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How are decisions made in Scrum?

The role of a Scrum Master in decision-making within an agile framework like Scrum is nuanced and dynamic. A Scrum Master facilitates the decision-making process rather than making decisions unilaterally. They guide the team in understanding the context of the decision, ensure all relevant information is available, and encourage collaboration among team members. The Scrum Master fosters an environment where decisions are made collectively, drawing on the diverse expertise and perspectives within the team. They also act as a mediator, helping resolve conflicts and ensuring that decisions align with the principles and goals of the Scrum framework. Ultimately, the Scrum Master empowers the team to make informed decisions autonomously, fostering ownership and accountability.

In Scrum, decisions are made based on observation and experimentation rather than on detailed upfront planning. Empirical process control relies on the three main ideas of transparency, inspection, and adaptation.
 

Transparency

Transparency allows all facets of any Scrum process to be observed by anyone. This promotes an easy and transparent flow of information throughout the organization and creates an open work culture. In Scrum, transparency is depicted through the following:

• A Project Vision Statement which can be viewed by all business stakeholders and the Scrum Team

• An open Prioritized Product Backlog with prioritized User Stories that can be viewed by everyone, both within and outside the Scrum Team
• A Sprint Backlog which may be used to list all the tasks, associated with the committed User Stories, to be executed by the Scrum Team in the current Sprint
• A Release Planning Schedule which may be used to coordinate work across multiple Scrum Teams and other business stakeholders
• Clear visibility into the team’s progress through the use of a Scrumboard, Burndown Chart, and other information radiators
• Sprint Planning Meetings during which the Scrum Team estimates the effort needed to deliver top priority User Stories and commits to a set of User Stories for completion in the Sprint
• Daily Standup Meetings conducted during the Conduct Daily Standup process, in which all team members report what they have done the previous day, what they plan to do today, and any problems preventing them from completing their tasks in the current Sprint
• Sprint Review Meetings conducted during the Demonstrate and Validate Sprint process, in which the Scrum Team demonstrates the potentially shippable Sprint Deliverables to the Product Owner and business stakeholders
• Retrospect Sprint Meetings conducted after the Sprint Review Meetings on the final day of the Sprint during which the Scrum Team discusses improvement opportunities for future Sprints
• A Release Planning Meeting or session is conducted to enable the Scrum Team to have an overview of the planned releases and delivery schedule for the product they are developing

Inspection

Inspection in Scrum is depicted through the following:

• Use of a common Scrumboard and other information radiators that show the progress of the Scrum Team on completing the tasks in the current Sprint.
• Collection of feedback from the customer and other business stakeholders during the Develop Epic(s), Create Prioritized Product Backlog, Conduct Release Planning, and Refine Prioritized Product Backlog processes.
• Inspection and approval of the deliverables by the Product Owner and the customer in the Demonstrate and Validate Sprint process.

Adaptation

Adaptation happens as the Scrum Core Team and business stakeholders learn through transparency and inspection and then adapt by making improvements in the work they are doing. Some examples of opportunities for adaptation in the Scrum framework include:

• In Daily Standup Meetings, Scrum Team members openly discuss impediments to completing their tasks and seek help from other team members. More experienced members in the Scrum Team also mentor those with relatively less experience in knowledge of the project or technology.
• Risk identification is performed and iterated throughout the project. Identified risks become inputs to several Scrum processes including Create Prioritized Product Backlog, Refine Prioritized Product Backlog, and Demonstrate and Validate Sprint.
• Improvements can also result in Change Requests, which are discussed and approved during the Develop Epic(s), Create Prioritized Product Backlog, and Refine Prioritized Product Backlog processes.
• The Scrum Guidance Body interacts with Scrum Team members during the Create User Stories, Estimate Tasks, Create Deliverables, and Refine Prioritized Product Backlog processes to offer guidance and also provide expertise as required.
• In the Retrospect Sprint process, agreed actionable improvements are determined based on the outputs from the Demonstrate and Validate Sprint process.
• In the Retrospect Release Meeting, participants document lessons learned and perform reviews looking for opportunities to improve processes and address inefficiencies