Scrum Ceremonies: What, Why, When & How

Scrum ceremonies are essential for success of agile projects. They play key role to ensure that the projects run smoothly. They provide a framework for collaborative communication and continuous improvement. They develop a cadence in which the team can maximize their productivity, maintain transparency, promote collaboration, and inspect & adapt on their work & processes, helping them to continuously learn & improve.

There are 5 scum ceremonies which help the scrum team to sail through and build successful products, however before we look more into the scrum ceremonies, let us quickly look into what Scrum is?

Scrum

Scrum is a project management framework that follows principles of Agile manifesto, which supports working in shorter time frames and coming together frequently as a team to review what has been done and make necessary adjustments when needed.

• Scrum is implemented by short intervals of work which are called sprints.
• Each sprint can be for 2-3 weeks duration.
• At the end of each sprint, the scrum team reviews its output and does necessary course corrections when needed.
• Scrum also sets framework for a series of structured events providing the foundation for effective communication, collaboration and decision-making throughout the sprint.

Scrum Ceremonies:

• “Ceremonies” is just a fancy name for the meetings.
• Scrum ceremonies are designed to promote transparency & accountability and each of them has a clearly specific purpose.
• Scrum ceremonies are held to ensure that all members of the scrum team (product owner, scrum master and development team) are on the same page with the progress, issues, impediments of the projects.
• Scrum ceremonies help the team to constantly iterate and improve as the project moves along. Ultimately, leading to higher-quality products and increased customer value creation and satisfaction.

Following are the 5 scrum ceremonies which involve different members of the scrum team and take place at different times throughout the sprint.

1. Sprint Planning

What is it?: Sprint Planning initiates the sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the sprint. This resulting plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum team. The product owner must describe to the development team "what is the objective of the sprint".

They should also identify which backlog items will help the team achieve this objective.

The development team must indicate whether they feel they can achieve the objective in the time box.

What is the Purpose?: Sprint Planning aims to decide the objective of the sprint and how tasks will be executed.

Who are the Participants?: Development team, Scrum Master & Product Owner.

When should it happen?: Sprint Planning is the first Scrum ceremony and starts off the sprint.

How long should it run?: It can last from 1 to 2 hours for a two-week sprint.

According to the Scrum Guide, the maximum length of Sprint Planning is 8 hours for a one-month sprint. However, the duration of the sprint planning depends on the complexity of the task and product backlog.

Best Practices:

• Review the product roadmap before you meet.
• Refine the user stories in the previous sprints so as to properly estimate tasks.
• Timebox the discussion of each backlog task.

2. Daily Scrum (Daily Stand-up)

What it is?: A scrum (or daily stand-up) is a short, daily ceremony that helps team members share progress, unblock each other, and sync-up on work.

What is the Purpose?: To inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work. Goal is to create accountability around the work you’ve completed.

Who are the Participants?: Development team, Scrum Master, Product Owner

When should it happen?: Ideally, at the start of each day during the sprint.

How long should it run?: It should be timeboxed to 10–15 minutes.

Each person answers 3 questions:

1. What did I do yesterday?
2. What am I working on today?
3. What is getting in the way of my work?

Best Practices:

• Hold the meeting at the same time each day (typically in the mornings).
• Keep it short, no longer than 15 minutes. Don’t let it turn into status updates or planning meetings.
• Avoid technical discussions. It’s important to keep it focused on updates & impediments, not technical issues.
• Don’t forget to consider your teammates working in different time zones, so plan it according to everyone’s schedule.
• Everyone in scrum team should attend.

3. Sprint Review:

What is it:? During the Sprint Review, Scrum team shows what they accomplished during the sprint. It helps the stakeholders to give feedback to the development team early and often.

Demonstration of actual product functionality based on the tasks from the sprint, followed by a discussion of any significant problems encountered by the team, is the heart of the sprint review.

Feedback from this ceremony gets converted into new items in the Product Backlog which can be prioritized and discussed during the next Sprint Planning.

What is the Purpose?: The purpose of the Sprint Review is to inspect the outcome of the sprint and determine future adaptations. The Scrum team presents the results of their work to key stakeholders, and progress toward the Product Goal is discussed.

Who are the Participants?: Development team, Scrum Master, Product Owner, Project Stakeholders

When should it happen?: At the end of each sprint.

How long should it run?: It lasts 30–60 minutes for 1 week sprint. According to the Scrum Guide, the recommended maximum is 4 hours for a one-month sprint.

Best Practices:

• Match your meeting structure to your team’s style.
• Make sure any work you demo has met your definition of done.
• Avoid talking about bigger issues.
• The product owner should be asking questions to the stakeholders, gathering feedback, and also providing answers to any that arise.
• Actionable feedback received during the sprint review should be converted into new product backlog items.
• Don’t forget to celebrate the work you’ve completed and to show it off to the rest of the stakeholders.

4. Sprint Retrospective

What is it?: After a sprint review has been conducted, the Scrum team needs time to reflect on the work that was just showcased and discuss ways to improve both the output and the process. Retrospective is the event for the team to understand what has worked well and what did not. It exposes fault lines in the team and its process, so they can assess & fix those weak spots and approach the next sprint in stronger form.

Individuals, interactions, processes, tools – anything is up for review and discussion. It helps teams to build habit of continuous process improvement.

What is the Purpose?: The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness.

Who are the Participants?: Development team, Scrum Master, Product Owner (optional)

When should it happen?: At the end of each sprint after the review.

How long should it run?: The general guidance is to have 45 minutes for each week of sprint length. For a two-week sprint should last roughly one hour & limited to a maximum of 3 hours.

Best Practices:

• Take time to celebrate what went well – give kudos to colleague, and discuss how to replicate successes in the future.
• Its focus is on processes improvement, not the product.

5. Backlog Refinement

What is it?: Product Backlog Refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining Product Backlog items into smaller, more precise items. This is an ongoing activity to add details, such as a description, order, and size.

What is the Purpose?: The purpose of the product backlog refinement is add more details to your Backlog items, make them more clear for the development team to work on. A well-prioritized and organized backlog makes all other Agile ceremonies easier.

Who are the Participants?: Development team, Product Owner

When should it happen?: Product Backlog refinement is an ongoing activity, and there is no strictly defined time for Backlog Refinement. However it is recommended to refine every week to look into the backlog and prepare the stories for the next sprint.

Best Practices:

• Keep all of your tasks and backlog items in one issuer tracker.
• Backlog refinement is a continuous process, embrace this agile principle by regularly visiting the product backlog and refining them to make it clearer for development team.
• Creating actionable outcomes of the refinment, they should be clear, measurable, and assigned to specific team members.
• Continuously update the backlog with latest information and keep it in the order of priority.

Agile ceremonies can seem like a waste of time especially when everything is going right. However they are a vital part of the scrum process that every team should try to maintain.

Scrum ceremonies are a great way to move fast and adapt quickly as and when needed while working on a project. When the team meets regularly, has open and honest communication, and plans together, it enhances collaboration, empowers the team to plan, maintain and learn from sprints, which helps the team to deliver high-quality products efficiently and effectively.