The Scrum Guide 2020 is out! The guide is less prescriptive on how to do certain things with more emphasis on accountability, commitment and self management. Self-management over self-organisation could be seen as a demotion as put by Chris Wolff. There are few terminology changes, some definition update and some new topic such as Why in sprint planning. Let’s go through few of the important things in The Scrum Guide 2020.
We got a new topic in our sprint planning session. And logically enough, we kick off the sprint planning session by asking why? Why are we doing this sprint and what value are we adding as result of this undertaking?
It is very important for the team to have clarity on why they are doing what they are doing.
The why ultimately becomes the sprint goal.
The Sprint backlog has been given a new definition!
Old definition: Sprint backlog included PBIs from product backlog (forecast) and their breakdown (plan). in the old definition the sprint goal was a complementary item
New definition: Sprint Goals are now inseparable part of sprint backlog hence the Sprint Backlog includes: sprint goal, plan and forecast.
As with most of the things in the Scrum Guide 2020, the daily stand-ups take a less descriptive approach. The famous 3 questions of what I did yesterday, what I am doing today and what is blocking my progress have been removed from the Scrum Guide. The team is now given a green field to explore what question(s) could best work for them.
The change in usage of the Development team to developers terminology is one of the main things that comes across in Scrum Guide 2020. With ādevelopment teamā, some scrum teams ended up perceiving āthe [scrum] teamā as two teams; development team and the other team i.e product owner(s)
This is now changed in The Scrum Guide 2020 to ensure there is one team focused on one product.
As result those who lay out the actual work and implement PBIs are developers and the Scrum team includes: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers
Sprint reviews should not be considered as a session to seek approval for releasing work – rather it is an opportunity for the team to seek feedback from stakeholders and customers to inspect and adapt.
The Scrum Guide 2020 suggests releasing work when āDoneā even while the sprint is in progress. The bigger question before us is: is the team equipped for such fast releases during the Sprint? The infrastructure, high level of productivity and maturity from the team, automation are things that need to be in place to move in this direction smoothly. The by-product of this, in return, is the true agility for the team and organisation.
The product owner is in charge of defining and delivering product goals. Product goals live in the product backlog or product roadmap.
The product owner is the big-picture guy/gal and needs to:
- Have clarity on product vision; define product goals and understand how they add value or solve the problem statement
- Breakdown high level goals into PBIs
As the product vision defines the end goal for the product, we move towards the product vision in each sprint by ticking off and delivering sprint goal(s). However with the introduction of the product goal, the team now has more clarity to work on an interim short term goal. product goals are short term goals between few sprints which the team move towards to in order to get to the product vision.
As Scrum gains more popularity, its application is no longer limited to software development. The Scrum framework can be used in most, if not all domains, hence the Scrum Guide 2020 does not prescribe or suggest in which domain Scrum framework can be or should be used.
