The Scrum Guide: Learn Scrum Step by Step

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organisations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems, as the official Scrum Guide puts it. A small, cross-functional Scrum Team works in Sprints of one month or less, produces a usable Increment each Sprint and uses regular events to inspect progress and adapt the plan.

Scrum was created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, who first presented it publicly in 1995. They published the first Scrum Guide in 2010 and have revised it several times since; the current version is the 2020 Scrum Guide. That revision made Scrum less software-specific and less prescriptive: it replaced "roles" with accountabilities, merged the Development Team into a single Scrum Team with Developers, and added the Product Goal and the idea of a commitment for each artifact.

In June 2025, Ralph Jocham, John Coleman and Jeff Sutherland published the Scrum Guide Expansion Pack, which adds context, theory and examples around the framework. It is a supplement, not a replacement: the 2020 Scrum Guide remains the definition of Scrum.

This hub is our own, independent guide. Where we describe a rule of Scrum, we follow the 2020 Scrum Guide; where we recommend a practice or format, we say it is our advice or common practice.

Scrum at a glance: the 3-5-3 structure

People often summarise Scrum as 3-5-3: three accountabilities, five events and three artifacts. The table pulls the essentials from the Scrum Guide into one place. Time-boxes are the maximum for a one-month Sprint and are usually shorter for shorter Sprints.

The Scrum Team is typically 10 or fewer people, with no sub-teams or hierarchies. Underneath the structure sit the three pillars of empiricism (transparency, inspection and adaptation) and five values (commitment, focus, openness, respect and courage).

How Scrum works: one Sprint step by step

Every Sprint follows the same rhythm. Here is what happens from start to finish.

1. The Product Owner keeps the Product Backlog ordered toward a clear Product Goal, and the team refines upcoming items so they are small and clear enough to select.
2. Sprint Planning starts the Sprint. The team agrees a Sprint Goal, selects Product Backlog items and plans how to deliver them, creating the Sprint Backlog. See Sprint Planning.
3. The Developers work toward the Sprint Goal, meeting for the Daily Scrum to inspect progress and adjust the plan.
4. Work that meets the Definition of Done becomes part of the Increment. The team can release it to users whenever it is ready, even before the Sprint ends.
5. The Sprint Review shows stakeholders what was achieved and gathers feedback, which updates the Product Backlog.
6. The Sprint Retrospective closes the Sprint. The team decides on the most helpful improvements to how it works.
7. The next Sprint starts immediately, with the improved backlog and ways of working.

Official Scrum vs common Scrum practices

The Scrum Guide is deliberately short. It defines what Scrum requires and leaves teams to choose their own practices. Many things people associate with Scrum come from those choices, which is why different Scrum teams can look quite different.

Complementary practices are not wrong; many are very useful. The point is to treat them as choices you can change when they stop helping, rather than as rules. Our guide to Scrum techniques covers the most useful ones.

Where to start: Scrum reading paths

You do not need to read all 35 guides. Pick the path that matches your role and read in order.

New to Scrum

• What is Scrum?
• Scrum principles and values
• Scrum team roles
• The 5 Scrum events
• Scrum artifacts
• Scrum glossary for any term you meet

Scrum Masters

Start with how to become a Scrum Master and servant leadership in Scrum, then learn to facilitate each event well, beginning with the Sprint Retrospective and retrospective games.

Product Owners

Developers

Focus on the Sprint Backlog, the Increment, story points and technical debt.

Managers and project managers

All 35 Scrum guides by topic

Every guide in our Scrum library, grouped into five chapters: Scrum basics, the Scrum Team, Scrum events, artifacts and practices, and scaling and learning.

Scrum compared with Agile, Kanban and Waterfall

Many teams combine approaches, for example Scrum with Kanban-style WIP limits, or Scrum teams delivering inside a wider predictive programme. The Scrum Guide allows this as long as the Scrum framework itself is kept intact.

Scrum templates and tools

You can run Scrum with a whiteboard and sticky notes, but templates and software help once the team is distributed or the backlog grows.

• Sprint planning template to record the Sprint Goal, selected items and capacity.
• Product backlog template to order and refine backlog items.
• User story template for writing items with acceptance criteria.
• Sprint retrospective template to capture improvements and follow them up.

For software, Jira is the specialist choice for software teams running Scrum, with backlogs, Sprints and Agile reports. Teams mixing Scrum with Gantt-based planning or work from other departments often prefer an all-in-one platform such as Wrike, which ranks first in our project management tools ranking.

Common mistakes when adopting Scrum

• Renaming old roles and meetings without changing how decisions are made, for example a project manager assigning tasks under the title of Scrum Master.
• No clear Sprint Goal, so the Sprint becomes a list of unrelated tasks and the Daily Scrum turns into a status report.
• A weak or missing Definition of Done, which leaves "almost finished" work piling up and makes the Increment unusable.
• A Product Owner without authority to order the backlog, or a committee acting as Product Owner.
• Treating velocity as a target or comparing it between teams, which encourages inflated estimates.
• Skipping the Retrospective when the team is busy, which removes the event that makes every other improvement possible.

Frequently asked questions