Increment

The Increment is one of the 3 Scrum artifacts. It is a body of inspectable, Done work that supports empiricism.

By the end of a Sprint, the new Increment must be Done, which means it must be in usable condition and meet the Scrum Team’s Definition of Done. The Increment is the sum of all the Product Backlog items Done during a Sprint and the Increments of all previous Sprints.

The Scrum Team inspects the Increment and stakeholders at the Sprint Review. It represents a tangible step towards achieving a Product Goal.

The Definition of Done must include at least some level of testing to a pre-agreed level of quality to make it transparent that the work is now usable.

The end of the Sprint is the latest time an Increment should be Done. Reaching Done earlier and more often is a good practice. This further reduces risk and enables greater Agility.

At the end of a Sprint, all incomplete Product Backlog items and work that did not meet the Definition of Done is put back on the Product Backlog.

The Increment is a transparent view of the Scrum Team’s past Done work.