Scrum For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 1

The Basics of Scrum

IN THIS CHAPTER

Seeing essential scrum principles

Identifying scrum values and structure

Scrum is an exposure framework based on empiricism, meaning people who employ the scrum framework gain knowledge from real-life experience and make decisions based on that experience. It’s a way of organizing your work — releasing a new smartphone, coordinating your daughter’s fifth-grade birthday party, or exposing whether your approach is generating intended results. If you need to get something done, scrum provides a structure for increased efficiency and more effective results.

Within scrum, common sense reigns. You focus on what can be done today with an eye toward breaking future work into manageable pieces. You can immediately see how well your effort is working, and when you find inefficiencies in your approach, scrum enables you to act on them by making adjustments with clarity and speed.

Although empirical process controls go back to the beginning of time in the arts, its modern-day usage stems from computer modeling. For example, in sculpting, you chisel away, check the results, make any adaptations necessary, and chisel away some more. The empirical exposure model means observing or experiencing actual results rather than simulating them based on research ...