What are Scrum artifacts?

A deep dive into Scrum artifacts

Scrum is an Agile framework for managing projects (predominantly in software development). It helps teams collaborate, adapt, and deliver high-quality products and features to end-users.

Scrum artifacts are vital pieces of information in the Scrum framework. They provide Scrum teams with a clear overview of work that must be done, helping them stay focused, prioritize their efforts, and adapt to changing requirements.

What are Scrum artifacts?

Scrum artifacts are documents and information created and used as part of the Scrum framework. They provide transparency on the work, the progress, and the goals of the project.

These artifacts include the product backlog, the sprint backlog, and increments (we’ll look at these in more detail later).

Each artifact outlines the work clearly and concisely, allowing Scrum teams to plan and prioritize tasks in upcoming sprints. They also provide insight into the progress of a Scrum project, which helps teams keep on top of progress and reprioritize tasks if necessary.

Which Scrum artifact provides transparency?

The product backlog is often referred to as the artifact that provides the most transparency, but the truth is that all artifacts offer transparency.

In fact, you’ll get the best level of transparency when you use all three artifacts in conjunction with each other.

By maintaining and managing your Scrum artifacts, you’ll have visibility of your progress, priorities, and the work you still have to do. This level of clarity ensures that the entire Scrum team is aware of the team's progress toward achieving the project's goals.

Why are Scrum artifacts important?

Take a look at why Scrum artifacts are vital to the Scrum framework.

They increase transparency

Scrum artifacts provide transparency into the progress of the project. The entire Scrum team can see the artifacts, which enables everyone to understand what work needs to be done, what’s been completed, and how the project is progressing.

They help Scrum teams prioritize tasks

Scrum artifacts clearly outline what needs to be done, in what order, and with what level of effort. This allows teams to prioritize their work to deliver customer value quickly.

They allow Scrum teams to adapt

Scrum teams can use artifacts to identify areas where they need to adjust and make the necessary changes. For example, if a new product feature is less valuable to the customer than you hoped, you can amend the work for future sprints to ensure you deliver as much customer value as possible.

They improve collaboration

Scrum artifacts provide a shared understanding of the work that needs to be done. Everyone knows what needs to happen and who’s responsible for specific tasks, making it easier for teams to work together to deliver the work as planned.

How many artifacts are in Scrum?

There are three primary artifacts in Scrum:

• The product backlog

• The sprint backlog

• The increments

Let’s look at these in more detail.

Product backlog

The product backlog is an ordered list of product features, requirements, enhancements, and fixes. These items are necessary for the Scrum team to deliver the final product to end users.

The product owner and the Scrum team continually update the product backlog throughout the product development process. It helps teams identify top-priority tasks, keep track of their progress, and ensure all the work aligns with what customers want.

How to use the product backlog

Here’s a top-level overview of how to use and create a product backlog.

Identify and prioritize the product features and requirements

Start by identifying what features and requirements are the most important to end-users. You can contact them directly, ask them to complete a survey, or identify features yourself by reviewing customer data (such as purchase history and demographics).

Write user stories

User stories outline a product feature from the perspective of the end-user. It helps you understand what your customers want in a product feature, why they want it, and how important it is to your business growth. Each item in your product backlog can be a user story (or several), which can help you prioritize tasks and keep customers at the center of your work.

Estimate the effort

To help you plan which backlog items to include in the upcoming sprint, you need to know how much time and resources are required to complete each task. With this information, you’ll get a better understanding of what’s needed to deliver each feature or requirement. If you need to determine how much effort is necessary for all the backlog items, talk to the development team for their input.

Prioritize backlog items

With tasks in the backlog, you can now prioritize items based on their value and level of effort. For example, a high-value, low-effort item would sit at the top of your priority list for the next sprint.

Perform product backlog refinement

As work progresses, you’ll continually refine the product backlog. This will ensure that all the items in the backlog are relevant and up-to-date and move you toward your final goal.

