The Scrum framework, a popular Agile approach, was designed to bring clarity to complex projects facing shifting priorities and unclear requirements. At its heart, Scrum uses three tools to manage work and ensure everyone involved has a clear, shared understanding of the project’s status. These tools, known as Scrum artifacts, are central to the framework’s success.
Defining Scrum Artifacts
In Scrum, an artifact is a tool used to represent work, value, and progress. These artifacts are designed to provide information about the product being developed, the actions needed to produce it, and the results of those actions. Their purpose is to maximize transparency, ensuring every team member and stakeholder shares a common understanding of the project. This shared perspective allows teams to inspect their progress and adapt their plans effectively. The artifacts create a single source of truth for the project, reducing misunderstandings and aligning everyone’s efforts as living, dynamic tools.
The Product Backlog
The Product Backlog is the single, authoritative source for all work that needs to be done on the product. It is an ordered list containing every known feature, function, requirement, enhancement, and fix for future releases. This comprehensive “to-do” list for the entire product is constantly evolving as new information becomes available and priorities shift.
Responsibility for this artifact lies solely with the Product Owner. The Product Owner is accountable for its content, availability, and ordering, ensuring it reflects the most valuable work for the team. This involves a continuous process of refinement, where items are added, removed, and re-prioritized to align with the product’s strategic direction. This ensures the development team can focus on delivering the highest-value work first.
To guide these prioritization efforts, the Product Backlog has an associated commitment: the Product Goal. The Product Goal is a long-term objective that the Scrum Team is working toward, providing context and direction for the backlog. It describes a future state of the product which can serve as a target for the Scrum Team to plan against. Every item in the Product Backlog should contribute to this overarching goal.
The Sprint Backlog
The Sprint Backlog is a detailed plan created by and for the Developers. It is composed of the specific Product Backlog items selected for the current Sprint, plus a plan for how the team will deliver those items. This artifact provides a real-time, visible picture of the work the Developers plan to accomplish during a Sprint.
Unlike the Product Backlog, the Sprint Backlog is owned and managed by the Developers on the Scrum Team. It is created during the Sprint Planning event, where the team pulls items from the Product Backlog and breaks them down into smaller, actionable tasks. Throughout the Sprint, the Developers update the Sprint Backlog to reflect their progress toward their commitment.
This commitment is known as the Sprint Goal, the single objective for the Sprint. The Sprint Goal is a specific and measurable outcome that provides focus and cohesion, encouraging the team to work together. It is crafted during the Sprint Planning event and inscribed on the Sprint Backlog.
The Increment
The Increment is the tangible result of all the Product Backlog items completed during a Sprint, combined with the value of all increments from previous Sprints. It is a concrete step toward the Product Goal, representing a usable and potentially releasable version of the product. At the end of each Sprint, a new Increment is created, so the product evolves in a consistent, iterative manner.
A primary concept tied to the Increment is that it must be in a usable condition, regardless of whether the Product Owner decides to release it. This means it must be a functional component of the product that stakeholders could interact with. This characteristic allows for valuable feedback during the Sprint Review, where the team and stakeholders inspect the Increment to determine future adaptations.
This quality standard is enforced by the Increment’s commitment: the Definition of Done (DoD). The DoD is a formal, shared understanding among all members of the Scrum Team about what it means for work to be complete. It is a checklist of criteria that a Product Backlog item must meet before it can be considered part of the Increment, ensuring consistency and high quality.
How the Artifacts Work Together
The three Scrum artifacts are interconnected, creating a logical workflow that promotes transparency and adaptability. The process begins with the Product Backlog, which serves as the reservoir for everything the product needs. It represents the “what”—the features and fixes that will deliver value over the long term.
From this list, the team selects items during Sprint Planning to form the Sprint Backlog. This artifact details the “how”—the specific plan the Developers will follow to turn selected items into working software within a single Sprint. It provides a focused, short-term plan that guides the daily work of the team.
The culmination of this work is the Increment, which represents the “done”—the usable output of the Sprint. This cycle makes progress visible and understandable for everyone involved. This transparent flow ensures that the team is consistently delivering value and can adapt based on concrete results and feedback.