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Scrum Methodology: An Introduction to the Scrum Process

The scrum methodology was developed as a response to rigid project management approaches such as the waterfall method, which didn’t adapt to the needs of agile product and software development teams. We’ll explore the scrum methodology in-depth, but before that, let’s start with a simple scrum definition.

What Is Scrum?

Scrum is a project management framework that facilitates team collaboration on complex product and software development projects. The good news is that scrum is easy to understand. The bad news? It’s hard to master.

What Is the Scrum Methodology?

The scrum methodology emphasizes teamwork in project management. It stresses accountability and iterative progress toward a well-defined goal. Scrum is part of agile software development and teams practice agile . The name comes from the sport of rugby, where scrum is a formation where everyone plays a specific role, but everyone is working towards a quick adoption of strategies.

The necessary collaboration required for a successful scrum is facilitated by ProjectManager , online and project management software that connects scrum teams wherever they work. Collaborative to the core, our platform delivers real-time data that allow scrum teams to comment on tasks during a sprint, share files and much more. Get started today for free.

Scrum vs. Agile

Scrum is a part of the agile process, but certainly not the only part. Agile is a large tent, but scrum is an important pillar. Think of scrum as a framework by which you can implement agile development. Agile doesn’t have a set of steps to follow, so scrum provides a means to apply agile to your project. There are many frameworks that you can use in agile development, such as extreme programming or feature-driven development, but scrum’s simplicity and autonomy are selling points.

The scrum methodology can also be used as an entry point to other agile practices. It’s also not solely a framework for software but can benefit many other kinds of projects.

When Should You Use the Scrum Methodology?

Any team that’s working to produce an end product can use scrum methodology, whether it be a software program, marketing campaign, website or even a new product or building. In reality, it can be applied to any project in any industry. A good rule of thumb is to use the scrum methodology if your project requires that you figure out how to do a significant amount of the work. If you’ve executed many similar projects before and you know how to approach the project again, you can opt for a waterfall approach.

Scrum in Software Development

Scrum is commonly used in software development as developers execute the work that’s required to complete each sprint. The framework was formalized for software development projects. Scrum allows for constant feedback and flexibility and software developers can focus on developing one or more features within a particular time frame referred to as a sprint which is usually one month or less. When the product is finished, it’s ready to be released.

Scrum in Product Development

Product development teams use scrum similarly to software development teams. When product development teams employ the scrum methodology, they break down long-term plans into sprints. During this time, they’ll work on only select projects with the goal of making frequent product updates that hit the marketplace as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Scrum in Project Management

The scrum process is led by the scrum master who aims to remove obstacles to the work getting done. Scrum teams meet daily to talk about roadblocks that could sidetrack projects. It’s ideal for managing projects that require fast development and testing, especially amongst a small team.

What Are the Artifacts of the Scrum Methodology?

In the scrum methodology, the term artifact refers to key concepts that are used by the scrum team to develop products in an agile environment. We’ll go through the most critical artifacts that every scrum team needs: product backlog, sprint backlog and product increment.

• Product backlog: The product owner makes a list of work that needs to be done, and they’ll place it in order according to priority. This is building your project backlog . They do this by determining what is a must-have item, which is less critical and those that don’t fit into the timeframe allotted. That means the value of each item must be clear. What is their impact, risk and how the item might help in the learning process?
• Sprint backlog: The sprint backlog can be simply defined as the set of user stories in which the scrum team will be working in a single sprint. It’s important to make sure that the most critical user stories are always the ones that are being worked on and none of them fall through the cracks.
• Product increment: The term product increment refers to all the product backlog items that have been completed during a sprint. It can also be used to describe the sum of all the completed backlog items and user stories.

The scrum methodology theory has evolved with time. Scrum experts have suggested that there are actually 7 scrum artifacts . This expanded vision can be very helpful to further define the scrum team’s objectives.

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What Are the Scrum Events in the Scrum Process?

These scrum events or scrum ceremonies foster team collaboration and ensure that there’s a constant line of communication among the scrum team members through the product or software development life cycle.

• Sprint Planning: Using the product backlog, teams start with the highest priority items and determine how to achieve this objective. A good tip when sprint planning is to do the due diligence and only start with items that are ready. Also, remember that planning is a short process, so don’t get bogged down in the details. Simply get to work on meeting the objectives and keep the plan collaborative. The team should also ask the product owner and stakeholder questions.
• Daily Scrum Meeting: These are 15-minute meetings where everybody in the scrum team talks about the tasks they’ll be working on during the day and share any roadblocks or difficulties they’re facing. There’s no need to make this daily scrum meeting longer, as there are other meetings such as sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives to explore more complex topics.
• Sprint Review: You want to look back on the sprint and see what worked and what didn’t. You can then take the information and apply it to future sprints to replicate the positives and reduce the negatives. Begin the sprint review process by thanking participants, offering short introductions and setting ground rules for the discussion.
• Sprint Retrospective: The sprint retrospective meeting gives the scrum team a space to reflect on the last sprint and determine what went well and wrong. Stakeholder and customer feedback are also gathered in order to prioritize user stories and improve product performance.
• Backlog Grooming: Once through this cycle, it starts over again by going back to the backlog and taking the next ready item at the top of the priority list. Backlog grooming consists of improving the scrum process through the prioritization of work based on prior experience and continuing to refine the work to make it as efficient as possible.

What Are the Main Roles In a Scrum Team?

As with anything in project management, the scrum methodology needs people to be executed. For this purpose, it defines three scrum roles , a scrum master, a product owner and a development team that’s made up of several team members.

• Scrum Master: The scrum master , as his name suggests, is a scrum methodology expert. He guarantees that everybody in the scrum team understands how the framework works and helps them adapt to the agile environment. He leads scrum meetings.
• Scrum Product Owner: The scrum product owner manages the product log and oversees sprint planning and actively participates in scrum meetings. In a sense, they act as a project manager because they lead backlog grooming and prioritize user stories to help the teamwork better.
• Scrum Development Team: The scrum development team is simply made up of all the team members who develop software or products. They must work closely with the product owner and adhere to the scrum master’s suggestions.

What Are Scrum Values in the Scrum Methodology?

Scrum values are the guiding principles of the scrum methodology. They’re simple statements that work as agile best practices. The agile values come from the Agile Manifesto , a document with the guiding principles of the agile project management methodology. Let’s quickly explain what they’re about.

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools: Processes and tools are important in software development, but individuals and how they interact with those processes and tools are more important.
• Working software over comprehensive documentation: Before the Agile Manifesto, software developers focused heavily on documentation. This value states that while documentation is important, focusing on developing the software should be the primary goal of the scrum team.
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation: This value explains that collaborating with customers to create a high-quality product is much more important than drafting a rigid contract that limits product development, as it used to be done in the old software development days.
• Responding to change over following a plan: This value states that agile is a project management methodology that seamlessly adapts to change based on an iterative product development cycle and not a rigid project plan.

Advantages of the Scrum Methodology

There are many unique advantages that scrum offers that can entice you if you’re considering using scrum for your team.

• Flexibility: If your project undergoes frequent changes, scrum provides adaptability that other methods don’t. It’s easy to pivot without losing the hard work you’ve already completed.
• Visibility: Stakeholders feel more involved as they’re able to see progress incrementally instead of solely during outlined check-in points in the project.
• Efficiency: The goal is to deliver work as efficiently as possible, a goal that’s often achieved within scrum’s short sprints.

Disadvantages of the Scrum Methodology

There are challenges with any project management methodology and scrum is no exception.

• Scope creep: The lack of a definitive project end date can result in using more resources than you originally anticipated.
• Requires a small, committed team: It’s challenging to achieve success with scrum if you have a large team or if team members aren’t committed to project success.
• Not ideal for all projects: If you have a fixed project scope and timeline that cannot move, it likely isn’t suitable for scrum.

History of the Scrum Methodology

The scrum process has its origins in the early 1990s. Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber came up with the process, which they presented to the Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages & Applications (OOPSLA) conference in Austin, Texas in 1995. They formalized the methodology in a published paper called “SCRUM Software Development Process.”

The name scrum, however, was inherited from a paper published in 1986 by management experts Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, called “The New New Product Development Game.” They were using the word scrum as it related to rugby as a means of stressing the importance of team collaboration for project success. By 2001, Sutherland and Schwaber and 15 other software development leaders created the Manifesto for Agile Software Development . Shortly afterward, the Agile Alliance was founded. Schwaber co-authored with Mike Beedle, the first book on scrum, Agile Software Development with Scrum , in 2001.

The Scrum Alliance was founded in 2002 by Schwaber, a chairman, with Mike Cohn and Esther Derbry. They later added a certification arm to the organization, with Certified ScrumMaster programs.

Glossary of Scrum Methodology Terms

Before defining the framework of scrum, here’s a short list of some of the more common terms used when working within a scrum environment.

• Burndown chart: A burndown chart shows much effort is left compared to time
• Burnup chart: Measures the increase in a measure against time
• Definition of done: The definition of done (DOD) is one of the seven scrum artifacts. It’s an acceptance criterion agreed upon by the scrum team
• Product backlog: A product backlog is work to be done in a specific order
• Product backlog refinement: When the product owner and team add detail to the product backlog, also known as backlog grooming
• Scrum board: A scrum board helps scrum teams manage their work
• Scrumban: Scrumban is a hybrid methodology that combines scrum and kanban project management
• Sprint: Short tasks, one following immediately after the completion of another
• Sprint backlog: What the team needs to complete the sprint
• Sprint goal: The purpose of the sprint
• Sprint planning: Sprint planning is a spring event where scrum teams plan their upcoming sprint
• Sprint retrospective: Short post-mortem of the sprint
• Sprint review: Short review of the sprint to help add improvements to the next one

How ProjectManager Enables the Scrum Process

Scrum methodology requires collaboration and flexibility. ProjectManager , online work and project management software connects scrum teams and gives them the tools they need to work in an agile environment. Our tool delivers real-time data that keeps everyone updated and communicating no matter where they are, how they work or what role they have in the project.

Create and Manage Scrum Boards

Our multiple project views mean that other departments can collaborate on Gantt charts or our sheet view. But scrum teams will use our scrum board view, which allows them to manage their backlog of user stories and work together when planning a sprint.

Track Scrum Workflows With Real-Time Dashboards

You don’t want to get in the way of your self-directed team, but you need to know what they’re doing. Our real-time dashboard tracks six project metrics. There’s no setup required as with inferior products. Our custom workflows allow you to apply triggers that set actions automatically to free your team to focus on their work. Plus, task approvals give you control of status changes.

Collaborate With Your Scrum Team

Not only is our software ideal for scrum, but it can also work with more traditional methodologies like waterfall or a hybrid of many project management methods. Our tool allows you to collaborate with other departments in your organization that aren’t agile. It’s the only work and project management tool you’ll need to deliver success.

ProjectManager is project management software that’s uniquely positioned to help project managers through every phase of their work, regardless of the methodology. Being cloud-based, it collects real-time data and has the tools to help teams collaborate, giving them the autonomy required of scrum with the monitoring and management to keep on schedule and within budget. See how it can help you and your team by taking this free 30-day trial.

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• Agile project management
• 3 pillars of Scrum

Three Pillars of Scrum: Understanding Scrum’s Core Principles

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In today's fast-paced business environment, effective agile project management strategies are more critical than ever. Project managers are constantly seeking methodologies that can help them stay agile, respond to changing requirements, and deliver value to their organizations. One such methodology that has gained immense popularity is Scrum. 

Scrum is not just a framework—it's a set of principles and practices that underpin agile project management. This article delves into the essential pillars of Scrum and explores how these agile principles make it an indispensable resource for project managers. 

Specifically, we will examine the three pillars of Scrum: transparency, inspection, and adaptation, and see how they collectively lay the groundwork for streamlined processes, enhanced teamwork, and continuous progress.

What Are the Three Pillars of Scrum?

The three pillars of Scrum shape the underlying agile principles of the Scrum methodology, fostering efficiency and adaptability in project management. Scrum, known for its empirical process framework, revolves around three core pillars: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. 

Transparency

At the heart of Scrum lies transparency, an overarching principle that centers on open and unobstructed communication. By promoting clear and candid information-sharing across all project stakeholders, transparency is the core of trust and collaboration. 

How to Ensure Transparency in Scrum

Transparency manifests in various facets of Scrum, including:

• Sprint Backlog : This dynamic list encompasses tasks committed to within a sprint, fostering clarity on the team's focus.
• Product Backlog : A prioritized catalog of features and requirements, aligning the team with project goals.
• Sprint Review : A platform to showcase accomplished work, enabling stakeholders to evaluate and provide valuable feedback.
• Definition of Done (DoD) : A crystal-clear set of criteria that define task completion, eliminating ambiguity.

Leveraging Jira's Scrum Template and Confluence's sprint planning template can help your team streamline documentation, facilitate effective communication, and maintain the three pillars of Scrum. 

Jira is trusted by thousands of scrum teams to visualize, prioritize, and track work from sprint to sprint while Confluence gives everyone on your team a single source of truth for integrated documentation management. 

Jira’s Scrum template provides a structured framework for documenting sprint goals, progress, and changes in a clear and organized manner, making it easier for teams to maintain transparency, conduct inspections, and adapt to evolving project needs. By using Jira and Confluence together, teams can significantly enhance their adherence to the three pillars of Scrum.

