What is the Heart of Scrum?

“The heart of Scrum is assessing the condition of activities and empirically determining what to do next.” — Ken Schwaber, Inventor of Scrum (with Jeff Sutherland)

Empiricism: Transparency, Inspection, Adaptation. Determination of what to do next arises from what’s openly observed and inspected, from experience, training, and common sense (sometimes it is not common at all). We adapt to the situation based on these information…empirically determining what to do next.

Example: Demo. The beauty of a demo — within a sprint/iteration, program increment, or large solution —  is this: it allows one to observe and experience what has been created — a working software/product. One can inspect the product. The people inspecting the product expect the unexpected (nothing is perfect), monitor for it, and adapt as needed.

Demo. Demo. Demo. Don’t be afraid to get a failing grade on your demo… the learning and the potential improvements are more valuable than a fake passing grade… nothing is perfect…there is always room for improvement (ad infinitum).

Go forth! Keep Scruming, Demoing, Inspecting and Adapting! Keep empirically determining what to do next!