Full resolution copies are available at the bottom of this post
Background
Several months ago I was teaching Scrum to someone and tried finding a good, simple Scrum diagram to aid in the conversation. There were many diagrams available, but they all seemed to have at least one of these problems:
- Over-complicated
- Over-simplified
- Couldn’t be easily reproduced on a whiteboard
- Didn’t accurately represent Scrum’s three roles, five events, and three artifacts according to the latest version of the Scrum Guide
- Ugly
- Not free to use
So I sat down at my desk and thought through how I would explain Scrum to someone. As that conversation played itself out in my head, I drew out the parts of Scrum as they were discussed while trying to avoid the problems mentioned above. Then I drew it on a whiteboard and took some pictures:
Although it was still ugly, it represented just the basics of Scrum and helped out when I taught Scrum. I used that sequence of Scrum pictures a few times, but nothing else happened with it until Erik Weber asked if he could send it to a graphics designer. The result we got back from the designer was usable, but we wanted to make some more tweaks to it so I took the new graphic, redrew it from the ground up using Pixelmator, and made some modifications.
The Scrum Diagram
This diagram is accurate according to the July 2016 version of the Scrum Guide and free to use distribute so long as it is attributed to my website and it is used in the context of accurately portraying Scrum as described in the Scrum Guide. Any uses without attribution must first obtain permission from me.
Any changes that I make in the future will be indicated by an incremented version number.
Full resolution copies (3000x2250px) are available below (click them to view the full resolution). Please contact me if you would like the full sequence shown in the GIF or if you would like the original Pixelmator file to edit.
Diagram with Arrows
Diagram without Arrows or DoD
Got an idea for an improvement to the diagram? Leave a comment or Tweet at me.
Hey Jordan!
I love your site, and would like to include your simple Scrum diagram in something I’m writing right now. It’s about applying scrum to our personal goal-setting/purpose pursuits. At a certain point, I give less experienced readers a simple breakdown of the Scrum process in layman’s terms. I’ll be sure to cite your page — hopefully it drives some traffic to it.
I want to make sure you’re comfortable with that before I proceed, and also thought it’d be cool to connect with other people who are striving to create and share re. Agile/Scrum.
Thanks!
Chad
That sounds awesome! Please send me a link when you’re finished – I would love to read it!
Do you have a favorite online poker site? We are having issues with Jira with offsite resources.
Hey, Ken. Several of the teams I’ve worked with recently have had some remote team members as well. They tried a few of the planning poker apps available, but ultimately they found it easier (and more reliable) to just use the tools they already had. When they played a round of planning poker, remote team members would send their estimates in an instant message to either the facilitator or whoever was sharing their screen with a group. When everyone (including people in the room) had their estimates ready, people in the room would reveal their cards while someone would bring up the messages from the remote team members. The facilitator would quickly go around the room and state the name of each person as well as their estimate.
Dear Jordan,
I used your Scrum diagram in one of my recent blog posts so I though I would send you the url so you are aware of this: https://autofactor.eu/2016/blog/being-agile-while-tasting-good-wines/
We are a Dutch software company producing software for car traders from The Netherlands and this blog has no specific commercial scope whatsoever, just sharing inside stuff we do with our readers/visitors.
Good morning Jordan
May I use your diagram in an article I write for our colleges news letter please?
We have just started using Agile and scrum and your diagram helps to explain what this all means.
Thank you in anticipation
Kevin
Hi, Kevin. Absolutely! Thanks for asking!