Benefits of Transparency in Scrum

Transparency in Scrum offers several key benefits for software teams, including:

• Informed Decision-Making : When all team members and stakeholders have access to up-to-date and accurate information, they can make well-informed decisions that align with project goals.
• Early Issue Detection : Transparent communication exposes issues and roadblocks early in the development process, allowing teams to address them promptly before they escalate.
• Improved Accountability : Clear visibility into each team member's tasks and progress promotes accountability and encourages individuals to take ownership of their work.
• Stakeholder Engagement : Transparent reporting keeps stakeholders engaged and invested in the project's outcome, leading to better collaboration and shared commitment.
• Risk Management : Transparent processes enable teams to identify and manage potential risks, minimizing their impact on project timelines and outcomes.

Inspection, the second pillar, revolves around consistent evaluation and review.  Teams can identify deviations through regular assessments, fostering improvement and maintaining a trajectory toward project success.

Frequent Inspection Points in Scrum

Scrum emphasizes regular and frequent inspection of the project's progress and the product itself. These inspection points occur during:

• Sprint Planning : At the start of each sprint, teams examine the product backlog and collaboratively determine the work to undertake in the upcoming sprint.
• Daily Stand-ups : Daily stand-up meetings provide a platform for team members to inspect their progress, share updates, and identify impediments.
• Sprint Review : At the end of each sprint, the team presents the completed work to stakeholders for inspection and feedback.
• Sprint Retrospective : After the sprint review, the team holds an agile retrospective to examine their processes, identify what went well and what needs improvement, and devise strategies for enhancement. 

How Inspection Leads to Continuous Improvement

Inspection is a driving force behind continual improvement in Scrum. By regularly examining the product and the process, teams can make informed adjustments to their process. 

The iterative nature of Scrum ensures that each inspection point feeds into the next sprint, allowing for incremental enhancements and the incorporation of stakeholder feedback.

Adaptation, the third core principle of Scrum, goes hand-in-hand with inspection. Once the team has inspected the product and process, they adapt their strategies based on the insights gained. As teams uncover new information and gain a deeper understanding of their project's dynamics, they are empowered to make nimble course corrections. 

Whether it's adjusting the sprint backlog mid-sprint, adapting daily plans based on emerging challenges, or refining strategies based on feedback received during the sprint review, adaptability is central to Scrum's success. In the following sections, we’ll explore how adaptation impacts the various stages of Scrum and how it leads to improved product quality, customer satisfaction, and overall project success.

How Adaptation Is Implemented in Scrum

Adaptation plays a pivotal role in Scrum, and it can be effectively utilized in various stages of the Scrum process. Let’s take a look at how teams can implement adaptation and how Jira can assist in visualizing and managing these stages:

• Sprint Backlog Adjustments : During the sprint, if new insights or changes emerge, the team can adapt the sprint backlog to accommodate them. Jira allows teams to create a dedicated Scrum Board for their sprint backlog, making it easy to track changes, prioritize tasks, and ensure that the backlog aligns with the evolving project requirements.
• Daily Stand-up Adaptations : Daily stand-up meetings provide a platform for team members to adapt their plans for the day based on progress and any impediments. By configuring a custom workflow in Jira, teams can visualize the status of tasks, identify bottlenecks, and make real-time adjustments during these daily stand-ups, fostering agility and collaboration.
• Sprint Review Feedback : Feedback gathered during the sprint review guides adaptations for upcoming sprints. With Jira, teams can set up a cross project board specifically for sprint reviews and retrospectives. This dual-board approach facilitates a smooth transition from reviewing feedback to planning adaptations, ensuring that valuable insights are translated into actionable improvements.

The benefits of adaptation are multifaceted, encompassing alignment with changing demands, a culture of innovation, the product development process, early issue detection, and resource optimization. By harnessing Jira’s capabilities to visualize and manage these adaptation stages across dedicated boards, teams can enhance their Scrum practices, boost transparency, and maximize their potential for delivering successful outcomes.

Benefits of Adaptation in Scrum

Adaptation in Scrum yields several advantages:

• Flexibility : Adapting to changing requirements or unexpected challenges enhances the team's flexibility and responsiveness.
• Enhanced Quality : Continuous adaptation allows for incorporating feedback, leading to higher product quality and user satisfaction.
• Optimized Processes : By adapting processes based on retrospective findings, teams refine their workflows and become more efficient over time.
• Customer Satisfaction : Adaptation ensures that the product aligns with customer needs, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

Embrace The Three Pillars of Scrum with The Right Tools

The three pillars of Scrum stand as integral guidelines for successful project management. With transparency, inspection, and adaptation at the forefront, teams navigate complexities and uncertainties with agility, fostering a culture of innovation.

Capitalizing on Atlassian's offerings—Jira and Confluence—teams can streamline processes, centralize documentation, and cultivate collaboration. The Scrum template in Jira and the plethora of templates in Confluence enable teams to seamlessly implement Scrum's core tenets. Jira is a dynamic project management and issue-tracking tool that empowers teams to plan, execute, and monitor their projects efficiently. It provides a dedicated Scrum template tailored to Scrum teams, offering features like sprint planning, backlog management, burndown charts, and real-time reporting. With Jira, teams can easily visualize their sprint progress, identify bottlenecks, and adapt to changing requirements, all while maintaining transparency and alignment with Scrum principles.

Confluence , on the other hand, serves as a collaborative workspace where teams can create, store, and share project documentation. Its diverse range of templates, including sprint planning templates, retrospectives, and meeting notes templates, makes it an invaluable asset for Scrum teams. Confluence's collaborative capabilities facilitate open communication, ensuring that every team member is informed and engaged, thereby reinforcing the pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation.

Together, Jira and Confluence form a powerful duo that enhances project management practices, allowing Scrum teams to focus on delivering value to stakeholders and continuously improving their processes.

3 Pillars of Scrum: Frequently Asked Questions

How can stakeholders contribute to the three pillars of scrum.

Stakeholders play a pivotal role by offering clear requirements, engaging in regular feedback loops, and empowering the Scrum team. Their contributions are vital to ensuring that Scrum's core principles are upheld.

Key stakeholders can further enhance the three pillars of Scrum by actively participating in sprint reviews, where they gain insight into progress and provide valuable feedback. By collaborating closely with the Scrum team and fostering open communication, stakeholders help maintain transparency, inspection, and adaptation as fundamental aspects of successful Scrum projects.

What techniques bolster collaboration and communication for Scrum's pillars?

Effective techniques include daily stand-up meetings, sprint planning meetings, and review sessions. The three Scrum pillars also foster a culture of open communication by encouraging a shared understanding of goals. To further enhance collaboration and communication within Scrum teams, it's essential to promote continuous dialogue and information sharing. Team members should actively engage in discussions, seek clarification when needed, and ensure that information flows freely among all stakeholders. By embracing a mindset of openness and inclusivity, Scrum teams can strengthen the pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation, ultimately leading to more successful projects.

Can Scrum be integrated with other methodologies that have different pillars?

Yes, Scrum can harmonize with diverse methodologies like Scrumban through careful development process integration and adaptation. 

Atlassian's Jira is designed to support all agile methodologies.  With a robust project management feature set and custom workflows, software teams and business teams can build their tool to match real-world practices, whether that’s Scrum, Kanban, or any flavor of agile. With Jira as the backbone of collaboration, all teams can stay in lockstep with each other and the rest of the organization.

Jira expands collaboration possibilities beyond software development teams. It unites teams from different parts of the company under one platform, promoting cross-functional collaboration while using the same tool, so organizations can easily align scrum principles with various aspects of their operations.

Jira provides the technical foundation and adaptability needed to harmoniously integrate Scrum with other methodologies, making cross-domain collaboration a streamlined process and enabling project management success.

What is Scrum? [+ How to Start]

Scrum is an agile project management framework that is frequently used by agile software development teams. Learn about agile vs scrum and more.

Agile Project Management for Software Teams

Agile project management is an iterative approach to managing software development projects that focuses on continuous releases and customer feedback.

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Scrum Methodology Explained: An Introduction for Agile Teams

• 11 mins read

• Updated on July 9, 2024

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What is Scrum?

Scrum is a widely used framework for managing complex projects, particularly in the realm of software development. At its core, Scrum promotes a collaborative approach to work, emphasizing teamwork, transparency, and adaptability. Unlike traditional project management methods that rely on detailed upfront planning, Scrum operates on the principle of iteration and continuous improvement.

In Scrum, work is organized into short iterations known as “sprints,” typically lasting one to four weeks. During each sprint, the team focuses on delivering a small, tangible piece of the overall project, known as an increment. Regular meetings, such as daily stand-ups and sprint reviews, keep the team aligned and ensure progress is on track. By breaking the work into manageable chunks and prioritizing flexibility and responsiveness, Scrum enables teams to adapt quickly to changing requirements and deliver high-quality products efficiently.

At its heart, Scrum aims to fulfill customer needs through transparent communication, shared responsibility, and a commitment to ongoing improvement. Beginning with a high-level project concept, it refines this vision into a prioritized list of features (known as the product backlog) that align with the product owner’s objectives. This agile approach has become a cornerstone in the world of software development, driving innovation and customer satisfaction.

Learn Scrum:

A brief history on scrum.

The history of Scrum can be traced back to 1986 in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) article titled, “The New Product Development Game” by Hirotaka Takeuchi & Ikujiro Nonaka. This article describes how companies such as Honda, Canon, and Fuji-Xerox produce new products worldwide using a scalable and team-based approach to product development. This approach emphasizes the importance of empowering self-organized teams.

In 1993, Jeff Sutherland and his team at Easel Corporation created the Scrum process to be used in software development processes by combining the concepts of the 1986 article with the concepts of object-oriented development, empirical process control, iterative development and incremental, software processes and productivity improvement, as well as the development of complex and dynamic systems.

Scrum Methodology & Process

Scrum is precisely an evolution of Agile Management. Scrum methodology is based on a set of very defined practices and roles that must be involved during the software development process. It is a flexible methodology that rewards the application of the 12 agile principles in a context agreed by all the team members of the product.

Scrum is executed in temporary blocks that are short and periodic, called Sprints, which usually range from 2 to 4 weeks, which is the term for feedback and reflection. Each Sprint is an entity in itself, that is, it provides a complete result, a variation of the final product that must be able to be delivered to the client with the least possible effort when requested.

The process has as a starting point, a list of objectives/ requirements that make up the project plan . It is the client of the project that prioritizes these objectives considering a balance of the value and the cost thereof, that is how the iterations and consequent deliveries are determined.

On the one hand the market demands quality, fast delivery at lower costs, for which a company must be very agile and flexible in the development of products, to achieve short development cycles that can meet the demand of customers without undermining the quality of the result. It is a very easy methodology to implement and very popular for the quick results it gets.

Scrum methodology is used mainly for software development, but other sectors are also taking advantage of its benefits by implementing this methodology in their organizational models such as sales, marketing, & HR teams, etc.

Nimble Agile offers specialized Scrum features, so teams can optimize their Sprint planning and execution. Nimble facilitates efficient backlog management, task allocation, and progress monitoring, streamlining the management of each Sprint.

Different Roles in Scrum

“Doing half of something is, essentially, doing nothing.” Jeff Sutherland Tweet

The Scrum team consists of the following roles:

Product owner (PO)

Is the representative of the stakeholders and customers who use the software. They focus on the business part and is responsible for the ROI of the project. They Translate the vision of the project to the team, validate the benefits in stories to be incorporated into the Product Backlog and prioritize them on a regular basis.

Scrum master

The person who leads the team guiding them to comply with the rules and processes of the methodology. Scrum master manages the reduction of impediments of the project and works with the Product Owner to maximize the ROI. The Scrum Master is in charge of keeping Scrum up to date, providing coaching, mentoring and training to the teams in case it needs it.

“It is the Scrum Master’s job to guide the team toward continuous improvement – to ask with regularity, “How can we do what we do better?” Jeff Sutherland Tweet

Scrum Team 

A group of professionals with the necessary technical knowledge who develop the project jointly carrying out the stories they commit to at the start of each sprint.

Benefits of Scrum Methodology

Scrum has many advantages over other agile development methodologies. It is currently the most used and trusted framework of reference in the software industry. Below are some of the known benefits of Scrum: 

Easily Scalable:  Scrum processes are iterative and are handled within specific work periods, which makes it easier for the team to focus on definite functionalities for each period. This not only has the benefit of achieving better deliverables in line with the needs of the user, but also gives the ability to the teams to scale the modules in terms of functionality, design, scope and characteristics in an orderly, transparent and simple manner.

Compliance of expectations:  The client establishes their expectations indicating the value that each requirement/ history of the project brings, the team estimates them and with this information the Product Owner establishes its priority. On a regular basis, in the sprint demos, the Product Owner verifies that the requirements have been met and transmits feedback to the team.

Flexible to changes:  Quick reaction to changes in requirements generated by customer needs or market developments. The methodology is designed to adapt to the changing requirements that complex projects entail.

Time to Market reduction:  The client can start using the most important functionalities of the project before the product is completely ready.

Higher software quality:  The working method and the need to obtain a functional version after each iteration, helps to obtain a higher quality software.

