Theory and Sprint length
Hi,
If you look at this : http://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#events-sprint you can see that a Sprint length is 4 weeks and no more. This source is the Scrum Guide (17 pages from Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber)
If you have a look at page 32 of this other book (http://www.scrumguides.org/download.html) which is the SBOK GUIDE ( A Guide to the SCRUM BODY of KNOWLEDGE with around 342 pages) you can see that a Sprint length is between one and six weeks.
Could you tell me what do you think of that ?
Thanks in advance !
The link you posted for the SBOK guide is wrong (I assume you meant to link to scrumstudy), but that doesn't matter.
Different "authorities" have different ideas on details like how long a sprint should be. You choose who you trust.
This is the first time I personally hear about this SBOK. My first impression is that it sounds like a nice way to market Scrum to project managers familiar with the BOK nomenclature.
Think about it, if a Sprint length is longer aren't you doing kinda waterfall each iteration ? 4 weeks is again a guideline and not a hardcore rule, you must do what works for you but beyond 3-4 weeks the risk increases in terms of market, tech and new requirements that will sitting in backlog for 6 weeks to get addressed.
Thank you for your replies !
Sorry for the bad link! Here is the good one : http://www.scrumstudy.com/SBOK/SCRUMstudy-SBOK-Guide-2016.pdf
Actually I know that the book of Ken & Jeff is the reference but it may not be sufficient in some cases. And I saw (probably on scrumstudy site) that this book is the next step (!) for someone who would like to learn more.
I understand Ankit in terms of Scrum implementation but in theory what is the truth ? 4 weeks or 6 weeks for the max length ?
Thanks
The source of truth is held to be the Scrum Guide - hence a Sprint cannot exceed one month.
I would second The comment she of Ian and others. There is only 1 Scrum and the moment you start saying there are many different Scrum's you become inconsistent, speak a different language from the rest of your colleagues and cause confusion. That said, if you are looking for other resources start with the many links here https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-scrum which includes books, papers, blogs and more.
To the point of more than 4 weeks, check out Ken's video https://www.scrum.org/resources/scrum-stories-fidelity-and-ge where he talks about why to keep at 4 weeks or under. Remember that Scrum is all about inspect, learn and adapt and by pushing out you will find difficulty in doing so and are likely just delaying yourself or taking on too much. Walker Royce and many others write about predictability and time, the longer you go, the harder to predict. This is very important is working to a goal.
Thanks for all replies. So the source of the confusion comes from the SBOK Guide ! It remains to know why a Sprint max length could be 6 weeks for these authors because in terms of certification question it could be useful not to hesitate for such a binary question !
From your point of view and your experience what is the equivalent book in terms on contents ? I mean for example the description of the 19 Scrum process which are referenced and detailed in this book.
If I were you, I would avoid the so-called SBOK Guide like the plague. It has been debunked several times on here, please have a look at this thread: https://www.scrum.org/forum/scrum-forum/5924/scrumstudys-sbok and the links within it.
Thank you all for your replies and advices !
ScrumStudy is getting very aggressive recently, trying to portray themselves as the most popular source for Scrum information, and peddling their massive SBOK guide. In my opinion, they are growing in popularity due to these efforts, and not because of any value they are bringing to the Scrum world.
Out of curiosity, I recently browsed their web site and some of their documentation, and found so much of it questionable, if not completely wrong, that I would highly advise against using Scrum Study as a valid Scrum resource.
Stick with the 19-page Scrum Guide. It is all you will need regarding Scrum.
OK Timothy and thanks for advice.