Ken Schwaber's Blog: Telling It Like It Is

Scrum As A Framework

Posted in Origins, Scrum by kenschwaber on September 8, 2010

There has been a lot of conversation about the Scrum Guide that Jeff Sutherland and I made available on Scrum.org. It is there, along with more than a dozen translations, for anyone to download as a PDF. When people share the PDF with each other, we request proper attribution so that it is always clear what is being read.

Many versions of Scrum are popping up these days. I want to make my position on this clear.

I’ve frequently said that Scrum is just a framework. It is a framework that Jeff and I devised within which complex products can be built. If the framework is used intelligently, these products will be developed with the very highest value, quality, and productivity, pleasing both the developers and the customers involved.

The word “framework” means that much is not specified and must be devised by those using the framework. I equate Scrum to the game of chess. You can read the official rulebook for chess. The moves, players, sequences, scoring, etc. are all specified. Learn them. Then you can play chess. Maybe your chess game isn’t so good, but you can study great games, strategies, and tactics, and practice to get better and better. However, you are playing the game of chess, so you don’t have the option of changing the rule book. If you change the rules, it’s not chess any longer. Just learn how to play the game with excellence, which is enough of a challenge.

Jeff and I worked hard over several decades to get Scrum to stand as it does today. It is simple, and it is definitive. We invite you to use it to build complex products. You will have to have, learn, or improve requirements gathering and presentation techniques; quality techniques; refactoring; customer engagement; collaboration; teaming; conflict resolution techniques; and other practices, as well. But the Scrum framework will help you by providing continual feedback on your progress and success.

If you don’t like Scrum, we welcome and invite you to devise something else. Just don’t call it Scrum.

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19 Responses

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  1. NewGame said, on September 9, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    play online new game

  2. Peter Saddington said, on September 9, 2010 at 7:03 pm

    Well said. Thanks for your great contributions to software development!

  3. Rafael Nascimento said, on September 11, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    Really great Ken! But I think this is not only a problem with Scrum, but with the whole Agile culture. We are talking about relatively new thinking (2001). There’s people out there into their “comfort zone”, that would like to have the “magic” of Scrum going on into their projects, but still don’t want to get out of this zone. You are doing a really beautiful and persistent work, and I believe and support Scrum in my highest level of effort.

    Shu – Ha – Ri (Learn the rule – Break the rule – Be the rule). People have to understand it, but the corporate world pressure for results, sometimes, doesn’t let people take the time necessary to do it. Just let’s keep it alive, and help people that want to do Scrum effectively do it!

  4. John Dahle said, on September 12, 2010 at 8:01 pm

    I like your analogy to chess, and to take it further, just as chess evolved from its early roots as tastes changed and it crossed culture, you should expect the concept of “Scrum” to evolve and change. Let’s face it, the idea of self-organized teams moving development of new products to market in a rugby-like way called “Scrum” did not begin with you guys. The original Japanese authors of the “New New Product Devlopment Game” article didn’t insist that this “Scrum” metaphor be used in one way and one way only. That being said, I agree with you 100% that you need an initial standard that has been tried closet the bone for a while and understood before it is adapted into something else. Scrum will evolve. Nobody can or should try to stop this process from happening. Seed the whirlwind…

  5. [...] Bis zu welchem Maße Modifikationen an Scrum sinnvoll und sogar notwendig sind, ab wann sie aber nicht erwünscht sind, dazu hat Ken Schwaber, einer der Begründer von Scrum, jetzt in seinem Blog Stellung bezogen. [...]

  6. [...] In Agile, Scrum on 03/10/2010 at 19:14 No sábado, estava conversando com Edgard Davidson sobre o chororô do Ken Schwaber sobre estarem desvirtuando o Scrum. Lembrei de Ken descendo a lenha no Kanban depois da galera da [...]

  7. Tony Askew said, on November 28, 2010 at 9:07 pm

    Ken, I believe your take is dead on. Scrum is most effective when it’s kept simple and the teams stick to the fundementals.

    It is when those attempting to re-invent the wheel run into trouble….

  8. O trapézio do Scrum | Blog Lambda3 said, on November 29, 2010 at 1:12 am

    [...] próprio Ken Schwaber já encorajou no seu blog e em outros lugares que as empresas criem frameworks e processos diferentes do Scrum. Segundo ele [...]

  9. [...] beginners and Ken’s request not to use the Scrum brand once it has been tinkered with – Scrum as a Framework. Interestingly, deviations far from the fundamentals are labelled “Smells”. Here are a few [...]

  10. [...] [...]

  11. klima servisi said, on June 1, 2011 at 4:19 am

    thansk admin :) )

  12. alvid said, on July 6, 2011 at 4:00 am

    never heard of this in the framework, but in the future it’ll always learning

  13. game of kids said, on August 30, 2011 at 11:49 am

    Thanks for your great contributions to software development

  14. [...] In addition the Scrum Master should never provide the team with options, as this this removes the responsibility of the Development Team to make decisions and may limit the options that the Development Team creates. If they are provided with options they are unlikely to try to formulate their own and if that option fails they can claim it is the responsibility of the person who provided that option and not of the Development Team. You will have to have, learn, or improve requirements gathering and presentation techniques; quality techniques; refactoring; customer engagement; collaboration; teaming; conflict resolution techniques; and other practices, as well. But the Scrum framework will help you by providing continual feedback on your progress and success. -Ken Schwaber: Scrum As A Framework [...]

  15. [...] In addition the Scrum Master should never provide the team with options, as this this removes the responsibility of the Development Team to make decisions and may limit the options that the Development Team creates. If they are provided with options they are unlikely to try to formulate their own and if that option fails they can claim it is the responsibility of the person who provided that option and not of the Development Team. You will have to have, learn, or improve requirements gathering and presentation techniques; quality techniques; refactoring; customer engagement; collaboration; teaming; conflict resolution techniques; and other practices, as well. But the Scrum framework will help you by providing continual feedback on your progress and success. -Ken Schwaber: Scrum As A Framework [...]

  16. [...] you take this post from Scwhaber about 12 months ago. It’s a giant contradiction. Scwhaber talks about Scrum being a [...]

  17. Ben10 said, on November 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    cool article thanks dostlar

  18. Car said, on November 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Thanks Cool Article Admin yeahhh


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