Scrum

Scrum Overview

"Scrum" has often been confused with "Agile." There is a mistaken belief that if you want to be Agile, you must adopt Scrum. This is incorrect. Scrum is just one of many ways to help your teams become Agile. But Scrum is not for every team. In the section When to Use Scrum, I give you some guidelines for when a team will benefit from adopting Scrum.

The Scrum Framework is fully defined in the Scrum Guide. This document of about 15 pages defines Scrum completely. Even though the Scrum Guide is short, it is full of information. Every time you read it, you will learn something new. The Scrum Guide has evolved over many years, but its philosophy has always remained the same: base your decisions on what's currently known rather than what was previously thought to be true.

In order to achiev this philosophy, Scrum enforces an inspect and adapt process in which the team continuously evaluates where it is in relation to a common goal. There are daily standups of 15 minutes or less in order to inspect and adapt decisions for the current sprint. There are Sprint Reviews and Sprint Planning sessions in order to inspect and adapt decisions on a montly or less basis. And there are regular Retrospectives that allow for the team to continuously improve its own process and become more effective.

In order for the inspect and adopt process to work, Scrum teaches teams to be completely transparent with each other, and that fosters a culture of trust both within the team and between the team and its stakeholders. The Scrum Values of Commitment, Courage, Focus, Openness, and Respect help teams work together effectively foster the culture of trust. High levels of engagement with stakeholders in the product being produced helps the team focus on what is most important to the customer.

From a practical perspective, there are certain processes that a Scrum team is expected to follow. There are three Roles on a Scrum team. The team must participate in five Scrum Events. And the team produces three Scrum Artifacts.

These fundamental Scrum concepts are explained in more detail on the following pages.

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