Timely Prediction:   Using this methodology, we know the average speed of the team by sprint (story points), with which, consequently, it is possible to estimate when a certain functionality that is still in the backlog will be available.

Reduction of risks:   The fact of carrying out the most valuable functionalities in the first place and of knowing the speed with which the team advances in the project, allows to clear risks effectively in advance.

Scrum Ceremonies/ Events

In the world of Scrum, ceremonies, often referred to as events, are integral components that structure the work process. These meticulously planned gatherings serve as key waypoints throughout the project’s journey, promoting collaboration, transparency, and effectiveness. Let’s delve into what Scrum ceremonies are, their significance, and the core events that shape the Scrum framework:

Defining Scrum Ceremonies:

Scrum ceremonies, in essence, are pre-defined meetings or events held at specific times during a Sprint, which is a time-boxed iteration of work. These events provide various opportunities for the Scrum Team to inspect progress, adapt strategies, and ensure that the product is on the right track to meet the Sprint Goal. Scrum ceremonies are designed to be brief but effective, fostering open communication, alignment, and continuous improvement.

How Scrum Ceremonies Help:

👉 Fostering Collaboration: By bringing the Scrum Team and stakeholders together, Scrum ceremonies create an environment for effective collaboration. They offer designated spaces for discussions, decision-making, and problem-solving.

👉 Ensuring Transparency: Scrum values transparency, and ceremonies are the stages where transparency is realized. They make the progress and challenges visible to all stakeholders, thereby aligning everyone with the project’s status.

👉 Adhering to Time-Boxing: Each ceremony has a defined duration, ensuring that discussions and planning don’t drag on endlessly. This time-boxing enforces discipline and punctuality.

👉 Inspecting and Adapting: Scrum ceremonies are all about inspecting the work done, collecting feedback, and adapting plans and processes accordingly. They support a culture of continuous improvement.

Core Scrum Ceremonies:

Sprint Planning: At the beginning of each Sprint, the Scrum Team conducts a Sprint Planning meeting. This event focuses on setting the Sprint Goal and selecting items from the Product Backlog to work on during the Sprint.

Daily Scrum: The Daily Scrum, or Daily Standup, is a brief, daily event where the Development Team synchronizes its activities. Each member shares what they’ve worked on, what they plan to do, and any impediments they’re facing.

Sprint Review: After the Sprint, the Scrum Team holds a Sprint Review to showcase the work completed during the Sprint. Stakeholders provide feedback, and the Product Backlog is adjusted as needed.

Sprint Retrospective : The Sprint Retrospective takes place after the Sprint Review and is a reflective event. The Scrum Team inspects its processes and identifies improvements for the next Sprint.

Backlog Refinement: While not an official ceremony, Backlog Refinement involves regularly refining and clarifying the Product Backlog to prepare items for future Sprints.

Scrum ceremonies are the rhythmic heartbeats of the Scrum framework. They encourage collaboration, maintain transparency, and facilitate the essential processes of planning, inspecting, and adapting. By adhering to these ceremonies, the Scrum Team harnesses the power of structured events to deliver high-quality products and continuously enhance their performance.

Scrum Artifacts

Scrum Artifacts are designed to guarantee the transparency of key information in decision making.

Product Backlog (PB):  The product backlog is a list that collects everything the product needs to satisfy the potential customers. It is prepared by the product owner and the functions are prioritized according to what is more and less important for the business. The goal is for the product owner to answer the question “What should be done”.

Sprint Backlog (SB):  It is a subset of items of the product backlog, which are selected by the team to perform during the sprint on which they are going to work. The team establishes the duration of each Sprint. Usually the sprint backlog, is displayed on physical boards called as Scrum board – that makes the development process visible to everyone who enters the development area.

Increment:  The Increment is the sum of all the tasks, use cases, user stories, product backlogs and any element that was developed during the sprint and that will be made available to the end user in the form of Software.

Planning in Scrum

The Sprint Planning Meeting is held at the beginning of each Sprint. All the members of the Team participate in the meeting, i.e., the Product Owner, Scrum Master and all the Development Team. The entire Scrum team must understand and define what objective should be obtained in that Sprint (Sprint Goal). From this point the development team must design a work plan to achieve the objective. This planning should allow you to see if the sprint goal involves a workload according to the duration stipulated for the Sprints (which is 2 to 4 weeks).

The client shows the result to be achieved in that Sprint and the requirements of the deliverable product. Here you have to carry out a discussion in which the development team evaluates what elements of the list can be delivered.

Both the Scrum Master and the Product Owner must collaborate to clarify any aspect of the requirements. Finally, the development team must explain how they will organize the team’s work to achieve the Sprint goal.

Agile vs. Scrum

When it comes to Agile and Scrum, it’s crucial to understand their distinct roles in the realm of project management and software development. Here’s a breakdown of their differences:

👉 Philosophy: Agile is primarily a philosophical approach, emphasizing values and principles such as customer collaboration, flexibility, and responding to change. It’s a mindset and guiding philosophy.

👉 Methodology Adaptability: Agile is a broader methodology and mindset that encompasses various frameworks, with Scrum being one of them. It’s a set of guiding principles for project management and product development.

👉 Flexibility: Agile prioritizes flexibility, adaptability, and responding to change. It’s not tied to a specific set of practices and can be tailored to suit different project needs.

👉 Iterative and Incremental: Agile promotes iterative and incremental development, allowing teams to work on small portions of a project in cycles. This facilitates constant feedback and adaptation.

👉 Customer-Centric: Agile places strong emphasis on delivering value to the customer. It’s highly customer-centric, focusing on customer collaboration and responding to customer needs.

👉 Framework: Scrum is a specific framework that falls under the Agile umbrella. It provides concrete practices and guidelines for organizing work.

👉 Roles and Artifacts: Scrum introduces roles like Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team, along with specific artifacts like the Product Backlog and Sprint Backlog. These offer a structured approach to project management.

👉 Time-Boxed Sprints: Scrum divides the project into time-boxed iterations called “Sprints,” usually lasting 2-4 weeks. This fixed timeframe promotes discipline and regular inspection of progress.

👉 Scalability: While Scrum is widely used in software development, it may not be as easily scalable to other industries. It’s particularly effective for small to medium-sized teams and projects.

Which One to Choose:

Selecting between Agile and Scrum depends on your project’s unique requirements. Agile provides a more adaptable, flexible approach, making it suitable for various industries. It’s a philosophical foundation that can guide your project management efforts. In contrast, Scrum offers a concrete framework with defined roles and processes, ideal for software development projects seeking structure and efficiency.

In summary, Scrum is a specific framework that operates within the broader philosophy of Agile, offering a structured approach to getting work done. The choice between the two depends on your project’s nature, your team’s experience, and your organization’s goals. It’s also worth noting that some teams use Agile and Scrum together, merging the adaptability of Agile with the structure of Scrum to strike the perfect balance.

Getting Started with Scrum: Your Roadmap to Success

Transitioning to Scrum can be an exciting journey that revolutionizes your team’s approach to work. Whether you’re a seasoned project manager or a newcomer to agile methodologies, embarking on the Scrum path requires careful planning and an understanding of its core principles.

Start by researching the fundamentals of Scrum and assembling your Scrum Team, including a Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team. Understand your product’s vision and build a Product Backlog – a prioritized list of features and enhancements. Define a specific goal for your first Sprint, select work items, and conduct daily stand-up meetings.

Host Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives, embrace a culture of continuous improvement, and align with Agile values. Seek guidance, consider Scrum software and tools, explore training and certifications, and be open to a transformative change in your work processes. With these foundational steps, you can kickstart your Scrum journey and leverage its potential to enhance collaboration, deliver value, and continuously improve your work methods.

Signup for a free trial of Nimble Agile  which supports Scrum processes with an integrated set of Scrum features and metrics – to help you gradually improve your processes.

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Scrum: The most popular Agile framework

The Scrum process is a popular Agile method that allows teams to focus on continuous improvement while building and iterating quickly. Keep reading as we examine what Scrum is, how it works, and how it can benefit every level of your organization.

If you work on or around product, engineering, or software development teams, you’ve likely heard the term Scrum before. Scrum is a framework designed for teams that build and iterate quickly, and implementing Scrum processes can help you work together to solve complex problems. 

Even if you’re not on a product, engineering, or software development team, you may still benefit from Scrum. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Scrum, including what it is and why it works so well.

What is Scrum?

The Scrum workflow breaks large projects into smaller fragments that your team can work on quickly and iteratively. Because the Scrum process builds off of itself and encourages iterative repetition, you can use Scrum to continuously improve upon your deliverables until the entire project is completed. 

The history of Scrum

“Scrum” as it exists today was first introduced in a 1986 Harvard Business Review article “The New New Product Development Game” , written by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka. Takeuchi and Nonaka took the name “Scrum” from rugby, explaining that “as in rugby, the ball gets passed within the team as it moves as a unit up the field.”

Scrum was further developed and codified by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland in 1995, when they published their Agile Manifesto and SCRUM Development Process .

Schwaber and Sutherland’s Scrum was partly a rejection of the waterfall model of software development. In the waterfall model, projects are broken into sequential phases, where each phase’s deliverables unlock the next phase of work. Schwaber and Sutherland believed software developers could benefit from a more flexible, iterative approach that allowed them to continuously respond and adapt to their environment in order to build the best product for their customers.

Since their initial publication, Schwaber and Sutherland have published the Scrum Guide —a living document they update on a regular basis. According to the Scrum Guide, Scrum encourages “teams to take a look at how effective their work techniques are, and challenges teams to continuously evolve and improve them.”

How the Scrum process works

Traditionally, Scrum is run in a sprint, which are usually two-week-long working sessions with specific deliverables due at the end. 

There are two additional Scrum events:

Daily standups. As the name suggests, daily standups happen once a day. These are an opportunity for the Scrum team to connect for 15 minutes and coordinate daily activities. 

Sprint retrospective. This occurs once the sprint is over. During the sprint retrospective, which will be run by the Scrum master , the team has a chance to reflect on their sprint and make adjustments for future sprints.

The most important thing to know if you’re going to run a Scrum process is that the Scrum framework relies on a system of continuous improvement. In Scrum, you recognize you might not know anything at the start of a sprint—and you can adjust your processes and needs as needed based on the information you gain during the sprint process.

Scrum events

Scrum events, or ceremonies , are the recurring elements of each sprint. Each event serves a specific purpose to ensure the sprints are structured and productive. 

1. Organize your backlog. To begin a Scrum sprint, your team lead will identify what work to pull from your product backlog —i.e., work that needs to be done. In order to have the best Scrum sprint possible, make sure you have your product backlog clearly documented in one place. Consider using a project management tool to organize all of this information.

2. Hold a sprint planning session. Before you can start your Scrum sprint, you need to know what you’ll be focusing on and why. In this stage, you’ll define the sprint goals and convey to your team why the sprint is valuable to shareholders. From there, you’ll determine which sprint backlog tasks you’ll tackle during this specific Scrum sprint and how the work will get done.  To get started, try our free sprint planning template .

3. Start your Scrum sprint. Typically, a sprint is two weeks long, though you can have shorter or longer sprints depending on what works best for your team. During your sprint, your team will work on the items from your backlog that you’ve outlined during your sprint planning session.

4. Host daily Scrum standups. Plan to meet with your Scrum team for 15 minutes every day. Daily standup meetings are your chance to debrief about what you’re working on and triage any unexpected blockers you may have run into. To run the most effective daily standup, try our free daily standup template .

5. Present your work during the sprint review. Once you’ve finished your Scrum sprint, your team should come together for a sprint review. During this time, your Scrum team will present the work that’s “Done” for stakeholder approval or inspection.

6. Connect and reflect during the sprint retrospective. After your sprint is over, take some time to discuss how it went and what could be improved in the future. Remember that Scrum believes in a process of continuous improvement—so don’t be afraid to try new processes or rework strategies that feel less effective during your next sprint. Try our free sprint retrospective template to guide your next meeting.

While these events may seem repetitive, it’s important to include them in every sprint, especially if you’re new to Scrum. By doing so, you’ll ensure that all departments are on the same page and all feedback has been addressed. The events are designed to keep the sprints moving quickly and smoothly. 

Scrum artifacts

In Scrum, an artifact is something you make, like a tool to solve a problem. There are three artifacts in Scrum: the product backlog, the sprint backlog, and the product increment.

Product backlog

The product backlog is the master list of work that needs to be done. This list should be triaged by the project manager or product owner. Note that just because something is in the product backlog doesn’t mean your team will work on it—rather, items in the product backlog are options that your team can work on during a Scrum sprint. The project owners should frequently reorder and refresh the product backlog, based on new information from customers, from the market, or from the project team.

Sprint backlog

The sprint backlog is the collection of work or products your team has committed to for the duration of a Scrum sprint. These items are chosen from the product backlog during the sprint planning session, and moved to your team’s sprint planning project if you have one.

Your team may not deliver everything in the backlog during every sprint, but it’s unlikely that you’ll add to the sprint backlog mid-sprint. If you find yourself doing that frequently, spend more time on the sprint planning phase so you have a concrete idea of what you’ll be working on during your sprint.

