Scrum events

When working with Scrum the work is carried out in so called sprints. A sprint is a time-box lasting for a month or less with the goal of creating a potentially releasable product increment. The sprint is the heart of Scrum and contains all the other events within Scrum. The Sprint starts with an event called a sprint planning and ends with two events called sprint review and sprint retrospective. During the sprint the Scrum team gathers on a daily basis for a 15-minute event called the daily Scrum. (Schwaber

& Sutherland 2016.)

One characteristic all the events have in common is that they are time-boxed with a maximum duration. The events create regularity. They also create continuous improvement and learning cycles, although these terms (in italics) specifically are not used in The Scrum Guide (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016), instead the authors talk about inspection and adaption. (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016: 7-12.)

Other than the Sprint itself, […], each event in Scrum is a formal opportunity to inspect and adapt something. These events are specifically designed to enable critical transparency and inspection. Failure to include any of these events results in reduced transparency and is a lost opportunity to inspect and adapt. (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016: 7)

Sprint planning

During the sprint planning meeting the members of the entire Scrum team jointly plan the work that will be performed during the sprint. The planning focuses on figuring out what can be done in the sprint and how this work can be achieved. The development team assesses what it can achieve during the upcoming sprint and choses the number of items that will be worked on during the sprint. After this the entire Scrum team comes up with a sprint goal. “The Sprint Goal is an objective that will be met within the Sprint through the implementation of the Product Backlog, and it provides guidance to the Development Team on why it is building the Increment.” (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016:

9). The development team decides how the functionality will be built so that a “done”

product increment is achieved during the sprint. All the planning will result in a sprint backlog which consists of the selected product backlog items and the plan for delivering them. At the end of the meeting the development team should have a good picture of what they will be working on during the upcoming sprint. (Schwaber &

Sutherland 2016: 9-10.)

Daily Scrum

“The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute time-boxed event for the Development Team to synchronize activities and create a plan for the next 24 hours.” (Schwaber &

Sutherland 2016: 11). It is basically a short daily meeting that allows the development team to gather regularly and talk. The meeting is held in the same place at the same time every day to keep things simple. During the meeting the development team members talk about what they did yesterday, and what they will do today as well as bring up any impediments that might affect the work. The meeting allows the inspection of how the team is progressing towards meeting the sprint goal and completing the work in the sprint backlog. The development team has the responsibility of conducting the Daily Scrum, but the Scrum Master is the one making sure that the development team holds

daily Scrum meetings. “Daily Scrums improve communications, eliminate other meetings, identify impediments to development for removal, highlight and promote quick decision-making, and improve the Development Team’s level of knowledge. This is a key inspect and adapt meeting” (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016: 11). (Schwaber &

Sutherland 2016: 11.)

Sprint review

At the end of each sprint two events take place and the first one is the sprint review. The purpose of the sprint review is to inspect the newly created increment and to do adaptations to the product backlog if needed. The sprint review is attended by the Scrum team and key stakeholders who are invited by the product owner. Together they all collaborate on reviewing what was done during the sprint and thinking about what should be done next to optimize value. The meeting results in a revised product backlog were the probable items for the next sprint are defined. (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016:

11-12.)

At the review meeting the product owner talks about the current product backlog and what items have been “done” and which are yet to be “done”. The development team discusses the ups and downs of the sprint: what went well, which challenges they faced and how they solved the problems that they encountered. The development team demonstrates the work they have completed during the Sprint and answer related questions. Environmental factors such as marketplace or product usage changes are reviewed. Timeline, budget and capabilities are also reviewed. All attendants of the meeting participate in discussion and collaborate on figuring out what to do next. The sprint review provides input for the planning of the following sprint at the sprint planning meeting. (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016: 12.)

The total work remaining to reach a goal can be summarized at any point when working with Scrum. The product owner’s role includes tracking the progress of the project by at least once a sprint, at the sprit review, track the total work remaining and use this

information to assess how the project is progressing by comparing it to previous information on total work remaining. The information on a projects progress should be transparent so that all stakeholders can access it. (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016: 14.)

Sprint retrospective

The sprint retrospective is held after the sprint review and concludes the sprint. The sprint retrospective is followed by the sprint planning meeting of the next sprint. The sprint retrospective provides the Scrum team with an opportunity to inspect itself and plan improvements. During the meeting the Scrum team “Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools […]” (Schwaber &

Sutherland 2016: 12). The team looks at what went well and what should be improved and comes up with a plan for the implementation of improvements. Once the sprint retrospective meeting is over the Scrum team should know what can be improved and implement these improvements in the following sprint. (Schwaber & Sutherland 2016:

12-13.)