under the same roof as his wife Natascha (Atelier Ullizee) and their sunshine children Ian, Jente and Nienke.