Meet Scott

Scott M. Graffius is a project management expert, consultant, award-winning author, international speaker, and a leading authority on helping organizations advance innovation and drive their competitive advantage. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm that provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services to support companies in achieving their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

His book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, won a Book Excellence Award in 2017 in the Technology category. Based on industry best practices and top factors from successful implementations, the book provides a clear and easy to follow way to employ Scrum—the leading agile framework for the development and delivery of products and services. The book helps technical and non-technical teams deliver projects at an astounding speed with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement.

As a project management professional, Scott created a comprehensive marketing plan before launching his book. He wanted to ensure that he was able to communicate with readers and obtain direct feedback from them to understand what was working and what wasn’t, supporting adaptation and improvement.

“Product development is highly customer-centric. Based on readers’ collective feedback, the book was expanded and updated.”

Scott also employed an omni-channel approach across multiple platforms to engage with readers—and prospective readers.

“I used a digital media kit, blog, social accounts (including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest), Author Central on Amazon, a business/product account on LinkedIn, a dedicated video channel on Vimeo with a book trailer and related content, and more.”

To further expand his efforts, Scott decided to include literary award programs as a part of his marketing plan as well. Book awards are a useful tool that help authors increase their credibility and attract positive attention.

Becoming a Book Excellence Award Winner

When Scott was notified he had been named a Book Excellence Award winner, he was excited and honored. The Book Excellence Awards competition helped him gain exposure and increase his book sales.

“Placement in the Book Excellence Awards resulted in increased visibility of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions which favorably impacted sales.”

Scott’s Success

Scott’s passion for technology, innovation and project management are clear drivers that have contributed to his success in business and as an author. Reactions to his book have been incredibly positive. Scott shares the credit with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication.

The book has been heralded as:

“A superbly written and presented guide to team-based project management that is applicable across a broad range of businesses from consumer products to high-tech.”

and,

“A must-have for a project manager wanting to introduce Scrum to the organization.”

and,

“A clear and authoritative roadmap for successful implementation.”

The book has made several appearances on Amazon’s Best Sellers list, placing in the top 10 (out of over 8,000 related books) in multiple Project Management categories.

Scott is also a highly sought-after speaker who travels the world to share his wisdom on topics related to project management and innovation. He has spoken at several events of chapters of the Project Management Institute, the world’s leading association for those who practice project, program or portfolio management as their profession. He has also spoken at Techstars Startup Week, a five-day conference designed to inspire, educate, and advance the entrepreneurial community. Additional speaking engagements will be announced shortly.

For her work as a sought-after expert and corporate trainer, Sharon has appeared in major media interviews on NBC, FOX BBC World News and NPR.

She is the resident etiquette expert on two popular lifestyle shows: ABC Tampa Bay’s Morning Blend and CBS Austin’s We Are Austin. She is regularly quoted by BBC Capital, Investor’s Business Daily, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and more.

Sharon was also featured as a Chinese Ceremonial Dining Etiquette Specialist in the documentary series Confucius was a Foodie, on National Geographic People.

He has been featured in national and international media publications including Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, and BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in digital and print. The ebook is for sale through Amazon. The paperback is available from Amazon, other bookstores and retailers, distributors, libraries and academic institutions, and certified resellers.

For more information on the book, you are invited to visit the digital media kit at https://AgileScrumGuide.com and follow the social media accounts. Additional information on Scott is available at http://Exceptional-PMO.com/who_we_are/bio.

Scott’s Advice

Scott’s advice for authors who are interested in applying to the Book Excellence Awards:

“Entry in the Book Excellence Awards was an excellent investment. I recommend it strongly.”