Scrum Framework — Self-Study Unit
Section 1 of 12 · Basis: framework reference document 2020, sections Purpose and Theory; Agile Manifesto
Agile foundations and empirical work
Why planning everything up front fails for complex products, what empiricism means and how iterative differs from incremental.
At a glance
The core connections of this section as a diagramA note on this sectionThe key points marked as Practice or Lean, the distinction between method and practice, the individual forms of waste and all the figures in the examples do not come from the framework's reference document. The four value pairs of the Agile Manifesto are named in their established English wording and its twelve principles are rendered in substance; no continuous passages are taken over.
The three pillars stand in a fixed order
Each pillar presupposes the one before — which is why none can be left out
Iterative
The same result is reworked and refined in cycles.
Practice
Incremental
Each cycle adds a usable part.
Practice
Scrum is both
Every Sprint creates a usable addition and allows what has already emerged to be reworked.
Framework: Theory
The 8 lessons
Click to expand · the tick on the left marks a lesson as completedPlannable work and complex product work call for opposite approaches
Plannable work
- The solution path is known from earlier runs and can be repeated
- Deviating from the plan counts as an error and is brought back into line
- A long plan at the start lowers the total cost
Complex product work
- The solution path only shows itself while the work is being done
- Deviation is new insight and changes the plan
- Short cycles with real inspection lower the total cost
Remember: Exam trap: it is not the size of an undertaking that makes it complex, but not knowing the solution path. The price of a correction rises with the distance between the decision and its inspection. Put every decision at the start and you build months of work on assumptions nobody has tested. That is why empirical work replaces the one long plan with many short cycles, in which every assumption meets a result early.
Practice- A piece of work counts as plannable when comparable work has already been carried out several times with a comparable result.
- The later a mistake comes to light, the more work already built on top of it has to be corrected along with it.
- The answer to unpredictable work is not the finer plan, but the shorter distance between a decision and its inspection.
Framework: Sprint- A fixed, short cycle length limits the damage of a wrong decision to the work of a single Sprint.
Practical example
A team is to replace an insurer's booking portal. Up front, 240 requirements are written and signed off over nine months. After seven months the first version goes to 50 test users: search is barely used, and instead the users ask for a document store that appears in no requirement. Because the data model and the interface were cut to fit the described search, the change costs three months. With two-week cycles and real usage, the same insight would have been available after four weeks for two weeks of rework.
Knowledge check for lesson 1
2 questionsQuestion A team is to develop a product with unproven technology and unknown user behaviour. What follows for the planning?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationThe section on theory rests decisions on experience and observation; with complex work only the course of events shows what actually happens. A finer or frozen plan merely increases the quantity of untested assumptions. Waiting for the solution path to become fully known would postpone the start indefinitely.Question Planning up front fails for complex products mainly because the undertakings are too large. Does that reasoning hold?
True or false · one answer is correct
ExplanationIt is not the size of an undertaking that puts it beyond planning up front, but not knowing the solution path; the framework is explicitly aimed at complex problems. A small undertaking with unproven technology cannot be planned up front either, whereas a large one made of familiar work often can be, very well. The planning effort itself changes nothing about that.Both sides of every value pair have value; the left has more weight
Weighted higher Keeps its value Source Individuals and interactions Processes and tools Agile Manifesto Working software Comprehensive documentation Agile Manifesto Customer collaboration Contract negotiation Agile Manifesto Responding to change Following a plan Agile Manifesto Remember: Exam trap: the right-hand side is often read as rejected, when it is merely weighted lower; the columns name the value pairs in the Manifesto's own wording. The Manifesto describes no method but a stance: four weightings and twelve principles that follow from them. The diagram in this lesson shows the weightings; the complete list of principles is in the overview under Going deeper. The principles make the weightings checkable, because they name observable behaviour rather than intentions.
Agile Manifesto- As the most important measure of progress the Manifesto names working software, not the degree to which a plan has been met; this course carries that over to any product.
- Business people and developers work together daily; face-to-face conversation counts as the most effective form of communication.
- A pace that everyone involved can sustain indefinitely is part of the aim and not a side condition.
- Technical excellence, good design and simplicity increase the ability to change direction later on.
Practice- The Manifesto names no events, no accountabilities and no artefacts; those are added only by a framework.
