When a team is empowered to decide who does what, when, and how - it can be termed as a Self-Managing Team. The self-managing team is responsible and accountable for all or most aspects / decisions of planning, producing and delivering value. To enable people or teams in an organization to self-manage, the structure of the organization /and the team must be relatively flat. The team must be shielded from hierarchy. People must have the needed empowerement to make necessary decisions related to their work. Some of the well known large-scale Organizations that are successfully operating and growing based on the principles of Self-Management: Morning Star (Tomato Processor, USA) Buurtzorg (Healthcare, The Netherlands, Worldwide) Semco Group (Manufacturing, Brazil) Patagonia (Outdoor Apparel, USA) Haier Group (Consumer Durables, Appliances, China) See also: Self-Managing Teams

A servant-leader leads others by focusing on serving them. They put the needs of others before their own and work to help them succeed. A Scrum Master is a True-Leader, a Servant-Leader. They serve the team's agenda and help them grow and succeed. This is in contrast to a traditional manager, who focuses on leading and managing first. See also: Scrum as a Servant-Leader

Sprints are the heartbeat of Scrum, where ideas are turned into highest possible value. Sprints are fixed length events of one month or less that repeat one after the other and create consistency. Shorter Sprints are preferred as they generate more learning cycles and limit risk of cost and effort to a smaller time frame.

The Sprint Backlog is one of the Scrum artifacts that creates transparency of the work of the current Sprint. It is set of Product Backlog Items selected by the Developers for the Sprint, plus a plan for delivering the product Increment and realizing the Sprint Goal.

Sprint Goal is the single (overarching) objective for the Sprint, achieved through the Increment. Sprint Goal communicates why the Sprint is valuable to stakeholders, creates coherence and focus. Collaboratively defined by the Scrum Team during Sprint Planning. Although the Sprint Goal is a commitment by the Developers, it provides flexibility in terms of the exact work needed to achieve it. The progress toward the Sprint Goal is inspected on daily basis during the Daily Scrum. If the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete, the Sprint could be cancelled.

Sprint Planning is one of the prescribed Events within the Scrum framework. Conducted at the beginning of every Sprint where the work to be performed for the Sprint is planned. Sprint Planning addresses the Why, What, and How of the sprint work.

The Sprint Retrospective is one of the prescribed Scrum Event - an opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint. The Team may inspect their processes, communication and interactions among people, and tools used to identify opportunities to simplify processes, automate steps, reduce any waste, reduce hand-offs etc. The result of the Sprint Retrospective is improved effectiveness of the Scrum Team and better quality product/solutions. The end of the retrospective marks the end of the Sprint.

Sprint Review is the opportunity to inspect the increment (outcome of the sprint) and adapt the product backlog. The Scrum Team presents the results of their work to key stakeholders and progress toward the Product Goal is discussed. Participants collaborate on what to do next. The Sprint Review is the second to last event of the Sprint.

Timebox is a maximum duration allocated for an activity / event. Scrum Events are Timeboxed to keep everyone focused on the agenda of the event. Timeboxing also reduced risk by limiting the time a team would spend on a particular activity.

Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization. - Scrum Guide. A True Leader may exhibit characteristics such as: Leads by Example: Scrum Master not only invites the team members to regularly seek feedback and try to continuously improve, however, models exhibiting the same and seeks feedback about their own performance and strives to keep improving how they serve the team, the product owner and the organization. Supports those having difficult times: The Scrum Master stands in support of those who are having difficult times. Team members having difficult times don't need to be treated as bad people. The Scrum Master emphatizes and stands in support of these people. Leads by Serving: Not there to Manage, the Scrum Master serves to lead. Also see: Scrum Master as a Servant-Leader

Scrum - Agile and Scrum Glossary