OKR vs Scrum: Understanding the Connection

• What do Scrum teams often lack? The big picture view.
• What do OKR adopters struggle with? The execution.
• What happens if we bring OKRs and Scrum together? The true Agile organization.

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) framework focuses on strategic goal-setting, and Scrum is all about project management and operational excellence. But both are two sides of the same coin — Agile. And they can enormously reinforce each other.

The Scrum Framework

Originally the term “scrum” was used in rugby, as a period in the game when players pack together to get the ball. Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber brought it to the tech world in the 1990s to meet software development's fast-changing and often vague demands.

Created as a counterpoint to the linear waterfall approach, the Scrum framework addresses complicated projects, breaking them into smaller, flexible, time-bound, and manageable parts — Sprints.

Scrum is all about exploration. The core idea behind Sprints is being able to iterate fast. You build a small piece, gather feedback, and then adjust the product to meet the requirements across future iterations.

Unfortunately, too many teams are so overwhelmed with their endless backlog and related pressure, that their main focus becomes feature delivery, without diving into the outcomes it brought.

Adding a Product Goal into the Scrum guide in 2020 was an important step towards aligning with the business objectives, but it’s often not enough.

Understanding OKR in the Context of Scrum

OKR is a strategic goal-setting methodology, based on action-based objectives and measurable key results. OKRs are built based on the company's vision, mission, and strategy.

Each OKR consists of:

• Objective, a clearly defined goal, known as WHY.
• 2–5 Key Results, which are specific measures used to track the achievement of that goal, known as HOW.

OKRs carry the same spirit of Agile as Scrum and help to reinforce it in organizations. But with OKRs, scrum teams aren’t focused solely on feature deployment. The definition of done becomes the behavior change within the target users — Objective. As the new features are launched, the Key Results are thoroughly measured to validate the hypothesis and decide whether to kill, pivot, or persevere.

The team learns to look at their backlog through the lens of OKR to filter and prioritize it. The main question is whether the new initiative will move Key Results forward, or not. If not — it’s not a priority.

For example, this is how the QA (Quality Assurance) team can write their OKR to the company-wide OKR “Improve user satisfaction”.

[O] Decrease the number of bugs reported by users in Q3.

[KR-1] Increase test coverage from 70% to 80%
[KR-2] Implement automated regression testing
[KR-3] Catch 90% of new bugs within the new automated regression tests

The Objective here is ambitious and easy to understand. The Key Results clarify the Objective using the SMART system — they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

Of course, there’s more to it — designing good OKRs is not as simple as it sounds, and breaking them down for teams and departments is a science and art at the same time. The basics are covered in the OKR alignment article.

OKR vs Scrum: Similarities and Differences

While both OKR and Scrum are agile frameworks, they still maintain some key differences.

OKRs mainly target external success like user behavior, revenue numbers, etc. Scrum is all about the internal actions we take to achieve a shift in user behavior, drive revenue, and more.

OKRs are more strategic, focusing on setting and achieving high-level objectives. They act as your north star, showing the general direction of the company and the goals it is trying to achieve long-term. Meanwhile, Scrum is operational and more focused on achieving specific, short-term goals. It is about flexibility, short-term objectives, and daily work, ensuring alignment and focus in the here and now.

So, the two frameworks complement one another and can cover both strategic and tactical stages of project management. This combined “Scrum OKR” framework is much more efficient than either of the frameworks on its own. Working together, Scrum and OKRs build a perfect foundation for an agile organization.

OKR and Agile: How to Connect

Integrating OKRs into Scrum involves aligning the broader objectives (OKRs) with the more immediate, sprint goals. This alignment ensures that each sprint contributes to the organization’s high-level objectives, turning the entire system into a synergetic Scrum/OKR framework.

If we stick to the typical sprint length of 2 weeks and the typical OKR cycle of 3 months, we would have 6 sprints in one cycle.

And the easiest way to do this is to use project management tools that combine Scrum and OKR. For example, you can use Jira to manage your sprints, and OKR Board for Jira by Oboard to set up strategic goals on top of them.

Scrum Goals and OKRs

Scrum goals you have in each sprint should reflect the key results outlined in the OKRs. This alignment ensures that every sprint is a step towards achieving the larger objectives.

Things become even more interesting when Product Goal comes in. While Sprint Goals are often more output-driven, a Product Goal is more outcome-driven. So OKR framework can work perfectly for Product Goals! You can frame them as Objectives and Key Results, moving the team toward the big Product Vision. It’s important to remember though, that they are still hypotheses towards the means to get to the Product Vision. They can change as we learn more about our customer needs.