Practical example
In a project with twelve people involved, every business change goes through a form and a weekly committee meeting; on average nine days pass before a decision is available. The team proposes seating the business owner directly next to development on two mornings a week. The form stays in place for budget changes, everything else is decided in conversation. The lead time of a business question falls from nine days to half a day, without a single rule being struck out. That is exactly what weighting instead of rejection means.
All twelve principles at a glance, under Going deeper
Knowledge check for lesson 2
2 questionsQuestion A client reads the higher weighting of responding to change as a renunciation of planning. How is that to be put right?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationThe Agile Manifesto follows its four value pairs with the sentence that the items on the right have value and those on the left weigh more heavily. Abolishing plans is not what is meant. The last two options turn the weighting into a condition the Manifesto does not set.Question Which statements match the principles of the Agile Manifesto?
Multiple response · exactly 2 of 4 answers are correct · all or nothing
0 of 2 selectedExplanationAmong its principles the Agile Manifesto names working software as the most important measure of progress and a pace that can be sustained indefinitely; this course generalises that to the working product. It expressly prefers face-to-face conversation to extensive written transfer. Self-organisation contradicts the close assignment of tasks.The three pillars work only in this order and only in full
- 1TransparencyWork and artefacts are visible to those performing and those receiving them alike.Framework: Theory
- 2InspectionArtefacts and progress are inspected frequently and diligently against the goal.Framework: Theory
- 3AdaptationIf anything deviates from the agreed limits, the approach or the result is corrected as soon as possible.Framework: Theory
Remember: Exam trap: the order is a dependency, not a sequence of dates — without transparency the inspection is misleading, without adaptation it stays without consequence. Empirical work gains knowledge from observing what has happened, not from predicting what is to come. The framework does not leave that to the attitude of individuals but builds the opportunities for it in firmly: every event is a scheduled occasion to look at the result and derive a decision from it.
Framework: Theory- Missing or dressed-up information makes any inspection misleading and consumes effort without supporting a dependable decision.
- Inspection and adaptation belong together; inspecting and then changing nothing consumes effort to no benefit at all.
- The artefacts are the basis that gets inspected; where their transparency is low, decisions taken on them can diminish value and increase risk.
Framework: Events- The events are the built-in opportunities for inspection and adaptation; outside them both are permitted at any time.
Practical example
A team keeps a status column on its board labelled almost done. Three tasks have sat there for eleven days because an approval is missing; on the board they look like progress. In the Daily Scrum the team reports progress, and in the Sprint Review it turns out that of five planned items only two are usable. After that status is abolished, every task counts either as open or as done by the Definition of Done. The number of open items jumps from zero to three. That is uncomfortable, but from that moment on every decision rests on the actual state.
Knowledge check for lesson 3
2 questionsQuestion In one team three tasks are marked almost done although they have been waiting days for an approval. Which pillar is broken first?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationThe section on theory makes transparency the precondition: only visible and undistorted work can be inspected meaningfully. Inspection and adaptation do not fail here in themselves, but on the falsified basis. Measured against the Definition of Done, work is either done or not; a status such as almost done asserts a state the Definition of Done does not confirm.Question Which statements about the three pillars of empirical work are correct?
Multiple response · exactly 3 of 5 answers are correct · all or nothing
0 of 3 selectedExplanationThe section on theory describes transparency as the precondition of inspection and requires an adaptation to take place as soon as possible. Transparency holds for those performing and those receiving the work alike, not for one side only. Deferring until the next Sprint Planning would not be compatible with that.Every form of waste ties up capacity that is then missing for value
Waste How to spot it Source Unfinished work Much started at once, little finished Lean Hand-offs Work changes hands and then waits there Lean Waiting times Progress hangs on an approval or a delivery from outside Lean Unused functions Built and delivered, used by nobody Lean Rework The same place is touched several times Lean Remember: Exam trap: an unused function is work paid for in full with no return whatsoever. The framework names Lean Thinking explicitly as a second basis alongside empirical work. The idea is plain: whatever contributes nothing to the result is left out, so that the view of the essentials stays clear. Short cycles only help when they are not filled with work nobody needs.
Lean- Lean Thinking directs attention to the essentials and removes everything that lengthens the way there.
