Practice what you preach - How Scrum is continuously evolving

3rd edition (2013): Goal-orientation in meetings

At its core, Scrum is about results and progress. In the early years of Scrum, however, it became apparent that meetings - especially the daily meeting - were increasingly being used for status reports. The guiding questions of the daily Scrum meeting were promptly changed in the second adaptation of the Scrum Guide. The focus is shifted more towards achieving the common sprint goal.

4th edition (2016): Agile as a mindset

In the emerging discussion about "doing agile" vs. "being agile", the founders make it clear that they do not see Scrum as a pure method. The values of commitment, focus, courage, openness and respect, which are still fundamental today, are introduced and linked to the pillars of Scrum. Scrum can only really work if the Scrum team lives and shares these values. In our perception, many companies nevertheless continue to regard Scrum as "doing agile", which is then supplemented by further initiatives to "being agile".

6th edition (2020): Away from "How does it work?", towards "What is it about?"

At first glance, it is noticeable that the Scrum Guide is now even less prescriptive. Among other things, the key questions of the Daily Scrum mentioned above have been removed. This brings Scrum one step closer to its own claim of being a lightweight framework, away from a comprehensive set of rules. The aim is to only specify what is absolutely necessary for Scrum to work. This includes, for example, the (newly added) Product Goal, which is intended to serve as a long-term goal for the Scrum team. Here, Scrum creates compatibility with the increasingly widespread Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), a clear fixed star that serves as orientation and is worked towards. Another exciting change is that the role of the Scrum Master has been emphasised. While they were previously referred to as the servant leader of the Scrum team and in many places were seen more as primus inter pares, the Scrum Guide now refers to them as the true leaderand gives them real accountability for the team's performance. This is particularly exciting for organisations that are undergoing major agile transformations and are looking for a suitable framework for scaling Scrum. Suddenly, a structure appears conceivable in which the Scrum Master de facto (and later perhaps also in the organisation chart) takes over the disciplinary leadership of the team members. This would mean that, in addition to her:him and the:product owner (for content management), there would not necessarily be a need for another person focussing exclusively on disciplinary management. We are curious to see where this will lead.