97 Things Every Scrum Practitioner Should Know

Chapter 5. Start with the Why of Your Scrum

Peter Goetz & Uwe Schirmer

“Is this correct according to Scrum?” is a question that we get asked frequently. It usually follows a description of a concrete team practice, and the person asking wants to know if they are applying Scrum correctly (i.e., according to the Scrum Guide).

Although the question is valid, we try to understand why it’s being asked. Teams and organizations often focus on the mechanics of Scrum and forget about their real purpose, which is usually to generate and increase value for their customers, their stakeholders, and themselves.

Don’t get us wrong: the Scrum Guide is important to us. It describes the core elements for solving complex-adaptive problems and how they play together. We take it seriously, as it helps us focus on solving our problems collaboratively and creatively—something that goes beyond just reading and applying the Scrum Guide.

There is one reason for Scrum to exist: “delivering a potentially releasable Increment of ‘Done’ product at the end of each Sprint”. All the elements in Scrum support this. The roles divide and share accountability for the people involved in the work. The artifacts create the minimum transparency needed to iteratively and incrementally deliver a releasable ...