One of the parameters you are measured against in the Professional Scrum Master assessment or the PSM I assessment are the Scrum Values. So what are these scrum values and why is it important?
We know that scrum is not a methodology, as it does not tell us how to do something, what it gives us is a set of rules and principles that can help people, teams and organizations discover what works best.
So these values of Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect & Courage, relates to the ethics of scrum, these values give direction to our work, our behavior and our actions. These values should be seen as the lifeblood of the scrum framework. Without the values, scrum can be considered dead as all of them enable empiricism which is the DNA of scrum.
Like the value of Commitment: In a scrum team what do we commit to? We commit to being transparent about our progress, doing the maximum possible to achieve our Sprint Goal, following the Scrum framework, meeting the Definition of Done to ensure transparency and value delivery.
Value of Focus: As a scrum team we focus on what’s most important. Focus on the simplest thing that might possibly work. This also relates to on of the principles behind the agile manifesto: Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done. Time-boxes of scrum events create focus to accomplish our goal, our purpose and minimize waste.
Openness: Being open about your work. Being open to collaborate across disciplines and skills. Be open to collaborate with stakeholders and the wider environment. Be open in sharing feedback. This ensures transparency.
Respect: Respect people for their experiences and personal background. Respect diversity (it makes you stronger). Respect different opinions as we all can learn from it.
And finally Courage: Showing courage in not building stuff that nobody wants. Courage in accepting change as the source of inspiration and innovation. Show courage to not deliver undone software.
All these values together bring about trust and trust helps uphold the pillars of empiricism – Transparency, inspection and adaptation.
In the PSM I exam, you may get a question around scrum values like: What scrum values are displayed, by not building a requirement that has a very low business value? Or there could be a questions like: In a scrum team, if there is an absence of trust, what all value could be impacted?
In both these questions, they are basically checking whether you know the scrum values or not, as the answer would be, most likely, all of them.