Does it feel like nothing really gets better in your team—or your organisation?
From the #Scrum Guide: “… so that improvements can be made.”
Scrum isn’t about maintaining the status quo. It creates the conditions for deliberate, frequent improvement. The sentence doesn’t say “so that improvement is observed,” it says “can be made.” As in: someone does something. Teams act.
From Cambridge Dictionary:
- make: to cause something
- improvement: an occasion when something gets better or when you make it better
- an occasion: a particular time, especially when something happens
This ties back to a previous post: once something not so awesome is made visible, the logical next step is to do something about it. Scrum reveals what needs attention, so action can be taken. Otherwise, transparency becomes just surveillance.
So, create a moment when something gets better…
Plan better, make the product better, make better decisions, have better conversations, use better tools, learn better, make the process better, make better progress, make … better.
Please fill in the “...” with anything that your team encounters or does.
Make life better for the team, the users, the clients, …
Each Scrum event is an occasion to improve:
- Sprint: improve the solution itself
- Sprint Planning: improve your near-term approach
- Daily Scrum: improve today's focus and flow
- Refinement: improve shared understanding about our users
- Sprint Review: improve alignment with stakeholders
- Retrospective: improve your way of working
Improvements don’t have to be huge—they just have to be deliberate and frequent.
Without this line "so that improvements can be made.", Scrum might be mistaken for a static set of practices. But this phrase embeds continuous improvement into the framework. It tells us: “You’re expected to evolve, not just execute.”
What’s one area you’ve improved this Sprint? Or one that’s clearly overdue?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
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!
