
SCRUM EVENTS & CEREMONIES

SCRUM CEREMONIES
Agile Ceremonies is a critical part of the Agile discipline that makes agile teams highly effective. There are reasons for the order and every ceremony has a specific purpose in serving the team.


Sprint Planning
Attendees: PO, SM, Team (mandatory)
Facilitator: Scrum Master
The PO ensures:
- the backlog is ready for Planning
- the backlog is reviewed with the team
- the backlog is adjusted accordingly
The Scrum Master ensures:
- the team capacity is understood before commitment is made
- the team is present, rescheduling can be very disruptive
- the sprint goals are captured and committed by team
The Event
- Timebox 2-4 hours (per iteration/sprint); mature teams are super fast!
- Team understands velocity, capacity and commitment.
- Team aligns on final clarification on stories
- Team aligns on Sprint commitment (stories and priority)
- SMEs and external teams’ members are present ONLY as needed

Daily Standup
Attendees: PO, SM, Team (SMEs and Project Manager may attend as observers).
This is a “committed team” meeting.
Facilitator: Scrum Master
The PO attends to answer any requirement questions that arise
The Event
- Timebox 15 minutes (daily)
- Delivery team collaborates with each other
- Scrum Board updates are done prior to stand up
The Agenda
- Are you blocked? Name what is blocking/impeding you and how you need help!
- What you did yesterday (since last Stand Up)
- What you plan to do today
Effective Daily Stand Up Approaches
- Same time/place each day
- A “meet after” following Daily Stand Up may be held accordingly (e.g. tech huddle, blocker discussion)
- Focused, time boxed meeting with concise discussion only about current sprint.

Backlog Grooming
Attendees: PO, SM, Team
Facilitator: Scrum Master & Product Owner
The PO ensures the:
- Backlog contains the appropriate items
- Items are prioritized
- Items at the top of the backlog are ready for estimating
The Event
- Timebox 1-2 hours per week (up to each team)
- Helps the team consider new stories before Iteration Planning
- Provides time to identify dependencies and issues that could impact the next iteration
- Ensures the PO has a ready backlog for Iteration Planning
- Agile team members are in attendance and actively engaged
- SMEs and other teams’ members are invited as needed
Backlog Grooming activities include
- Create new user stories in response to newly discovered needs
- Split user stories so that they fit in an upcoming sprint
- Story description and acceptance criteria alignment
- Story sizing/estimating established by team
- Story prioritization reviewed with team
- Backlog and story quality reviewed by team

Sprint Review
Attendees: Dev Team, Product Owner, Scrum Master, Business Stakeholders, Anybody in the organization with an interest in the product
Facilitator: Scrum Master
PO Role: Proactive participant, Leads System Demo, respond to questions
Rest of Core Team: Proactive participant; Tech Lead/Devs/Testers support Demo
The Sprint Review:
2 parts: Demo & Review always
- Is open to everyone
- It is NOT for team but is a time for the team to show off their work to others, get feedback & celebrate accomplishments
- Is a report out where they could use help on organizational blockers.
- Comprises a demo that should be shared with stakeholders, business users and end users.
The Event
- Timebox 1-1.5 hours per sprint / iteration
- Conduct a Demo of everything completed during sprint
- Share Team accomplishments from sprint using Dashboard / Metrics
- Share team struggles or blockers from sprint that negatively impacted team

Sprint Retrospective
Attendees: PO, SM, Team / Facilitator: Scrum Master
PO Role: Participatory*
NOTE: This is often considered a team therapy session.
The Event
- Timebox 45 minutes-1 hour per sprint/iteration
- Core Team mandatory
- Focus on continuous improvement for all things related to the team
- Held AFTER Sprint Review so that information is fresh in everyone’s mind.
- Many formats used for this ceremony but most common is:
- What did we do well? or What is working well?
- What can be improved?
- What actions (only 1-2) can we commit to taking on this next sprint to improve upon as a team?