Starting with Scrum can feel overwhelming. It’s a framework with defined events, accountabilities, and artifacts that might seem rigid or even intimidating at first glance. But here’s the truth: it’s okay not to get everything perfect on day one. The real magic of Scrum unfolds as you practice and improve over time.
Start with the Basics
When you’re new to Scrum, the best approach is to commit to the framework fully. That means embracing all the core elements:
The events - (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective)
The accountabilities - (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers)
The artifacts - (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Increment)
At first, it might feel like you’re just going through the motions, checking boxes rather than truly understanding their purpose. That’s normal. A deeper understanding will come as your team gains experience.
Why Consistency Matters
By sticking to the framework, you’ll begin to uncover its purpose: enabling empirical process control. Empiricism relies on three pillars—transparency, inspection, and adaptation—to help teams navigate complexity. Scrum guides teams to inspect their work frequently, adapt to change, and make decisions based on what’s truly happening, not just assumptions.
Scrum’s values—courage, focus, openness, commitment, and respect—are crucial in this process. Over time, they foster trust within your team, making it easier to embrace transparency and adapt to challenges. Without trust, transparency falters, and adaptation becomes harder.
Avoid the “Extras” (At Least for Now)
One of the misconceptions about Scrum is that you must also adopt every popular complementary practice. Things like writing user stories, using estimation, or maintaining Scrum boards are helpful tools—but they aren’t required by Scrum.
Instead, treat these practices as optional add-ons. Experiment with them, and keep what works for your team. For example:
User stories: Popular for structuring work, but not a mandate.
Scrum boards: Great for visualization, but not required.
Estimation, epics, and features: Use them if they add clarity; skip them if they don’t.
Remember, Scrum is intentionally lightweight. Its goal isn’t to create extra work but to help you focus on delivering value.
Delivering Value in a Complex World
Scrum thrives in complex environments where uncertainty is high and solutions are unclear. It’s designed to help teams deliver value sooner by creating opportunities to learn and adapt.
When you start using Scrum, you might not immediately see these benefits. But with practice, you’ll notice the framework helping you:
Increase transparency: Everyone knows what’s happening and why.
Inspect progress: Regular check-ins keep the team aligned.
Adapt quickly: Adjust to changes without losing momentum.
Over time, you’ll stop “going through the motions” and start leveraging Scrum to solve real-world challenges.
Final Thoughts
Stepping into Scrum is a journey, not a destination. Embrace its events, accountabilities, and artifacts as your starting point. Use the values to build trust and the framework to guide your team’s work. Don’t stress about mastering every complementary practice—use them if they help and ignore them if they don’t.
Most importantly, remember that Scrum isn’t an end in itself. It’s a tool to help your team deliver value sooner and thrive in complexity. The more you practice, the more you’ll get out of it. So start small, learn as you go, and trust the process.
For those who are new to the Scrum framework, the Applying Professional Scrum course offers a comprehensive and hands-on introduction to Scrum.