Scrum basics for social impact entrepreneurs

4 min readJun 9, 2022

In this article, we will define some of the most important terms used in the Scrum methodology, the basics of Scrum.

Scrum: to start with, Scrum itself is an agile work methodology that helps teams generate value in a structured yet adaptive way.

Product Owner: A person (which can be made part of the team to a varying extent) whose role is to define functional and business expectations for a product that is to be developed (or is being developed)

Scrum Master: The person can also be same as “Project Manager”. Someone who is responsible for ensuring Scrum rules are followed, that the “ceremonies” are held according to the schedule, and that the project goes according to the plan.

User Story: An individual goal or task for a given project. It normally constitutes a piece of a major feature of the project, and has its own acceptance criteria.

Product Backlog: The collection of incomplete user stories of a project. Normally it is the Product Owner who sets the priority for the user stories. Then, it is the development team’s responsibility to evaluate the size of each user story, breaking it down into manageable tasks and attaching an ETC to each.

ETC: Estimated time of completion, a key indicator that allows planning and oversight from the Scrum Manager

Sprint: Usually a two- to four-week period during which a set of stories are locked for the Development Team to achieve. During a Sprint, the tasks will not change and at the end of it there will be a Demo where all that has been done (according to the “definition of done” and the acceptance criteria) is shown, particularly to the Product Owner.

Sprint Planning: A crucial moment when the Product Owner, the Development Team and the Scrum Master (or Project Manager) meet to decide what will be done during the next sprint and what are the “done” criteria for each story

Sprint Backlog: A collection of user stories that have an ETC attached and have a completion criterion, but are yet to be tackled by the development team.

Definition of Done: A shared understanding of how a story, or a product, can be defined as “Done”, completed for the time being and for the requirements set.

Velocity: A measure of productivity for the Development team that indicates the number of stories completed in a certain amount of time (for example, a sprint or a week)

Demo: A moment at the end of each sprint when the Development Team demonstrates their work for approval by the Product Owner.

Each story can either:

be considered “done” and therefore completed;
be considered “not done”, not meeting the acceptance criteria, so it will be rejected and finalised during the next sprint;
be considered “done” in a sense of “good enough for now”, so the feature is accepted and implemented but a new story is created for the next sprint, in which minor adjustments will be made.

Sprint Retrospective: A predefined amount of time, scheduled at the end of each sprint, whose purpose is to let the Development team discuss the impact of the work produced, the process, overall performance and what can be done to improve in the next sprint.

Stand-up Meeting: A scheduled meeting that takes place at the beginning of each day, where each team member reports what has been done the day before, what are the plans for the day and if there are any blockers.

Honourable mention goes to “White noise”: any task that takes less than 15 minutes and, therefore, is left out of registering as a task. however white noise can be clubbed together to register as a task.