At the end of a Sprint three items are functionally complete but have not been through the automated test suite the Definition of Done requires. To avoid an awkward conversation the Developers mark them Done on the board and include them in the Sprint Review. Which pillar has been damaged, and what follows from that?
Professional Scrum Master I, objective 1. Understanding and applying the Scrum framework medium
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The options
Correct Transparency — and because the inspection at the Review now runs on a false picture, the decisions taken from it are worse than no decision at all
Correct. Important decisions in Scrum are based on the perceived state of the three artifacts, so an artifact that misrepresents itself does not merely hide a problem, it actively steers the next Sprint wrongly.
Not correct Adaptation — the Developers failed to change their plan when they saw the tests would not run in time
Wrong, and out of order. Adaptation is what follows inspection; nothing here has yet been inspected honestly, so the chain broke one link earlier.
Not correct Inspection — the stakeholders did not examine the work closely enough at the Review
Wrong. Inspection did happen; it happened on a misrepresented artifact. Scrum is blunt about this case: inspection without transparency is misleading and wasteful, and the fault sits with the misrepresentation rather than the inspectors.
Not correct None of them — the items work, so the Increment is still usable and the pillars are intact
Wrong. Work that does not meet the Definition of Done is not part of the Increment at all, however complete it looks in a demonstration. "It works" is not the standard; the Definition of Done is.
Why
The three pillars run in one direction and each enables the next: transparency makes inspection possible, inspection makes adaptation possible. Break the first and the other two keep running on bad input, which is why a board that overstates progress is more dangerous than a board that shows a problem. Remember the order by its failure modes: inspection without transparency is misleading, adaptation without inspection is guesswork.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- Scrum Guide section Transparency
- What it says
- Artifacts that have low transparency can lead to decisions that diminish value and increase risk.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 1 and space the ones you get wrong.
Practise Professional Scrum Master I
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