Scrum Values: Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, Courage

Definition

Successful Scrum depends on people internalizing five values: Commitment (pledging to goals and to supporting each other), Focus (prioritizing Sprint work above all else), Openness (transparent about work and challenges), Respect (recognizing each member as capable and independent), and Courage (doing the right thing and tackling hard problems). These values are not slogans but observable behaviors that sustain trust and enable the empirical pillars.

In the Book

The 2020 guide dedicates a full section to Scrum Values and anchors them directly to empiricism: "When these values are embodied by the Scrum Team and the people they work with, the empirical Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation come to life building trust." The guide expands on each: "The Scrum Team commits to achieving its goals and to supporting each other. Their primary focus is on the work of the Sprint. The Scrum Team and its stakeholders are open about the work and the challenges. Scrum Team members respect each other to be capable, independent people. The Scrum Team members have the courage to do the right thing, to work on tough problems."

The guide then explicitly ties values back to decisions and behavior: "The decisions that are made, the steps taken, and the way Scrum is used should reinforce these values, not diminish or undermine them." This signals that adopting Scrum's mechanics without its values is shallow—the ceremonies only work if the culture embodies them.

Why It Matters

Teams often treat Scrum ceremonies as forms to fill (show up to standup, move tickets) while ignoring the values. When a team lacks courage, hard technical problems go unspoken. When openness is missing, impediments hide. This concept names what "living" Scrum actually requires: not compliance with a process, but internalization of a value system that enables honesty, self-management, and rapid course correction. In any adaptive environment, culture—what people do when no one is watching—determines whether inspection drives real adaptation or just performative motion.