Product increment

The product increment is what you will deliver at the end of a sprint. This can be a new product or feature, an improvement or bug fix, or anything else depending on your team. Plan to present your increment during the sprint review. At that point, it will ship or not ship based on what the Scrum stakeholders think about the increment and whether it is “Done.”

In Scrum, nothing is perfect, because your team is flexible and iteratively improving. So “Done” doesn’t mean “this can’t get better”—but rather that your Scrum team will stop working on it, for now.

For example, here are a few definitions of “Done” for different Scrum teams:

Product is ready to be released.

Product has been tested and is ready to be released in a beta environment.

Product has been acceptance tested and is releasable to all users.

No matter what your team’s definition of “Done” is, make sure everyone is on the same page. Once you have your definition, it’s helpful to keep it in a central source of truth and reference it frequently, especially during your sprint review.

Scrum roles

In Scrum, team members are assigned to three specific roles: product owner, Scrum master, and Scrum team. These roles are used to assign specific tasks to team members. 

Product owner

This is the person in charge of the product backlog. They’re connected to the user needs and focused on telling the story to their team and other executive stakeholders. Good product owners bring clarity about what’s most important to deliver next. Ultimately, they should be the person deciding when something is ready to ship (with a bias toward shipping frequently). 

Scrum master

The Scrum master is the person running the various Scrum events. Think of them as the Scrum project manager and facilitator. The Scrum master should facilitate the daily standup meetings and host the sprint planning, review, and retrospective meetings. 

The Scrum team is everyone who is working on the sprint. Team members should be self-organizing and collaborative in order to achieve the Scrum goal of continuous improvement. 

The 6 Scrum principles

Scrum also relies upon six basic principles to ensure the team maintains focus and keeps projects on track. The six principles are: 

Control over the empirical process. Scrum teams believe in transparency, inspection, and adaptation.

Self-organization. Though your Scrum team will have roles and rules, every Scrum member is empowered to take ownership of their tasks and their work. Scrum believes that shared ownership leads to more creative and dynamic teams.

Collaboration . Your team will deliver the best results if you work together during and after the Scrum sprint.

Value-based prioritization. The goal of a Scrum sprint is to deliver the best business value. In order to do that, you have to prioritize your work from the very onset of the Scrum process.

Timeboxing. The Scrum process has various time-based activities, such as the sprint itself, daily standups, and the retrospective. Because Scrum works on a belief of continuous improvement, it’s important to timebox work in order to move on to the next task and improve future work.

Iterative development. In Scrum, your first product won’t be perfect. But by building iteratively, your team will be most able to adapt to customer needs and modify the product and your outputs based on value-based prioritization.

The 5 values of Scrum

In order to benefit from Scrum, teams need to adhere to the five main Scrum values , as defined in the Scrum Guide:

Commitment: The Scrum team is a unit—and team members need to trust one another. Scrum team members are committed to the sprint for its duration, and dedicated to continuous improvement in order to find the best solution.

Courage: During a Scrum, the team might encounter difficult problems that have no exact answer. Scrum teams have courage in asking open, difficult questions and answering honestly in order to arrive at the best solution.

Focus: During any given Scrum sprint, the Scrum team will work from a product backlog. The Scrum team is focused on the work they’ve chosen from the backlog in order to hit their deliverables by the end of the sprint.

Openness: Not everything will go perfectly during Scrum. Scrum team members must be open to new ideas and opportunities that both help them individually learn and can help improve their product or process.

Respect: Collaboration is the key to Scrum—and in order to support team collaboration, team members have to respect one another, the Scrum master, and the Scrum process.

What is the difference between Scrum and Agile?

Scrum is one of the most popular Agile methodologies . If you use Scrum, you’re an Agile team. But the Scrum framework has additional roles and systems to help teams be agile.

Agile and Scrum teams work toward continuous improvement. But unlike Agile, which is more of a philosophy or framework, Scrum establishes specific ways teams can continuously improve—through tools like sprints, standups, and retrospectives.

Kanban vs. Scrum

While the Kanban framework is also a subset of Agile like Scrum, the two methodologies serve different purposes. 

Kanban tools help your team visualize work moving through different stages until completion. Scrum, on the other hand, focuses on chunks of a deliverable in a short period of time, rather than the entire project. The Kanban cycle is also continuous whereas a Scrum sprint typically lasts only one to four weeks. 

Oftentimes, teams that use Scrum do so on Kanban boards, though doing so isn’t a requirement of the Scrum framework. You can also combine the Scrum and Kanban methodologies into Scrumban .

Should my team use Scrum?

Scrum isn’t for everyone—but it’s also not just limited to product, software development, and engineering teams. Any team can adopt the Scrum framework and use continuous improvement to get great work done. Here are some pros and cons of using Scrum:

Benefits of the Scrum methodology

Scrum is most effective for teams that need to build and ship things frequently—whether those are traditional “products” like code or new features, or more atypical Scrum “products” like marketing campaigns or creative assets. Some specific benefits include:

Easily adaptable: Scrum is designed to adapt to lessons learned from previous sprint cycles and market changes. 

Clear expectations: Because the Scrum framework assigns specific roles and responsibilities to each member of the Scrum team, there’s no doubt as to what a certain team member should be working on during a sprint. 

Prioritizes ROI: Especially true for software development teams, Scrum prioritizes tasks that will have a more significant impact on ROI. Since the process is done in increments, companies can release more impactful portions first. 

Lowers risk: Scrum lessens the chances of significant mistakes by working in increments and accounting for feedback during the sprints. With this structure in place, it’s less likely that mistakes will slip through the cracks. 

Scrum limitations

Scrum projects can frequently suffer from scope creep because the Scrum process embraces and encourages change. If too much changes or you get too many discordant pieces of customer feedback, you may be iterating over and over without any real results.

Solution: Make sure to clearly define each sprint’s objectives and increment. Additionally, make sure your entire Scrum team is clear on what “Done” means, so they don’t work past “Done.” If necessary, implement a change control process to avoid these issues.

Scrum teams have a lot of meetings—in addition to the regularly scheduled sprint planning and sprint review, Scrum teams also meet daily for a standup.

Solution: If your daily Scrum meetings don’t feel helpful, find a way to switch them up. Allow different team members to lead Scrum meetings in order to get new perspectives on projects and processes. 

Scrum can be hard (though not impossible) to implement if you’re not on a product, engineering, or software development team.

Solution: If your team decides to use Scrum, make sure to clarify exactly how Scrum processes are going to help you. If possible, identify current pain points and align them with Scrum events that may help. Additionally, plan to have several training sessions during your first few Scrum sprints in order to help your team succeed.

Get started with Scrum

The best Scrum teams are collaborative, iterative groups that have clarity into what they’re working on for every sprint. In order to do that, you need a central source of truth for your work, like Asana .

Related resources

What is technical debt and how to pay it off (with examples)

6 ways to develop adaptability in the workplace and embrace change

Burndown chart: What it is and how to use it (with example)

What are story points? Six easy steps to estimate work in Agile

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What is Scrum?

Scrum is a management framework that teams use to self-organize and work towards a common goal. It describes a set of meetings, tools, and roles for efficient project delivery. Much like a sports team practicing for a big match, Scrum practices allow teams to self-manage, learn from experience, and adapt to change. Software teams use Scrum to solve complex problems cost effectively and sustainably. 

What is Scrum methodology?

Certain principles and values characterize Scrum methodology: 

Scrum principles for project success

Transparency.

Teams work in an environment where everyone is aware of the challenges that others might be experiencing. Regular face-to-face conversations between cross-functional team members and project owners prevent miscommunication and information bottlenecks.

Frequent reflection points are built into the framework to allow team members to review their progress. Project managers use insights from these review meetings for estimation and future planning. As a result, projects can run more efficiently, within budget, and on schedule.

Team members can reprioritize tasks based on changing customer requirements. They decide which tasks to complete first and which to revisit in the future.

Scrum values for project teams

Scrum Teams follow five core values.

Scrum Team members are committed to time-based tasks and goals and are dedicated to continuous improvement to find the best solution.

Scrum Teams show courage by asking open, challenging questions. They have honest and transparent discussions to arrive at the best solution.

During any given period, team members will work from a Product Backlog of tasks. They will focus on the selected tasks to provide deliverables within a limited time frame.

Scrum Team members are open to new ideas and opportunities that support individual learning and overall project quality.

Team members respect the project managers, each other, and the Scrum process. This culture of respect creates a spirit of mutual collaboration and cooperation within the team.

How does Scrum work?

Scrum is a framework that is easy to learn but difficult to become an expert in. The co-creators of scrum, Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, have explained the underlying concepts in The Scrum Guide . The guide gives a detailed overview of scrum processes and how to implement them effectively. The essence of Scrum is a self-organizing team delivering customer value in a time-boxed period called a Sprint . Scrum defines artifacts, roles, and events associated with each Sprint. Let’s look at each of these in detail.

What are Scrum artifacts?

Scrum Teams use tools called Scrum artifacts to solve problems and manage projects. Scrum artifacts provide critical planning and task information to team members and stakeholders. There are three primary artifacts:

Product Backlog

The Product Backlog is a dynamic list of features, requirements, enhancements, and fixes that must be completed for project success. It is essentially the team’s to-do list, which is constantly revisited and reprioritized to adapt to market changes. The product owner maintains and updates the list, removing irrelevant items or adding new requests from customers.

Sprint Backlog

The Sprint Backlog is the list of items to be completed by the development team in the current Sprint cycle. Before each Sprint, the team chooses which items it will work on from the Product Backlog. A Sprint Backlog is flexible and can evolve during a Sprint.

The Increment is a step towards a goal or vision. It is the usable end product from a Sprint. Teams can adopt different methods to define and demonstrate their Sprint Goals. Despite the flexibility, the fundamental Sprint Goal—what the team wants to achieve from the current Sprint—can’t be compromised. For example, some teams choose to release something to their customers at the end of the Sprint, so their Sprint Goal would be completed once the software change is released. Other teams might work on completing a set of features that will be released together. In this case, the Sprint Goal would be completed when a feature is tested successfully. 

What are Scrum roles?

A Scrum Team needs three specific roles: a Product Owner, Scrum leader, and development team.

Product Owner

The Product Owner focuses on ensuring the development team delivers the most value to the business. They understand and prioritize the changing needs of end users and customers. Effective product owners do the following:

• Give the team clear guidance on which features to deliver next.
• Bridge the gap between what the business wants and what the team understands.
• Decide when and how frequently releases should happen.

Scrum leader

• Schedule the resources needed for each Sprint.
• Facilitate other Sprint events and team meetings.
• Lead digital transformation within the team.
• Facilitate any team training when adopting new technologies.
• Communicate with external groups to solve any challenges the team might be facing as a whole.

Scrum development team

The Scrum Team consists of testers, designers, UX specialists, Ops engineers, and developers. Team members have different skill sets and cross-train each other, so no one person becomes a bottleneck in delivering work.  Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, recommends the two-pizza rule when deciding team size:A team should be small enough to share two pizzas. 

Scrum development teams do the following:

• Work collaboratively to ensure a successful Sprint completion.
• Champion sustainable development practices.
• Self-organize and approach their projects with an evident we attitude.
• Drive the planning and estimating for how much work they can complete for each Sprint.

What are Scrum events?

Scrum events or Scrum ceremonies are a set of sequential meetings that Scrum Teams perform regularly. Some Scrum events include the following:

Sprint Planning

In this event, the team estimates the work to be completed in the next Sprint. Members define Sprint Goals that are specific, measurable, and attainable. At the end of the planning meeting, every Scrum member knows how each Increment can be delivered in the Sprint.

A Sprint is the actual time period when the Scrum Team works together to finish an Increment. Two weeks is the typical length for a Sprint but can vary depending on the needs of the project and the team. The more complex the work and the more unknowns, the shorter the Sprint should be.

Daily Scrum or stand-up

A Daily Scrum is a short meeting in which team members check in and plan for the day. They report on work completed and voice any challenges in meeting Sprint Goals. It is called a stand-up because it aims to keep the meeting as short as practical—like when everybody is standing.

Sprint Review

At the end of the Sprint, the team gets together for an informal session to review the work completed and showcase it to stakeholders. The Product Owner might also rework the Product Backlog based on the current Sprint.

Sprint Retrospective

The team comes together to document and discuss what worked and what didn’t work during the Sprint. Ideas generated are used to improve future Sprints.

Why is Scrum important in software development?

All kinds of teams, such as HR, marketing, and design, use Scrum effectively. However, Scrum is more prevalent in software development and engineering teams. It allows teams to respond faster to changing requirements without letting costs and budgets spin out of control. It is important for the following reasons:

Ability to maintain quality in challenging situations

Quality assurance checks are built into the Scrum framework. Teams define requirements at the start of each Sprint. Teams also comprehensively assess the software or product life cycle while establishing a team vision of done. This means requirements remain relevant and achievable within a short time frame. Regular Product Owner feedback and Sprint reviews allow continuous team improvement throughout the project. 

Increased return on investment

Scrum Teams prioritize requirements based on customer value and risk analysis. The focus is on developing a primary working product that can be released to market to gather early customer feedback. Scrum development is characterized by fewer costly defects, team efficiency, and a fail-fast approach that saves money in the long run. 

Happier and more productive teams

Relevant metrics that improve estimation.

