The Scrum Guide (Scrum.org) - Part I: Scrum in a nutshell

The Scrum Guide is the lightweight introduction on how to get up and running with Scrum teams. It’s written by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, the creators of Scrum.

The Scrum Guide describes Scrum in a nutshell (p. 3):

  • A Product Owner orders the work for a complex problem into a Product Backlog. 
  • The Scrum Team turns a selection of the work into an Increment of value during a Sprint. 
  • The Scrum Team and its stakeholders inspect the results and adjust for the next Sprint. 
  • Repeat
But what does this mean if I want to get started with Scrum? Well, here are some simple steps:

  • Step 1: Appoint a Scrum Master to help accomplish and coordinate the following steps...

  • Step 2: Get someone who understands what the outcome of a project needs to be from the perspective of your most important stakeholder – commonly the customer. This person is the Product Owner, who can talk to people about what needs to be done and explain why it has value to the customer and the success of the project.

  • Step 3: Ask the Product Owner to break down the problem into a list of tasks that can be carried out independently of each other. Then get them to arrange the list in order of priority; most important items at the top, least important items at the bottom. This is the Product Backlog.

  • Step 4: Get a bunch of people who have all the skills needed to complete the project. Get them to talk to the Product Owner about what needs to be done, and work down the list of priority items that are in the Product Backlog.

  • Step 5: After 2-weeks (or 3-weeks or a month) ask the team to show what has been done to the Product Owner, and ideally to an actual customer as well! It should represent something of value to the customer (not technical specifications, designs, plans etc.) Get feedback on work that has been completed, and ask the Product Owner to add any requested changes or additional pieces of work to the Product Backlog.

  • Step 6: Ask the team and the Product Owner to reflect on the past two weeks, what went well and what can be improved.

  • Step 7: Do it all again.

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