Scrum Theory and Principles
What you must know
Scrum is a lightweight framework built on empiricism (knowledge comes from experience) and lean thinking (reduce waste, focus on essentials). Empiricism rests on three pillars: transparency (the work and its state are visible to those accountable), inspection (frequent examination of artifacts and progress toward goals), and adaptation (adjusting when results deviate). Inspection without transparency is misleading; adaptation without inspection is guesswork. The four Scrum values - commitment, focus, openness, respect, courage - are not decoration: questions often ask which value a described behavior expresses.
Candidates must also recognize the five Scrum values applied to the three empirical pillars, the idea of self-managing teams, and the principle that Scrum is intentionally incomplete - it defines accountabilities, events, artifacts, and rules, and leaves practices to the team. Iterative and incremental delivery, cadence, and continuous improvement through the Sprint Retrospective all follow from empiricism.
Traps
- Treating the pillars as activities rather than properties of the system (transparency is about the artifact being understood the same way by everyone).
- Confusing "inspect and adapt" with "change the Sprint Goal" - the Sprint Goal is fixed once the Sprint starts.
- Assuming Scrum prescribes tools, estimation units, or a definition of "done" beyond the team's own.
- Forgetting that lean thinking underlies removing non-value-adding work, not just speed.
Rule of thumb
For any scenario, ask: Is the artifact transparent to the people acting on it? Is there a real inspection point? Does the team have the authority to adapt? If any answer is no, the correct option usually restores that pillar rather than adding process.
Worked example: A team's board shows tasks as "done" but increments fail integration tests. Transparency is broken - "done" means different things to developers and stakeholders. The fix is a shared, explicit Definition of Done, not more status meetings.