Scrum Artifacts

The Scrum Guide – 2020

Scrum’s artifacts represent work or value. They are designed to maximize transparency of key information. Thus, everyone inspecting them has the same basis for adaptation.

Each artifact contains a commitment to ensure it provides information that enhances transparency and focus against which progress can be measured:

• For the Product Backlog it is the Product Goal.
• For the Sprint Backlog it is the Sprint Goal.
• For the Increment it is the Definition of Done.

These commitments exist to reinforce empiricism and the Scrum values for the Scrum Team and their stakeholders.

© 2020 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland

Commentary

Regarding tangible results, Scrum focuses on 3 ‘artifacts’. The artifact is an umbrella term since the backlogs and the increment are quite different in their nature. The Increment embodies the product while the Product Backlog and the Sprint Backlog guide the creation of value.

In contrast, while the delivery process may produce or require further documents and byproducts, those are not addressed by Scrum directly.

Can we really create other ‘artifacts’ in Scrum?

Such documents and byproducts may include all kinds of engineering design documentation, business documentation, continuous integration framework, and so on. Comprehensive documentation is not an agile virtue, however, there are situations where undeniably necessary. As often stated, Scrum is intentionally incomplete and leaves up many details to the practitioners. We simply do not call such byproducts Scrum artifacts.

What are NOT Scrum Artifacts?

The following entities – while in a way connected – are not artifacts:

• The Product Goal. It gives focus to the Product Backlog, which is an artifact.
• The Spring Goal. It gives focus to the Sprint Backlog, which is an artifact.
• The Definition of Done. It gives focus to the Increment which is an artifact.
• The Scrum Board, the Sprint Burndown Chart, and the Project Burnup Chart. The Scrum Board can embody a backlog, but only the backlog is the artifact.
• The User Stories and Acceptance Criteria. They may detail Product Backlog items but only the Product backlog is an artifact.
• Jira, Azure DevOps and other tools. These may represent the backlogs but only the backlogs are the artifacts.

This Chapter is presented on the following pages in detail:

• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Increment and Definition of Done

Key Takeaways

• Scrum has three artifacts, the Product Backlog, the Sprint Backlog and the Increment.
• Each artifact focuses on a goal: the Product Goal, the Sprint Goal and the Definition of Done.
• Other documents and tools are not considered an artifact, but it does not mean those are not important for the Scrum Team.