Scrum cheat sheet: events, timeboxes, artifacts and accountabilities

The five events and their timeboxes

Every timebox is a maximum, stated for a one-month Sprint. Shorter Sprints usually have shorter events, but the Guide gives no formula for scaling them down.

• The Sprint: one month or less, a fixed length that contains all the other events. A new Sprint starts as soon as the previous one ends.
• Sprint Planning: up to 8 hours. The Scrum Team agrees why the Sprint is valuable (the Sprint Goal), what can be done and how it will be done.
• Daily Scrum: 15 minutes, at the same time and place every working day, for the Developers to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt their plan.
• Sprint Review: up to 4 hours. The Scrum Team and stakeholders inspect the outcome and decide what to do next. It is a working session, not a presentation.
• Sprint Retrospective: up to 3 hours. The Scrum Team plans ways to increase quality and effectiveness. It concludes the Sprint.

Three artifacts, three commitments

Each artifact has a commitment that gives it focus and makes progress measurable. Questions often pair an artifact with the wrong commitment.

• Product Backlog, committed to the Product Goal: the evolving list of product work, kept in order by the Product Owner. Nothing the Scrum Team works on comes from anywhere else.
• Sprint Backlog, committed to the Sprint Goal: the Developers' own plan for the Sprint, made up of the goal, the items they chose and how they intend to deliver them.
• Increment, committed to the Definition of Done: a usable step toward the Product Goal. Work becomes an Increment only when it meets the Definition of Done.

Who is accountable for what

Since 2020 the Guide speaks of three accountabilities within one Scrum Team of typically ten or fewer people, with no sub-teams and no hierarchy.

• Product Owner: maximising the value of the product, including ordering the Product Backlog. One person, not a committee, and the only one who can cancel a Sprint.
• Developers: turning selected work into a usable Increment each Sprint. They own the Sprint Backlog and how the work is done, meet the Definition of Done, and hold each other accountable.
• Scrum Master: establishing Scrum as the Guide defines it and the Scrum Team's effectiveness, serving the team, the Product Owner and the organisation.

Traps the assessment likes

Story points, velocity, user stories and a fixed set of Daily Scrum questions are common practices, not Scrum rules. When a question asks what Scrum requires, an answer that treats one of them as mandatory is wrong.

Many options describe a sensible action taken by the wrong person: the Scrum Master cancelling a Sprint, or the Product Owner deciding how the Developers do the work.

About the names used here

Professional Scrum Master, PSM and Scrum.org are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Advanced Development Methods, Inc., d/b/a Scrum.org. SkyLock Media is not affiliated with Advanced Development Methods d/b/a Scrum.org (ADM), and this guide does not constitute an endorsement of any product, service or point of view by ADM. Assessment details change: check the assessment page itself before you buy an attempt.