Scrum Guide Updates-2017

During the webinar, on 07-Nov-2017, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland have discussed and provided revision and updates to the Scrum Guide. Here are the details-

1.    Uses of Scrum" section that explains what Scrum was used for and can now be used for. Scrum was initially focused on software complexity, but now by adding this section provides a way for that Scrum is not only for software delivery, but can be used anywhere and everywhere we have chaotic problems and looking for answers around the outputs - the business value. It helps resolve the age-old question ‘Scrum is only designed for software development'.

2.    Scrum Master is a key role in driving change within any organisation by serving the team in their use of Scrum. Scrum Master is servant leader, responsible for understanding and use of scrum theory to cause and maximize value. Scrum Master ensures goals, scope and product increments and business value are very well understood by the Scrum Team. This update increases the clarity of the role by adding some words around what they do and how they do it responsibly, coaching people to adapt the organization changes, cultural changes. Now Scrum is truly an empirical process that is not prescriptive and is adaptable by the teams using it.  

3.     Daily Scrum meeting is a 15-minute time-boxed event for the Development Team, is not just to be for status around previous THREE QUESTIONS -“W”. The Daily Scrum is held every day of the Sprint. It is the responsibility of the team to come up with plan for work and the team would decide the best way to assess progress towards the Sprint goal. This optimizes team collaboration and performance by inspecting the work since the last Daily Scrum and forecasting upcoming Sprint work. The Daily Scrum is held at the same time and place each day to reduce complexity.

4.    Time boxing refers to the act of putting strict time boundaries around an action or activity. The words “at most” has been added to remove any questions that events have to be of a certain length whereas time-box for Events means maximum length, maximum time allotted, but could be shorter.  

5.    As we know sprint backlog will have the work that development team identifies as necessary to meet the sprint goal. To ensure continuous improvement, the team should include at least one high priority process improvement identified in the previous retrospective meeting. Hence, sprint backlog should include at least one high value sprint action identified in the previous sprint retrospective

6.    Product increments and enhancements can be as frequently as many times per day. This has been the case and now further clarified. A product increment is a body of working, usable inspect able, “Done” work that supports empiricism at the end of the Sprint. Ideally the increment is a step toward a vision or goal.