My 2024 Scrum Guide updates
In late 2023, Ken Schwaber asked the Agile and Scrum community about changes they'd like to see in an update to the 2020 Scrum Guide. Now the community is abuzz: Is a 2024 Scrum Guide update in the mix?
I've always been a big Scrum advocate, but at the same time, there are things in the Scrum Guide that both annoy and aggravate me. If it were up to me, here are the top ten changes I'd make in a 2024 Scrum Guide update.
- Hire a graphic designer for some cover art.
- Slow down with aggressive capitalizations.
- Eliminate the section on Scrum values, because arguably they provide little real value.
- Provide more guidance on how to define a sprint goal.
- Replace the word master in Scrum Master.
- Emphasize the delivery of multiple increments per sprint.
- Properly describe the impediments that Scrum Masters remove.
- Eliminate the vagaries, such as ways to break down backlog items.
- Take a stand on whether it's a framework or not.
- Change the framework's name entirely, to something with more universal appeal than Scrum.
A 2024 Scrum Guide update?
Other than online discussions started by the authors of the Scrum Guide about what the next update should include, I have not actually seen any official statement that an update will occur in 2024.
However, the stewards of the Scrum Guide tend to issue an update every two or three years -- 2020 and 2017 are the most recent ones -- so I do anticipate that a 2024 or 2025 Scrum Guide update is in the works. My hope is that it will incorporate some of these suggestions.
Darcy DeClute is a technical trainer and Agile coach who helps organizations apply Scrum-based principles to adopt a modern DevOps stack. She is a certified Professional Scrum Master, Professional Scrum Developer and Professional Scrum Product Owner as well as author of Scrum Master Certification Guide.