The pillars are Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation. These pillars form the basis of Scrum.
- Transparency: This pillar implies that the emergent process and work must be visible to those performing the work as well as those receiving the work. With Scrum, important decisions are based on the perceived state of its three formal artefacts. Artefacts that have low transparency can lead to decisions that diminish the value and increase risk.
- Transparency enables inspection. Inspection without transparency is misleading and wasteful.
- Inspection: The Scrum artefacts and the progress toward agreed goals must be inspected frequently and diligently to detect potentially undesirable variances or problems. To help with inspection, Scrum provides cadence in the form of its five events.
- An inspection enables adaptation. Inspection without adaptation is considered pointless. Scrum events are designed to provoke change.
- Adaptation: If any aspects of a process deviate outside acceptable limits or if the resulting product is unacceptable, the process being applied or the materials being produced must be adjusted. The adjustment must be made as soon as possible to minimize further deviation.
Adaptation becomes more difficult when the people involved are not empowered or self-managing. A Scrum Team is expected to adapt the moment it learns anything new through inspection.
