Scrum Guide Word Analysis - Comparing 2010, 2017 and 2020
The latest Scrum Guide was released back about a month ago. It has been well-reviewed across the industry with the general consensus being that the newest version is simplified and more approachable. Jeff Sutherland writes:
"This latest iteration is cleaner, clearer, and more universal. The updates in the 2020 Scrum Guide are intended to drive the culture, focus, and alignment needed to innovate, create, and succeed."
The latest buzz had my thinking: "How have Scrum Guides evolved over the past decade?" Specifically, I pondered what raw, unbiased data might tell us since we have loads of anecdotal commentary at our disposal.
With that, here is my first pass at a simple word analysis on the 2010, 2017 and 2020 Scrum Guides.
Do you see any interesting patterns in the data? Do any of the findings surprise you? Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts below? Do you find this data valuable?
2010 Scrum Guide
- Total Words: 5,701
- Total Characters: 35,106
- Sentences: 245
- Paragraphs: 197
2017 Scrum Guide
- Total Words: 5,516
- Total Characters: 35,063
- Sentences: 181
- Paragraphs: 197
2020 Scrum Guide
- Total Words: 3,577
- Total Characters: 22,503
- Sentences: 122
- Paragraphs: 148
My Thoughts
- "Goal" has been introduced as a top keyword in 2020.
- Customer-related words such as "value", "consumer", or "end user" have yet to be represented as a keyword in any of the Scrum Guides.
- The 2020 Scrum Guide is much more paired down than previous versions. Not only has the 2020 content been said to be simplified but we can infer from the data that it is 46% more succinct than the 2017 version.
- "Scrum", "sprint", and "product" stay near the top for all Scrum Guides.
- "Meeting" and "planning" dropped off starting in 2017. (Thank goodness!)
Here is the raw data.
Rules applied to the analysis:
- Ignored generic words such as "and" and "the"
- Omitted "End Notes" and "Acknowledgments" sections
Product Manager, AI & Data Privacy at Stellantis and Agile Consultant at The Crowd Training
4 年Curious! Thanks for compiling this. As for the words of 'development' and 'increment' that dropped from the top 10 in 2020, how far down in the rankings did those terms fall?