“Zombie Scrum Survival Guide” by J. Schartau, C. Verwijs and B. Overeem

Time flies and it’s already the last month of 2020. But not to worry! To cheer you up, we’ve recorded the longest ever episode of the agile book club! A full 105-minute long book review full of banter and useful tips.

In this episode, Justyna and Paul review the newest book “Zombie Scrum Survival Guide”, which was only published 13 November by authors J. Schartau, C. Verwijs and B. Overeem.

In the second part of this podcast, the authors of the book join our hosts for a lovely discussion!

About the book

Millions of professionals use Scrum. It’s the world’s #1 approach to agile software development. Even so, by some estimates, over 70% of Scrum adoptions fall flat. Developers find themselves using “Zombie Scrum” processes that look like Scrum, but are slow, lifeless, and joyless. Scrum’s just not working for them.

Zombie Scrum Survival Guide reveals why Scrum runs aground and shows how to supercharge your Scrum outcomes, while having a lot more fun along the way. Humorous, visual, and extremely relatable, it offers practical approaches, exercises, and tools for escaping Zombie Scrum. Even if you’re surrounded by skeptics, this book will be the antidote to help you build more of what users need, ship faster, improve more continuously, interact more successfully in any team, and feel a whole lot better about what you’re doing. Suddenly, one day soon, you’ll remember: that’s why we adopted Scrum in the first place!

  • Learn how Zombie Scrum infects you, why it spreads, and how to inoculate yourself
  • Get closer to your stakeholders, and wake up to their understanding of value
  • Discover why Zombie teams can’t learn, and what to do about it
  • Clear away the specific obstacles to real continuous improvement
  • Make self-managed teams real so people can behave like humans, not Zombies

Zombie Scrum Survival Guide is for Scrum Masters, Scrum practitioners, Agile coaches and leaders, and everyone who wants to transform Scrum’s promises into reality.

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About the Authors

Christiaan Verwijs aims to unleash organizational superpowers. He is co-founder of The Liberators, experienced Scrum Master, developer, Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) and Steward of the Professional Scrum Master II course at Scrum.org. He has spoken at Scrum Day Europe (2013-2018), XP Days 2017, and Liberating Structures Global Gathering 2018. Verwijs founded the Dutch Liberating Structures User Group (900+ members) and Liberators Network Meetup (250+ members). He blogs at medium.com/the-liberators and zombiescrum.org.


Johannes Schartau is an Agile Coach, consultant, and facilitator who helps humans fight boredom and mindlessness on all scales, from individual to team to enterprise. He is Founder of the Liberating Structures User Group Hamburg (1,300+ members), as well as organizer and facilitator at numerous Liberating Structures Immersion Workshops. He writes at zombiescrum.org, and co-authored Liberating Strategy: Surprise and Serendipity Put to Work with Liberating Structures co-developer Keith McCandless.


Barry Overeem specializes in liberating organizations from outdated modes of working and learning. He is co-founder of The Liberators, experienced Scrum Master and facilitator, Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) and Steward of the Professional Scrum Master II course at Scrum.org. He has spoken at Scrum Day Europe (2013-2018), XP Days (2014-2018), and Agile/Scrum events in Spain, Ireland, London, Germany, Prague, Turkey, and elsewhere. He writes at medium.com/the-liberators and zombiescrum.org, founded the Dutch Liberating Structures User Group and Liberators Network Meetup, and has run many Liberating Structures Immersion Workshops.

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