📑2020 Scrum Guide Summary
General Guidelines
PSM stands for Professional Scrum Master. For you to become a Professional Scrum Master, you must master all the competencies laid out in the Professional Scrum Competencies guide. These focus areas are:
Understanding and Applying Scrum Framework
Empiricism
Scrum Values
Scrum Teams
Artifacts
Done
Developing People and Teams
Self-Managing Teams
Facilitation
Coaching and Mentoring
Managing Products with Agility
Forecasting and Release Planning
Product Value
Product Backlog Management
Stakeholders and Customers
Definition of Scrum
Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value
Value generated through adaptive solutions for complex problems
Scrum Master ideal cycle
Product Owner orders work for complex problem into Product Backlog
Scrum Team turns work into an increment of value during a Sprint
Scrum Team and stakeholders inspect the results and adjust for next Sprint
Scrum guidelines
Guide relationships and interactions
Wraps around or obsoletes existing practices
Makes visible relative efficacy of management, the environment and work techniques so improvements can be made
Scrum Theory
Leans on two values. Empiricism, that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed. And Lean thinking, which reduces waste and focuses on essentials. It is an Iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability, control risk.
Pillars of Scrum Theory
Transparency
Process and work visible to performers as well as receivers
Decisions based on perceived state of three formal Artifacts
Low transparency Artifacts lead to decisions that diminish value and increase risk
Enables inspection. Inspection without transparency is misleading and wasteful
Inspection
Inspect Scrum artifacts and progress toward goals frequently and diligently
Five Events provide a structure
Enables adaptation. Adaptation without inspection is pointless
Adaptation
Adjust if any aspects of a process deviate outside limits or if resulting product is unacceptable
Time is key - adjustments must be made as soon as possible
Difficult when people are not empowered or self-managing
Scrum Team expected to adapt after new insight from Inspection
Scrum Values
Commitment: Scrum Team focused on achieving goals and supporting each other
Focus: Primary goal is to work on Sprint to make progress
Openness: Scrum Team and stakeholders are open about work and challenges
Respect: Respect for each other and respected by each other
Courage: Courage to do right thing, work on tough problems
Scrum Team
Description of Teams
Fundamental unit of Scrum is a small unit - a Scrum Team
Three roles by accountability - Developer, Product Owner, Scrum Master
Team usually consists of one Scrum Master, one Product Owner and developers
No sub-teams or hierarchies within a scrum team.
Cohesive unit of professionals focused on Product Goal.
Cross-functional: People with different expertise working on a common goal
Self-managing: Manage internally who does what, when, how
Small enough to remain nimble, large enough to complete significant work. Typically 10 or fewer
Large teams can reorganize into Cohesive Scrum Teams with same Product Goal, Product Backlog and Owner
Responsible for all activities from stakeholder collaboration, verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research and development, and anything else
Developer
People committed to creating any aspect of a usable Increment each Sprint. Specific skills include:
Creating Sprint Backlog, which is the plan for the sprint or the list of items that they need to complete this Sprint
Instilling quality by adhering to Done standards/definition set by them
Adapting plan each day towards Sprint Goal
Accountability towards each other
Product Owner
Accountable for maximizing value of product resulting from work. Also responsible for effective Product Backlog management. Skills include:
Developing and communicating Product Goal
Creating and communicating Product Backlog items
Ordering Product Backlog items
Ensuring that Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood
Scrum Master
Accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the guide. Help everyone understand Scrum theory and practice. Accountable for team's effectiveness. Skills include:
Coaching members in self-management and cross-functionality
Helping team to focus on creating high-value Increments that meet Done definition
Removing impediments to Scrum progress
Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive and within timebox
Scrum Master may also serve as Product Owner:
Finding techniques for effective Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management
Helping team understand need for concise and clear Product Backlog items
Helping establish empirical product planning
Facilitating stakeholder collaboration
Scrum Master leads in several ways:
Leading, training and coaching organization in Scrum adoption
Planning and advising Scrum implementations within organization
Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact empirical approach for complex work
Removing barriers between stakeholders and Scrum team
Scrum Events
Sprint represents container for all other events
Event represents opportunity to inspect and adapt Artifacts