- Work that has been started but not finished ties up effort and attention without anyone being able to use it.
Practice- Lean Thinking and empiricism reinforce each other: the less that is open at once, the more clearly an inspection shows what is actually done.
- Limiting the work started at the same time is the fastest-acting measure against unfinished inventory.
Practical example
A team of six Developers has started nine of eleven planned items by mid-Sprint and finished none. Each person switches topic several times a day, and two items are waiting on an approval from another area. The team limits the items open at once to three and pulls a new one only when one is done by the Definition of Done. At the end of the Sprint eight items are usable instead of four as in the Sprint before, with the same staffing and the same working time.
Knowledge check for lesson 4
2 questionsQuestion By mid-Sprint a team has started nine of eleven items and finished none. How is this state to be judged in terms of Lean Thinking?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationLean Thinking counts work that has been started but not finished as waste, because it ties up effort and benefits nobody. Utilisation is no measure of value. That the result only emerges at the end of the Sprint does not explain the high inventory: a Sprint can produce several Increments, and a delivery is not tied to the end of the Sprint; work that has been started remains without benefit until it is finished.Question Over two Sprints a team builds an export function which, after a quarter, is called in one of 400 transactions. Which assessment is correct?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationLean Thinking counts unused functions as waste, because the work has been paid for in full and yields no return. Rework arises from a lack of quality and waiting time from blocked progress; neither applies here. Meeting the Definition of Done says nothing about benefit.Iterative improves what exists, incremental adds something usable
Iterative
- The same result is reworked and refined in cycles
- The second pass improves what the first produced
- Without rework, every mistake stays in the product
Incremental
- Usable parts are added to what has already been delivered
- Each part works on its own, even while the rest is still missing
- Without adding, nothing ever emerges that anyone can use
Remember: Exam trap: phases chopped into short segments are neither iterative nor incremental, merely chopped up. Every Sprint produces a usable Increment, and that makes the approach incremental; at the same time what has already been produced may be reworked in later Sprints, and that makes it iterative. If either property is missing, the Sprint loses its purpose: without a usable result there is nothing to inspect, and without rework the insight has no consequence.
Framework: Increment- An Increment is a usable interim state on the way to the Product Goal; work belongs to it only once it meets the Definition of Done.
- A Sprint that contains only analysis or only testing produces no inspectable result and contradicts both properties.
Framework: Theory- Reworking parts already delivered is not a step backwards but the intended consequence of an inspection.
Practice- A draft or an experimental setup settles a question but does not replace an Increment, because it is not intended for use.
Practical example
A team builds an application process with four steps. In the first Sprint it delivers step one fully usable; 30 test users file real applications with it. Two pieces of feedback weigh heavily: there are too many mandatory fields, and saving a draft is missing. In the second Sprint step two is added, and step one gains the draft-saving and is relieved of four fields. Had the team first designed all four steps and then built all four, both pieces of feedback would have become visible only after the last Sprint.
Knowledge check for lesson 5
2 questionsQuestion A team splits its undertaking into four Sprints containing analysis, design, implementation and testing. How is this approach to be classified?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationThe framework requires a usable Increment to emerge in every Sprint; the Scrum Team is accountable for that. An analysis or testing phase produces nothing usable and does not rework an existing result either. Short segments alone make a phase model neither iterative nor incremental.Question Which statements correctly describe how iterative and incremental work interact in Scrum?
Multiple response · exactly 2 of 4 answers are correct · all or nothing
0 of 2 selectedExplanationThe section on the Increment describes every Increment as a usable step that is added to what has been delivered so far, and the section on theory makes rework the intended consequence of an inspection. What counts as rework is remedying a lack of quality; reworking on the basis of new insight is not waste. A sign-off of the Increment by stakeholders is unknown to the framework.The deeper the level, the more concrete the provision and the easier it is to exchange
Framework
Sets boundaries and leaves open how they are filled; Scrum belongs here.
Framework: DefinitionMethod
Prescribes a particular procedure, including the order of the steps, as binding.
PracticePractice
A single technique, such as Planning Poker, story mapping or pair programming.
