“With Scrum, important decisions are based on the perceived state of its three formal artifacts.” (Scrum Guide)
Cambridge Dictionary gives “perceived” a very human vibe:
- “to come to an opinion about something, or have a belief about something”
- “to see… or to notice something that is obvious”
- “to think of something in a particular way”
Notice what’s missing: “the truth.”
And yet we make important decisions…
In professional Scrum, “perceived” is a warning label: decisions don’t happen based on reality itself. They happen on what people think is real, based on the artifacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Increment). That’s not a bug. That’s human. The bug is pretending perception is a fact.
Why Scrum cares:
- If we perceive the Increment as solid, we’ll reorder the Product Backlog with confidence.
- If we perceive the Product Backlog as clear and ordered, we’ll set a Sprint Goal that actually makes sense.
- If we perceive the Sprint Backlog as realistic, we’ll focus the next 24 hours instead of doing “busy improv”.
So the game is not “be right.” The game is: make perceptions converge fast… and close to reality. That’s empiricism.
Practical moves:
Run a 3-minute “same picture?” check once per event:
- Increment: “What is usable now?” (Not “almost”. Not “done in dev”.)
- Product Backlog: “What’s the next best bet, and what’s the assumption?”
- Sprint Backlog: “What’s the next best move toward the Sprint Goal in the next 24h?”
Kill fog-words: “nearly”, “basically”, “on track”. Replace with evidence: Done criteria met, link, test, metric, user signal.
Compare perceptions: ask 2 stakeholders + 2 team members separately “what’s true right now?” If answers differ, you don’t have transparency—you have parallel universes.
Most “Scrum failures” are just expensive misunderstandings that nobody noticed early enough.
Where do your artifacts lie the most: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, or Increment?
What’s your team’s favorite fog-word… and what’s it hiding?
When was the last time a Sprint Review changed the Product Backlog live?
I hope you find value in these short articles and if you are looking for more clarifications, feel free to make contact.
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Wishing you an inspiring read and a wonderful journey.
Scrum on!