Events designed to enable transparency
Used to create regularity and reduce need for non-Scrum meetings
The Sprint
Heartbeat, where ideas are turned into value
Fixed length events of one month or less to create consistency
Consecutive in nature
All work necessary to achieve Product Goal happens within sprints
Enable predictability by ensuring inspection and adaptation of progress toward a Product Goal
Long sprint horizon may result in Sprint Goal becoming invalid, increase in complexity or risk
Shorter sprints employed to generate more learning cycles and limit risk of cost and effort
While practices such as burn-down, burn-up, cumulative flows exist, they are not replacements for empiricism
Can be cancelled if Sprint Goal becomes obsolete
Sprint Planning
Initiates Scrum by laying out work to be performed for the Sprint
Collaborative work of Scrum Team
Product Owner ensure attendees are prepared to discuss Product Backlog items and mapping to Product Goal
Topic One: Why is this Sprint Valuable
Proposal of how product could increase value and utility
Define Sprint Goal that communicates why Sprint is valuable to stakeholders
Topic Two: What can be done this Sprint
Select items from Product Backlog to include in this sprint
Items may be refined to increase understanding
Number of items depends on Sprint Team's performance, capacity and definition of Done
Topic Three: How will Chosen Work Get Done
Decomposing Product Backlog items to smaller work items of one day or less
Discretion of developers
Plan work necessary to create an Increment that meets definition of Done
Sprint Backlog = Sprint Goal + Product Backlog Items + Plan for Delivery
Sprint Planning is timeboxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month Sprint
Daily Scrum
Inspect progress toward Sprint Goal and adapt Sprint Backlog as needed
15-minute event for developers (and other active workers on Sprint Backlog)
Developers can select structure and techniques
Should focus on actionable plan for next day of work - creating focus and improving self-management
Daily Scrums improve communication, identify impediments, promote quick decision-making and eliminate need for other meetings
Sprint Review
Inspect outcome of Sprint and determine future adaptations
Scrum Team presents results of work to key stakeholders
Progress towards larger Product Goal discussed
Stakeholders review and collaborate on what to do next
Product Backlog may be changed to meet new opportunities
Second to last event of a Sprint
Timeboxed to a maximum of four hours for a one-month Sprint
Sprint Retrospective
Plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness
Inspect Last Sprint with regards to individuals, interactions, processes, tools and definition of Done
Discuss what went well, problems, solutions
Identify changes to improve effectiveness, often adding them to next Sprint
Concludes the Sprint
Timeboxed to maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint
Scrum Artifacts
Artifacts represent work, or value
Designed to maximize transparency of key information
Commitment to ensure it provides information that enhances transparency and focus
For Product Backlog, it is the Product Goal
For Sprint Backlog, it is the Sprint Goal
For Increment, it is the definition of Done
Product Backlog
Emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve product
Single source of work undertaken by Scrum Team
Two cases:
Product Backlog items can be Done within one Sprint: Ready for selection in Sprint Planning
Product Backlog items cannot be Done within one Sprint: Undertake Product Backlog Refinement to break down into smaller more precise items (ongoing activity)
Product Goal
Describes future state of product that may serve as target for Scrum Team
Product Backlog is built around the Product Goal and "what" will fulfil the Product Goal
"Product is a vehicle to deliver value. It has clear boundary, known stakeholders and well-defined users or customers. It could e a service, a physical product or something more abstract."
Long-term objective for Scrum Team
Sprint Backlog
Composed of Sprint Goal (why), set of Backlog items (what) and actionable plan for delivering items (how)
Made by developers
Highly visible, real-time picture of work that Developers plan to accomplish during a sprint in order to achieve Sprint Goal
Sprint Goal
Single objective for sprint
Flexible in terms of exact work to achieve it
Creates coherence and focus
Created during Sprint Planning and added to Sprint Backlog
If work turns out to be different, Developers negotiate with Product Owner to change scope of Sprint Backlog without adjusting Sprint Goal
Increment
Concrete stepping stone towards Product Goal
Additive to prior increments and thoroughly verified
Must be usable to provide value
Sprints consist of multiple increments, sum of which is presented at Sprint Review (empiricism)
Work cannot be Increment if it does not meet definition of Done
Definition of Done
Formal description of state of Increment when it meets all quality measures required for the product
When Product Backlog item meets Done, it is an Increment
Developers required to conform to a definition of Done
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