What are the Scrum Events? A Complete Guide

Scrum is a Project Management framework that applies to any project. Within this Scrum framework, Scrum Events are crucial components. These components maintain a smooth workflow.

They are meetings governed by a specific set of goals within a fixed period, contributing to the popularity of Scrum as a competent Agile Project Management framework. Whether you are a Software Developer, Project Manager, or just curious about Scrum, understanding these events is crucial to succeeding in Software Development.

If your organisation is also looking to improve their Software Development Cycle, this blog is for you. This blog will discuss everything about Scrum Events in detail, including Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective. So, let’s delve in!

Table of Contents

1) What are the Scrum Events?

2) Types of Scrum Events

  a)Sprint Planning

  b) Daily Scrum Meeting

  c) Sprint Review

  d)  Sprint Retrospective

3) Benefits of Scrum Events?

4) Conclusion

What are the Scrum Events?

Scrum - an Agile Project Management framework that helps a team to work collaboratively. The detailed Scrum Guide provides guidelines for deciding various aspects like Scrum Roles. Scrum Events refer to the time-boxed events in the Scrum Framework that improve transparency throughout all project stages. The events are vital to the integrity of Scrum and, therefore, must be followed carefully while ensuring the time limitations are not exceeded

Types of Scrum Events

Now that you know what are Scrum Events, its time to learn about what all is included within these events. The following are the different types of Events in Scrum workflow:

Sprint Planning

Sprint Planning is the fundamental element of the Scrum framework. The Sprint Planning is a joint gathering that allows the team to decide and plan the work that is supposed to be done during the Sprint. Most of the time, this meeting is scheduled on the first day of the Sprint and usually lasts for around 8 hours for the four-week Sprint period. The duration of the meeting becomes shorter for a short Sprint.

The team discusses the product backlog items and breaks those items into manageable pieces while planning the Sprint. They also decide the time required to complete the tasks and which items to include in the upcoming Sprint. This meeting ensures that the team is on the same page; they have a clear vision of the Sprint, the work to be done, and the timeline for completion. Here's how this meeting is usually conducted:

a) Sprint Planning starts with introducing the Scrum Master, explaining the meeting's reasons, and providing a brief agenda.

b) Then, the Product Owner leads the meeting by describing the product's vision and goal. The Product Owner is also responsible for giving a blueprint of the Sprint goal in the meeting.

c) The Development Team quickly reviews the product backlogs and assigned tasks and creates a full-proof plan. They also predict the timeframe in which the product will become ready.

Sprint Planning is the time when the entire Scrum Team huddles to accomplish setting the Sprint objective and focusing on high-priority tasks for the Sprint. The task of a Scrum Master is, in the short run, to manage meetings. The Product Owner is in charge of telling the development team what they want and also what the acceptance criteria for the product will be. High priority work is a say of the Scrum Master regarding the maximum work during a Sprint.

Sprint Planning affects the whole Scrum team, which includes the development team, Product Owner, and Scrum Master. The maximum duration for Sprint Planning is eight hours. The general rule of thumb is to permit two hours of Sprint Planning for every one-week Sprint length. Teams should limit Sprint Planning to four hours for two-week Sprints and eight hours for one month. 
 

Scrum Meeting

A Daily Scrum Meeting is a short meeting that is held daily during the Sprint (the major iteration in Scrum). This productivity tool ensures that the team stays in sync, well-informed about the tasks, and never drifts from their objectives.

Main purpose of the Daily Scrum Meeting is that every team member will get a chance to inform their colleagues about their work. Such a Scrum meeting also involves the problems that should be overcome and planned for the following 24 hours. Often, the meeting would happen at the same time and place every day, and it takes around 15 minutes. The Daily Scrum Meeting does not have any agenda. The meeting involves discussing three essential questions to track the progress of the team. The questions are: 

a) The tasks you completed yesterday

b) The task you plan to complete today

c) The obstacles you face in completing the tasks

If any team member finds any obstacles, the Scrum Master’s Roles and Responsibilities entail taking responsibility and ensuring that they address them as soon as possible.  

