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Is there such thing as a final list of Artifacts?

Last post 10:37 am April 1, 2014 by Ian Mitchell
4 replies
08:43 pm March 30, 2014

Hey community of Scrummers! I'm pretty new on this field and I must admit that even I don't have Scrum all figured it out, I believe I'll be ready to take the test soon. But I ran into this dilemma: In the Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, the only "artifacts" clearly labeled are: 1) The Product Backlock 2) Sprint Backlock, 3) Increment, 4) Transparency.

Are those the only ones ore am I missing a lot more that need to be added to this list?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Pablo G.


10:43 pm March 30, 2014

No. There are only 3 artifacts in Scrum: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Increment. What other artifacts are you looking for?


06:33 am April 1, 2014

Hi PG,
Joshua is right, there are only 3 artifacts. Transparency is not an artifact but a principle, same as Inspect and Adapt.
There were discussions if the Definition of Done should be an artifact or not. There is no doubt about the benefit of a Definitinon of Done, however you would still be using Scrum if you do not have an explicit one. If you do not have an Increment at the end of each sprint, you are not using Scrum. This is meant by the word artifact.
Best, Ludwig


06:35 am April 1, 2014

Thank you Joshua and Ludwig for this clarification. Now it's very clear.

All the best!


10:37 am April 1, 2014

There are implied artifacts in the value stream that are worth thinking about, although they are non-canonical to the Scrum Guide. For example, see if you can come up with arguments for and against the following as "artifacts":

- Product Backlog Items
- MVP
- End-of-sprint deliverables that may or may not contribute to an increment

Note: for examination purposes, only the artifacts Joshua mentions should be observed.


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