Scrum events are meetings or organizational activities undertaken by the Scrum Team. Their common characteristic is that they serve the purpose of nurturing transparency: they are opportunities to talk about planning, methods and reflect on Scrum Team achievements. However, each Scrum Event has distinct features, a defined purpose and duration.
Scrum events, unofficially called “Scrum ceremonies” are:
Each of these has a very specific role in Scrum. That’s why we will devote a separate article for each one in Scrum Guide series. But today, we’ll cover their short definitions and provide basic characteristics of each Scrum event.
Sprints determine the work cycle of the Scrum Team, therefore each Sprint has the same length. They follow one another consecutively and last from the first day of work on a Product to the last.
The Scrum Team establishes the duration of one Sprint. It depends on the needs and capabilities of the team and the organization, as well as on the nature of the Product that the Scrum Team is working on. The optimal Sprint duration should follow the principles of empiricism, according to which it should be:
Best practices suggest that one Sprint should last from one to four weeks. Shorter Sprints help you diagnose issues and constraints faster and estimate the amount of work to do in a given Sprint. Longer Sprints allow you to evaluate the results of the Team’s performance by presenting larger deliverables during a Sprint Review.
During each Sprint all the smaller Scrum events take place. They include:
Sprint Planning, as the name suggests, is the Scrum Team meeting that concerns scheduling the next Sprint. Therefore it is held on the first day of a new Sprint. The entire Scrum Team participates in Sprint Planning, and the event lasts a maximum of eight hours.
In a nutshell, it involves answering three questions:
Daily Scrum is a short event in which the Developers participate. This daily meeting lasts no more than 15 minutes.To keep it simple, the Daily Scrum is always held at the same place and time.
The main focus of the Daily Scrum is planning, not summarizing completed tasks. Therefore, the conversation about the current progress of the Product should focus strictly on Sprint Goal. The Development Team decides collectively on the upcoming scope of activities that each Developer should complete by the next Daily Scrum.
Sprint Review, along with Sprint Retrospective, is a recap event and takes place on the last day of the ending Sprint.
The purpose of the Sprint Review is to summarize the Sprint in terms of completed tasks that aim at completing the Product Goal. Usually, it also includes a presentation of the current state of the Product and a discussion of its newly completed features. Each Sprint Review should end with an update of the Product Backlog.
A Sprint Review is an open event: the entire Scrum Team as well as free-will Stakeholders, attend it. The event is usually moderated by a Scrum Master.
The Sprint Retrospective, also a Sprint summary event, is different from the Sprint Review. It focuses on how the Scrum Team is working, rather than on the product they are developing. To create a safe space for communication, Sprint Retrospective is an event involving only the Scrum Team members and Scrum Master chairs the session.
The Sprint Retrospective lasts a maximum of three hours and is the last event of the ending Sprint. Its objectives are:
Scum events include:
All events aim at Scrum Team’s work, its results, planning, and feedback. You can read more about each of them in separate articles.
If you like our content, join our busy bees community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest.
Author: Caroline Becker
As a Project Manager, Caroline is an expert in finding new methods to design the best workflows and optimize processes. Her organizational skills and ability to work under time pressure make her the best person to turn complicated projects into reality.
Pinterest, which made its debut on the social media scene a decade ago, never gained…
Thinking carefully on a question of how to promote a startup will allow you to…
A podcast in marketing still seems to be a little underrated. But it changes. It…
Video marketing for small business is an excellent strategy of internet marketing. The art of…
Are you wondering how to promote a startup business? We present crowdfunding platforms and websites…
How to use social media to increase sales? Well, let's start like that. Over 2.3…