Scrum Explained - In Simple, Plain English without Jargon

The purpose of this article is to explain Scrum in a simple manner using non-technical and Plain English words.

Context

The standard reference document for Scrum is the Scrum Guide. It is a short document (only 16 pages) but is densely packed with Information and uses various Scrum Related terms (Roles (3), Events (5), Artifacts (3)).

If you are not familiar with Scrum or if you need to explain Scrum to someone from the business or a normal person you may find it challenging.

So I have decided to write a few sentences in simple English language. This makes it easier to understand and/or explain Scrum. I strongly advise you to read the Scrum Guide. This article is not a replacement for the Scrum Guide but can be helpful in understanding or explaining the basics. To make it easier for those who are familiar with Scrum I have cross referenced each statement with the relevant Scrum Guide Role / Artifact / Event / Values in parentheses. Ignore the bits in parentheses if explaining to someone who is not familiar with Scrum.

Inspiration for this Article came from an original post from Steve Denning.

So here we go:

1. Work is done in small teams (3 to 9 typically) where the team has all the necessary skills to develop products (Cross Functional teams).

2. Work is planned and executed in short cyclical time frames typically 1 to 4 weeks - Cycles (Sprint) (also called Iteration in general Agile terminology).

3. Only one person decides the work priorities - not a committee or a group (Product Owner via Product Backlog).

4. The team works in an un-interrupted manner during the cycle (Sprint Planning / Sprint Goal).

5. The team gets market information and customer needs from either the customer directly or from someone representing the customer (Product Owner).

6. Only the team can decide how much work it can do in a given Cycle (Sprint Planning / Sprint Goal / Sprint Backlog).

7. Only the team decides HOW it can get the work done (self organisation).

8. The team gets Clarity on WHY it is doing WHAT it is doing before starting the work (Sprint Goal).

9. The team regularly / immediately gets feedback from customers / stakeholders on how well the developed product is meeting the customer needs (Sprint Review).

10. Team continuously improves by reflecting on its practices and behaviour and learning from mistakes regularly (mostly Retrospective / Review but all Scrum events provide feedback).

11. The whole team collaborates while working on a customer need (User Story - Cross Functional).

12. Blockers are immediately raised and discussed on a daily basis if not more frequently (Daily Scrum).

Hope that helps.

Would appreciate comments / feedback. Kindly share it if you find this useful. Thanks.

Regards

Ramki Ravulapalli