Do You Know What Happens When You Mashup Getting Things Done with Scrum?

Maria stared at her computer screen, overwhelmed by the 127 unread emails, dozens of Slack notifications, and a Trello board so full it required constant scrolling. As a product manager for a growing tech company, she was responsible for coordinating multiple teams, tracking various projects, and still handling her individual responsibilities.

Her team had adopted Scrum six months ago, which helped with project organization, but something was still missing. Sprint planning meetings were chaotic because team members couldn’t clearly articulate what they needed to work on. Daily standups often revealed that critical tasks had been forgotten. And Maria herself was constantly putting out fires rather than doing strategic work.

“There must be a better way to handle all this information and still stay sane,” she thought, as another notification popped up on her screen.

The Solution

What Maria and her team discovered was that while Scrum provided an excellent framework for team collaboration, it didn’t address the fundamental issue of personal task management. The missing piece was a system that helped individuals process the constant influx of information and tasks before they even made it to the team level.

Enter the “Getting Things Done” (GTD) methodology, developed by David Allen. When integrated with Scrum, GTD creates a powerful productivity ecosystem that bridges personal effectiveness with team collaboration. The workflow helps individuals clarify what needs to be done, organize tasks appropriately, and feed the right items into the Scrum framework at the right time.

Let’s explore how this integrated workflow operates step by step.

The GTD-Scrum Workflow Explained

Step 1: Capture Everything in the Main Folder (Inbox)

GTD Principle: Collect all inputs into a trusted system.
Scrum Connection: Ensures potential backlog items aren’t lost.
The first step is creating a single collection point—a “Main Folder” or inbox—for all incoming information: emails, meeting notes, ideas, requests, and tasks. Nothing should stay in your head, as uncaptured thoughts create what Allen calls “psychic weight” that drains mental energy.

For Scrum teams, this means teaching everyone to quickly capture potential product backlog items, impediments, or sprint tasks as they arise. These captured items aren’t immediately evaluated; they’re simply collected for later processing.

Step 2: Clarify with “What is it?”

GTD Principle: Process items by determining what each one means.
Scrum Connection: Forms the basis for backlog refinement.
Once items are collected, the next step is to process them by asking “What is it?” This critical thinking step transforms vague notions into clear statements of work or information.

For Scrum teams, this resembles backlog refinement. A fuzzy request like “We need better search” becomes “Create a search function that returns results by relevance and filters by date range.” This clarification step saves enormous time during Sprint Planning, as items arrive pre-processed and clear.

Step 3: Decide “Doable?”

GTD Principle: Determine if an item is actionable.
Scrum Connection: Helps properly categorize items as actionable stories versus reference material.
Not everything captured requires action. For each item, decide: “Is this actionable?”

If the answer is “No,” there are three possibilities:

Delete: If it’s not useful, trash it.
Incubate: If it’s something for consideration later, place it on a “One Day” list.
Reference: If it’s information you’ll need later, file it in an organized reference system.

In Scrum terms, this helps distinguish between:

Items that should be discarded
Ideas that aren’t ready for the backlog yet (incubate)
Documentation and reference materials that support user stories but aren’t tasks themselves
This step prevents your Product Backlog from becoming cluttered with non-actionable items.

Step 4: For Actionable Items, Ask “What Can I Do?”

GTD Principle: Define the next concrete action.
Scrum Connection: Creates clear tasks that can be estimated and tracked.

For actionable items, define specifically what action needs to be taken. Vague notions like “website update” become specific actions like “draft new product description for homepage.”

In Scrum, this translates to creating well-defined user stories with clear acceptance criteria. This step ensures that when items enter Sprint Planning, they’re already broken down into specific, actionable work.

Step 5: Apply the Two-Minute Rule

GTD Principle: If an action takes less than two minutes, do it immediately.
Scrum Connection: Eliminates trivial items from cluttering the Sprint Backlog.

If the action will take less than two minutes, do it now. Small tasks take more time to track and manage than to simply complete.

For Scrum teams, this means individuals handle minor tasks immediately rather than turning them into formal backlog items. This keeps the Sprint Backlog focused on substantial work that delivers real value.

Step 6: Organize Remaining Actions

GTD Principle: Delegate, delay, or organize remaining actions.
Scrum Connection: Distributes work and feeds the appropriate items into Scrum artifacts.

For actions that take longer than two minutes, there are three paths:

Delegate: Assign the task to someone else and track it on a “Waiting For” list. In Scrum terms, this means assigning tasks to appropriate team members during Sprint Planning, respecting self-organization while ensuring accountability.
Delay: Schedule the action for a specific time or sequence it in a project list. For Scrum, this means either.
- Scheduling specific time-bound activities on a calendar
- Adding larger items to the Product Backlog for future sprints
- Breaking down the current Sprint Backlog into granular tasks
Project-Based Work: For complex tasks requiring multiple steps, track them in the Projects section.
- This directly corresponds to Scrum’s Sprint Backlog and task board, where project work is visualized and tracked.

Step 7: Regular Review and Reflection

GTD Principle: Weekly review all lists and systems.
Scrum Connection: Enhances Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives.

Both GTD and Scrum emphasize the importance of regular reflection and adaptation. In GTD, this is the Weekly Review. In Scrum, it’s Sprint Review and Retrospective.

By integrating these practices, team members first conduct personal reviews of their GTD systems, which prepares them to participate more effectively in team-level Scrum ceremonies. This ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.

The Results

Three months after implementing this integrated GTD-Scrum workflow, Maria’s team underwent a transformation:

Sprint Planning became focused and efficient because items had already been clarified and processed.
Daily standups were productive as team members had clear visibility of their next actions.
The Product Backlog remained lean and meaningful, focused on value-adding items rather than cluttered with reference materials or vague ideas.
Team members reported less stress and greater productivity as they trusted their systems to hold their commitments.
Context switching decreased dramatically as individuals had clear next actions for each project.

Conclusion

The integration of GTD and Scrum addresses a critical gap in many agile implementations: the connection between personal productivity and team processes.

While Scrum excels at organizing team efforts toward project goals, GTD provides the individual clarity and organization needed to feed that system properly.

By implementing a workflow that begins with capturing all inputs, processing them thoughtfully, and then channeling them into appropriate Scrum artifacts, teams create a productivity ecosystem where nothing important is lost and everyone knows exactly what to focus on next.

The result is a work environment where clarity replaces chaos, focus replaces firefighting, and meaningful progress replaces motion.

As David Allen often says, “You can do anything, but not everything.” With GTD and Scrum working together, you can be confident you’re doing the right things.

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