What is Scrum?

Scrum is an Agile framework for developing innovative products and services, for organizing and managing work. Scrum begins when some stakeholders need a product. The Scrum framework is based on a set of values, principles, and practices that provide the foundation to which your organization will add its unique implementation of relevant engineering practices and your specific approaches for realizing the Scrum practices. The result will be a version of Scrum that is uniquely yours. Scrum is a refreshingly simple, people-centric framework based on the values of honesty, openness, courage, respect, focus, trust, empowerment, and collaboration. The Scrum practices themselves are embodied in specific roles, activities, artifacts, and their associated rules.

Scrum is a team process. The Scrum Team includes three roles, the Product Owner, the Scrum Master and the members of the Development Team. The Product Owner has responsibility for deciding what work will be done. The Scrum Master acts as a servant leader, helping the team and the organization making the best of Scrum. The Development Team builds the product incrementally, in a series of short time periods called Sprints. A Sprint is a fixed time period, from one to four weeks with a preference toward shorter intervals. In each Sprint the Scrum Team will build and deliver a Product Increment. Each increment is a recognizable, visibly improved,  operating subset of the product, meeting understood acceptance criteria and built to a level of quality called the Definition of Done. Scrum includes three essential artifacts, the Product Backlog, the Sprint Backlog and the Product Increment. The Product Backlog is the list of ideas for the product, kept in the order we expect to build them. The Sprint Backlog is the detailed plan for development in the next Sprint. The Product Increment is the required result of every Sprint. It is an integrated version of the product, kept at high enough quality to be shippable if the Product Owner chooses to ship it. In addition to these artifacts, Scrum requires transparency within the team and with the stakeholders. As such, the Scrum Team produces visible displays of plans and progress. Scrum includes five Activities or meetings (also called Scrum Rituals). These are Product Backlog Refinement, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.