What are the Scrum Events and how They Work Together?

Scrum is a Project Management framework that is applicable to any project. Within this framework, Scrum Events are crucial components of the Scrum framework that help 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. Want to know how these events have been helpful for us?  Learn Now!

According to a report by the State of Scrum 2017-2018, the success rate of Scrum projects is around 63%. The same report says that 71% of the executives think they choose Scrum to deliver value to their customers as the highest priority. The purpose of selecting Scrum over any other framework is that it helps a team to plan, execute, and deliver high-quality software products.  

Whether you are a Software Developer, Project Manager, or just curious about Scrum, understanding these events is crucial to succeeding in software development. This blog will discuss each Scrum Events in detail, including, Sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective. 

Table of Contents

1) Scrum Events

2) What are the types of Scrum Events?

  a) What is Sprint Planning?

  b) What is Daily Scrum Meeting?

  c) What is Sprint Review?

  d) What is Sprint Retrospective?

3) What are the benefits of Scrum Events?

  a) Improves employee focus

  b) Provides incentives to do better

  c) Opportunity to address and solve issues

4) Conclusion

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.
 

What are the Types Of Scrum Events?

The following are the different types of Scrum Events:

What is Sprint Planning?

Sprint Planning is an essential component of the Scrum framework. It is a meeting of the Scrum team that helps them plan and prioritise the work that needs to be done during a Sprint. The meeting generally takes place on the first day of the Sprint and usually lasts for around eight hours for a 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.  

The Sprint planning starts with introducing the Scrum Master, explaining the meeting's reasons and providing a brief agenda. Then the Product Owner leads the meeting by describing the vision and goal of the product. Additionally, the responsibility of the Product Owner is to give a blueprint of the Sprint goal in the meeting. The Development Team quickly takes a review of the product backlogs and the assigned tasks and creates a full-proof plan. They also predict the timeframe in which the product will become ready.

What occurs during Sprint Planning?

During Sprint Planning, the whole Scrum team cooperates to define the Sprint goal and discuss high-priority work for the Sprint. The immediate role of a Scrum Master is to facilitate meetings. The product owner clarifies the product goal and provides execution and acceptance criteria to the development team. The developers have the final say on how much high-priority work can be accomplished during a Sprint.

Who gets involved in Sprint Planning?

Sprint Planning affects the whole Scrum team, which includes the development team, Product Owner, and Scrum Master.

How much time does Sprint Planning take?

The maximum duration for Sprint planning is eight hours.

The all-around rule of thumb is to permit two hours of Sprint Planning for every one week of Sprint length. Teams should limit Sprint Planning to four hours for two-week Sprints and eight hours for one-month Sprints.

What is Daily Scrum Meeting?

The daily Scrum meeting is a short and time-boxed meeting that occurs daily during the Sprint. It is designed to help the team stay aligned, updated about the tasks, and focused on their goals.  

The main intent of the daily Scrum meeting is to enable team members to share information about their progress. This meeting also includes discussing the issues that must be addressed and planned for the next 24 hours. Usually, the meeting happens at the same time and place every day, lasting around 15 minutes. 

The daily Scrum meeting does not have any agenda as such. The meeting discusses 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 entails taking its responsibility and ensuring that they address them as soon as possible. 

What occurs during a Daily Scrum?

The development team meets daily for 15-minute meetings to review Sprint 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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What is Sprint Review?

Sprint Review is a meeting in which the project's accomplishments to date 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 Scrum Master, Product Owner, Product Manager, Development Team, and 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.  

What occurs during a Sprint Review?

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.

During the Sprint Review meeting, while a demo might be shown, the primary purpose is to review and adapt the capability provided by the discussion.

Who gets involved in Sprint Review?

The Sprint Review involves the participation of the entire Scrum team. The group invites all stakeholders, including users, customers, senior managers, and affected departments like marketing and customer support, to attend and provide feedback. Scrum teams should invite diverse perspectives for excellent product outcomes.

What is 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 that didn't. Feedback is welcome from every team member to improve their future endeavours.  

The meeting is initiated by the Scrum Master, who tries to get everyone comfortable enough to share their suggestions for improvement. Although the feedback aims at improving their next sprint, it also helps ease personal tension. Both subjective and objective responses are welcome from the team.  

The 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 find some areas of improvement. 

Once the faults are identified, the team 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.

What occurs during a Sprint Retrospective?

During Sprint Retrospectives, the main focus is on the process. During a Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum team discusses what went well and what needs improvement. They create practical plans to enhance their process, tools, and relationships.

How much time does Sprint Retrospective takes?

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.


 

What are the benefits of Scrum Events?

Scrum is a very useful framework if used the right way. There are multiple benefits of using Scrum due to the objectives of the five Scrum Events. The following points highlight some of the critical benefits of the events:

Improves employee focus

Sprints in Scrum 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 be used to 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 provide a good opportunity for team members to address their concerns and suggestions, to improve the future sprints. The sprint retrospective is the final meeting, in which a collaborative effort exists to find solutions.

Conclusion

There are five Scrum Events, all integral for effectively structuring your work. Each of them helps team members stay motivated and increase work productivity. We hope this blog has helped you learn about the functions of the events in Scrum.

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