Scrum Is Still Scrum: 2021 Edition

Discussions on the November 2020 release of the Scrum Guide

Scrum is a Framework. It describes the bare minimum to enable a team to work on complex work. It is not a prescriptive methodology because complex work does not allow prescription, you must have the flexibility to learn, try, and evolve.

Because of that, there are 1000s of Scrum Teams doing Scrum with additional practices. Those teams have added things like Stories and Story Points. They have added Work in Progress (WIP) limits to their Scrum boards. They are applying Lean UX and XP practices. As Scrum is used in more and more contexts from genetic research to running a restaurant those additional practices become larger and larger.

But Scrum stays the same. The foundation of Scrum is described in the Scrum Guide. That short document, translated into dozens of languages allows this increasingly diverse set of teams to have a common language and foundation.

And with the 2020 release of the Scrum Guide Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, the creators, and custodians of Scrum have updated the Guide to make it more inclusive, simpler, and shorter. They have doubled down on the essence of Scrum to ensure that the common language of Scrum is easier to understand and apply. 

At Scrum.org we have used this update of the Scrum Guide as an opportunity to have some interesting discussions and I have documented some of them for your review and attention. 

I hope that the new Scrum Guide will encourage discussions and that the changes inspire you all to improve your use of Scrum, solve complex problems, and deliver more valuable outcomes.

By Dave West, CEO,

Previously published at