Roles
- Product Owner — owns the Product Backlog, decides what to build and in what order. One person, accountable to the business.
- Scrum Master — in the 2020 Guide's words, a true leader who serves the Scrum Team. Coaches the team, facilitates ceremonies, removes blockers. Doesn't direct work.
- Developers — the people doing the building. Plural; cross-functional; collectively own the Sprint Backlog and the Increment.
Events
- Sprint — fixed-length time-box (1–4 weeks; commonly 2). Contains all other events.
- Sprint Planning — at sprint start. Picks goal + backlog items. Max 8h for 1-month sprint.
- Daily Scrum — 15-min daily sync for Developers. Inspect progress toward Sprint Goal.
- Sprint Review — at sprint end. Demo the Increment to stakeholders, gather feedback.
- Sprint Retrospective — after Review. Inspect process, decide on improvements.
Artifacts
- Product Backlog — ordered list of everything that might be done. Owned by the PO. Always changing.
- Sprint Backlog — what the Developers committed to this sprint + a plan to deliver it.
- Increment — the new working product after the sprint. Must meet the Definition of Done.
↳ in the wild
The Scrum Guide is famously short. Most "Scrum" dysfunction comes from teams adopting the ceremonies without the philosophy — daily standups become status meetings, retros become venting sessions, the Product Owner becomes a ticket-router. Re-reading the actual 13-page guide every six months pays off.