Sprint backlog

The sprint backlog is a subset of the product backlog. It contains all the items the development team plans to complete in an upcoming sprint.

By focusing on a small subset of the product backlog items, the development team has a clear picture of the work required to meet the sprint goal. As a result, they can work more effectively and efficiently, delivering items on time and to a high standard.

How to use the sprint backlog

Here is the process to create a sprint backlog. The good news is that the steps are similar to creating a product backlog, but you’re using the product backlog as your starting point.

Review the product backlog

Your first step is to review the items in the product backlog. From here, you’ll identify which user stories to include in the upcoming sprint. The items you choose should align with the overall product vision and the priorities you outlined when creating the product backlog.

Prioritize the sprint backlog

After narrowing down the items from your product backlog, you need to prioritize them. Similar to the product backlog, it makes sense to prioritize the high-value, low-effort items first. Consider prioritizing tasks that have dependencies. For example, tasks that can only be completed when another task starts or finishes. By doing this, you prevent bottlenecks and make sure that the work runs as smoothly as possible.

Assign tasks to team members

Before working through the items in the sprint backlog, you need to assign team members to the tasks. This step ensures that everyone is clear on their responsibilities and that work is distributed evenly across the team.

Review and refine the sprint backlog

Before every sprint, you’ll review the sprint backlog and update it based on the items in the product backlog. If there are any new items or a change in priorities, you’ll update the sprint backlog accordingly.

Increments

An increment is the sum of all the product backlog items completed during the current sprint plus the increments of all previous sprints. It’s the tangible result of all the work the Scrum team has put in throughout the sprints.

How to use an increment

An increment creates a product or feature that’s in usable condition, but that doesn’t mean it’s ready for customers to use. You can review the following areas to decide if a product increment is ready for release.

Review the acceptance criteria

Acceptance criteria outline when a work item is complete and meets the requirements of the end user. Also known as the ‘definition of done,’ there’s no gray area with acceptance criteria — either the acceptance criteria are met or not. Analyze the acceptance criteria for the product or feature, as this will help you determine if it meets the requirements for release. .

Analyze quality standards

An increment allows the Agile team to determine if the product or features meet the quality criteria. For example, if your increment delivers a product feature, the team can review it to see if it works as it should. If the team agrees it’s ready, you can release it. If it falls below the standards of the team, you’ll continue moving through sprints until it’s up to par..

Review the product goal

Take a step back and look at the goal for the product. Ask yourself the following question: will releasing this feature bring us closer to achieving this goal? If yes, you can create a release plan for the product or feature. If it’s a no, you’ll return to the drawing board and continue your sprints.

Activities and information that support Scrum

Here are some important components of the Scrum framework:

Sprint plan

A sprint plan is a document that outlines the work for the upcoming sprint. During a sprint planning meeting, the Scrum team reviews each item in the backlog and confirms if they’re still relevant to the project. They’ll also review sprint goals, dependencies between tasks, deadlines, and more.

Burndown chart

Burndown charts (also called burnups) display how much work is left to complete compared to how much time you have to finish everything. There are different kinds of burndown charts, but a sprint burndown chart is the most common.

Teams use this chart to gauge the team’s velocity so they know whether they’re on track to complete the sprint. If things fall behind or take longer than planned, you can reprioritize sprint tasks. Head over to Miro’s Burndown Chart Template to learn how to implement a burndown chart in your Agile projects.

Notes from Scrum meetings

Various meetings occur in the Scrum framework, including the daily Scrum meeting, the sprint review, and the sprint retrospective. These meetings generate information helpful for delivering a successful project, like thoughts from the development team, feedback from the product owner or Scrum master, or any key discussion points.

Use Miro to manage your Scrum artifacts

Scrum artifacts are a core component of the Agile process. They provide teams with transparency of the work being done, the progress made, and the goals to be achieved.

Miro helps Agile teams keep track of Scrum artifacts in all in one shared space, with collaborative features to make Scrum events more engaging and effective.