The bottom line

If you achieve these you can ignore the rest of the checklist. Your process is fine. Delivering working, tested software every 4 weeks or less Delivering what the business needs most Process is continuously improving

Core Scrum
These are central to Scrum. Without these you probably shouldnt call it Scrum. Retrospective happens after every sprint Results in concrete improvement proposals Some proposals actually get implemented Whole team + PO participates

Scrum Checklist!
Henrik Kniberg

the unofficial!

Recommended but not always necessary

Most of these will usually be needed, but not always all of them. Experiment! Team has all skills needed to bring backlog items to Done Team members not locked into specific roles Iterations that are doomed to fail are terminated early PO has product vision that is in sync with PBL PBL and product vision is highly visible Everyone on the team participates in estimating PO available when team is estimating Estimate relative size (story points) rather than time Whole team knows top 1-3 impediments SM has strategy for how to fix top impediment SM focusing on removing impediments Escalated to management when team cant solve Team has a Scrum Master (SM) PBL items are broken into tasks within a sprint Sprint tasks are estimated Estimates for ongoing tasks are updated daily Velocity is measured All items in sprint plan have an estimate PO uses velocity for release planning Velocity only includes items that are Done Team has a sprint burndown chart Highly visible Updated daily Daily Scrum is every day, same time & place PO participates at least a few times per week Max 15 minutes Each team member knows what the others are doing

Clearly defined product owner (PO) PO is empowered to prioritize PO has knowledge to prioritize PO has direct contact with team PO has direct contact with stakeholders PO speaks with one voice (in case PO is a team) Team has a sprint backlog Highly visible Updated daily Owned exclusively by the team Daily Scrum happens Whole team participates Problems & impediments are surfaced Demo happens after every sprint Shows working, tested software Feedback received from stakeholders & PO Have Definition of Done (DoD) DoD achievable within each iteration Team respects DoD

PO has a product backlog (PBL) Top items are prioritized by business value Top items are estimated Estimates written by the team Top items in PBL small enough to fit in a sprint PO understands purpose of all backlog items Have sprint planning meetings PO participates PO brings up-to-date PBL Whole team participates Results in a sprint plan Whole team believes plan is achievable PO satisfied with priorities

SM sits with the team Timeboxed iterations Iteration length 4 weeks or less Always end on time Team not disrupted or controlled by outsiders Team usually delivers what they committed to Team members sit together Max 9 people per team

Scaling
These are pretty fundamental to any Scrum scaling effort. You have a Chief Product Owner (if many POs) Dependent teams do Scrum of Scrums Dependent teams integrate within each sprint

Positive indicators
Leading indicators of a good Scrum implementation. Having fun! High energy level. Overtime work is rare and happens voluntarily Discussing, criticizing, and experimenting with the process

PO = Product owner SM = Scrum Master PBL = Product Backlog DoD = Definition of Done [Link] | Version 2.2 (2010-10-04)

Henrik Kniberg

Scrum Checklist! [Link]/scrum/checklist

Joe: "Maybe a concept like 'Deni8on of Done' could help us take on smaller bits per sprint and get stu releasable more oQen? Lisa: "Good idea, let's give it a shot.

What is this? Who is it for?

The Scrum checklist is a simple tool to help you get started with Scrum, or assess your current implementa8on of Scrum. Note that these aren't rules. They are guidelines. A team of two might decide to skip the daily Scrum, since they are pair programming all day anyway and might not need a separate mee8ng to synchronize. Fine. Then they have inten8onally skipped a Scrum prac8ce but ensured that the underlying purpose of the scrum prac8ce has been fullled in another way. That is what counts! If you are doing Scrum it might be interes8ng to have the team go through this list at a retrospec8ve. As a discussion tool, not an evalua8on tool.

How do I NOT use it?

Big Boss: "OK team, 8me to see how Scrum compliant you are. Fill in this checklist please. Joe: "Boss, I'm happy to report that we are doing everything. Well, everything except Sprint burndown charts Big Boss: "Bad, bad team! It says here that you should be doing those... er... sprint burning thingies! I want them!" Lisa: "But we do 2 week sprints and almost always manage to deliver what we commit to, and the customers are happy. Sprint How do I use it? burndown charts wouldn't add value at this stage. Joe: "For this retrospec8ve, I've brought a useful liFle checklist. Big Boss: "Well it says here that you should do it, so don't let me Is there any of this stu that we aren't doing? catch you chea8ng again, or I'll call in the Scrum Police! Lisa: "Hmmm, let's see. Well, we're certainly missing Deni8on Is this an ocial checklist? of Done, and we don't measure Velocity. No. The checklist reects my personal & subjec8ve opinion about Joe: "Well, 'Deni8on of Done' is listed under 'Core Scrum' so it what really maFers in Scrum. I've spent years helping companies seems preFy important! Velocity is listed under 'Recommended get started with Scrum and met hundreds of other prac88oners, but not always necessary' so let's wait with that and start with trainers, and coaches; and I've found that checklists like this can be the core stu. helpful, if used correctly. Lisa: "Look, we're also missing 'Delivering working, tested soQware every 4 weeks or less'. That's listed under 'The boFom line'! Makes sense, because marke8ng is always complaining about that!