So what is that Scrum that everyone talks about?

Scrum official definition

Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems. Source: Scrum Guide 2020

Ok? Probably not, so let’s clarify this…

Scrum in simple terms

Scrum is a simple cycle executed by a small team and supported by a few artifacts. It helps a group to validate (or not) assumptions and generate value iteratively and incrementally to its stakeholders.

Let’s view those 3 elements in bold: cycle, team and artifacts

The Scrum Cycle

The Scrum cycle is equivalent to a PDCA cycle, well known in manufacturing and Lean. It consists of 4 steps: 

• The team members Plan to do something for a cycle (an iteration called Sprint)
• They Do it
• Then they Check the results
• Finally they Act (or Adjust) for the next cycle based on the results observed. 

Cycles are run continuously one after another and last no more than a month. This process runs till the project and/or product made by the team has been completed or the team runs out of work.

The Scrum Team

A Scrum team is small in nature (10 people or less), cross functional (they have all necessary skills to perform the work required to deliver value), self managed AND are ideally fully allocated (focus is actually key). 

The team has:

•  A Product Owner (accountable for the value generated by the product/project)
• Developers (people who do the project work/develop the product)
• A Scrum Master (a coach accountable for the team’s effectiveness)

The Scrum Artifacts

The Scrum artifacts are:

1. The product backlog (wish list of all product requirements)
2. The Sprint backlog (what the team decided to for this Sprint)
3. The Increment (the work and the value the team created during the Sprint)

Scrum in short

So in short, those are the 3 main parts which constitute what Scrum is! A small team working and delivering value to its stakeholders in cycles and supported by simple artifacts.