Artifacts
Artifacts make work transparent. The exam tests the three artifacts, their commitments, and how they support empiricism.
Core rules
- The Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product. Its commitment is the Product Goal.
- The Sprint Backlog is the Sprint Goal, the selected Product Backlog items, and the plan for delivering them. Its commitment is the Sprint Goal.
- The Increment is a concrete stepping stone toward the Product Goal. Its commitment is the Definition of Done.
- Artifacts are inspected in events; if they are not transparent, inspection is misleading.
- Artifact commitments connect daily work to long-term product direction.
Worked example
A Product Owner keeps a 500-item backlog with no order and no Product Goal. Developers cannot choose the next most valuable work. The Scrum Master should help the Product Owner make the Product Goal explicit and order the top of the backlog. Reasoning: transparency about value is missing; inspection at Sprint Planning cannot produce a sound forecast.
Traps
Treating the Product Backlog as a fixed requirements document; using the Sprint Backlog as a contract with no flexibility; omitting the Definition of Done; confusing the Increment with a release; letting the backlog become an unordered request list.