Practice
Remember: Exam trap: practices such as Planning Poker are often taken for components of the framework. Scrum is deliberately incomplete: it names accountabilities, events and artefacts and says nothing about the techniques a team fills them with. That gap is not a shortcoming but the place where a team can bring in its own way of working, and change it again, without violating the framework.
Framework: Definition- The framework lays down what exists and what it is there for; the choice of techniques is left to the Scrum Team.
- Because the components build on one another, leaving out a single component changes the result of the whole.
Practice- Exchanging a method means replacing the whole way of working; exchanging a practice means replacing only one technique.
- Test-driven development and pair programming are practices: useful, but not required by the framework.
Practical example
Two teams work on the same product. Team A estimates in points with Planning Poker, team B merely counts items and measures their lead time. Both hold all the events, both work from one Product Backlog, both deliver an Increment at the end of the Sprint by a shared Definition of Done. A new manager demands points for everyone, because he takes them to be part of Scrum. The Scrum Master objects on the facts: the estimation technique is a practice and therefore a matter for each team, because the framework prescribes no estimation method.
Knowledge check for lesson 6
2 questionsQuestion A manager demands that all teams on a product estimate in points with Planning Poker, because that is part of Scrum. What is correct?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationThe section on the definition describes Scrum as a deliberately incomplete framework that leaves techniques open; estimation methods are not among them. Sprint Planning requires a plan, but no particular estimation technique. The Developers decide on their way of working, not the Product Owner and not an instruction from outside.Question A new team member asks why the team may freely choose pair programming but may not drop the Daily Scrum. Which explanation is right?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationThe section on the definition describes the framework as deliberately incomplete: only what the framework needs to put its theory into effect is laid down — the events are part of that — while processes, techniques and methods remain free within it. Pair programming is a practice and therefore freely selectable, whereas the Daily Scrum is a component of the framework. The Definition of Done does not replace events.The framework delivers visibility and clear assignment, not speed, dates or quality
This holds
- Makes effectiveness visible — The result of every Sprint shows what the way of working actually produces.
- Assigns accountability clearly — Value, delivery and effectiveness each have one clear assignment.
This does not hold
- Promises no adherence to dates — A fixed date and a fixed scope cannot both be promised, not even with Sprints.
- Does not raise quality — Quality comes from the Definition of Done and from the work, not from the procedure.
- Contains no estimation method — Nor technology requirements, tools or roles outside the Scrum Team.
Remember: Exam trap: Scrum promises no faster delivery; it only shows earlier where things cannot go faster. An expectation of an adoption can only be met if it is aimed at insight and not at an outcome. Promise figures that depend on the behaviour of the whole organisation and you are promising something the framework does not command. The only sustainable promise is to know effects and impediments earlier than before.
Framework: Purpose- The framework does not paper over problems, but neither does it remove them; impediments made visible do not disappear on their own.
Framework: Scrum Team- The framework defines only three accountabilities, all of them inside the Scrum Team; project or reporting structures alongside it are not described.
Practice- Impediments recognised early are, in experience, easier and cheaper to remove than ones discovered late; the decision about that is taken by people.
- An adoption that only writes events into the calendar changes neither the result nor the behaviour of those involved.
- If figures get worse after the adoption, that is often not a regression but the end of a dressing-up.
Practical example
A department adopts Scrum and expects delivery times 20 percent shorter after one quarter. After four Sprints the delivery time is unchanged, but the same point appears in every Sprint Retrospective: approvals by an external quality office take eleven days on average. The framework made this bottleneck visible in four weeks; it cannot remove it. Only when the department's management commits two reviewers to fixed time slots does the delivery time fall measurably. The change came from people, the visibility from the way of working.
Knowledge check for lesson 7
2 questionsQuestion Which statements about the limits of what the framework delivers are correct?
