Scrum is a lightweight framework designed to help teams deliver value iteratively and incrementally when solving complex problems. Its primary purpose is to enable teams to be productive and creative while delivering the highest possible value from their work. The framework was originally created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, who first presented it publicly at the OOPSLA conference in 1995. The name itself was borrowed from the sport of rugby and was popularized in a 1986 Harvard Business Review article by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, who used the rugby scrum as a metaphor for a holistic, team-based approach to product development. Today, the definitive definition of Scrum lives in the Scrum Guide, authored by Schwaber and Sutherland, which establishes the rules of the framework.
At the heart of Scrum is empirical process control, a decision-making approach that relies on observation, experimentation, and learning from experience rather than on a rigid, upfront-defined process. Empirical process control rests on three pillars: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Transparency requires that significant aspects of the process be visible to both those performing the work and those receiving it. Inspection means that Scrum artifacts and progress toward the agreed Sprint Goal are examined frequently and diligently. Adaptation requires that, when any aspect deviates outside acceptable limits, the process itself be adjusted promptly to minimize further deviation. Together, these three pillars create a continuous feedback loop that allows teams to navigate complexity and uncertainty.