Scrum on One Page

Scrum is an Agile Development methodology with fewer absolutes than Extreme Programming. It is best viewed as a management process, rather than a technological process. Many Scrum teams actually do "something like" XP on a day to day basis: pairing, testing... - OR NOT. 

Some definitions:

Product Owner: the one who is responsible for saying WHAT to build (knows business value)
Developer(s): the people who "do the work". They are responsible for HOW to build it and do so
ScrumMaster: Someone who is responsible for process and for removing obstacles. 
Story: a short description of a feature/requirement desired by the product owner
Sprint: A strictly time boxed development effort (30 days in Scrum, 10 minutes in ScrumStruction)
Planning; A strictly time boxed effort to select stories for the Sprint
Product Backlog: Stories that need to get built (probably) eventually)
Sprint Backlog: Stories that need to get built in this Sprint.
Scrum: a periodic stand up meeting in which you checkpoint progress. Daily for 15 minutes in Scrum, 1 minute in the middle of a Sprint here. 

Important. Within a sprint, the team is self organizing. Only they can choose what to do to DELIVER VALUE TO THE PRODUCT OWNER. 

NEVER BE BLOCKED. Cooperate. If it ain't working, fix it. Focus ONLY on the sprint backlog during a sprint, Ignore the product backlog except in planning. It may/will change. 

ASK FOR HELP (From the product owner - on requirements. From developers on the actual build.) If something is hard (therefore time-expensive) suggest a simpler alternative. The product owner can choose among the possibilities. 

Hints: In Planning, the Product Owner and the Developers will choose stories to build. The product owner knows what he/she needs now, but the developers can put a limit on how much to build in this sprint. Leave yourself some wiggle room. If you find you have extra time you can go back for more (and should), but if you find you have taken on too much you need to drop work. The value put on partial completion of a story is ZERO. We value only completed stories. (This is the basis of project estimation, actually.) 

The Product owner can change direction at any time, but only at the beginning of a sprint. You may need to throw away work when this happens, but it is the Product Owner's money being spent. 

When faced with a choice of how to do something, choose the simplest path that will work. 

There is a lot more, but this covers,arguably, 90% of what goes on. There are refinements of course. Like all agile processes we try hard to avoid blame when things don't go as we like. We write new stories to make it right and move forward. 

ScrumStruction tries to squeeze 30 days into 15 minutes. If it is fun and informative it is working. Joe Bergin would like feedback on your experience with it. JBergin@pace.edu