Scrum is an iterative software development framework which contains sets of practices and predefined roles. The main roles in Scrum are: (1) the "ScrumMaster," who maintains the processes and works similarly to a project manager; (2) the "Product Owner," who represents the stakeholders; and (3) the "Team", which consists of testers and developers. During each "sprint", typically a two to four week period (with the length being decided by the team), the team creates an increment of usable software. The set of features that go into a sprint come from the product "backlog", which is a set of high level requirements that is prioritized by the Product Owner. Which backlog items go into the sprint is determined during the sprint planning meeting. During this meeting, the Product Owner collaborates with the team and decides the priority of the items in the product backlog. The team then determines how much of this they can commit to complete during the next sprint. During a sprint, no one is allowed to change the sprint backlog, which means that the requirements are frozen for that sprint. After a sprint is completed, the team demonstrates the use of the software.

Scrum enables the creation of self-organizing teams by encouraging co-location of all team members, and verbal communication across all team members and disciplines that are involved in the project.

A key principle of Scrum is its recognition that during a project the customers can change their minds about what they want and need, and that unpredicted challenges cannot be easily addressed in a traditional predictive or planned manner. As such, Scrum adopts an empirical approach—accepting that the problem cannot be fully understood or defined, focusing instead on maximizing the team's ability to deliver quickly and respond to emerging requirements..