Transparency

Transparency in Scrum ensures all team members and stakeholders have visibility into work progress, challenges, and decisions. This includes open communication about impediments, clear Definition of Done, visible progress tracking, and honest reporting during ceremonies. Transparency builds trust, enables informed decision-making, facilitates early problem detection, and creates accountability. It requires psychological safety and organisational support for honest communication.

Inspection

Inspection involves regularly examining Scrum artifacts and progress towards Sprint Goals to detect variances and problems early. Key inspection points include Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives. Effective inspection requires transparency, skilled inspectors, and sufficient frequency without impeding work. Teams inspect their work, processes, and team dynamics to identify improvement opportunities and ensure alignment with objectives.

Adaptation

Adaptation occurs when inspection reveals deviations from acceptable limits or improvement opportunities. Teams must adjust their process, work, or Definition of Done based on inspection findings. Successful adaptation requires empowerment to make changes, organisational support, and courage to implement improvements. The Scrum framework provides multiple adaptation opportunities through ceremonies, enabling teams to respond effectively to changing circumstances and continuously improve performance.

Scrum framework overview

Scrum is a lightweight framework for developing complex products through iterative and incremental delivery. It consists of three roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team), five events (Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective), and three artifacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Increment). Scrum emphasises collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement while maintaining simplicity and effectiveness.

Scrum values

Five core values underpin Scrum: Commitment to achieving team goals, Courage to do difficult work and make tough decisions, Focus on Sprint goals and priorities, Openness about work and challenges, and Respect for team members’ capabilities and decisions. These values create the foundation for successful Scrum implementation, fostering trust, collaboration, and high performance within teams and organisations.