Changes Between Scrum Guide 2017 and 2016

Added sections in Scrum adoption:

Scrum was originally created to manage and develop products. Since the early 1990s it has been widely adopted worldwide.

Research and identify viable market, technology, and product capabilities;

Develop products and enhance features;

Release products and enhancements multiple times daily;

Develop and maintain cloud (online, secure, on‑demand) and other operational environments for product use;

Maintain and update products.

Scrum is now used to develop software, hardware, embedded software, interactive web applications, autonomous vehicles, schools, government services, markets, organizational management, and virtually everything we use in daily life.

As technology, markets, and environments become more complex, Scrum’s practicality for handling complexity has been increasingly proven. It is especially effective for iterative, incremental knowledge transfer and is now widely applied to products, services, and large‑scale organizational management. The essence of Scrum is small, highly flexible and adaptable teams that collaborate across many structures to deliver work.

In the Scrum Guide, the terms “(verb) development” and “(noun) development” refer to complex work such as the types identified above.

Clarified wording for the Scrum Master role:

The Scrum Master promotes and supports the Scrum defined in the guide, helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practice, rules, and values.

For the Scrum team, the Scrum Master is a servant‑leader who helps people outside the team understand which interactions are helpful, assists everyone in changing their interactions, and maximizes the value created by the Scrum team.

Added to the Scrum Serves the Product Owner section:

Ensure that everyone in the Scrum team understands the goal, scope, and product domain as thoroughly as possible.

Updated first paragraph of the Daily Scrum:

The Daily Scrum is a 15‑minute time‑boxed event for the development team. It occurs every day of the Sprint. During the Daily Scrum the team plans the work for the next 24 hours by inspecting work since the last Daily Scrum and forecasting upcoming Sprint work, thereby optimizing collaboration and effectiveness. The meeting is held at the same time and place each day to reduce complexity.

Updated Daily Scrum section to provide clear objectives:

The meeting structure is set by the development team. If the Daily Scrum focuses on progress toward the Sprint goal, teams may use different formats—some ask questions, others foster discussion. Example questions include:

What did I complete yesterday that helped the team achieve the Sprint goal?

What will I do today to help the team achieve the Sprint goal?

Do I see any impediments that block me or the team from achieving the Sprint goal?

Clarification of time‑box terminology:

The word “longest” is used to eliminate confusion; an Event’s time‑box is the longest allowed, but it can be shorter.

Added to the Sprint Backlog section:

To ensure continuous improvement, the Sprint Backlog must include at least one high‑priority team process improvement identified in the previous retrospective.

Clarification of Increment:

An Increment is a “Done” work component at the end of a Sprint that supports the empirical process, is inspectable, and represents a step toward achieving the vision and goals.