Scrum Guide 2026
Roles, Ceremonies & Artifacts
Everything you need to understand Scrum: the three roles, five ceremonies, three artifacts, the sprint cycle, Definition of Done and how to run your first Scrum team. Based on the official Scrum Guide 2020.
Scrum is a lightweight Agile framework for complex work. It uses fixed-length sprints (usually 2 weeks), 3 roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers), 5 ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, Backlog Refinement) and 3 artifacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Increment).
Scrum at a Glance
Key facts — Scrum Guide 2020
What Is Scrum?
Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps teams, organisations and individuals generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems. It was created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland and is formally defined in the Scrum Guide, last updated in November 2020.
Scrum is intentionally incomplete — it defines only the parts required to implement Scrum theory. It is built on empiricism (knowledge comes from experience) and lean thinking (reduce waste and focus on essentials). The three pillars of Scrum are transparency, inspection and adaptation.
Scrum is not a process or technique for building products. It is a framework within which you can employ various processes and techniques. Scrum wraps around your existing practices and reveals the relative efficacy of your current management, environment and work techniques so that you can improve.
The Five Scrum Values
Successful use of Scrum depends on people becoming more proficient in living these five values: Commitment — team members personally commit to achieving the goals; Focus — everyone focuses on the work of the Sprint; Openness — the team and stakeholders agree to be open about all work and challenges; Respect — team members respect each other; Courage — team members have courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems.
The 3 Scrum Roles
In Scrum 2020, the fundamental unit is the Scrum Team — a small group of 10 or fewer people consisting of one Product Owner, one Scrum Master and Developers. There are no sub-teams or hierarchies. The Scrum Team is cross-functional, self-managing and accountable for creating a valuable Increment every Sprint.
- Develops and explicitly communicates the Product Goal
- Creates and orders Product Backlog items
- Ensures the Product Backlog is transparent and understood
- Decides what gets built and in what order
- The organisation must respect PO decisions
- Coaches team on Scrum theory and practice
- Removes impediments to the team's progress
- Facilitates Scrum events as needed
- Helps organisation understand and adopt Scrum
- Protects team from outside interference
- Creates a Sprint plan (the Sprint Backlog)
- Instils quality by adhering to the Definition of Done
- Adapts plan each day toward the Sprint Goal
- Hold each other accountable as professionals
- Cross-functional — all skills needed to create value
The 5 Scrum Ceremonies
Scrum prescribes five formal events for inspection and adaptation. Each event is an opportunity to inspect and adapt Scrum artifacts. These events are specifically designed to enable the transparency required. Failure to operate any event as prescribed results in lost opportunities to inspect and adapt.
(1–4 weeks)
≤ 4 weeks
≤ 8 hrs/month
15 minutes
≤ 4 hrs/month
≤ 3 hrs/month
The 3 Scrum Artifacts
Scrum's artifacts represent work or value. They are designed to maximise transparency of key information. Each artifact contains a commitment to ensure it provides information that enhances transparency and focus against which progress can be measured.
The Definition of Done
The Definition of Done (DoD) is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality standards required for the product. It creates transparency and a shared understanding of what "done" means across the Scrum Team. If a Product Backlog item does not meet the DoD, it cannot be released or even presented at the Sprint Review.
| Item | Example DoD Criteria | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Code complete | All acceptance criteria met and code committed to main branch | Technical |
| Code reviewed | Reviewed by at least one other Developer and all comments resolved | Technical |
| Tests passing | Unit tests written and all existing tests pass in CI/CD pipeline | Quality |
| Documentation | User-facing documentation updated where applicable | Documentation |
| No critical bugs | Zero P1 or P2 defects outstanding on the item | Quality |
| Deployed to staging | Successfully deployed and tested in staging environment | Technical |
| Product Owner accepted | PO has reviewed and accepted the item against acceptance criteria | Process |
How to Run Your First Sprint
Starting Scrum for the first time feels overwhelming — but the structure is simple once you follow it in sequence. Here is a practical step-by-step guide for teams new to Scrum.