Scrum Teams choose their own metrics to measure project performance. They estimate timelines, budgets, and quality metrics based on their experience and capabilities. The Product Owner has control because estimates are relative. Teams get more support at the beginning of the project and naturally speed up over time. Project stakeholders review working products and provide regular feedback to ensure the project stays on track.

Scrum vs. agile—what is the difference?

Agile refers to a mindset or way of thinking in software development. It is a philosophy adopted at an organizational level to get every team member to focus on continuous improvement and value delivery to customers. Scrum is a framework for getting work done within agile. Scrum uses all the core principles of agile to define methods to facilitate a project.However, it is important to note that agile does not always mean Scrum. Many different methodologies take an agile approach to project management.

How can Scrum development teams adopt DevOps?

• Automating software testing and writing new tests for every feature development
• Using a technology stack and tools that support continuous deployment
• Releasing changes to production at the end of each Sprint

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What Is the Scrum Methodology?

What is scrum, scrum principles, roles on an agile scrum team, benefits of the scrum methodology.

• 2.  Guide to Scrum Sprints
• 3.  Scrum Sprint Planning
• 4.  The Complete Guide to Scrum Ceremonies
• 5.  The Ultimate Guide to Sprint Retrospectives
• 6.  Daily Scrum Meetings
• 7.  Scrum of Scrums Meeting
• 8.  Introduction to Scrum Team and Roles
• 9.  What Is a Scrum Product Owner?
• 10.  What Is a Scrum Master?
• 11.  Best Scrum Software and Tools for 2023
• 12.  A Complete Guide to Scrum Boards
• 13.  Scrum Glossary
• 14.  FAQs
• Scrum Guide

In the world of Agile project management , there are a number of approaches to choose from. Teams may apply a specific Agile framework based on the project type, length, scope, or requirements. For teams who need to deliver quickly and continuously, the Scrum methodology can be a solid way to apply Agile principles while delivering value to the customer or end-user. But what is Scrum, and what are the different processes, principles, and values needed to uphold this framework? 

If you’re new to Agile product development, read on because this guide will cover the Scrum methodology, Scrum principles, the main Scrum roles, and some of the benefits of choosing Scrum. We’ll begin with the definition of Scrum.

Scrum is a project management framework that provides a structure for fast-paced Agile teams to prioritize, manage, and execute work. This structure helps teams deliver value to customers, collaborate often and effectively, and solve pressing development issues. Scrum also facilitates an improved product delivery process. 

Scrum ceremonies, artifacts, and roles ensure a structured approach to Agile project management. Each meeting, role, and Scrum artifact acts as a piece of the puzzle, enabling teams to set priorities, continuously deliver, and problem-solve efficiently. 

Because of this, Agile Scrum product development is popular. According to a report from the project management institute, 55% of project managers confirmed that they use Scrum at least some of the time.

Scrum for Newbies: How to Use Scrum to Tame Chaos

Scrum vs. Kanban: The Ultimate Breakdown Guide

Scrum’s principles serve as guidelines for executing the Scrum methodology. They ensure that there is an understanding of the processes and dynamics of a Scrum environment . It is the Scrum master’s responsibility to uphold Scrum principles and values. Here’s a breakdown of the six Scrum principles. 

1. Empirical process control To remain effective, agile, and able to respond to change, Scrum relies on empirical process control. This means that the entire Scrum process is ruled by transparency, inspection, and adaptation. 

2. Self-organization The Scrum method encourages a level of independence from the Scrum team. When Scrum teams are described as “self-organizing,” this simply means that they manage their own tasks, solve problems independently, and are accountable to themselves and each other — rather than an outside manager. 

3. Time-boxing  Time-boxing is a practice where a fixed amount of time is allocated for certain activities or objectives. Time-boxing allows for activities to be completed in an optimal time frame without running too long. Time-boxing is ideal for setting time frames around activities like sprint planning and sprint retrospectives . 

4. Value-based prioritization To achieve value-based prioritization, items in the product backlog are constantly updated based on their value and importance to the end-user and stakeholders. 5. Iterative development  Because of its ongoing sprints, the objectives in product development are consistently reviewed and updated to create the best quality product and delivery process.  

6. Collaboration Scrum teams collaborate frequently and, sometimes, at great length. Daily standup meetings are an opportunity to collaborate and problem-solve, as are sprint reviews and retrospectives.

As mentioned earlier, the Scrum team’s goal is to build a quality product for the end-user. But who does the Scrum team consist of? The Scrum team consists of three roles. The product owner , Scrum master, and development team. Here’s a breakdown of each Scrum role and what they do. 

The product owner

The product owner is in charge of maximizing value. That means they’re not just concerned about the day-to-day work on the product or planning the sprint itself. Their job is to ensure that the interests of the stakeholders and customers are represented through the prioritization of the product backlog. The product owner also ensures that the deliverables meet evolving requirements. 

The Scrum master

The Scrum master is the person in charge of guiding the development team to be more self-sufficient. The Scrum master acts as a facilitator, ensuring all team members adhere to the principles and processes of the Agile Scrum methodology. 

As a guide, the Scrum master encourages the team to think of creative ways to tackle pressing impediments. This is achieved by constantly asking the right questions that will nudge them to come up with solutions.

The development team 

The development team is the brains behind the process. While they work with the support of the product owner and Scrum master, they have the necessary technical skills to build and deliver a great product.

Ideally, the development team consists of cross-functional team members, including QA testers, designers, and developers. To ensure optimal performance, the development team must observe Scrum best practices and rules during product development. 

Scrum methodology overview: What’s involved?

Many teams choose Scrum because it is ideal for project objectives that tend to change over time. Because of this, there’s a need for constant feedback and iterations at every stage of the product development. 

Ideally, the team applies Scrum processes based on a set of principles and values that must be acknowledged during the software development life cycle.

Scrum methodology includes:

• The product backlog 
• Sprint planning 
• A series of sprints that lead to a product increment and then a working product

The Product backlog

The product backlog includes the necessary features and functionalities that need to be added to the software. Because the product owner sets the foundation of the product development, they create and groom the backlog by adding and prioritizing items. The product owner evaluates these items by asking questions such as “what impact does this feature create in the development process?'', What are the risks involved?”, “What are the costs involved?” Answering these questions helps outline the clear value of each item in the backlog. 

Sprint planning

After creating the product backlog, the team begins sprint planning. This process is where teams go through the product backlog to figure out how to achieve the most important objectives and ensure they don’t spread themselves too thinly. After this, the team can get a better understanding of how the product development will progress.

Sprints 

During sprints, the Scrum team completes the goals and objectives outlined for that particular time frame. Ideally, a sprint should last 1 – 4 weeks — but shouldn’t take more than a month. During the sprint, the Scrum team attends a daily standup meeting with the product owner and Scrum master. This is where they discuss what they are working on that day and talk through any issues or impediments they are experiencing. It's important to note that no changes must occur when a sprint is in progress. This is to ensure that the team can meet the sprint goal without issue.

Sprint review

At the end of every sprint, the Scrum team — including the product owner and Scrum master — gather together to review the sprint, including what went well, what was completed, and what the updated backlog will look like. A product demo may also be on the agenda. 

Here, the product owner will validate the sprint work. Once this phase ends, the cycle begins again, starting with the product backlog, sprint planning, next sprint, and a product increment. 

In summary, the Scrum methodology is a learning and disciplinary process that enables the Scrum team to identify ways to improve and deliver the best quality product to the end-user.

Scrum provides tremendous benefits to organizations, product development teams, and individuals. Here are some of the benefits of Scrum:

Timely prediction By using the Scrum framework, you can estimate the average speed of the team. As a result, it is possible to estimate when a certain feature in the product backlog will be delivered. 

Improved team morale The Scrum method involves a concerted effort on the part of each team member. Being part of a self-organizing team enables people to be proactive, innovative, and focused. The support of a Scrum master is also vital for team morale because they guide the Scrum team, remove all impediments, and work towards improving the performance of the team. 

Better quality product Scrum provides the framework for collaboration and continuous improvement. Activities like sprint retrospectives and sprint reviews ensure the team has a chance to reflect and improve their processes. 

Increased customer satisfaction The primary objective of the Scrum team is to provide value for the end-user. This is achieved by:

• Keeping all stakeholders and customers in the loop throughout the project development
• Having an experienced product owner that understands the scope of the project development cycle
• Constantly updating and re-prioritizing the project backlog as feedback is provided 

In Agile software development, the Scrum framework encourages better collaboration and understanding amongst team members.

When a team follows Scrum’s principles and guidelines, they create the opportunity to learn, adapt and be more independent at every stage of product development. 

Further reading

How to Run an Agile Project

Tips for Agile Team Management When Working Remotely

Scrum Concepts

• Scrum Environment
• Scrum Workflow
• Scrum Process
• Scrum Development
• Velocity in Scrum
• Scrum Techniques

Scrum Meetings

• Sprint Retrospective Games
• Goal of Sprint Retrospective Meeting
• Sprint Review vs Sprint Retrospective
• Scrum Planning
• Sprint Planning Timebox
• Scrum Sprint Cycle
• Sprint Review
• Purpose of a Sprint Review
• Sprint Review Checklist
• Goal of a Sprint Review Meeting
• Sprint Review Agenda Topics

• Get started
• Project management
• CRM and Sales
• Work management
• Product development life cycle
• Comparisons
• Construction management
• monday.com updates

Scrum methodology: how to get started in your next project

Just like successful athletes learn by doing, so do corporate teams. If you’re going to be a star on the field or in the boardroom, you have to practice, and learn as you go. Scrum is a project management framework that’s based on this same idea.

Just like a sports team might gather to review a failed play after a big game, Scrum encourages teams to learn from their own wins and losses. Those teams then organize (and reorganize) themselves on the fly.

This article covers all the basics: the Scrum methodology, the framework, events, artifacts, team members and tools to get started.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a framework for organizing, planning and executing complex projects.

It supports people, teams and organizations in generating or completing projects by allowing them to adapt as they go.

We’ll dive into the entire framework later, but here’s a brief overview:

• The whole process often starts with a product roadmap outlining the big picture outcome(s) you hope to achieve
• This roadmap is broken down into a product backlog of all the features and requirements needed to reach that outcome.
• Teams run 1–4 week sprints where they tackle a portion of the product backlog and create a product increment (version of the final product).
• After each sprint, they review, refine, adjust, and then launch into the next sprint . This cycle continues until the final product is complete and the project ends.

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Why is it called Scrum?

The term Scrum originates in Rugby, where players from multiple teams join together in a very tight, organized formation to obtain a goal.

Players quite literally interlock themselves into a tight group in the play. It looks like this:

( Image Source )

The analogy was first referenced in 1986 in a paper by Takeuchi and Nonaka that was published in the Harvard Business Review.

They compared high-performing, cross-functional product dev teams to rugby teams using the Scrum formation.

What’s the difference between Agile and Scrum?

People often confuse Agile and Scrum and think that they’re the same thing. Sure, they both focus on continuous improvement rather than delivering one final product. But the scale is different.

Agile is the mindset  — the idea behind what you want to achieve, like adaptability, self-management, and speed.

Scrum is the how-to recipe  — a concrete blueprint detailing how to implement Agile step-by-step.

That’s what sets Scrum apart. It is a concrete framework with different stages, clearly defined roles, and events.

And the methodology works.  58%  of all Agile teams use the Scrum framework.

Why Scrum? Intro to Scrum theory

Teams choose to use the Scrum framework because its simplicity and flexibility allows them to move faster, while still staying organized.

When asked why it was originally adopted within their organization, 71% of teams replied that Scrum was adopted to accelerate software delivery, and 63% to manage changing priorities.

The theory behind Scrum’s founding rests on 3 key pillars : transparency, inspection, and adaptation.

These pillars are built on the assumption that knowledge comes from experience, and that decisions should be made based on what is observed. As teams work on a project, they gain experience, and based on that experience, they should be able to re-adjust as they go.

The pillars encourage lean thinking, which means focusing on only what has been observed, and reducing wasted efforts so that teams remain focused on the essentials.

The following pillars act as guiding principles for the Scrum team:

• Transparency: both the team that’s performing the work and those receiving the work must be completely aware of the process and status at all times. Low transparency at any point in the process could lead to decisions that aren’t valuable and risk the project. The transparency pillar is also necessary for the next pillar, inspection, to be valuable.
• Inspection: the process and progress must be evaluated frequently as you go. This allows you and your team to spot potential risks or problems, and supports the final pillar — adapting when needed. The Scrum framework provides a cadence for inspection, which we’ll also discuss later.
• Adaptation: If you find your process isn’t going well or results aren’t as expected, you need to adjust. Most importantly, you have to adjust quickly so you don’t further deviate from your original goal.

It’s important to note that all 3 pillars break down if people aren’t empowered to self-manage. A Scrum team is expected to adapt the moment that anything new is learned through inspection, and you can’t do that if you don’t have the power to make self-guiding decisions.

What is the Scrum framework?

We keep mentioning that Scrum is a framework, but what exactly does that mean?

The Scrum framework is made up of events — also referred to as ceremonies — that act as stages within a project, and artifacts that act as deliverables to be completed.

They’re all organized in a way that supports continuous learning and adjustment. If you were to illustrate the whole thing from start to finish, it would look like a cycle that keeps on going.

