PURPOSE – SCRUM ARTIFACTS

 PURPOSE – SCRUM ARTIFACTS

Understanding the “why” behind the Scrum framework can help Scrum teams improve their ability to deliver value to the organization.  In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the purpose of each Scrum artifact. 

The Scrum Guide includes the following artifacts:

  • The Product Backlog
  • The Sprint Backlog
  • The Increment

Let’s look at each artifact to discover why they are part of the Scrum framework.

Focus, commitment, courage, respect, openness

The Product Backlog (Values: Transparency, Focus, Openness)









The Product Backlog is a visible, ordered list of everything that needs to be done to deliver the product. The Product Owner is accountable for the content and order of items in the Product Backlog, whereas the Developers size those items.

i.       The purpose of the Product Backlog is to ensure simplicity by providing a single source of ‘truth’. As Organizations employ work from anywhere models and team members are expected to be dispersed, it is important for everyone in the team to have clarity on what work needs to be done and their status. The Product Backlog provides that key information

ii.      The purpose of the Product Backlog is to provide the transparency necessary to enable remote teams to better coordinate their work and review the progress of work during the Sprint.

iii.    The purpose of the Product backlog is to have a single ordered list of all the work that needs to be delivered which helps the Product Owner coordinate better with Developers and customer teams

iv.    The purpose of the Product backlog is to facilitate the best practice of having one Product Owner for the project who is responsible for balancing the needs of the various stakeholders in the Organization. This helps in delivering value to customer

v.      The purpose of the product Backlog is to promote the value of Openness as everything that needs to be done is captured in this artifact. Nothing is hidden from anyone. It promotes focus as the Scrum team can focus their attention on items in the Product Backlog only. Anything outside this artifact is out of scope. 

 

The Sprint Backlog (Values: Transparency, Focus, Commitment, Openness)


The Scrum Team identify a goal for the upcoming Sprint. Each developer selects the PBI’s which they believe is in line with the Sprint Goal and can be delivered in the upcoming Sprint. The list of PBI’s selected by all the Developers forms the Sprint Backlog. It contains a list of the Product Backlog items (PBIs) the Developers have committed to deliver in the upcoming Sprint.  The Sprint Backlog also includes a plan for delivering the selected PBI’s

i.       The purpose of the Sprint Backlog is to help the developers focus on the work to be done during the Sprint and not get distracted by other product backlog items

ii.      The purpose of the Sprint Backlog is to have a baseline against which the developers keep updating the progress of the items they have committed to. This provides transparency to everyone concerned on the overall progress.

iii.    The purpose of the Sprint Backlog is to reinforce the autonomy of the developers. The Developers create and own the Sprint Backlog. They decide how to approach the work of the Sprint which promotes Self-Management. This Self-Management increases the effectiveness of Scrum Teams because the developers control how work is delivered

 

The Increment (Values: Transparency, Focus, Commitment, Openness)



The purpose of Scrum is to deliver a valuable increment of usable product every Sprint. 

It sounds easy, but moving an organization to incremental delivery involves a significant mindset change. 

i.                 The purpose of the Increment is to steer of the focus of the Scrum team towards delivering value in shorter cycles.  Traditionally, teams work towards an end goal which may be several months in the future.  By contrast, Agile teams using incremental delivery think not only about the end (product) goal but also about how to deliver value along the way by producing functionality each Sprint.

ii.                The purpose of the Increment is to reduce risk because the team can change direction more easily.  This also provides an opportunity for customer to suggest changes, enhancements, improvements without the risk of major cost escalations.

iii.              The purpose of the Increment is to deliver customer value sooner. This is possible as a result of how the Scrum team approach their work. The element of transparency ensures that partners and stakeholders can always see what the team is working on, which promotes communication and understanding. 

Many people think that by using all of the events, they are “doing Scrum.”  But, if a team is not delivering a usable increment of functionality every Sprint, they have not fully embraced the Scrum framework and are not realizing all of its benefits.    

Conclusion

While using Scrum practice, it often involves unpacking the "why" behind the framework.  When we understand the purpose behind the artifacts, we can commit to them more wholeheartedly to reap their benefits.  In this article, we examined the purpose of the Scrum artifacts, which maximize the transparency of information.  Transparency allows us to inspect and adapt how we work for improved outcomes.


Acknowledgements

Scrum.Org blogs

Coach Ram

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