Artifacts Have Commitments

Scrum has always included Sprint Goals and the definition of “Done”. However, describing where these concepts fit and what they were was always somewhat problematic.

They were not artifacts (like the Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Increment) yet needed to exist in a similar way and were related to them. When teaching about Scrum I always classified them under the additional rules that Scrum required, but this never felt particularly clear.

The Scrum Guide 2020 fixes this issue by giving us a new home for, and way to describe these things.

Each of the three artifacts in Scrum now contain a commitment to them.

• The Product Backlog has the Product Goal (a new addition to Scrum. More on this in later).
• The Sprint Backlog has the Sprint Goal.
• The Increment has the Definition of Done (now without the quotes to reflect its new promoted status).

These commitments exist to bring transparency and focus toward the progress of each artifact.

• We can use the Product Goal to ensure the contents of the Product Backlog are aligned and helping us work towards fulfilling a clear long term objective. It can help us maintain focus over many Sprints.
• We can use the Sprint Goal to ensure the contents of the Sprint Backlog are aligned and helping us work towards fulfilling a clear short term objective. It can help us maintain focus during the Sprint.
• We can use the Definition of Done to ensure there is transparency around the Increment reaching the required level of quality. It can help us maintain focus on getting work into a Done state during the Sprint.