Scrum ceremonies

There are 5 events or ceremonies within the Scrum framework:

• Sprint planning
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint review
• Sprint retrospective

Ceremonies are designed to enable transparency, and to allow for inspection and adaptation along the way. A sprint is an event itself, while also acting as an overall container for 3 of the remaining events.

→ Read more about scrum ceremonies here

What are the Scrum artifacts?

Artifacts represent the work of the Scrum team or the value provided to the ultimate goal. They make transparency possible for the entire Scrum team.

There are 3 artifacts, each of which must be defined and measured in the following way:

• Product (or task) backlog: the complete list of work to accomplish, measured using the product goal
• Sprint backlog : the list of work to accomplish within 1 sprint, measured by the sprint goal
• Increment: the deliverable(s) provided for review at the end of a sprint, measured by the ‘Definition of Done,’ or rather, whether or not it was completed

→ Read more about scrum artifacts here

The 5 phases of Scrum

The Scrum method consists of Scrum ceremonies as we explained above. The ceremonies can be divided into the following 5 phases:

#1: The pre-planning phase

• Setting goals and vision: The product owner will define the overarching goals, objectives, and often a product roadmap. Usually done in direct collaboration with stakeholders.
• Creating and refining product backlog: The product backlog is a list of features, requirements, and bug fixes (for live software) that outlines everything a team must do to complete a product.

#2: The planning phase

• Hold a sprint planning meeting and select features to include in the sprint backlog (these are often defined from the user’s perspective and called user stories).
• Break any large requirements (often called “epics”) down into tangible tasks with estimates of how long each will take.
• Make sure the sprint backlog is small enough to be achievable in your sprint time frame and assign ownership of different user stories and tasks to the appropriate team members.

#3: The sprint, or development, phase

• Work towards your iteration or product increment that’ll be delivered at the end of the sprint.
• Hold a daily standup or daily Scrum meeting where you discuss yesterday’s progress, today’s tasks, and any potential bottlenecks.

#4: The testing and review phase

• Arrange a sprint review meeting (aka product increment review) where customers and actual users of the product (stakeholders) test the new increment. If they accept the changes, and they work as they should, you can accept the new iteration as done.

#5: The retrospective phase

• Hold a sprint retrospective with Scrum team members to review what went well, and where you have room for improvement.
• Update the general product backlog based on the success (or failure) of the increment, and any changes in stakeholder priority.

Who are the members of a Scrum team?

A Scrum team is a small team of 10 or fewer people. This number allows teams to stay nimble, but large enough to complete significant work within a sprint.

The Scrum team is ultimately responsible for stakeholder collaboration , verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research and product development (if applicable).

Here’s what each of the following team members are accountable for:

• Product owner:  The bridge between stakeholders and the team. They understand what the customers need, and will control the overall vision and objectives for the product.
• Scrum master:  Not  a traditional top-down leader. A part of the team with added responsibilities. For example, reinforcing Scrum values during meetings, and keeping members on-task.
• Team member:  The rest of the Scrum development or work team are equal members with direct task ownership.

Stakeholders  aren’t actually members of the team, but anyone invested in the outcome of the project. For example, important clients, internal users of the solution, C-suite executives, and more. Key stakeholders attend important meetings and review product increments (client deliverables).

A Scrum team should be a “complete team” (the Scrum Guide calls it cross-functional.) Each member should have all the necessary tools to complete an iteration. They shouldn’t need to outsource anything from design to production.

It’s a guiding Scrum principle.

→ Read more about Scrum roles here

9 steps to implement Scrum with your next project

#1: choose a suitable product owner.

The product owner isn’t necessarily the most senior developer. Rather, it’s whoever has the best understanding of your customers and their needs. It could be an internal user of the product, someone from support, sales, marketing, account management, or even a business analyst.

They’re the liaison between your Scrum team and the stakeholders, so choose carefully.

#2: Create and refine your product backlog

Before you can start planning any particular sprint, you need to outline all of the things your finished product should include. The product owner should work closely with all important stakeholders to populate a product backlog.

Refine the desired features or items and prioritize them based on your short-term and long term goals. For example, your stakeholders may have singled out must-haves for the next iteration.

Use color-coded priority tags to help your project team focus on the right things.

#3: Plan your first sprint

Evaluate all the candidates (features in the backlog) and decide which ones to focus on in your sprint. Determine the larger sprint goal, outlining the overall desired change in user experience.

When creating your initial sprint backlog, don’t forget to consider your team’s capacity.

In Agile and Scrum, we often focus on “user stories” over features. Essentially, these are features from the customer’s perspective, detailing their desired outcome. For example, rather than “mobile app compatibility” you might use something like “I want to access and edit the documents on my smartphone.”

#4: Estimate the time for each task

You also need to estimate how long each task will take. You can then either set clear deadlines or use story points (SP), an estimated scope that you decide on as a team.

At monday.com, our internal teams consider 1 SP to equal a full workday, and we plan 8 SP for 2-week sprints to leave leeway for unforeseen issues.

#5: Assign ownership to appropriate team members

The team will discuss and assign ownership of tasks and user stories to appropriate team members. Self-organization is key here. The Scrum master shouldn’t be telling members what to do.

#6: Hold daily Scrum meetings

The daily Scrum or standup is used by  85%  of Agile teams for a reason. Daily progress meetings help everyone prioritize and collaborate on goals.

#7: Review the sprint increment with stakeholders

Invite clients and internal stakeholders to put the new increment to the test. This meeting is called the sprint review or product increment review.

If the users feel that the new functionality meets their expectations in every way (total experience), the sprint was a success. If not, you need to adjust the backlog based on what users felt was inadequate.

#8: Hold a retrospective meeting

In the sprint retrospective meeting, the product owner, Scrum master, and team members will evaluate the following:

• What went well
• Areas to improve
• Potential changes to the product backlog

It’s the key to keep learning and improving your Scrum processes.

#9 Start the next sprint

It’s time for a new sprint, so start another sprint planning meeting. Rinse and repeat your process as you develop your product and learn more about Scrum.

Why monday.com is the best tool to implement Scrum

We’re confident that monday.com provides the best tools for project managers to implement Scrum within their organizations. It provides the foundation for all sprint events and artifacts, and includes a few key features that make the Scrum framework run even more smoothly.

Communication regarding events, artifacts, and increments within monday.com happens all within the platform under each task that’s set by the product or task owner.

This means that data and information is collected automatically within your project management tool, and reduces back-and-forth amongst your Scrum team.

Within a sprint, some activities will be dependent on the completion of other activities before them, and we know that sprints can only begin when the former sprint has closed.

Our platform automates notifications between team members when it comes to task completion, document uploads, communication and much more.

Here’s an example of how you might set up an automation:

Whether you choose a Scrum board , Kanban board, or the Scrumban , you can view your project on monday.com, and even toggle between views if you change your mind as you go.

Plus, you’ll have other options at your fingertips. You can view your project tasks as a timeline to see if your deliverables will be completed on time, as a table if you need to drill down into specific tasks, as a Gantt chart , and much more.

Your team is probably already relying on various tools to get the job done. Our software integrates with every tool you’ll need to run your projects smoothly. We even integrate with popular development tools like GitHub, JIRA , GitLab, and PagerDuty if you’re using the Scrum framework to manage a development team .

Last but not least, it’s easy to use, and your team will be excited to login everyday for status updates and communication amongst team members. Completing tasks on our platform is satisfying, and changing views, moving tasks along the workflow and communicating with other team members is easy and intuitive.

Implement scrum to your next project

The Scrum framework provides teams the freedom they need to iterate as they go without falling behind on company goals and objectives.

Implement the Scrum framework within your team — development team or otherwise — to complete projects on time, communicate progress within an organized structure, and still provide the freedom for your team to manage their own time.

If you’re looking for a tool to help you manage your Scrum team, monday.com dev provides all you need, plus integrations with the tools you already have, automations to reduce unnecessary work, a beautiful user interface, and much much more.

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What Is The Scrum Methodology? Complete Guide To All Things Scrum

Liz is an agilist and digital project manager with a passion for people, process, and technology and more than 15 years of experience leading people and teams across education, consulting, and technology firms. In her day-to-day, Liz works as the Chief of Staff at Performica, an HR software company revolutionizing how people give and receive feedback at work. Liz holds a Doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership from The University of Southern California and teaches Leadership and Operations courses in the MBA program at the University of Portland. Liz holds numerous project management-related certifications including: PMP, PMI-ACP, CSP-SM, and a SPHR from HRCI to round out the people-focused side of her work.

Scrum is pretty ubiquitous in project management these days. Find out what the hype is, along with practical information on how to implement it on your own projects.

If you’ve spent any time in digital project management, you’ve likely heard of the Scrum methodology.

Scrum is a popular project management methodology that has been widely adopted in a variety of industries. 

91% of organizations state that it is a strategic priority to adopt agile. (Source: KPMG ) 

When companies say they are following an agile methodology, 87% of the time, they are talking about Scrum (Source: Digital.AI ). This means, in order to be an effective and adaptive digital project manager in today’s age, you’re going to need to know about Scrum. 

At its core, Scrum is based on the idea of empowering teams to self-organize and make decisions on how best to achieve their goals. This approach can help teams deliver high-quality products and services in a fast and efficient manner.

Scrum has seen widespread adoption in a variety of industries, including software development, manufacturing, and marketing. This is due in part to its flexibility and adaptability, as well as its focus on collaboration and empowerment.

In this article, I will introduce the basic principles of Scrum, artifacts, roles, and events to help get you started or serve as a refresher (we all need refreshers from time to time).

Whether you are a project manager, a team leader, or a member of a development team, there is something in this post for you. So, let's dive in and explore the world of Scrum!

What is Scrum Methodology?

You can define the Scrum methodology as a product delivery approach proposing principles and processes to improve outcomes.

Agile Scrum project management fixes the time and cost requirements of projects. Scrum achieves this by using time boxes (a specific, limited amount of time) for iterations of work, as well as product backlogs and specific team events. It’s a highly adaptive framework that helps deliver value in projects quicker. 

In Scrum management, projects make progress through sprints which represent one iteration of work towards the team’s goals. Each sprint or iteration produces a deliverable increment.

The Scrum methodology is one of many agile methodologies, all of which turn the historically predictive or waterfall project and product development triangle on its head.

As traditional project management methodologies limit scope (i.e. by laying it out in a project scope statement ) and flex schedule and resources, agile methodologies (including Scrum) fix resources and schedule but flex scope, depending on what’s most important to accomplish in the fixed time with fixed resources.

At its core, Scrum empowers teams to create a healthy tension between delivering the right thing, the right way, as fast as possible.

The goal of Scrum is to improve communication, teamwork, and speed of development. Concepts such as sprints, Scrums, backlogs, and burndown charts are all derived from Scrum.

One of the key reasons for Scrum's popularity is its ability to help teams deliver high-quality products and services in a fast and efficient manner. By breaking projects down into small, manageable chunks and regularly reviewing progress, teams can quickly identify and address any issues that arise. This allows them to stay on track and meet their goals in a timely manner.

Another reason for Scrum's adoption is its emphasis on collaboration and communication. In a Scrum environment, team members are encouraged to work together and share ideas, rather than following a rigid hierarchy. This can foster a sense of ownership and accountability, which can help teams stay motivated and engaged.

Overall, the adoption of Scrum has been driven by its ability to help organizations and teams achieve their goals in a fast and efficient manner. By empowering teams to self-organize and make decisions, Scrum can help organizations stay competitive and deliver high-quality products and services.

The Core Mindset of Scrum: The Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto is core to the Scrum methodology and can be considered the underlying mindset behind all agile methodologies. The Scrum methodology overlays on the Agile Manifesto to put how-tos to the whats. 

In other words, Scrum is one of the many how-to guides for developing outcomes in an agile mindset. Here’s a breakdown of the Agile Manifesto coupled with a few core Scrum principles.

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Firstly it focuses on individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Communication is key, not the processes that run your project. Within Scrum this means the self-organizing, cross-functional team.

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

There is a strong focus on producing shippable products quickly, rather than spending a lot of time writing down requirements . In Scrum software development, time-boxed sprints of work are run with a shippable product increment produced at the end of each sprint.

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Agile values specify client or customer collaboration, working with the client at all points with them being heavily involved throughout the process. Scrum has consistent, and regular, client involvement.

4. Responding to change over following a plan

Rather than seeing changes as the enemy, being in a position to see change as a good thing and being responsive to it is core to the agile framework. Scrum has constantly evolving requirements, and change is embraced.

In addition to the Agile Manifesto, Scrum itself carries five values that are essential for people and teams becoming proficient in operating effectively: commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage. 

These values give direction to an agile team or Scrum team as to how to behave in their work. The decisions that are made and steps taken should reinforce these values, not diminish or undermine them. When practiced effectively, the empirical Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation come to life, building trust. Learn more in the official Scrum Guide . 

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What Are The 3 Artifacts Of Scrum?

Scrum artifacts communicate key information that the Scrum team needs to be aware of during product development.

1. Product Backlog

The product backlog lists all the features, functions, and requirements that must be included in the product, in order of importance. It’s common for a product’s requirements to change over the course of development, either to reflect business needs or market trends. The product backlog will constantly update to reflect such changes.

