Methodologies & SDLC Deep Dive · 3 of 10

Scrum — The Sprint Cadence

Codified by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland in the mid-1990s. Scrum boxes work into fixed-length sprints (usually two weeks), with three roles, five events, and three artifacts. It's the most-adopted Agile framework worldwide — and the most misunderstood.

SprintsProduct OwnerScrum MasterBacklogIncrement
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Anatomy

Roles, Events, Artifacts

Three Roles

  • Product Owner (PO) — owns the backlog and priorities; decides what to build.
  • Scrum Master (SM) — coaches the team and process; removes blockers. Not a project manager.
  • Developers — cross-functional team that builds the increment each sprint.

Five Events

  • The Sprint itself — a fixed time-box (1–4 weeks).
  • Sprint Planning — pick the goal and items.
  • Daily Scrum — 15-min sync; not a status report to the SM.
  • Sprint Review — demo the increment to stakeholders.
  • Retrospective — inspect & improve how the team works.

Three Artifacts

  • Product Backlog — ordered list of everything that might be done.
  • Sprint Backlog — what we'll do this sprint, and the plan.
  • Increment — the working software at the end of the sprint, meeting the Definition of Done.
Sprint Flow

What a Two-Week Loop Looks Like

Refine backlog
→
Sprint Planning
→
Daily Scrum × 10
→
Increment to Definition of Done
→
Review (demo)
→
Retrospective
Common Failure Modes

Where Teams Go Wrong

  • Stand-ups become status reports. If the SM is the audience, you're doing it wrong.
  • Story points become commitments. They're a relative-effort estimate, not a contract.
  • "Definition of Done" stays vague. Without it, "done" means "the developer ran it once."
  • The PO is a proxy. A PO without authority on priorities is a PM with a different title.
  • No retro action items. A retro that produces no commitments is just complaining with snacks.
  • Mid-sprint scope changes. The whole point of a sprint is the team gets a stable goal.
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