The development team meets daily for 15-minute meetings to review Sprint's progress. They discuss their progress, seek assistance as needed, and assess their progress towards the Sprint goal. This is not a status meeting but an option for the development team to review and adjust the product and process daily.

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Sprint Review?

Sprint Review is a meeting in which the project's accomplishments are shown to the stakeholders for review. The meeting must discuss the aspects of progress and budgets regarding the product. It is held at the end of a Sprint and awaits stakeholders' feedback, making it a collaborative session.  

The feedback from the stakeholders is then used to shape the backlog (if needed) for future use. The collaborative nature of the meeting helps produce better results through more insights and opinions aimed at improvement. The meeting participants include the following:

a) Scrum Master

b) Product Owner

c) Product Manager

d) Development Team

e) Stakeholders

The Product Owner initiates the meeting and shares the progress of the backlog items during the sprint. They are also in charge of reminding everyone about the product goals.

This is followed by the Development Team, which showcases the type and amount of work done via the product. Once they answer all the questions and receive feedback, all the meeting members provide valuable suggestions for the next Sprint Planning meeting. The Scrum Master finally adjourns the meeting. 

A Sprint Review's designated time frame can be thirty minutes and three hours. For instance, a two-week Sprint accounts for about two hours, while a month-long Sprint cannot exceed four hours.

Sprint Reviews focus on the potentially shippable product increment created during the Sprint. The Scrum team invites stakeholders to discuss completed work during a Sprint Review. Based on the feedback received, they make necessary adjustments to the product backlog.

After completing the development of any functionality, the product owner holds the authority to release it. While a demo might be shown during the Sprint Review meeting, the primary purpose is to review and adapt the capability provided by the discussion.

Sprint Retrospective

The final event of the Scrum framework is a Sprint Retrospective, whose objective is to contribute to making the Scrum team more efficient. The team discusses everything that went well and everything that didn't. Every team member is welcome to provide feedback to improve their future endeavours.

The Scrum Master initiates the meeting and tries to get everyone comfortable enough to share their suggestions for improvement. Although the feedback aims to improve the next Sprint, it also helps ease personal tension. The team welcomes both subjective and objective responses.

Information can be acquired in multiple ways. The Scrum Master can instruct the team to note their thoughts and concerns or simply speak. Once the team has shared their opinions, the data is reviewed. As the team assesses the data, they can find some areas of improvement.

Once the faults are identified, the team further works together to find solutions. If everyone agrees to the suggested solutions, they are applied to the team's routines and processes. The Scrum Master closes the meeting soon after.

The main focus during Sprint Retrospectives is improvement of the process. Sprint Retrospectives can be at most three hours in duration. A commonly suggested practice is to allocate 45 minutes for each week of Sprint duration. A Sprint Retrospective lasts an hour and a half for a two-week or three hours for a four-week Sprint.

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Benefits of Scrum Events

 Scrum is a very useful framework if used correctly. Scrum has multiple benefits due to the objectives of the five Scrum Events. The following points highlight some of the critical benefits of these events:

Improves employee focus

Scrum Sprints allow teams to complete a certain task within a fixed time period. Taking over a single task in fixed timeframes enables employees to direct their entire focus and complete it to produce the best results.

Provides incentive to do better 

Daily Scrum Meetings can determine if all team members are on the same page regarding the effort they are willing to put in. Scrum teams work best when team members are aware of each other's level of commitment. When all members are equally devoted to the project, it can be used as an incentive to perform better.

Opportunity to address and solve issues 

The Sprint Review Meetings allow team members to address their concerns and suggestions for improving future sprints. The sprint retrospective is the final meeting in which a collaborative effort is made to find solutions.

Conclusion

There are five Scrum Events, all integral to effectively structuring your work. Each helps team members stay motivated and increases work productivity. Using Scrum Template,  you can easily map out all tasks and even track them. We hope this blog has helped you learn about the functions of the events in Scrum.

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