International SCRUM Master Foundation (Scrum Guideline 2020)

Steen Lerche-Jensen

3.5 Openness

The empiricism of scrum requires transparency and openness by making known the arrangement of our work, our progress, our learning, and our problems. The team should be open to collaborate across disciplines and skills, to collaborate with stakeholders and the wider environment, to share feedback and learn from one another. The scrum framework includes elements that help promote openness:

  • Limiting a sprint to 30 days or less promotes an openness to changing direction base on new information.
  • The sprint goal is fixed and provides guidance, but the plan for reaching the goal is open to change based on what the development team is learning.
  • A transparent product backlog demonstrates openness with our stakeholders about what is planned for the product (and what is not planned) and what is likely to be next.
  • The focus of the sprint retrospective on continuous improvement of the team’s interactions, processes, and tools invites an openness to feedback, reflection, and changing how we work.
  • The sprint review demonstrates openness to sharing progress with our stakeholders, as well as openness to feedback and collaboration with them.