Scrum meetings are a crucial part of any workplace that uses the Scrum approach. They are regarded as an excellent resource for gathering data and comments from the development team. Assisting in keeping the team focused on the Sprint objectives.
In our earlier blogs, we went into more detail about the Scaled agile framework and how it differs from other Agile techniques, but we didn’t go into great detail about the art of Scrum meetings and how you shouldn’t just wing them but instead execute them like you own the game.
Although it may sound dramatic, we promise that by the time you’ve finished this post, you’ll know about Scrum meetings. Including the many sorts and the best ways to conduct them.
Scrum Meeting types:
Let’s start by examining the various Scrum meeting formats. There are six different sorts of Scrum meetings, each of which has a specific function and at a specific point.
- Sprint Planning Meeting
A sprint planning meeting is held at the start of each sprint. The product owner and the Scrum master are typically expected to attend this meeting together with the rest of the team.
This meeting’s objectives are to create a realistic Sprint backlog and identify the tasks with the greatest priority that must be completed throughout the course of each Sprint. The product owner is in charge of outlining the backlog items for the development team, and both parties are expected to engage in an open dialogue to resolve any potential ambiguities.
Team members also discuss how much work they can accomplish in a specific length of time during the meeting, thus in essence, the development team leaves with a Sprint objective and a Sprint Backlog.
-
Daily Scrum Meeting
Daily Scrum meetings, also known as daily standups or daily standups, are quick 15-minute meetings that take place every day. They are often timeboxed to no more than 15 minutes and held every day at the same time and location. This guarantees that the conversation will be brief, pertinent, and light.
Only task statuses and roadblocks should be covered during the daily Scrum meeting; lengthy planning-related discussions should be saved for another time.
What precisely happens afterward during these brief meetings? To acquire an overview of the job progress, a three-question agenda is essentially delivered to each team member. These are the inquiries:
- What were your yesterday accomplishments?
- What are you currently working on?
- Do you face any obstacles on your path?
These inquiries are a great way to learn more about how the development work is going and how everyone is progressing. By removing obstacles, they also assist the Scrum master in facilitating an efficient workflow.
- Sprint Review:
A Sprint Review meeting is held after each Sprint. The main goal of this meeting is to demonstrate the product’s functionality. what has been accomplished during a specific Sprint? To review the product, the product owner, scrum master, and other stakeholders are frequently present.
In order to monitor any significant modifications that may have occurred or that may be required. The product performance is also evaluated against the original Sprint targets created during the Sprint planning meeting.
-
The Sprint Retrospective Meeting
As the name implies, the main objective of a retrospective sprint meeting is to evaluate what went well and poorly during a sprint. The team’s opportunity to review the work and identify areas for improvement is greatly enhanced by the meeting.
As they are essentially a “lesson learned” sort of activity with a full analysis of what should be done in the future. Retrospective sessions often take little preparation time.
- Backlog Refinement Meeting
The backlog grooming meeting also referred to as the final category of Scrum meetings, is held to refine the product backlog. Most product backlog items need to be clarified for the upcoming Sprint so that the team can successfully execute them.
The backlog items are categorized and prioritized at backlog refinement meetings after a technical discussion with the team to make sure that everyone is clear on the deliverables and requirements.
By holding backlog refinement meetings, the team can consider the backlog items before committing fully to the Sprint goals and avoid holding a lengthy Sprint planning meeting.
Best Practices for Scrum Meetings
Because they believe these meetings bring no value and are a complete waste of time, most individuals detest Scrum meetings. If the rest of your staff shares this opinion, you’re probably doing something incorrectly!
Follow some of the Scrum meeting’s best practices we’ve listed for you. If you don’t want disinterested team members in your meetings. trust us when we say they’ll produce extremely effective results!
- Specify Specific Goals
If the goals are unclear, Scrum meetings have a propensity to swiftly derail. Establishing a clear goal and objective before the meeting is crucial for keeping sessions focused but fruitful.
If the purpose of an unscheduled meeting is not made clear in advance, team members frequently fear them. So, when calling a meeting, specify what kind of Scrum meeting it is and let the team know.
By employing this procedure, you can make sure that your team members are well-prepared and that time loss is minimized to the greatest extent.
-
Start and finish on time
On-time start and finish of a Scrum, meeting might stop many additional undesirable outcomes. No matter who shows up for the meeting, you must keep to your timetable. You will waste valuable time and the patience of those who arrive on time if you keep waiting for team members to join as they arrive.
Because it will be obvious that meetings will always start and end on time, this specific Scrum meeting practice will also instill a sense of punctuality in your team members when they return the following time.
Another no-no when it comes to Scrum meetings is not trying to accommodate each team member’s individual ability to attend a meeting. If you do this, the meeting’s overall decorum will quickly deteriorate. you’ll have to rearrange the schedule repeatedly, destroying productivity.
-
Daily Scrums for Monitoring Progress
The daily standups, which last for 15 minutes, should only accomplish their intended goal, which is to rapidly answer the agenda’s three issues and assess the state of the project as a whole. There should be other meetings for team members to ramble; the daily standups are not the place for that.
Try to keep the conversation to a strict 15-minute time limit and keep it brief. Making sure the meeting is held standing up is one approach to achieve this. Get rid of the chairs and instruct the team members to only discuss the three items on the agenda.
This Scrum meeting best practice demonstrates that daily standups are an incredibly efficient way to track the overall development work progress in terms of Sprint.
- Prepare Scrum Meeting Agenda
This is one of the easiest Scrum meeting best practices that contribute to a meeting’s increased effectiveness. Before a meeting begins, create an agenda and distribute it to the participants.
A predetermined Scrum meeting agenda aids in identifying only the topics that need to be covered in a meeting. Minimizes veering off-topic, and also helps to save a lot of time.
Before the meeting, it’s a good idea to distribute the agenda to the team members. This makes it clear what will be discussed and enables everyone to participate fully.