Multiple response · exactly 3 of 5 answers are correct · all or nothing
0 of 3 selectedExplanationThe section on the definition describes the framework as a means of making the effectiveness of management, environment and working techniques visible so that improvements become possible; it contains no promises about speed or dates. Further accountabilities outside the Scrum Team, technology requirements and tools are not part of the framework. Quality comes from the Definition of Done and from the work, not from a procedure.Question After four Sprints the delivery time is unchanged, and every Sprint Retrospective records that external approvals take eleven days. What follows from that?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationThe section on purpose makes clear that the framework makes problems visible but does not solve them. The Scrum Master has no authority to instruct other areas; he makes the effect of the impediment transparent. Adapting the Sprint length to a waiting time conceals the impediment instead of removing it.Each of these misconceptions confuses leaving out with doing differently
Misconception What actually holds Source Works without a plan Plans more often, but over shorter periods Framework: Sprint Planning Needs no documentation Does without documentation only where it has no purpose Practice Knows no architecture Architecture emerges instead of being fixed in advance Agile Manifesto Has no dates Dates remain; what becomes negotiable is the scope Framework: Sprint Demands less discipline Demands more, because every deviation becomes visible Practice Team without leadership Self-management distributes decisions, it does not cancel them Framework: Scrum Team Remember: Exam trap: working in an agile way cancels no discipline, it only makes its absence visible faster. Most misconceptions arise from a misreading: the Manifesto's weighting is taken as a renunciation. In fact working in an agile way shifts the moment and the bindingness of decisions, it does not abolish them. The restriction to software does not hold either, because the framework presupposes complex product work, not a subject area.
Framework: Sprint Planning- Planning happens afresh in every Sprint, with a shorter horizon and on the basis of what was actually delivered last.
Framework: Scrum Team- Self-management means the team decides who, what, when and how, not that nobody carries responsibility.
Framework: Definition- The framework is not tied to software; it merely presupposes complex work and a product.
Practice- Documentation is judged by purpose: who reads it and which decision it supports determines how much of it there is.
Practical example
An editorial team at a public authority takes on Scrum for a citizens' portal without developing software itself: it is accountable for content, structure and clarity. The head of department takes Scrum to be a software-development tool and demands an annual plan instead. After three Sprints of two weeks each, the team shows three usable results: 40 revised pages, a navigation concept tested with citizens, and a checklist for clarity. The annual plan would have promised the same after twelve months, without a single tested assumption.
Knowledge check for lesson 8
2 questionsQuestion Working in an agile way does without dates and makes the scope negotiable instead. Does that statement hold?
True or false · one answer is correct
ExplanationThe section on the Sprint fixes the duration and leaves the scope within the Sprint negotiable; dates therefore remain. What becomes negotiable is what is done by the date, not the date itself. Doing without dates is not provided for in any provision of the framework.Question A manager concludes from a team's self-management that nobody there carries responsibility any more. Which conclusion is correct?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
ExplanationThe section on the Scrum Team describes self-management as the team deciding who works on what, how and when. The accountabilities remain in place and do not dissolve. The framework prescribes no particular decision procedure, and leadership does not disappear; it changes its form.
Going deeper
Overviews to look things up before the final testThe twelve principles behind the four value pairs
The value pairs say what weighs more — the principles say how you recognise it
Final test
11 questions across the section · pass mark 85 percentFinal test section 1
11 questionsQuestion A client demands a binding promise about content and date for the next twelve months on a product with unproven technology. What is factually correct?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
Question A team regularly delivers functions that, after three months, are called in fewer than five percent of transactions. Which measure follows from Lean Thinking?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
Question A Sprint Review shows that a function already delivered is misunderstood by users. Which courses of action fit empirical and incremental work?
Multiple response · exactly 2 of 4 answers are correct · all or nothing
Question A team wants to replace the Daily Scrum with a generated status report and introduce story mapping in backlog refinement. How is that to be judged?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
Question After Scrum is adopted, the number of openly reported problems rises markedly. How is this finding to be read?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
Question Which statements about working in an agile way are correct?
Multiple response · exactly 3 of 5 answers are correct · all or nothing
Question A team delivers a usable function in every two-week Sprint but never reworks what has been delivered, although feedback is available. Which property is missing?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
Question A Scrum Master notices that the state in the Sprint Backlog has not been brought up to date for three days. Which pillar is affected, and who restores the state?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
Question In a contract negotiation the client insists on a complete specification before the start. Which line of argument matches the Agile Manifesto?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct
Question What effects does a short, fixed cycle length have on complex product work?
Multiple response · exactly 2 of 4 answers are correct · all or nothing
Question A team is considering a week's break after every Sprint to catch up, because the pace cannot otherwise be sustained. Which principle of the Agile Manifesto addresses this situation most precisely?
Single choice · exactly one of 4 answers is correct