2. Product Backlog Item

These are the items that make up a product backlog. They detail the changes that need to be made and the desired outcome. One way to express the desired outcome in a way the development team will understand is through ‘user stories’ a simple sentence that explains what a certain business or user is looking for in the product.

User stories are structured like this: “As a [blank] I want to [blank] so that I can [blank].”

3. Sprint Backlog

The sprint backlog is made up of the product backlog items that have been selected for a sprint. This will also include a plan for producing an increment at the end of the sprint. 

The sprint backlog defines the work that the development team will perform during the next sprint and the items required to produce an increment that meets the definition of done.

The Scrum Framework

The Scrum framework is an agile methodology focused on delivering value incrementally and iteratively over time. The process begins with a product owner creating a product backlog based on inputs from executives, teams, stakeholders, customers, and users, and ends with a showcase of finished work at a sprint review, followed by a sprint retrospective. This process repeats at regular intervals, typically 1-4 weeks. 

Scrum, in itself and similarly to the scrum events, is intentionally lightweight and simple. Scrum is easy to learn, but it can be difficult to master. It is intended to provide a framework for cross-functional teams to solve complex problems.

Simply put: Scrum is a methodology or process through which to exercise the agile mindset. 

Scrum Roles

Within the Scrum methodology are clearly defined roles.

• Scrum development team
• Scrum master
• Product owner

These roles help set the Scrum model apart from similar agile methods like extreme programming, lean, or test-driven development.

The Scrum environment promotes using small, flexible teams of no more than 9 people who work through the product backlog. A litmus test for team size is if you can feed them with two pizzas (yes, I’m serious).

This equates typically to 5-9 people on a team. People should only be allocated to one scrum team at a time. This rule is often justified due to how teams communicate, how incentives are aligned, and how many people an individual can maintain relationships with concurrently. 

1. Scrum Development Team

A Scrum development team is a group of professionals responsible for delivering a releasable increment of “done” at the end of each Sprint.

Development teams are unique in the following ways:

• Development teams are self-organizing . Nobody within the Scrum team (not even the Scrum master) is allowed to tell them how to turn the product backlog into increments.
• They’re cross-functional . All members must have the skills required to create an increment; some can be differently skilled, but all should be able to pitch in. 
• They are responsible for successes and failures as a team . It doesn’t matter if one member made a mistake that caused the team to not have an increment at the end of a sprint, the development team accepts responsibility as a whole.

2. Scrum Master

The Scrum master is responsible for facilitating the Scrum process. They make sure everyone has a solid understanding of Scrum principles and offer guidance and teaching when it’s necessary.

The Scrum master leads the Scrum team through the daily Scrum. They’ll often ask three questions:

• What did you do yesterday?
• What will you do tomorrow?
• What obstacles are in your way?

The Scrum master is not the leader or people manager of a Scrum team. They are not directly responsible for outcomes. The whole team as a whole must accept responsibility for the end product.

The Scrum master will also work with the product owner to make sure the project is on track. 

They’ll do tasks such as:

• Guaranteeing that the Scrum goals are understood by everyone.
• Optimizing product backlog management.
• Organizing Scrum events
• Helping to remove impediments when they arise

The Scrum master’s job is to keep everyone focused and pushing towards the same goal. They are chartered to remove obstacles, prevent unnecessary distractions, and help the team make progress day after day. Even though the result of the Scrum ultimately rests on the entire team, Scrum masters often feel a lot of pressure to succeed in the position.

3. Product Owner

The product owner represents the business or customer base. They are there to ensure the other members of the Scrum team don’t forget the purpose of the sprint. Because of the wide variety of potential business users and customers, the product owner must have a strong understanding of the users needs.

Each sprint begins with the product owner documenting and prioritizing the requirements and desired features of the product to the development team. In a planning session, the product owner’s job is to answer any questions the development team may have regarding specifications and requirements. 

The product owner is not involved with development, but may be asked to answer clarifying questions along the way, during each sprint.

Day-to-day responsibilities of a product owner may include: 

• Documenting product requirements
• Writing initiatives, epics and user stories
• Syncing with product management to ensure product requirements are aligned with the overall product roadmap
• Researching the needs of real-life customers and users of the product
• Answering clarifying questions from the development team
• Collaborating with leaders across the organization to ensure their product is able to be sold, implemented, supported, etc. 

Product owners are essential to a successful product development cycle in the Scrum methodology. Without clear and prioritized requirements, development teams might not know what to develop in what order. Product owners ensure development teams know what is most important to work on now, and what’s coming next. 

Scrum Events (a.k.a. Scrum Ceremonies)

There are 5 main kinds of Scrum events or Scrum ceremonies :

• Sprint planning
• Daily Scrum (also called the daily stand-up meeting)
• Sprint review
• Sprint retrospective

Certain types of Scrum events will take place during specific times in the development process. These are also known as the Scrum ceremonies.

1. The Sprint

A sprint in Scrum is a fixed length of time, one month or less where ideas are turned into value. The sprint is the heartbeat of Scrum. A sprint is a set length of time that repeats throughout time. Often, teams measure their future in sprints. 

The purpose of the sprint is to time-box work time and get teams to deliver against commitments. Sprints allow goals to be set that are shorter-term, but incredibly solid. During a sprint, nothing should change that would endanger the sprint goal. 

The sprint keeps the team on-task, but allows for course correction or changes sprint-to-sprint. Sprints enable predictability by ensuring that what the development team commits to will either be done or reviewed in a short period of time. 

With sprints, the “we’ll see when it happens” goes away. We know when things will happen because they are either committed or not committed in the sprint. 

A sprint is anywhere from 1-4 weeks, not longer. This limitation allows teams to get moving and deliver incremental progress rapidly, but without driving people crazy. Sprints cannot be made longer or shortened. A sprint could only be canceled if the sprint goal becomes obsolete. Only the product owner has the authority to cancel the sprint. 

2. Sprint Planning

During a sprint planning event, the team agrees upon the series of product backlog items they will complete in the upcoming sprint.

For every one week of a sprint, an hour is set aside for sprint planning . The sprint planning meeting takes place before a sprint begins so if the upcoming sprint is for 4 weeks, the team will set aside four hours for the meeting.

The most important part of a sprint planning meeting is the preparation that must be done before the meeting starts. The product owner will arrive at the session with a prioritized backlog of user stories and features they wish for the development team to create. 

In the sprint planning session, the development team and product owner will align on exactly what is desired and how much time it is expected to take to meet those requirements. 

Which and how many items from the product backlog will be completed depends on the team’s commitment and velocity (the speed at which the development team can create increments). If you're planning with a new team, it’s best not to calculate based on expected velocity until you’ve done a few sprints with the team.

Read our full guide on how to run a sprint planning meeting .

3. Daily Scrum

Each day, a daily Scrum meeting will take place where team members discuss progress they’ve made and problems they’re facing with the intent to celebrate progress, align current work and remove impediments swiftly to keep everyone moving forward.

Scrum meetings take place every day during a sprint. They should be no longer than fifteen minutes and should be laser focused on keeping the team moving forward. 

Daily Scrum sessions are held every day to prevent problems piling up in the background. Any questions or concerns should be raised at the daily Scrum meeting.

Want to make sure you’re running the best daily Scrum possible? Read our guide on how-to run a more effective daily scrum .

4. Sprint Review

The sprint review meeting takes place at the end of a sprint with the expressed purpose of looking over the progress made. During a sprint review the product owner will assess if the results match the expectations set at the sprint planning meeting. Here, the product owner will verify that the increment of work meets the definition of done.

5. Sprint Retrospective

A sprint retrospective meeting allows your team to look back on past events and situations. According to the Scrum Guide, the sprint retrospective is an “opportunity for the Scrum team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next sprint.” Makes sense, especially since the focus of agile development is continuous improvement. In order to get better, you have to know which sword to sharpen.

The retrospective should create a safe space for people to share their honest feedback on what’s going well, what could be improved, and generate a discussion around things that should change next time around—with actionable items documented.

Read our full guide on how to run a great sprint retrospective .

Planning Projects Using The Scrum Methodology

The Scrum methodology can be used for projects of many different sizes, and it’s based on the principle of agile development, which emphasizes the need for flexibility and responsiveness to change.

The first step in using the Scrum methodology is to create a prioritized product backlog. The product backlog is a to-do list of all the tasks that need to be completed in order to achieve the goal of the project. Tasks can be added to the product backlog at any time, and can be prioritized based on importance.

Once the product backlog is created, the next step is to create a sprint backlog. The sprint backlog contains a list of tasks that will be completed during a specific sprint, or period of time. The tasks in the sprint backlog should be based on the tasks in the product backlog that are most important and urgent.

In order to ensure that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively, the Scrum methodology uses a set of specific guidelines to help keep things manageable. Guidelines include:

• Tasks should be broken down into small, manageable pieces
• Tasks should be assigned to specific team members
• Team members should meet regularly to update one another on their progress
• The team should always be focused on completing the most important tasks first

Once a team is off and running developing and delivering value in the Scrum methodology, the sprint cycle will be repeated. It is the responsibility of the product owner to ensure user stories and feature requests are ready to go for the development team, so they always have something to work on. The Scrum master helps keep the team moving forward in an aligned, orderly fashion

By following the guidelines of the Scrum methodology, teams can be more productive and efficient as they work to complete their project. The flexibility of the approach allows for quick adjustments when needed, helping keep projects on track and on time. Scrum also encourages teamwork, collaboration, and communication among team members, which helps ensure successful outcomes.

Benefits Of The Scrum Methodology

The Scrum methodology is an agile project or product delivery technique that helps teams work more efficiently and effectively. It's a simple, yet powerful approach that can be used for software development, product design, marketing projects, and more.

Some of the benefits of using the Scrum methodology include:

• Increased productivity : When teams are able to work in short bursts of time called "sprints," they can typically achieve more than if they were working on the project over a longer period of time.
• Increased collaboration : The Scrum methodology encourages team members to work together closely to achieve common goals. This can help reduce misunderstandings and improve communication.
• Increased flexibility : The scrum methodology is flexible and can be adapted to meet the specific needs of the project team. This can help ensure that the project prioritizes completion of the most important items while keeping commitments of cost and schedule.
• Improved quality : By using short sprints, teams are able to focus on completing specific tasks and ensuring that they are of the highest quality possible . This can help avoid costly mistakes and improve the overall quality of the final product or service.

A Brief History of Scrum

• 1986 : Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka published “New New Product Development Game” in the Harvard Business Review and coined the word “Scrum” for use outside of the game of rugby.
• 1995 : Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber presented Scrum at OOPSLA.
• 2001 : Sutherland, Schwaber and 15 other developers created the “Manifesto for Agile Development,” commonly referred to as the “Agile Manifesto.” The Agile Alliance was founded, and noted Scrum as one of the agile methods. 
• 2002 : Schwaber published “Agile Software Development with Scrum” with Mike Beedle, founded the Scrum Alliance, and began offering Scrum certifications.
• 2004 : Schwaber published “Agile Project Management with Scrum,” which has been followed by other books and guides on Scrum application across contexts. 
• 2007 : The Scaled Agile Framework is developed, known as SAFe. 
• 2014 : Dr. Dave Cornelius, a recognized Lean and Agile catalyst, presented his doctoral research based on the Scrum methodology, focusing on “The Value of Scrum to Organizations.”
• From 2014 and beyond, Scrum has been applied across new contexts, including at huge scales all over the world. 

Scrum: In Comparison

Scrum vs agile.

Put simply, agile is the mindset, and Scrum is one of many methodologies that leverage the agile mindset. Scrum sits within the umbrella of agile as a mindset, and is joined by many other agile-focused methodologies including extreme programming, lean, kanban, SAFe, test-driven development, crystal, and more. 

The difference between Scrum and agile is that Scrum is a plan or a how-to for implementing processes aligned with the agile mindset. Agile software development with Scrum is one of the most popular approaches to development.

Read more about the differences between waterfall and agile more broadly here.

Scrum vs Kanban

There are other ways to implement agile, too. For instance, another popular approach is Kanban , which differs from Scrum in that it doesn’t require clearly defined roles, does not execute sprints with a fixed duration time, and is open to workflow changes at all points in development. 

The key to Kanban is to limit how many work items can be in progress at any given time. The limit on work in progress (WIP) forces teams to swarm to solve and finish what they have started, because new items are not allowed to begin progress if old items have not yet been finished. You can identify a Scrum team by its “sprints” and you can identify a Kanban team by seeing limits on work in progress. 

You may see a Scrum team using a Kanban board (literally just means sign-board) to show their work items visually across statuses–that’s fine! Use of a Kanban board does not undermine Scrum, assuming the roles, events and time-boxes are still in-use. 

Read more about the differences between Scrum and Kanban here .

Scrum Software

Scrum and Scrum tools aren’t just for software development teams, even though that’s where Scrum originated. The Scrum framework can be used in many production settings—from marketing agencies to construction firms.

Here are some of the best project management software with items like backlogs and sprint planning features that help you follow the Scrum methodology.

