Cecil Gary Rupp is the author of Scaling Scrum Across Modern Enterprises, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey.
Cecil: I submitted my “Building Our Digital World” series of books for consideration by PACKT to publish, and they instead asked me to write this book.
Q: How long did it take you to write the book?
Cecil: A bit less than 9 months.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Cecil: I spent about a month and a half in preparation. Besides reaching out to a number of industry experts, I also obtained two additional professional certifications, and used my library of ~120 books on software and systems development and Agile practices and probably purchased 30 books just for my research on this book. I tend to research the topic of each chapter as I’m writing.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Cecil: Not too many. My biggest challenge was keeping control over the scope of the effort. And, even then, the book is coming in around 430 pages.
Q: What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Cecil: If you are new to tech, or an executive who has influence over tech programs and budgets, please understand that you probably don’t know what you don’t know. Others have already made the mistakes you are going to make, so why not learn from their experiences before make those same mistakes.
Q. How do you keep up-to-date on your tech?
Cecil: I read a ton, both online and IT books from industry experts who are acknowledged in the IT industry. I’m also a long term program and project manager with both an engineering and business background. My objective is to always look at tech from how it can address our customer’s needs.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Cecil: I’ve created a blog on my site but have been too busy writing my books to do anything with it yet. Visit the following site: www.commandresults.com
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Cecil: Yes, it’s been great! I had already completed two out of four planned books in my “Building Our Digital World” (BODW) series – with the remaining two in progress when I approached Packt. Packt offered me this opportunity to write on a topic that I have a great deal of interest – scaling Scrum and Lean-Agile Practices on an enterprise scale. Even though I had to set my BODW project aside temporarily, I went ahead and agreed to write the book for Packt as I wanted to see what it was like to work under the direction of a professional publishing company.
It’s been an enjoyable experience, and it’s great to have their resources behind me, as opposed to self-funding my book projects. When you self-publish a book, you must be disciplined and figure out everything by yourself. In contrast, Packt’s been through this process thousands of times, and they already know what needs to be done. Their editorial staff provides focus and help their writers maintain a steady pace. Additionally, Packt provides highly qualified professional staff to ensure the final deliverable is a high-quality product.
You can find Cecil’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
