Scrum Foundations: Theory, Accountabilities, Events, and Artifacts
What this domain tests
Scrum Foundations checks whether you can apply Scrum's theory and rules, not just recite definitions. Questions target empiricism, the Scrum values, team accountabilities, the five events, the three artifacts, and the commitments attached to each artifact.
Empiricism and values
Scrum relies on empirical process control: transparency, inspection, adaptation. Transparency needs a shared Definition of Done and a visible Product Backlog. Inspection happens through the events, and adaptation follows inspection. The five values - commitment, focus, openness, respect, courage - are behavioral guardrails, not a scorecard.
The Scrum Team is one self-managing, cross-functional unit with no sub-teams: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers, typically 10 or fewer. The Product Owner maximizes value and orders the Product Backlog. The Scrum Master coaches the team and helps remove impediments. Developers create the Increment.
Events and artifacts
- The Sprint is the container; every other event occurs inside it. Sprints are one month or less and have a fixed length.
- Sprint Planning establishes the Sprint Goal and a plan. For a one-month Sprint, timebox it to eight hours or less.
- The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for Developers to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal.
- The Sprint Review inspects the Increment with stakeholders; the Retrospective plans process improvements.
- Artifacts: Product Backlog (commitment: Product Goal), Sprint Backlog (Sprint Goal), Increment (Definition of Done).
Worked example
A Product Owner asks to attend the Daily Scrum to collect status updates. Correct reasoning: the Daily Scrum belongs to Developers and is not a status report. The Product Owner can inspect the Sprint Backlog and Increment, and use the Sprint Review for stakeholder inspection. The trap is turning the Daily Scrum into a reporting meeting for the Product Owner.
Traps that cost marks
Treating the Scrum Master as a gatekeeper or the Product Owner as a line manager; inventing “Sprint 0”; changing Sprint length to fit the work; making the Definition of Done negotiable per item; assuming anyone can cancel a Sprint - only the Product Owner may cancel, and only when the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete.