Five Events Of Scrum

Modern businesses use the Scrum framework to develop and deliver complex products. Scrum streamlines agile product delivery and makes the framework transparent and effective. The Scrum framework consists of a sequence of events and the corresponding artifacts. Also, the 5 events of Scrum are time-boxed, meaning each has a set maximum length of time and keeps everyone informed about how the project is proceeding.

In this article, we will discuss the 5 events of Scrum, the goal of the Scrum of Scrums event, and try to recognize the differences between them. In conclusion, you will get an idea about the number of Scrum events that help your Scrum implementation.

Read More: About Scrum

The 5 Scrum Events

The 5 Scrum events are the key elements of the Scrum methodology. The framework offers opportunities to enact the Scrum inspection, adaptation, and transparency pillars. The Scrum events help the team stay aligned with the sprint and product goals, improve the developers' productivity, and reduce project impediments.

These five events of Scrum are:

• The Sprint

• Sprint Planning

• Daily Scrum Meeting 

• Sprint Review  

• Sprint Retrospective

The Sprint

In the Scrum method, work is split into small projects called sprints. This enables feedback loops to improve product quality, and it is one of the main events of the Scrum framework. In addition, a sprint is usually two weeks or one month long, and the duration remains constant throughout the project.  In a project, you can not use variation in duration for different sprints. Therefore, a new sprint starts after the accomplishment of the previous one. In this context, every sprint has its goal, which is a set of objectives that your team needs to achieve in that sprint. The product owner and team discuss and agree on the sprint's goals in the meeting.

Each sprint brings planning and flexibility that helps the product development process. Thus, you can cancel a sprint if the sprint goal is outdated. Hence, the product owner has the authority to cancel the sprint. It happens when your organization changes its marketing direction or experiences changes in the technology demands. Sprint cancellations are rare, but can happen. The work that was supposed to be done in the sprint has been moved to a different sprint. 

If the work achieved in that sprint is releasable, the product owner can accept the sprint instead of canceling it. The unfinished backlog items are then added to the product backlog process.

Also Read: Top Scrum Master Interview Questions and Answers

Sprint Planning

What is the goal of the Scrum of Scrums event? In a sprint planning meeting, the team plans what work needs to be done in the sprints. Generally, the sprint planning meeting duration is a maximum of four hours for two-week sprints. Consequently, your team can spend eight hours on a sprint planning meeting for a month's sprints. The scrum master takes responsibility for ensuring that all the team members are present and comprehend the purpose of the meeting. In addition, the Scrum master moderates the meeting and monitors the progress and closure of the meeting on time. 

Sprint planning focuses on the following questions:

• What needs to be done for the Sprint Increment?

• How will the work required for the execution of the Sprint be achieved?

In the meeting, the Scrum team discussed the functionality that can be developed in the sprint. The product owner also clarified the product backlog items, and team members selected the items for the sprint. The concept of collaboration among the team members makes the sprint helpful and reduces the risk of rework. The Scrum team then decides on the sprint goal, which guides it in building the Product Increment. Thereafter, the team chooses how to make the selected functionality into a working product increment. The inputs to this meeting are -

• Considering the Product Backlog

• Discuss the latest product Increment

• Projected capacity during the Sprint

• Team Past Performance 

The sprint planning meeting divided the work into one-day or fewer tasks. This enabled ease of work allocation and tracking of work completion. If your team thinks the work is too little or too much, renegotiation with the product owner regarding the selected backlog items occurs. Your team can invite others to attend the sprint planning meeting to get technical estimations or advice.

Read More: What is Sprint Planning?

Daily Scrum Meetings

There is a daily 15-minute team meeting to review the work and plan for the next day. It is also a daily stand-up meeting and an essential part of the Agile methodology. Daily Scrum is one of the planning events to keep things simple. The daily Scrum meeting always occurs simultaneously and in the same place. At every meeting, the team member will say:

• How did yesterday's work help your team in achieving the sprint goal?

• What will be your work to help the team achieve the goal?

• What are the impediments that interfere with achieving the goal?

In addition, daily Scrum meetings are considered status tracking events. The meeting's input helps identify the team's performance in achieving the sprint goal. The Scrum master coordinates the meeting and ensures the objectives are attained. The team should meet immediately after the daily Scrum meeting to plan the sprint work. The daily Scrum is one of the planning events, and the benefits are:

• Enhance the communication among the team members.

• Recognizes the impediments and removes them.

• Help in the decision-making process.

• Enhance knowledge and skills in the team.

Sprint Review

It happens at the end of each sprint. This means that it is a review of the progress made in the release. In a team meeting, the stakeholders and the Scrum team review what was done in the sprint. The meeting results decide the product list for the next sprints. It will improve the sprint values and product delivery. The main goals of the sprint reviews are to provide comments and ensure the project is moving forward. Again, the review usually lasts two hours every two weeks and four hours every month's sprints.

Additionally, Scrum masters ensure that the meeting starts on time, that everyone knows why the meeting is happening, and that the agenda items are finished within the time limit.

Sprint Review includes:

• The Product Owner discusses the Product Backlog that was finished in the sprint.

• Discuss what went wrong during the sprint and how those issues were fixed during the sprint.

• The Team shows off its work and answers members' questions about the increment.

• After that, everyone in the group talks about what to do next. Thus, the Sprint Review provides valuable information for the Sprint Planning for the next Sprint.

• After that, the Scrum team discusses the expected date, budget, possible features, and market for the next release of the product increment.

Sprint review is one of the crucial events in the 5 events of Scrum that decides the product backlog for the next sprint. 

Sprint Retrospective

It happened after the sprint review and before the next sprint. It is a one-hour meeting for two-week sprints and three hours for one-month sprints.

The purpose of the sprint retrospective is:

• Learn the people, relationships, tools, and processes from the last sprint. 

• Recognize the significant items that went well with the sprint and potential improvements.

• Develop a plan for implementing the improvements to enhance the product quality. 

It is an opportunity for the Scrum team to improve and introspect on the process to make the next Sprint more effective.

Conclusion

Scrum is flexible, provides value quickly, and improves collaboration, all of which speed up time to market and enhance product quality. In addition, Scrum also helps create a mindset of continuous improvement and risk management, which can improve customer satisfaction, productivity, and the innovative use of resources.  In addition, Scrum methodology can be transformative but has multiple challenges. Therefore, a poor understanding of the main events of Scrum framework increases difficulties in adopting Scrum and expands the complexity of the process.

The five events of Scrum clarify things and help everyone plan their work to meet their needs. Thus, sprint planning helps the team determine which things on the product backlog are most essential and which are less critical. The value that comes from Scrum events depends on the maturity and stability of your team. Hence, teams can learn more about Scrum events by taking Simpliaxis Agile classes. Accordingly, the CSM certification training from Simpliaxis will help you handle complicated projects confidently.