Optionality in the Scrum Guide Expansion Pack
The 2020 Scrum Guide continues to describe Scrum. Current training, exams, and certifications do not change as a result of the Scrum Guide Expansion Pack. Scrum Guide’s simplicity is its genius. It’s insufficient, and that’s the entire point. Scrum users fill in the blanks, ideally with as little as possible.
The Scrum Guide Expansion Pack (SGEP) provides optional guidance on many topics, including Stakeholders, value, and outcome measurement.
The Scrum Guide Expansion Pack (SGEP) provides content on Stakeholders (including but not limited to customers or users), Stakeholder value, discovery, value realization, and outcomes. All additions and suggestions listed in the SGEP Expansion Pack are optional, for example, the Definition of Outcome Done (referred to as Outcome Done for short) and Outcome Criteria.
The Expansion Log of the SGEP gives a summary of the additions and suggestions. Scrum Expansion on a page summarizes the SGEP. We are considering adding an executive summary to the start of the September release and being clearer about optionality.
I use AI LLMs or Vibe Code every day. While proven useful for ideation and technical problem-solving, amongst other things, I do not trust LLM or Vibe coding responses. I have proven errors time after time. One must ask great questions and possess the depth and breadth to thoroughly audit the answers. Beware of responses that look reasonable but are wrong or valid-looking links that don’t 404 but redirect to irrelevant articles on a trusted site.
Some people trust AI unquestioningly; doing so is unwise. If you want better-than-unaudited AI LLM responses, depending on what you like, the SGEP is a suitable option. If you like the SGEP, consider using it as a source for your LLM prompts.
The SGEP is not perfect, but it underwent fourteen rounds of intensive review. The SGEP is already being publicly inspected in an open-source manner, and it is hoped that it will be adapted very soon and regularly thereafter.
The direction of travel for the SGEP is the coherence between the Scrum Team, product management, the work climate, and Stakeholders, and the sustainable realization of value in the short to long term. But also, it provides guidance for people in a short-term-thinking land. The SGEP will continually evolve as technology advances and more is learned.
If you adopt everything in the SGEP, you might be making some false assumptions. For example, by definition, appendices are not part of the main document. You might not have a multi-Scrum Team product. And your organization might not have managers. It’s not easy to find coherent, context-free recipes for Scrum adoptions, even for specific industries. Large companies have microcultures; what works in one part of an organization may not necessarily work in another.
Search for the word “must” in the Scrum Guide; let me know what you notice. Are some things you thought were mandatory actually mandatory?
Search for the word “must” in the SGEP. Considering the length of the document, I am curious to hear what you discover.
While you’re there, search for the word “Supporter”…
