{"id":86806,"date":"2023-09-06T06:44:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T10:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/netmind.bts.com\/en\/?p=86806"},"modified":"2025-02-24T17:22:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T16:22:30","slug":"scrum-framework-fundamentals-pillars-and-values-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/netmind.net\/en\/knowledge-center\/scrum-framework-fundamentals-pillars-and-values-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrum Framework Fundamentals: Pillars and Values-EN"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article closes the series in which we review the fundamentals of Scrum complemented by infographics that explain them. It may sound strange to end with the overview, but now that we have the details, we can step back and see the whole in perspective.<\/p>\n

Authors: Alonso \u00c1lvarez y Patricia Parreira<\/p>\n

Scrum was born in the mid-1990s to solve a very specific problem: how to develop software effectively and efficiently with small teams?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over time, Scrum has evolved a lot and along several lines: it has become one of the foundational components of the Agile movement<\/strong>, and has inspired (for better or worse) many other agile frameworks; it has incorporated many elements from other frameworks; it has opened up to other contexts and has long been applied outside of software<\/strong>. It has also dropped many things from its official definition, which is getting narrower by the day (such as the Daily’s three questions, which went into one edition and came out in the next).<\/p>\n

The creators of Scrum, Shutherland and Schwaber, were inspired by several sources, starting with the article “The New New Development Game<\/a>” by Professors Takeuchi and Nonaka to make an adaptation of the Lean philosophy originating at Toyota, combined with their own personal experience.<\/p>\n

NOTE: “The new new development game” is also the inspiration for the name Scrum. The original article used the metaphor of rugby to explain how the ball is “passed” (the work) between team members. Sutherland and Schwaber chose “Scrum” (which in English is “Melee”), a rugby move in which the team pushes in unison to overcome an obstacle, the opposing team.<\/h5>\n

Scrum began in practice in 1993<\/strong> (according to Shutherland, that’s when the first Sprint<\/a> started) and then it was presented at a conference and articles and books began to appear. In 2001, Shutherland and Schwaber participated in the development of the Agile Manifesto<\/a> and since then its influence has continued to grow<\/strong>. It is estimated that more than 80%<\/a> of organizations that apply agile use Scrum, plus an additional percentage that use hybrids or variants.<\/p>\n

Scrum is a Framework<\/h2>\n

Although it is common to hear the expression “Agile methodology” when talking about Scrum, the first thing to make very clear is that Scrum is not a methodology<\/strong>. Its authors define it as a lightweight framework<\/strong>. You only have to look at the Scrum Guide<\/a> to realize that we are talking about something very non-prescriptive: 14 pages are enough to tell you everything you need to know about Scrum (14 in the original English version, 17 in the Spanish version, including cover, table of contents and acknowledgements). What’s more, this Guide has always been short, and has even been reduced over time from the 21 pages of its initial 2010 version.<\/p>\n

Scrum is defined as “a lightweight framework that helps individuals, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions to complex problems”<\/em>. That is not to say that its application is simple: Scrum has traditionally been compared to chess, where simple rules lead to a game with many complex variants.<\/p>\n

This justifies the amount of literature on Scrum: the enormous variability of situations in its application, the wide range of possible situations that can occur in a team, makes the experience of putting Scrum into practice a complement that enriches the simplicity of its design.<\/p>\n

The fundamentals of Scrum<\/h2>\n

The most visible and well-known aspects of Scrum are its events, responsibilities and artifacts, but the only way to understand what we are talking about is to know what it is based on: its pillars and values<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Scrum is based on empiricism and Lean thinking. Empiricism states that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed. Lean thinking reduces waste and focuses on the essentials (Scrum Guide, 2020).<\/h5>\n

Empiricism, making decisions based on data and evidence rather than personal opinions and perceptions, is basic. This means that effective application of Scrum requires obtaining and analyzing that data. Scrum does not officially define metrics or indicators, but makes it clear that empiricism is the foundation on which everything else is built.<\/p>\n

The pillars<\/h3>\n

And that “everything else” is, first of all, the pillars on which Scrum is based. There are three of them:<\/p>\n

\"Scrum<\/p>\n