Scrum Guide 2020 — How Do the New Commitments Impact Scrum?

What did actually change?

One of the major changes in the new Scrum Guide is the introduction of commitments. Each Artifact contains a commitment to ensure focus and transparency:

• The Product Goal is a long term objective and the commitment for the Product Backlog;
• The Sprint Goal is the objective for a Sprint and the commitment for the Sprint Backlog;
• The Definition of Done is a quality standard and the commitment for the Increment.

The introduction of commitments helps the Scrum narrative. It clarifies the importance of an anchor in complex environments. Commitments are stable factors in a world that embraces changes. Plans may change, solution directions may alter but the Product Goal, Sprint Goal and Definition of Done remain a North Star. They guide us in the right direction.

But how new are these commitments in Scrum? The reality is, they aren’t new at all. Many apparently new things already were in the 2017 version. But portions of the previous Scrum Guide were hard to understand. Many misinterpreted them.

The commitments already had a prominent place in the previous version of the Scrum Guide. This is true for the Definition of Done, the Sprint Goal, but also to the Product Goal.

This article shows how the commitments were already present in the 2017 version of the Scrum Guide. It helps to better understand…