Scrum Documentation
The artifacts and supporting documents used by Scrum teams to track work, communicate progress, and maintain transparency throughout iterative development cycles.
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What is Scrum Documentation?
Scrum documentation covers the artifacts, records, and supporting materials Scrum teams put together to track their work and share progress. Unlike traditional project documentation that attempts to capture everything before anyone writes a line of code, scrum documentation follows the agile principle of valuing "working software over comprehensive documentation." In practice, this means you only create documents that genuinely help the team ship value.
The Scrum framework specifies three official artifacts: the Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment. These aren't nice-to-haves. Any team practicing Scrum needs to maintain them. Beyond these core artifacts, teams frequently add supporting documentation like user stories, technical specifications, or meeting notes, though only when there's a clear reason for them.
I like to think of scrum documentation as a team's shared memory. It records what needs building, what's currently underway, and what's been shipped. These documents change constantly because requirements shift, priorities get reshuffled, and teams discover new information along the way. This living quality is what sets scrum documentation apart from the static project plans you'd see in waterfall approaches. Good knowledge management practices help teams keep this documentation accessible and useful.
Key Characteristics of Scrum Documentation
- Transparency: Every artifact stays visible to the whole team and stakeholders, meaning everyone operates from the same understanding of what's happening now and what's coming up.
- Just Enough Detail: Documentation contains only what's needed to keep work moving. No filler, no guesswork, no documentation purely for the sake of having documents.
- Continuous Evolution: Documents update as the team learns. The Product Backlog is never truly "finished" since new requirements and insights surface regularly.
- Team Ownership: The Scrum team maintains their documentation together rather than handing it off to a dedicated role or department.
- Commitment-Based: Each artifact ties to a commitment (Product Goal, Sprint Goal, Definition of Done) that gives the documentation direction and purpose.
Scrum Documentation Examples
Example 1: Product Backlog
A software company's Product Owner keeps the Product Backlog as a prioritized list of everything the product needs. User stories sit near the top with acceptance criteria spelled out. Items further down tend to be less refined since nobody will touch them for a while. The backlog gets groomed weekly, with items shifting up, down, or disappearing entirely based on customer feedback and shifting business priorities. The Product Goal at the top serves as a constant reminder of what everyone's actually working toward.
Example 2: Sprint Backlog
During Sprint Planning, the development team pulls items from the Product Backlog and breaks them into smaller tasks. The Sprint Backlog shows exactly what the team has committed to deliver this sprint and how they're planning to get it done. Many teams use a board with columns for To Do, In Progress, and Done. Each day at standup, team members shift cards around and flag any blockers. The Sprint Goal stays visible at the top, keeping everyone oriented toward the most important outcome. Teams committed to continuous improvement often discuss what's working and what isn't during their retrospective meetings.
Scrum Documentation vs Traditional Project Documentation
The real difference boils down to mindset. Here's how they stack up:
| Aspect | Scrum Documentation | Traditional Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Enable work and transparency | Record everything for future reference |
| Timing | Created just-in-time as needed | Created upfront before work begins |
| Detail level | Enough to get started | Comprehensive and exhaustive |
| Change handling | Expected and welcomed | Requires formal change control |
| When to use | Iterative development with evolving requirements | Projects with fixed scope and regulations |
How Glitter AI Helps with Scrum Documentation
Scrum teams frequently run into a gap between their artifacts and actual working knowledge. The Sprint Backlog tells you what to build, but how do you actually accomplish it? That's typically where tribal knowledge ends up stuck in people's heads rather than captured somewhere accessible.
Glitter AI closes this gap by making it simple to record how things actually get done. When a developer sorts out a tricky deployment process or a designer establishes a new workflow, they can record their screen and Glitter automatically produces step-by-step documentation with annotated screenshots. This type of supporting documentation sits alongside your Scrum artifacts without piling on the overhead that bogs down agile teams. Your Definition of Done can include "documented in Glitter" without tacking hours of manual writing onto every story.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is scrum documentation?
Scrum documentation includes the artifacts and supporting materials teams rely on to track work and share progress. The three official Scrum artifacts are the Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment, along with any additional documentation that genuinely helps the team deliver value.
What are the 3 scrum artifacts?
The three official Scrum artifacts are the Product Backlog (a prioritized list of everything the product needs), Sprint Backlog (items committed for the current sprint broken into tasks), and Increment (the sum of completed work meeting the Definition of Done).
Does Scrum require documentation?
Scrum requires the three official artifacts but sticks to the agile principle of valuing working software over comprehensive documentation. Teams create supporting documentation only when it actually helps deliver value, not just to have more documents.
What is the difference between scrum documentation and traditional documentation?
Scrum documentation gets created just-in-time with only enough detail to move forward, while traditional documentation aims to be comprehensive and gets produced upfront. Scrum treats changes as normal, whereas traditional approaches typically require formal change control processes.
Who is responsible for scrum documentation?
The Product Owner manages the Product Backlog, the Developers own the Sprint Backlog, and the full Scrum Team shares responsibility for ensuring the Increment meets the Definition of Done. Documentation ownership gets distributed across the team rather than assigned to one person.
What is a Product Backlog in scrum?
The Product Backlog is an ordered list of everything currently known to be needed in the product. The Product Owner manages it, and it keeps evolving as new requirements surface and priorities change. It includes a Product Goal defining the overall objective everyone's working toward.
What is a Sprint Backlog?
The Sprint Backlog holds the items the team commits to finishing during a sprint, broken down into specific tasks. It belongs to the Developers and includes the Sprint Goal that keeps the team focused on the sprint's most important outcome.
What is the Definition of Done in scrum?
The Definition of Done represents a shared understanding of what 'complete' actually means. It might include requirements like code reviewed, tests passing, and documentation updated. Every Increment must satisfy the Definition of Done before anyone considers it finished.
How do you document user stories in scrum?
User stories typically live in the Product Backlog following a standard format: As a [user type], I want [goal] so that [benefit]. They include acceptance criteria spelling out when the story counts as complete and get sized so the team can realistically finish them within a sprint.
What tools are used for scrum documentation?
Popular tools include Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps, and Asana for managing backlogs and sprints. Teams often pair these with Confluence or Notion for additional documentation. Glitter AI helps capture procedural knowledge by turning screen recordings into step-by-step guides.
Turn any process into a step-by-step guide