Teams often prioritize their backlog on subjective criteria, but OKRs make this decision more objective. It brings transparency and gives a sense of a personal impact on the big goals.

As for the Sprint reviews, they become OKR-oriented and united with OKR check-ins. This way you need only the meetings at the kick-off and at the end of the OKR cycle, and the team is not overwhelmed by extra Zoom calls.

The best way to integrate Sprint Goals with OKRs is to base them on the Key Results you want to achieve through them. For example, if one of your Key Results for the quarter is to Reduce the number of open high-priority bugs by 80%, you can make it a Sprint Goal for one of the Sprints and focus entirely on it for the period.

OKRs are generally set for the quarter, while Sprint Goals are bi-monthly. So you might not be able to achieve your entire OKR during a single Sprint and have to dedicate more time towards it.

And though the major part of Sprint should be focused on OKRs, it’s also OK to have some operational tasks that need to be done.

Scrum Master and Product Owner roles with OKRs

Scrum is based around two authority figures in each team — Scrum Master and Product Owner. When you add OKRs to the mix, both remain crucial, however, their responsibilities and context for their roles significantly expand.

In the context of OKRs, the Product Owner is a perfect candidate for becoming an OKR Facilitator — a knowledgeable OKR expert providing education and guidance to the team. The initial goal is to help the team understand how their daily tasks and sprint goals align with broader organizational objectives. They facilitate discussions that help break down OKRs into actionable sprint goals, ensuring that the team’s work directly contributes to the company’s strategic aims.

The Scrum Master is responsible for fostering a continuous improvement culture by encouraging the team to reflect on their performance and identify areas for enhancement, potentially influenced by the key results defined in the OKRs.

Product Owner is the visionary who defines what success looks like for the product and, by extension, the company. Integrating OKRs into the Scrum framework makes the Product Owner’s role even more strategic. They are tasked with setting ambitious yet achievable objectives that reflect the company’s priorities and translating these into key results that can be pursued through the team’s work.

The Product Owner must clearly communicate these OKRs to the team, ensuring everyone understands the ‘why’ behind their work. They collaborate with the Scrum Master to align the sprint goals with the OKRs, making adjustments as necessary based on the team’s feedback and the progress towards key results.

In short, the Scrum Master aligns the Sprint Goals with the OKRs, while the Product Owner has more influence on what these OKRs will look like.

How OKRs and Scrum Power Up Your Strategy

Both Scrum and OKRs were initially designed to focus on the outcomes, but too often agile practitioners see user stories as set-in-stone requirements. If you look at them as options to achieve your OKRs, you might find other options, even of better value.

Jira is the world’s most popular project management software, and it is built entirely around Scrum. It features Issues (epics, stories, tasks), Sprints, Assignees, and everything else you need to successfully implement Scrum in your team. However, it doesn’t have OKRs — and this is where OKR Board for Jira app comes in.

OKR Board for Jira as a strategic command center for aligning your team’s daily tasks and projects with your broader objectives and key results. It integrates the high-level vision of your OKRs with the granular, task-oriented functionality of Jira, bridging the gap between strategy and execution.

• Visualize your objectives alongside the specific key results that define success, all within the context of your team’s ongoing work.
• Track progress in real-time, offering a clear, at-a-glance view of how individual tasks and projects contribute to strategic goals.
• Align efforts across teams, ensuring everyone understands how their work fits into the bigger picture and drives the company forward.

This integration fosters a culture of accountability and purpose. It transforms abstract goals into actionable plans, making it easier for teams to understand their impact and stay motivated. By linking daily activities directly to strategic outcomes, the OKR Board for Jira ensures that every effort is purposeful and aligned with the company’s vision, driving collective success.

In essence, the app is more than just a tool. It’s a framework that empowers your team to navigate the complexities of project management with clarity and precision, ensuring that every step taken is a step toward achieving your most ambitious goals.

Conclusion

It’s important to focus on the outcomes in both OKRs and Scrum, and it takes time. Your first OKRs won’t be pixel-perfect, but become better cycle after cycle.

OKRs inspire, give focus, and motivate people at all levels of the company. It becomes more than just checking out tasks on the list. People get involved in setting goals and feel more of a personal responsibility in achieving them.

OKR and Scrum provide much more benefits when used in tandem. However, effectively combining OKRs with Scrum requires a deep understanding of both frameworks and the ability to integrate them seamlessly into your team’s workflow. This is where OKR Consulting can make a significant difference. Having a team of experts on call — or even having them design every aspect of your Scrum OKR journey — prevents rookie mistakes.

And if you decide to try OKRs, you can start your OKR Board for Jira trial today, and empower your team to achieve all their goals with the full might of OKRs and Scrum!