When delivering Scrum.org’s Professional Scrum Master or Professional Scrum Foundation courses I often get asked for recommended reading to support the attendees further learning. Below is my list of Essential and Recommended Reading for anyone attempting the assessments.

Essential Reading

My go to references every time is obviously the Scrum Guide 

and Scrum: A Pocket Guide: A Smart Travel Companion  by Gunther Verheyen. 

Recommended Reading

(in no particular order)

In order to gain a greater appreciation I would recommend the following books; there are some pearls of wisdom in these and I read all of these in order to successfully pass Professional Scrum Master III

Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership

What makes good Scrum Masters into great Scrum Masters. This book is packed with useful tips.

Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition 

Oh how I wish I had read this book sooner. This is my go to book for working out what to do in difficult situations. Packed with ideas and things to consider when coaching teams. As a Scrum Master how should you deal with conflict within a team? – Its in here!

Agile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers Love 

Great insights and on Agile Product Management; this should be on all of our bookshelves.

Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional)

Case studies of Project Management with Agile; things that went well and things that could have gone better. It is difficult to always have an experience to fall back on, but this book will give you some further food for thought when faced with new challenges.

Other Brilliant Books to Consider

(in no particular order)

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great (Pragmatic Programmers)

The Coach’s Casebook: Mastering The Twelve Traits That Trap Us

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Leading Lean Software Development: Results are Not the Point (Addison-Wesley Signature)

The Art of Agile Development

Agile Estimating and Planning (Robert C. Martin)

Hope these help. If you have any other books that you would include on your list why not let me know!