Back in February 2001, at the lodge in Snowbird Utah, 17 thought leaders from the software industry got together to discuss the state of software development and compare various lightweight frameworks that popped up in the late 90s because of dissatisfaction with the traditional waterfall approach to building products. The participants shared and learned about each…

Scrum is a framework for solving complex adaptive problems with high levels of unknowns, uncertainties, or risks around what to build or how to build it. Scrum involves a cross-functional and self-managing Scrum team that uses empiricism to build products iteratively and incrementally to reduce risk and deliver early and often. The Scrum team uses the…

For teams to succeed with Scrum, team members must become proficient in living the 5 Scrum values of commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage. Commitment: In Scrum, the team commits to each other, not to other people, but to each other, on supporting each other to deliver on the Sprint Goal and Product Goal. Focus: In…

The Product Increment is the output of every Sprint and is an increment that brings the team one step closer to the overall Product Goal. This means that each Sprint is focused on a cohesive set of Product Backlog Items that meet a Sprint Goal and not random unrelated items. Once a Sprint starts and the…

The Sprint Retrospective is a reflection event that occurs at the end of each Sprint. It is for the entire Scrum team which includes the Product Owner, Developers, and ScrumMaster to inspect how they are operating and then come up with a continuous improvement plan to adapt and become more effective as a team and as…

The Sprint Review is a working session for the stakeholders, users, and customers to collaborate with the Scrum team which includes the Developers, Product Owner, and Scrum Master, and inspect the progress made toward the Product Goal based on the latest Product Increment. The Sprint Review is about getting feedback from the stakeholders and users on…

The Daily Scrum is a brief daily planning event by the Developers to inspect their work and progress toward the Sprint Goal that will result in a Product Increment. The Developers created their Sprint plan or Sprint Backlog in Sprint Planning at the beginning of the Sprint. However, this plan is not static. It’s updated as…

In Scrum, the Sprint starts with Sprint Planning where the Scrum team plans out their work for the Sprint and creates a Sprint Backlog. The Sprint Backlog is the team’s plan to accomplish the work. Sprint planning is timeboxed to 2 hours per week of Sprint, so for a 2-week Sprint it is one event for…

The Product Backlog is an ordered list of hypotheses, requirements, features, enhancements, or Product Backlog Items that help the team accomplish the Product Goal. Product Backlog Attributes The Product Backlog is the team’s single source of work. Meaning, anything the Developers are working on should be coming from the Product Backlog. There are no side requests.…

The Scrum team consists of 3 accountabilities, Developers, Product Owner, and Scrum Master. Developers Developers are accountable for building and delivering a quality working Product Increment at the end of each Sprint. They are a small group, typically 3 to 9 members that are cross-functional and self-organizing. Cross-functional Developers are cross-functional to remove bottlenecks and dependencies.…

In Scrum, there are 3 accountabilities, 3 artifacts, 3 commitments, and 5 events. Scrum Accountabilities The 3 accountabilities in Scrum are: Product Owner, accountable for the delivery of a valuable product. Developers, accountable for building and delivering a working quality product. Scrum Master, accountable for the effectiveness of the Scrum team and organization in building and…