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What are the principles of Scrum ? Are they same as the principles of agile - if not, could someone help me with the list

Last post 09:43 am June 7, 2022 by Mehul Randeri
4 replies
01:17 am May 28, 2022

I get this question a lot from interviewers for the job applications of Scrum Master role - What are the principles of Scrum ? I have been through the latest Scrum Guide multiple times but there is not a single mention of the word 'principles' in the Scrum Guide. As per my knowledge, I do have the understanding of the Scrum pillars and Scrum values, but could someone please help with listing the Scrum principles ?


06:05 am May 28, 2022

The Scrum Guide, the effective operation or use of which would be impossible if any one of the principles was to be ignored.


11:52 pm June 2, 2022

Thanks Ian.

I found this list mentioning 6 principles of Scrum on one of the sources from the internet. I hope these are correct.

  1. Empirical process control
  2. Self Organization
  3. Collaboration
  4. Value based prioritisation
  5. Time boxing
  6. Iterative development

05:50 pm June 3, 2022

I don't think those are principles.  In fact, if there were supposed to be principals associated, I expect that Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland would have included them.  Instead they opted to include 3 pillars(Transparency, Inspection, Adaption) and 5 values(Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, Courage). 

When people ask me that question, the above is my answer.  If the interviewer believes that there are principles, I assume that they are not completely familiar with the Scrum framework and help them better understand. 


09:43 am June 7, 2022

Thank you Daniel.

Your explanation makes perfect sense !! I will elaborate on scrum pillars and values if asked again in future.


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