This is the first post of the “Understanding The Scrum Guide” series. The series aims to explore what people think when they read the Scrum Guide for the first time. Of course, it is impossible to read people’s minds, so all I can do is just guess, and I hope I can get feedback from you so I can guess better.
Every time in the series, I’ll cite sentences from the Scrum Guide in an ordered fashion, from top to bottom. In this first episode of the series, all quotes come from the Scrum Guide’s “Purpose of the Scrum Guide” section.
Let’s pick the first quote:
Scrum is a framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products
The Scrum Guide
For now, I just want to talk about the definition of the framework. We will talk about developing, delivering, sustaining, and complex products in the next posts, so you won’t take much time to read this post.
What is Framework?
Many people thought Scrum was a process, a standard, and/or a methodology. Is that true? Let’s find out what Google says about the definition of the word “framework.” Google uses the Oxford Dictionary as the source of its English dictionary. This is what I found:
Can you find the word “process” as one of the synonyms of the word “framework”? It is so clear that Scrum is not a process. Again, let’s see what the dictionary says about the definition of “process”:
Scrum is not a process because if you read thoroughly the definition of the process above, Scrum won’t tell you about a series of definitive actions, steps, procedures, operations, or activities that must be taken. Scrum is also assuming that your business will not end, so there is no particular end in Scrum.
Please, don’t get me wrong. Scrum is also talking about processes but in different contexts. The Scrum Guide has mentioned the word “process” 20 times, which I will talk about later. Okay, I’ll give you a bit of a hint about Scrum and the process relationship, which you can also find in the Scrum Guide:
it is a framework within which you can employ various processes and techniques
The Scrum Guide
In short, Scrum is the container of your organization’s processes and techniques. Further, Scrum is also the container of your organization’s culture and habit.
How about whether Scrum is a methodology or not? let’s refer to the definition:
Is Scrum a system of methods used in a particular field of study or activity? Let’s take a look at the definition of “method” first:
So interesting that “process” is also the synonym of “method.” If Scrum is not a process, then Scrum is also not a methodology. Again, don’t get me wrong, the Scrum Guide does mention some of those words, which I will address later. But keep in mind this formula (ouch!) to understand the relationship between Scrum and methodology:
Scrum is a framework to help you continuously improve your [fill with any of method’s synonyms].
Ivan Darmawan
for example, Scrum is a framework to help you continuously improving your process, procedure, technique, strategy, plan, tactic, recipe, rule (including Scrum?), system, etc.
That’s all for now. Let’s close this post with the following Dilbert Cartoon.
