Scrum Meeting Types Scrum is probably the most popular Agile application, where sprints (an iteration, a repeatable work cycle) are used to improve teamwork, communications, and speed on a project. Scrum gained much popularity due to the concept of daily stand-up meetings, but many other types of meetings are recommended as part of a Scrum approach, such as reviews, retrospectives, planning, etc. Download This Template Now! Scrum Meetings Sprint Planning Meeting Why: The purpose of the Sprint Planning meeting is to agree (and commit to) what can be delivered in the upcoming sprint as well as how will the teamwork achieve it, based on the team’s velocity, capacity, and duration of the sprint. In short, its purpose is to plan and prepare for the upcoming sprint. The meeting's key outputs are a spring goal (what does the team want to achieve by the end of the sprint) and a sprint backlog (list of the product backlog items and related tasks completed in the sprint). What: The agenda of the Sprint Planning should include reviewing the sprint duration, defining the sprint goal, reviewing the team’s capacity and velocity, defining the sprint backlog. Who: The meeting is facilitated by the Scrum Master, where the Product Owner confirms the priority and details of the product backlog items and the entire Development team, which determines the effort required to complete the sprint. Read goals of a Sprint Planning Meeting and its best practices. Daily Stand-Up Meeting Why: The Daily Stand-up meeting, also known as Daily Scrum, is used to share information between the team, preventing critical knowledge or updates from falling through the cracks. Being a daily meeting, usually in the mornings and limited to 15 minutes, where all participants stand up, contributes to team cohesion and focus. While theory recommends daily meetings, in practice, depending on the project's nature, the frequency can be reduced, be decided by the Scrum Master. What: The Daily Stand-up's agenda involves each participant answering 3 questions: a) what did you do yesterday, b) what will you do today, c) are there any obstacles in your way. Any follow-up discussions, like problem-solving, are taken offline. Who: Only the Development Team and Scrum Master attend this meeting. While the Product Owner can join, s/he is not expected to contribute to the meeting, only observe. Sprint Review Meeting Why: While the Sprint Planning meeting is held at the beginning of the newsprint, the sprint review meeting is held at the end of a sprint to assess the project against the sprint goal and allow the team to show what has been accomplished, usually as a demo of the new features. The meeting is intended to gather feedback and promote collaboration, resulting in an updated product backlog used for the next sprint. What: The agenda for a Sprint Review Meeting includes setting the scene by highlighting what was the sprint goal, present what is going to be demonstrated, demo the new features, close the meeting with the updated product backlog. Who: Participants in this meeting typically include the Development Team, the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and any key stakeholders invited by the Product Owner, such as management or customers. Sprint Retrospective Meeting Why: The Sprint Retrospective meeting is held at the very end of a sprint and enables a period of critical reflection by the team on how the sprint went and what can be done to improve working to make the next sprint more productive. While the focus of the sprint review is on what the team is building, the retrospective looks at how the team builds it and what lessons can be gathered. What: The agenda of a Sprint Retrospective covers three questions to be answered by each participant: a) what went well during the sprint and we should continue doing, b) what went wrongdoing the sprint and we should stop doing, and c) what could we start doing differently to improve. Finally, a list of commitments to the next sprint is defined. Who: Attendees of this meeting are the entire team, including the Product Owner and the Scrum Master, who puts together a list of prioritized and actionable commitments to the next sprint resulting from the retrospective.Check Out Our article on Sprint Retrospective meeting template with agenda. Backlog Grooming/Refinement Meeting Why: The Backlog Refinement, also known as grooming, is actually an ongoing activity that should be led by the Product Owner with the purpose of better clarifying what is entailed in each of the product backlog items, as these are usually too large or poorly defined. However, it may be beneficial for large sprints to have a separate time-boxed Backlog Refinement Meeting near the end of the sprint to ensure the backlog is ready for the next sprint. By having this additional checkpoint meeting, the Product Owner can work with the team to clarify assumptions and answer questions in advance of the Sprint Planning meeting, enabling the Sprint Planning to later be kept focused and using as much information as possible. What: The Backlog Refinement meeting agenda includes reviewing the product backlog and questions and answers for each product backlog item in preparation for the Sprint Planning meeting. Who: This meeting is led by the Product Owner, who can invite whoever in the Development team to decompose the product backlog items in the sprint discussion. Scrum Meetings Best Practices Daily Stand-ups / Scrum Meetings Best Practices Daily stand-ups can be very effective in managing a project but can also be very challenging at times to manage. If the stand-ups are not planned and managed well, they could lead to people wasting time. If the team feels it is a waste of time attending these meetings, they will stop coming to these meetings. Here are 11 best practices that will help a Scrum Master effectively manage this meeting. 1. Fixed Talking Points The first question and the second question are about the project-related tasks that were done yesterday and what will be done today. This gives everyone an idea about what that team is working on. Impediments are nothing but roadblocks or issues that a particular team member is facing. Examples of impediments are