Introduction
I created the first version of my Scrum Glossary for my book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide” (Van Haren Publishing) with the first edition published in November 2013. That version was subsequently (and with my permission) re-used, edited and expanded for use on their website by Scrum.org.
Since 2013 I have slightly evolved the words that describe important Scrum words.
In 2018 I updated my glossary for the 2nd edition of my pocket guide to Scrum. Around that time, 2018-2019, members from the global Scrum communities translated that version in 20+ languages.
I made more edits as I added my Scrum Glossary to my book “97 Things Every Scrum Practitioner Should Know” (O’Reilly Media, 2020) and as I created the 3rd and 4th edition of “Scrum – A Pocket Guide” (Van Haren Publishing, 2021 & 2024).
I am honoured and humbled for the continued appreciation of my glossary. It helped me see that there was value in giving it a dedicated place on my website. I therefore gladly share my Scrum glossary here, as well as all translations. Each international version is available as a free download (PDF).
Enjoy.
Gunther Verheyen
independent Scrum Caretaker
Scrum Glossary
Burn-down chart: a chart showing the decrease of remaining work against time.
Burn-up chart: a chart showing the increase of a parameter, like value, against time.
Daily Scrum: a daily event, time-boxed to 15 minutes or less, to re-plan the development work during a Sprint. The event serves to share the daily progress, plan the work for the next 24 hours and update Sprint Backlog accordingly.
Definition of Done: the set of expectations on quality that a product Increment must exhibit to make it releasable, meaning fit for a release to the product’s consumers.
Development standards: the set of standards and practices that are identified as needed to create releasable Increments of product no later than by the end of a Sprint.
Developers (team of): the people accountable for all evolutionary development work needed to create a releasable Increment no later than by the end of a Sprint. Formerly known as ‘Development Team’.
Emergence: the process of the coming into existence or prominence of unforeseen facts or knowledge of a fact, a previously unknown fact, or knowledge of a fact becoming visible unexpectedly.
Empiricism: the process control type in which decisions are based on observed results, experience and experimentation. Empiricism implements regular inspections and adaptations requiring and creating transparency. Also referred to as ’empirical process control’.
Forecast: the anticipation of a future trend based on observations of the past, like the selection of Product Backlog deemed deliverable in the current Sprint or in future Sprints for future Product Backlog.
Heuristics: a method of solving problems by finding practical ways of dealing with them, learning by discovering things for oneself, learning from past experience.
Impediment: any hindrance or obstacle that is blocking or slowing down the development work and cannot be solved through the self-organization of a team. Raised no later than at the Daily Scrum, the Scrum Master is accountable for its removal.
Increment: a candidate of releasable work that adds to and changes previously created Increments and – as a whole – form a product.
Product: a tangible or non-tangible good, device, service or experience providing value to identified consumers. Defines the span of Product Owner, Product Backlog, an Increment and the required Development skills.
Product Backlog: an ordered, evolving list of all work deemed potentially valuable to create, deliver, maintain and sustain a product by the Product Owner.
Product Backlog refinement: a popular practice of the recurring activity in a Sprint through which granularity is added to future Product Backlog.
Product Owner: he person accountable for optimizing the value a product delivers, primarily by managing and expressing all product expectations and ideas in a Product Backlog.
Scrum: an empirical framework that enables people to derive value from complex challenges.
Scrum Caretaker: a steward or guardian accountable for propagating Scrum beyond its process component by adding a strong focus on the spirit, the values, the behaviors and the people-centric aspects that make Scrum more effective. A Scrum Caretaker helps the teams using Scrum and the environment in which they operate internalize such a broader understanding of Scrum to ensure that Scrum’s true intent—organizational agility and a humane workplace—are realized and sustained.
Scrum Master: the person accountable for fostering an environment of Scrum by guiding, coaching, teaching and advising one or more Scrum Teams and their environment in understanding and employing Scrum.
Scrum Team: the combined accountabilities of Product Owner, (team of) Developers and Scrum Master.
Scrum Values: a set of five fundamental values and qualities underpinning the Scrum framework: commitment, focus, openness, respect and courage.
Self-design: the expression of self-organization where only the team decides what skills are, or are not, needed and present within the team.
Self-management: the minimal expression of self-organization in Scrum, holding that only the team decides how to perform the work within a Sprint.
Self-organization: the process of people forming organized groups around problems or challenges without external work plans or instructions being imposed on them.
Self-steering: the evolved form of self-organization in which a team or the broader ecosystem around it, like a Development Hub or Product Hub, determines its composition without external forces making such decisions for them.
Sprint: an event that serves as a container for the other Scrum events, time-boxed to four weeks or less. The event serves getting a sufficient amount of work done, while ensuring timely inspection, reflection and adaptation at a product, strategic and process level. The contained Scrum events are Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
Sprint Backlog: an evolving plan of all work deemed necessary to achieve a Sprint’s goal.
Sprint Goal: a concise statement expressing the overarching purpose of a Sprint.
Sprint length: time-box of a Sprint, which is four weeks or less.
Sprint Planning: an event marking the start of a Sprint, time-boxed to eight hours or less. The event serves for the Scrum Team to inspect the Product Backlog considered most valuable at that time and design a selection from it, the forecast, into an initial Sprint Backlog with a Sprint Goal.
Sprint Retrospective: an event marking the closing of a Sprint, time-boxed to three hours or less. The event serves for the Scrum Team to inspect the Sprint that is ending in order to consider the way of working for the next Sprint.
Sprint Review: an event marking the closing of the development of a Sprint, time-boxed to four hours or less. The event serves for the Scrum Team and the product’s stakeholders to inspect the Increment(s), the overall progress and strategic changes in order to allow the Product Owner to update the Product Backlog so that it best reflects the current priorities.
Stakeholder: a person external to the Scrum Team with a specific interest in, or knowledge of, a product that is required for the further evolution of the product.
Team (general): a cross-functional collective of people committed to the shared purpose of creating valuable Increments of product.
Timebox: a container in time of a maximum duration, potentially a fixed duration. In Scrum all events have a maximum duration, except for the Sprint itself which has a fixed duration.
Velocity: popular indication of the average amount of Product Backlog turned into an Increment of releasable product during a Sprint by a specific (composition of a) team.
