7.2 The Scrum Framework

What Scrum Is

Scrum is the most widely adopted agile framework — surveys such as the State of Agile report it in use by roughly 87% of agile teams. The authoritative source is the 2020 Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. Scrum is deliberately lightweight and intentionally incomplete: it defines just enough structure (roles, events, artifacts, rules) and leaves the rest to the team.

Empiricism and Lean Thinking

Scrum rests on empiricism — knowledge comes from experience and decisions from observation — reinforced by lean thinking (reduce waste, focus on essentials). The three pillars:

The five Scrum values — Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, Courage — make the empirical pillars work in practice. CAPM may ask which value is illustrated by a behavior (e.g., raising an unpopular impediment = Courage).

The Three Accountabilities (Scrum Team)

The 2020 Scrum Guide describes one Scrum Team with three accountabilities and says the team is typically 10 or fewer people total (the older notion of a separate 3–9-person Development Team was retired in 2020).

Product Owner (PO)

• Accountable for maximizing product value. One person, not a committee.
• Owns and orders the Product Backlog; has final say on priority.
• May delegate work but remains accountable; the organization must respect the PO's decisions.

Scrum Master (SM)

• Accountable for the team's Scrum effectiveness and for establishing Scrum.
• A servant leader — coaches, removes impediments, facilitates events, shields the team.
• NOT a project manager, boss, or task assigner. An answer making the SM "assign tasks" is wrong.

Developers

• Accountable for creating a usable Increment each Sprint.
• Self-organizing: they decide how the work gets done and create the plan in the Sprint Backlog.
• Own the Definition of Done and adapt their plan daily toward the Sprint Goal.

The Five Scrum Events

All events are time-boxed (a maximum, never to be exceeded) and all are opportunities to inspect and adapt. Time-boxes below are for a one-month Sprint and scale down for shorter Sprints.

Sprint Planning's three topics

1. Why is this Sprint valuable? → the Sprint Goal.
2. What can be done? → selected Product Backlog Items.
3. How will it get done? → the delivery plan.

Daily Scrum nuances

It is for the Developers, lasts 15 minutes, and is not a status report to the manager. The familiar "yesterday / today / impediments" three questions are optional, not mandated by the 2020 Guide.

Sprint Review vs. Retrospective

The Review inspects the product with stakeholders (a working session, not a sign-off gate). The Retrospective inspects the team's process — people, relationships, process, tools — and produces actionable improvements often added to the next Sprint Backlog.

Artifacts and Their Commitments

Each artifact carries a commitment that creates transparency and focus:

The Definition of Done (DoD)

The DoD is the shared quality standard that makes an Increment releasable. If an item does not meet the DoD it cannot be part of the Increment or presented at the Review — it returns to the Product Backlog. The 2020 Guide replaced "potentially shippable" with the requirement that each Increment simply meet the DoD and be usable. Only the Product Owner can cancel a Sprint — rare, and only when the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete.

High-Yield Scrum Traps

CAPM repeatedly tests a handful of misconceptions. First, the Scrum Master does not assign work — Developers self-organize and pull items; an answer where the Scrum Master hands out tasks is wrong. Second, the Daily Scrum is not a status report to a manager; it is the Developers re-planning toward the Sprint Goal. Third, a Sprint is never extended to finish unfinished work — incomplete items return to the Product Backlog and may be re-selected next Sprint.

Fourth, no one changes the Sprint Backlog scope in a way that endangers the Sprint Goal once the Sprint starts, though the Developers may renegotiate detail with the Product Owner as they learn. Fifth, the Increment must already meet the Definition of Done before the Sprint Review; the Review is not where quality is signed off.

A Sprint in Sequence

Picture a typical two-week Sprint to lock in the flow. It opens with Sprint Planning, where the team crafts the Sprint Goal and pulls items into the Sprint Backlog. Each working day the Developers hold the 15-minute Daily Scrum to inspect and adapt their plan. Throughout the Sprint they continuously refine the Product Backlog (using up to about 10% of capacity) so future work is ready. Near the end, the Sprint Review demonstrates the finished Increment to stakeholders and adapts the Product Backlog based on their feedback. Finally, the Sprint Retrospective inspects the team's process and commits to improvements.

The moment one Sprint closes, the next begins — there are no gaps between Sprints, which is another detail the exam likes to probe.