What is a Scrum meeting?

Scrum is part of an Agile framework companies use to produce products faster by breaking larger development projects into smaller pieces that teams can complete in shorter timeframes. A Scrum meeting is an all-encompassing phrase that describes different types of meetings Scrum teams hold, such as daily standups, sprint retrospectives, sprint planning sessions, and more. These meetings are a valuable opportunity for team leaders and employees to exchange information in the most productive way possible, allowing managers and stakeholders to clearly communicate and ensure alignment throughout every project step.

In Agile methodology, team members cycle through several types of Scrum meetings depending on the sprint stage, either assessing completed work to ensure progress toward the team’s goals or planning the next block of work.

Who attends a Scrum meeting?

Everyone involved in the product’s development should attend Scrum meetings, including the development team, Scrum Leader (the team’s point person and facilitator), and the product owner (the Agile team’s project management lead). It can also benefit stakeholders and parties outside the development process to attend, though it’s not necessary. Who attends may also depend on the type of Scrum meeting. For example, a product owner is not likely to attend a daily Scrum meeting.

Different types of Scrum meetings

A Scrum meeting refers to any meeting held by Scrum Agile teams during different stages of product development. Here are the most common types:

Daily Scrum

A daily Scrum meeting, or a “standup,” is a quick daily meeting that allows teams to plan their work for that particular day and identify obstacles that could impact the outcome. The meetings typically occur in the morning and last between 10 and 15 minutes. They’re referred to as standups because most teams stay standing to keep the meeting short and to the point. The daily Scrum follows the same format during every session to keep everyone up to date on the project’s progress and allow team members to voice any concerns or ask for help where required. The Scrum Leader typically asks questions like:

• What is today’s goal?
• What obstacles is the team facing?
• Which tasks did you complete yesterday?

Sprint planning

Sprint planning occurs before every sprint to ensure that stakeholders and everyone working on the project understands the objectives of the upcoming sprint and agrees on what happens next. Sprint planning is also a time to review any backlog and decide what to prioritize for the next sprint. There are generally two takeaways from a sprint planning meeting: a sprint goal or summary of the next sprint and a plan to tackle the sprint backlog. The development team, product owner, and Scrum Leader collaborate on goals and assign and communicate tasks to the relevant team members.

Sprint planning meetings usually last about two hours and occur once weekly for as long as the sprint lasts. Since most sprints extend between one and four weeks, the total planning meetings should take no longer than one working day at most.

Sprint review

A sprint review is generally more formal than a standup or sprint planning session. After every sprint, teams demonstrate the product iteration and review the progress they achieved during the sprint. Some teams refer to this meeting as the “sprint demo.” Stakeholders and the Scrum team attend the sprint review so they can review all completed work and give and receive feedback. However, the primary goal of the sprint review is to show the value that the project has to offer. Teams should expect to dedicate one hour weekly for a sprint review session.

Sprint retrospective

A sprint retrospective meeting is a post-sprint discussion where the Scrum team reviews the project to determine what worked, what didn’t, and how they can improve their processes during the next sprint. The Scrum Leader acts as the mediator leading the session. Outside stakeholders are welcome to participate. Sprint retrospective meetings typically take 45 minutes per sprint week to allow sufficient time for all involved to voice concerns and consider solutions.

The benefits of Scrum meetings

Scrum meetings enhance cross-team collaboration and planning while identifying and solving potential problems. Scrum meetings also highlight dependencies and address points of conflict or integration through the three pillars of Scrum: transparency, inspection, and adaptation.

• Transparency throughout all teams: The first Scrum segment is transparency. Every team member shares the same language to guarantee that everyone understands their responsibilities and contribution to the project. Everyone should also agree on what they consider “done.”
• Continuous quality control: The second pillar is inspection, meaning that each team member routinely examines their work and openly and transparently reveals the product to the customer to gather valuable feedback. The shared commitment to ongoing reviews simplifies the process of finding potential changes or errors affecting product quality.
• Real-time flexibility: The third pillar is adaptation—changing course if things go wrong. When issues arise, those responsible for examining the augmentation can involve the team so everyone can collaborate on maximizing quality while eliminating undesirable results.

When all team members share and demonstrate the Scrum value systems, these three pillars work in tandem to improve Scrum team productivity.

How to improve Scrum team productivity

Follow these tips to improve Scrum team productivity without affecting the quality of code or the well-being of your team members.

Provide frequent, consistent feedback

Implement a system where your team members offer regular feedback to one another. Not only will your team improve their efficiency, but consistent communication ensures they have everything required to do their job well.

Create a healthy work culture

You must provide a healthy work environment to keep your Scrum team happy and healthy. Achieve this by reducing the stress on your team by setting clear expectations for individuals and projects and providing a straightforward solution for conflict resolution. You can also encourage team members to take time off when stressed. Overworked employees may stop caring about end results because they’re too tired to care. Time off to renew and refresh brings open minds and fresh eyes to any project.

Maximize transparency

Transparency is crucial so that all Scrum team members know what’s happening throughout every project step. Transparency facilitates clear communication, promotes accountability from all involved, and makes it easier for team members to be on the same page. Here are some questions that encourage transparency:

• What is the current quality level of the product? How do we improve the quality? What is the trend?
• How well does everyone understand the progress during each sprint?
• How can we make better decisions about what to develop in the product?
• Are we making any assumptions? How are we, or should we, validate those assumptions?
• Which factors lead us to successful outcomes? Have any factors led to negative ones?

Strive for continuous improvement

Many factors can impact the concepts and techniques a team employs, such as:

• a specific product
• how you use the product
• who uses it
• the technology platform
• market dynamics
• regulatory and legal conditions
• changing business requirements

There are others, but over time, many of these factors change. For Agile productivity, teams must stay attentive to what they do, how and why they do it, and the advantages that they take from it. Staying accountable as a team helps everyone strive for continuous improvement.

Deliver functional increments

According to Scrum, an increment is “done” once it meets the definition of done. This is the only progress measurement in product development. If you’re not delivering a “done” product by the end of each sprint, shift your focus to why by working with your team on the following:

• a solid “done” definition
• effectively using sprint goals
• preparing product backlog items before the next sprint starts
• product build quality
• addressing any technical debt
• identifying and eliminating any obstructions
• analyzing your Scrum team’s knowledge, skills, and capabilities

Tips for successful Scrum meetings

Scrum meetings provide the same benefits as regular ones but without the perceived formalness that causes many employees to dislike attending or fully participating in them. Here are some tips for holding a good Scrum meeting that no one will complain about:

• Have a clear agenda.
• Use charts and visual aids where appropriate.
• Have someone on your team who excels at keeping things on track? Have them lead the meeting.
• Set a time limit and stick to it—regular shorter meetings are more productive than longer ones that are few and far between.