Is Scrum a Process?

Many agile coaches are strongly allergic to the term “process” when applied to Scrum, and you should be very careful not to refer to Scrum as a “process” in their presence.

But is Scrum a process or not?

The Scrum Guide refers to Scrum as a “process framework”, which I assume is meant to imply that a process can be built upon and within this framework but that Scrum itself is not a process. The Scrum Guide then goes on to refer to the “Scrum process” or “the process” several times. So I believe that this invalidates the strict “Scrum is not a process” rule already.

I believe that many people hate the word “process”, because it is a word that is heavily used in a waterfall context, where every little step of the development path from first product vision to final product delivery is described in painstaking detail. Practically every action that needs to be taken before, during and after each milestone is clearly described in process descriptions, and huge amounts of documentation are generated to satisfy these process descriptions. Obviously, Scrum does not do this, so Scrum is not a process in this classical sense. I think this has lead Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber to call Scrum a “framework” rather than a “process” – because Scrum is hardly as prescriptive as typical waterfall processes. The prescriptive content of the Scrum Guide is 16 pages long. I have seen process descriptions where the table of abbreviations already took up more than 16 pages.

So no, Scrum is not a process in this old highly prescriptive command-and-control sense of the word.

But nevertheless, Scrum is a process. A “process” in its dictionary definition is simply a series of actions. Scrum clearly is a series of actions. You start with a Sprint Planning. Then you hold Daily Scrums during the Sprint. At the end of the Sprint, you have a Sprint Review, and then you conclude with a Retrospective before starting again with another Sprint Planning. This is clearly a series of actions, i.e. a process.

I believe that is where for many people the confusion comes from and why both sides of the argument have a point. Perhaps it is simply a “Know your audience” kind of situation. When speaking to a project manager who spent the last 20 years managing waterfall projects, it might be a mistake to refer to Scrum as a “process”. But I trust a Scrum Master to know what they are talking about when they call Scrum a “process” and that there is no problem with the Scrum Guide referring to the “Scrum Process”.