Anything Else

Here are some further changes which jumped out at me from the new Scrum Guide. This is not intended to be a definitive list of changes. More changes and implications will come to light once more time has passed.

Servant Leadership – The Scrum Master is no longer described as a servant-leader but instead, they are “true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization”. A small but potentially significant change. Serving and leading may not be interpreted as being the same as servant-leadership.

The new Scrum Guide states that “The Scrum Master is accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness”. This may have always been the case but was not explicitly stated in earlier Scrum Guides. The way this is interpreted could have significant implications. If Scrum Masters are directly accountable for the performance of the Scrum Team, is there a risk they will employ a more traditional and directive management approach to get the “most” out of their teams?

References to estimation no longer appear in the Scrum Guide. This must be a conscious move away from estimation being a required (but undefined practice) to something that is deliberately not covered. “Sizing” is mentioned once but only to remind us that the Developers are responsible for it. Forecasting is still mentioned in reference to the Developers selecting how much can be completed in a Sprint.

Some small spelling changes are notable including time-box becoming timebox and the definition of “Done” becoming the Definition of Done, reflecting its promotion to a commitment for the Increment. The usage of accountability and responsibility has been tightened to make the difference clearer.

“A Sprint could be cancelled if the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete”. In earlier Scrum Guides this was would instead of could. This indicates to me that a Scrum Team could replan and continue the Sprint even if the Sprint Goal is no longer useful.

Adding at least one high priority process improvement identified in the previous Retrospective meeting to the Sprint Backlog is now a possibility rather than a rule.

Details about the Product Owner measuring and monitoring progress across Sprints has been removed.

In addition to the Sprint Planning topics of “What” and “How”, the 2020 Scrum Guide places emphasis on a third topic, “Why”, referring to the Sprint Goal. This was always part of Sprint Planning as the Sprint Goal was always an output of the event, so a discussion of the why should have been inevitable. The new coverage in the Scrum Guide is designed to make this all explicit.