The Scrum Guide – 2020
People
Of the thousands of people who have contributed to Scrum, we should single out those who were instrumental at the start: Jeff Sutherland worked with Jeff McKenna and John Scumniotales, and Ken Schwaber worked with Mike Smith and Chris Martin, and all of them worked together. Many others contributed in the ensuing years and without their help Scrum would not be refined as it is today.
Scrum Guide History
Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland first co-presented Scrum at the OOPSLA Conference in 1995. It essentially documented the learning that Ken and Jeff gained over the previous few years and made public the first formal definition of Scrum.
The Scrum Guide documents Scrum as developed, evolved, and sustained for 30-plus years by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber. Other sources provide patterns, processes, and insights that complement the Scrum framework. These may increase productivity, value, creativity, and satisfaction with the results.
The complete history of Scrum is described elsewhere. To honor the first places where it was tried and proven, we recognize Individual Inc., Newspage, Fidelity Investments, and IDX (now GE Medical).
© 2020 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland
Commentary
The Acknowledgements chapter is a tribute to the contributions made by early pioneers.
Scrum itself changed very little since its inception. The above-mentioned 1995 OOPSLA conference presentation is available as a PDF and is still a useful read which helps to understand the rationale behind Agile and Scrum. It provides even more in-depth knowledge compared to the Scrum Theory chapter in the Guide.
Unlike Scrum, the Guide has undergone significant enhancements over the years. (See Scrum Guide history.) The early versions were more prescriptive in using specific techniques and practices that were not essential to successfully applying Scrum. It contained ideas that were incompatible with present-day corporate culture. The most important changes:
- Introduction of Product Backlog ‘grooming’, later renamed to refinement. This process was not part of the original Guide. However, the need for an organized update of the Product Backlog quickly becomes apparent for most teams. In this particular case, the Guide follows the crowd.
- Removal of the controversial pigs and chickens fable. This story served as an allegory to demonstrate different levels of involvement in a process. Calling the stakeholders ‘chickens’ was never elegant, the removal of the fable is a significant improvement to Scrum’s reputation.
- Removal of non-mandatory elements, tips and practices of the framework leaving the practical choice for the Scrum Teams.
- Addition of Scrum values which are commonplace virtues for any organization, but essential for the success of Scrum.
- The 2020 comprehensive overhaul eliminated the ‘Development Team’ and added the Developer role directly to the Scrum Team. The new edition is cleaner, simpler and shorter than any of the previous ones, furthermore, the bare rewording of the text gives the readers a chance to focus on the content instead of particular word choices.
The changes improved the quality of the Guide in many ways, and we can expect this trend to continue. The creators interact with the community to gather their feedback and ideas.
Scrum has an interesting history, considering that its roots are in the Japanese automotive industry. One of the best and certainly the most authentic sources on this topic is the blog of Jeff Sutherland: Takeuchi and Nonaka: The Roots of Scrum.
Will Scrum or the Scrum Guide further change in the future? We can only guess. It is difficult to strike a balance between practical usefulness and ideal abstractness. The 2020 version probably reached the point where further reduction would hurt practicality. Whether there is any need to ever update the Guide again, or a generational change will bring something entirely new, is yet to be seen. The forecasted AI revolution will have an impact on the way we organize our work that may impact Scrum, too.
External Content: the Origins of Scrum from Ken Schwaber
THE END
The Scrum Guide – 2017
Acknowledgements
People
Of the thousands of people who have contributed to Scrum, we should single out those who were instrumental at the start: Jeff Sutherland worked with Jeff McKenna and John Scumniotales, and Ken Schwaber worked with Mike Smith and Chris Martin, and all of them worked together. Many others contributed in the ensuing years and without their help Scrum would not be refined as it is today.
History
Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland worked on Scrum until 1995, when they co-presented Scrum at the OOPSLA Conference in 1995. This presentation essentially documented the learning that Ken and Jeff gained over the previous few years, and made public the first formal definition of Scrum.
The history of Scrum is described elsewhere. To honor the first places where it was tried and refined, we recognize Individual, Inc., Newspage, Fidelity Investments, and IDX (now GE Medical).
The Scrum Guide documents Scrum as developed, evolved, and sustained for 20-plus years by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber. Other sources provide you with patterns, processes, and insights that complement the Scrum framework. These may increase productivity, value, creativity, and satisfaction with the results.
©2017 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland.
The Scrum Guide – 2010
Acknowledgements
General
Scrum is based on industry-accepted best practices, used and proven for decades. It is then set in an empirical process theory. As Jim Coplien once remarked to Jeff, “Everyone will like Scrum; it is what we already do when our back is against the wall.”
People
Of the thousands of people that have contributed to Scrum, we should single out those that were instrumental in its first ten years. First there were Jeff Sutherland, working with Jeff McKenna, and Ken Schwaber with Mike Smith and Chris Martin. Scrum was first formally presented and published at OOPSLA 1995. During the next five years, Mike Beadle and Martine Devos made significant contributions. And then everyone else, without whose help Scrum wouldn’t have been refined into what it is today.
History
The history of Scrum can already be considered long in the world of software development. To honor the first places where it was tried and refined, we honor Individual, Inc., Fidelity Investments, and IDX (now GE Medical).
© 2008-2010 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, All Rights Reserved