• 1. monday.com — Best for workflow automation
• 2. Celoxis — Best for Project Management with BI analytics and dashboards
• 3. Wrike — Best for large projects and scaling organizations
• 4. ClickUp — Best for task customization
• 5. Hub Planner — Best for resource scheduling
• 6. Zoho Projects — Best for integration with Zoho Suite
• 7. Visor — Best for spreadsheet-based management
• 8. Bonsai Agency Software — Best for project, client, and finance management
• 9. Quickbase — Best for process automation
• 10. Workzone — Best for comprehensive project visibility
• 11. Quire — Best for task breakdown
• 12. Miro — Best for collaborative whiteboards
• 13. FigJam — Best for creative collaboration
• 14. Microsoft Project — Best for teams using Microsoft 365
• 15. Rocketlane — Best client portals for project insight sharing

Get in-depth reviews of these tools—along with screenshots, scores, and pricing info—in the Scrum software review and Scrum tools review .

Best Scrum Resources

• Scrum Guides : The official (and FREE) Scrum Body of Knowledge. Written by the co-creators of Scrum, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland.
• Scrum.org : A professionally recognized organization that offers training and official agile certifications like Professional Scrum Masters, Professional Scrum Product Owners, and Professional Scrum Developers. 
• Scrum Alliance : An organization that teaches individuals of all experience levels about Scrum. They also offer training and certifications in the form of: Certified Scrum Masters, Certified Product Owners, and Certified Scrum Developers. 
• Scrum Inc : Founded by Jeff Sutherland, the co-creator of Scrum, who regularly updates the blog. They offer training and certification.
• Atlassian : Australian enterprise software company that provides detailed and fact-checked guides about agile methodologies, including Scrum. 
• Visual Paradigm Scrum Guides : A large database of articles on all things Scrum, from basic definitions to problem solving specific problems.

Scrum Glossary

To the uninitiated, Scrum may sound intimidating. Here’s an overview of some common used terms. 

Here’s a list of Scrum terms you can refer back to at any point:

• Agile : The mindset and umbrella under which the Scrum methodology was developed. Promotes adaptation and flexibility over rigid structure.
• Burndown chart : A chart showing the amount of work that remains in the product backlog.
• Burn-up chart : A chart showing the amount of work that has been completed from the product backlog.
• Daily Scrum : A meeting held everyday, where fifteen minutes is set aside to structure the upcoming day of work.
• Definition of done : The expectation that an increment must meet to be considered releasable.
• Development team : Team within the Scrum team that manages, organizes, and does the development work required to create in increment .
• Empiricism : Process control which states that only the past is certain. Allows for maximum flexibility within the agile framework. Values transparency, inspection, and adaptation. 
• Engineering standards : Set of standards shared across teams to ensure increments.
• Forecast of functionality : The set of increments taken from the product backlog that the development team views as possible to complete in a sprint.
• Increment : A piece of software that can be added to other increments. Put together, enough increments make a product.
• Product backlog : A list (typically ordered) of the work that must be done to create a product.
• Product owner : Team member in Scrum tasked with maximizing a product’s value.
• Scrum board : An easy way to visualize the information shared between the Scrum team.
• Scrum Guide : The original definition of Scrum. The guide details Scrum’s roles, events, artifacts, and rules.
• Scrum master : Responsible for leading the Scrum team. Makes sure everyone has a firm understanding of Scrum principles. Offers guidance and teaching when necessary.
• Scrum values : The core values that drive the Scrum framework. These are: commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage.
• Self-organization : A core principle of Scrum which states that teams must internally organize their work without interference from outside teams.
• Sprint : A time-frame of one month or less where Scrum events are carried out. Sprints are carried out back to back. There are no breaks between them.
• Sprint goal : The purpose of the current sprint.
• Sprint retrospective : A meeting, three hours or less, where the sprint team comes together and discusses any improvements that should be implemented for the next sprint.
• Sprint review : A meeting, four hours or less, that represents the end of a sprint. Work is reviewed and the stakeholders inspect the increment to ensure it meets the definition of done.
• Stakeholder : Person outside of the Scrum team. Provides an outside perspective and is actively involved in sprint reviews.

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The Scrum Process Explained

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Within the Scrum process, there are eleven basic elements that make up the framework. 3 roles, 3 artifacts, and 5 events. Practitioners need to learn to apply and understand the principles behind these in order to obtain the full benefits of the Scrum process. As well as its implementation. The Scrum process is often termed as a rinse and repeat process. It is only the 4 inspect & adapt events within the main container event called a sprint that is really repeated.  They each inspect and adapt the artifacts as part of the delivery as well as the practices of the scrum team in the actual implementation of Scrum including the engineering practices being applied in delivery.

While working in Sprints it is important to ensure the artifacts in Scrum are being managed by the roles responsible for ownership of each artifact. It is also important to ensure that the events within the Sprint deliver the intended value to the Scrum process.  If no one owns and refines the Product Backlog, then it becomes harder to forecast what might be worked on next, as well as which items to focus on for refinement.  It is through the Product Owner providing the vision of the product and ordering the Product Backlog Items, that the Development Team can then clearly see which items require to be refined. This allows transparency over what needs to be completed in each item for it to be considered done.

Visualizing completed work

If the Development Team does not visualize the progress of work in the Sprint Backlog, then they will find themselves regularly being interrupted by the Product Owner to understand if the work is likely to be completed prior to the Sprint Review.  One way of doing this has been to use a Sprint Burndown Chart, however, this can be improved upon by using a Scrum Kanban board showing which items of work have been completed or even a dashboard showing which items have met the defined acceptance tests and are considered done.

Involvement of the Product Owner

The Increment itself as a product should not just be dumped into the market as a release and forgotten about.   The Product Owner as part of the Scrum process should actively manage the feedback from users on each release, then use this feedback to update the product vision through the prioritization of subsequent work in the Product Backlog. This includes updates or maintenance to existing features that have been released.

Through this active ownership of the artifacts, it makes the events within the Scrum process more fruitful.  By ensuring the Development Team is using up to 10% of their time refining the Product Backlog then Sprint Planning will be more effective. Items will be understood and misunderstandings related to the Product Backlog items will already have been discussed and cleared up.  The active involvement of the product owner in user-centered, research and experience aspects of the product will give clarity. The Product Owner can then identify areas to focus on that will deliver the best value from the product. In turn, this will better inform them for discussions during the Sprint Reviews.

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The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Scrum

Updated on: 2 February 2024

Although initially designed for software development teams , Scrum has now become popular across many other fields, from marketing to project management. 

In this post, we’ll explain the basics every Scrum newbie needs to know including what is Scrum, and how to implement it with a little help from Creately to run and manage your projects.

What is Scrum 

According to Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland – who developed Scrum and the Scrum Guide – Scrum is defined as 

 “A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.”

Scrum is an agile project management framework and is the most widely used Agile methodology in the world of software development. It focuses on developing new software capability through 2-4 week sprints. 

During the sprints, the Scrum team focuses on developing the most important features first in order to come up with a potentially shippable product. Considering the customer feedback and stakeholder requirements , the rest of the features will be worked on during the subsequent sprints.   

The Scrum promotes teamwork, accountability, clear common goals and continuous improvement of the product as well as that of the team, and the working environment.  

It’s ideally used in projects with requirements that change frequently. Scrum is both iterative and incremental and helps deliver functional products more frequently. 

Benefits of the Scrum include,

• Faster development of quality products
• Increased return on investment and lower costs
• Decrease in time to market 
• Increased customer satisfaction 
• More motivated, productive and happier employees 
• Reduced risk rate 

Now that we know what Scrum is and why it’s beneficial, let’s look at the different components of Scrum. These include Scrum roles, events, and artifacts.

Scrum Roles

Scrum roles include the Scrum master, product owner, and the development team. Together they make up the Scrum team, which is cross-functional and self-organizing. This means their decisions are not controlled by anyone outside the team.

Product Owner 

This is the project’s key stakeholder. He or she is accountable for managing the product backlog . The product owner is also responsible for maximizing the value of the product, the development team is working on. 

Scrum Master 

While the Scrum Master doesn’t have authority over the development team, he or she should make sure that the team adheres to the Scrum theory, rules and values. The Scrum Master acts as a servant-leader to the development team and the product owner. A facilitator, the Scrum Master helps the Scrum team do their best. 

Development Team 

The development team, being self-organizing and cross-functional has all the skills necessary to deliver a “potentially releasable Increment of “Done” product at the end of each Sprint ”. The team members hold no titles and no one, including the Scrum Master, tells them “how to turn Product Backlog into Increments of potentially releasable functionality.”

Scrum Artifacts 

There are 3 Scrum artifacts, and they are there to help improve the transparency of important information that the Scrum team and stakeholders need to know. 

Product Backlog

Similar to a to-do list that consists of the work to be done, the product backlog contains the requirements of changes such as new features, enhancements, fixes, etc. that need to be made to the product under development. It’s the job of the product owner to keep the product backlog up-to-date. 

The product backlog changes constantly based on what the product needs to stay competitive and useful. 

Sprint Backlog

The sprint backlog displays the Product Backlog items that are selected for the Sprint and that needs to be completed to reach the Sprint goal. The development team modifies the Sprint Backlog during the sprint and adds to it as they realize the work that needs to be done to reach the Sprint goal. 

The Increment is the sum of all the Product Backlog items that are completed during the Sprint, including the value of Increments from previous Sprints.   

Scrum Events 

Scrum encourages the project team to hold five key events during the Sprint. Scrum Events are time-boxed events, which means they have a predefined maximum duration. 

They are put in place to avoid spending time on additional and unnecessary meetings.  They provide the chance to inspect the progress of the Sprint and adapt accordingly. 

The Sprint 

The sprint refers to a period of one month or less during which a potentially releasable product is developed. Each Sprint has a goal to be accomplished, a flexible plan guiding how to get there, the steps to be followed, and the consequent product increment.  

Once a sprint is concluded, a new one begins immediately. If the Sprint goal becomes obsolete, a Sprint can be canceled by the Product Owner under the influence of the Scrum Team and the stakeholders. 

Sprint Planning

During the sprint planning , the Scrum team works on figuring out the functionality that will be built during the Sprint, selecting the Product Backlog items and planning how to deliver them. 

This is also a time-boxed event that may be limited to a maximum of 8 hours for a one-month Sprint. However, if it’s a shorter Sprint, this event could be shorter.   

Daily Scrum 

The development team holds the daily Scrum during each day of the week for about 15 minutes to plan the work for the next 24 hours. It gives them the chance to inspect the progress of the work that has been done since the last daily Scrum and plan the work to be done next.

It will be held at the same place and at the same time every day. The team can share what they did yesterday, and what they are doing today and mention anything that is preventing them from doing their work.

Sprint Review 

The Sprint Review is held at the end of the Sprint. Here the stakeholders and the Scrum Team will review the Product Backlog and what was done during the Sprint. They will also discuss what’s to be done next to increase the value of the product. For a one-month Sprint, this meeting would take a maximum of 4 hours. 

Sprint Retrospective

Sprint Retrospective refers to the final meeting in the Sprint where the Scrum team gets together to discuss what went well or wrong with regard to people, processes, relationships, and tools, and how to improve themselves to perform better during the next Sprint. 

How to Implement Scrum in Your Projects 

By now you know what Scrum is, its purpose, and what it consists of. So, let’s look at the Scrum process – or how to actually implement Scrum to manage your projects. 

Here Creately will help you as a visual collaboration platform to work online with your team. Let’s explore ways you can use Creately to accelerate and simplify the Scrum process. 

1. Building the Scrum Team(s)

Larger organizations may have several Scrum teams, and with the help of an organizational chart , they can effectively manage the task of putting a competent cross-functional team together.  An org chart can help you understand how the necessary skills and knowledge are spread across the team at a glance.

2. Creating the Product Backlog 

The product backlog consists of a wishlist of user stories to be completed during the sprint or all the requirements of changes that need to be made to the product. It can be used as an effective way for the team to communicate what they are working on and planning to do next. 

You can use sticky notes and a whiteboard here, or a tool like Creately which allows everyone, including external stakeholders, to collaborate in real-time and also keep things backed up in the cloud.

3. Plan the Sprint 

Conduct Sprint Planning meetings to select items from the Product Backlog for the upcoming Sprint. Define the Sprint goal and create a Sprint backlog.

• Using Creately you can swiftly create a high-level schedule of your Sprint. This can be used to allocate time for the tasks at hand and keep everyone informed of the deadlines.

• Or you can use a product roadmap which is a high-level plan that shows how your product will evolve. It will help you highlight major releases and product versions. 

• Assigning tasks : It would help if each team member knew what their responsibilities are. As the product backlog informs what the team needs to do, you can use a swimlane chart to clarify what each member of the development team should be working on during the Sprint.

• Creating the sprint backlog : This shows which product backlog items you are working on during the current Sprint. This is similar to the product backlog itself. Once you create the Sprint Backlog in Creately, invite the development team to collaborate on expanding it. Any changes anyone makes will be reflected immediately on the canvas, and you can use comments and discussion threads to share feedback.

4. Sprint review and retrospective

At the end of the Sprint, hold a Sprint Review to showcase completed work and gather feedback from stakeholders. Conduct a Sprint Retrospective meeting to reflect on the Sprint, discuss what went well, and identify areas for improvement.

Ready to Start Your First Scrum Project? 

We hope this guide has helped you internalize what is Scrum. Use the provided templates to get a headstart with your project. 

Got more questions? Or tips? Share them with us in the comments section below. 

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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