Focus (Scrum value)

What it means

Focus is reinforced structurally by the Sprint Backlog and Sprint Goal, which give the team a bounded, agreed set of priorities rather than an open-ended list of demands.

Multitasking across unrelated initiatives undermines focus; Scrum's emphasis on a single Sprint Goal is meant to concentrate the whole team's attention on one coherent outcome at a time.

Common mistakes

WIP limits, when adopted alongside Scrum, reinforce the same value by discouraging the team from starting new work before finishing what is already in progress.

Example

The team declines a mid-Sprint request from another department to protect focus on the agreed Sprint Goal.