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If you’re considering Scrum, you’ve probably noticed there are several new meetings.
Do you have to do all these Scrum meetings?
I empathize with this question, and I don’t like unnecessary meetings. I want to protect focused time for deep creative work. If you’re considering Scrum but concerned about how many meetings there seem to be, this article is for you.
Key ideas we’ll cover:
- Understanding how each Scrum meeting focuses on a clear purpose
- Identifying which current meetings get replaced by Scrum
- Exploring the danger of only implementing some of the Scum meetings.
Understanding how each Scrum meeting focuses on a clear purpose
How often have you been in a meeting you didn’t need to be in? Or maybe it was a meeting nobody needed to be in. It just didn’t need to happen. This kind of experience is all too common and has given most of us a general suspicion when it comes to new meetings.
When meetings lack clarity around format and function, people want to avoid them
Death by Meeting is an entertaining and insightful book by Patrick Lencioni. At the end (spoiler alert), he compares meetings to types of media. A TV show, a movie, or a commercial each have different lengths and formats, just like they have different purposes. We generally accept these differences because we have clear expectations of the format and understanding of the media’s purpose. Nobody wants to see a 2-hour commercial or a 90-second movie.
Similarly, when meetings lack clarity around format and function, people want to avoid them. But meetings can be both engaging and effective when there is clarity about why we’re having the meeting, and it is formatted to support and fulfill this purpose.
So let’s look at the purpose of each Scrum meeting
- Sprint Planning: Clarify the direction and goal for the sprint. Establish an initial plan for how the whole team will complete the work in the sprint backlog to complete the sprint goal.
- Daily standup / Daily Scrum: Everyone on the team gains updated visibility into everyone else's work. They evaluate and make adjustments as needed to stay on course.
- Backlog Refinement: Understand upcoming work, clarifying the goals, motivations, and dependencies.
- Sprint Review: Present finished work to stakeholders for feedback.
- Sprint Retrospective: Review how the team worked during the sprint to make necessary adjustments to continue working more effectively.
Each meeting in Scrum has a clear purpose, and the whole team should have a clear shared understanding of this purpose. This reality alone makes the meetings better than 90% of other meetings.
You’ll see each meeting has a part to play in the three pillars of Scrum
- Transparency: How does this make things more visible?
- Inspection: Where does this create space to evaluate?
- Adaptation: When does this encourage growth?
When you end a meeting and aren’t sure if it was worth it, it may be because you were clear on the reason for the meeting beforehand. Each meeting in Scrum has a clear purpose, and the whole team should have a clear shared understanding of this purpose. This reality alone makes the meetings better than 90% of other meetings.
In order to see what meetings can be replaced by Scrum meetings. We need to start by clarifying how often Scrum meetings occur.
Scrum meetings have a maximum length. If they can be shorter, do that, but Scrum time-boxes meetings to keep them from going too long.
Frequency of Scrum meetings
Most meetings occur at some regular cadence, and it may be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.
- Sprint Planning: Once a sprint, at the very beginning, lasting about 1 hour per week of the sprint.
- Daily standup / Daily Scrum: Every day of the sprint (except maybe the first day if it’s redundant to sprint planning). The meeting only lasts 15 minutes in total.
- Backlog Refinement: This meeting may vary depending on the length of the sprint. Usually 1-3 times a sprint. The total time for all the refinement meetings is around 1-2 hr/ week of the sprint.
- Sprint Review: This is on the last day of the Sprint. The maximum length of 2 hours.
- Sprint Retrospective: The Retro is the final meeting and concludes the sprint. The maximum length is 2 hours.
You’ll notice many of the meetings have a maximum length. If they can be shorter, do that, but Scrum time-boxes meetings to keep them from going too long.
Now that you’ve seen what Scrum meetings accomplish and when they occur, you may begin looking more critically at the meetings already taking up space on your calendar.
What traditional meetings do Scrum meetings replace?
This will certainly depend on the meetings you have as a team, but here are a few typical meetings you can cancel or reduce because Scrum meetings fulfill their purpose.
Let’s be honest; some of these meetings could be replaced by an email.
Weekly catch-all meetings
Sometimes called a staff meeting, this meeting is often near the end of the week where the team discusses some important topics, maybe evaluates the week and looks ahead to plan future projects. Much of the content of this kind of meeting is covered by the backlog refinement, review, retrospective and sprint planning meetings. This meeting is no longer needed when practicing Scrum.
Status meetings
Let’s be honest; some of these meetings could be replaced by an email. A key value in agile is Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Therefore we want to maintain interaction when providing updates. The sprint review and daily standup accomplish this purpose very effectively. You can cancel your other status meetings when practicing Scrum. They aren’t needed.
Ad hoc discussion meetings
These kinds of meetings are the type that sneaks in and takes over most people’s calendars. They are the 1-hour meeting to discuss a specific topic the team is working on. When practicing Scrum, the team still needs conversations to problem-solve or coordinate on crucial points. But they tend to be shorter interactions, like a 15-minute conversation or a slack message. They already have context and maybe even started the discussion during the standup or backlog refinement. These ad hoc meetings can be both shortened and less frequent.
Related Guides
I’ve had leaders ask if they could just implement some of the Scrum meetings. Each meeting has a specific purpose, and if you take a Scrum meeting out of your regular team rhythm, you will likely have a gap around that purpose.
Let’s look at two common scenarios where skipping meetings is a problem.
Limited backlog refinement
Sometimes, people will suggest, “Just let the product owner and scrum master handle the backlog.” Behind this comment is a misunderstanding that the Scrum Master is in charge of the Scrum team and decides what they do. Agency is critical to the health of a self-organizing team, and removing it will significantly reduce their effectiveness.
Each meeting has a specific purpose, and if you take a Scrum meeting out of your regular team rhythm, you will likely have a gap around that purpose.
Another problem with not including the team in the backlog refinement is the loss of visibility and insight. The team won’t know about the work coming up, and that understanding may critically inform the work they are doing now. Members of the team have areas of expertise, and thus their insight is needed during the backlog refinement meeting. If the team doesn't take the time inspect the product backlog items or PBIs before the sprint then it is likely those PBIs will contain insufficient details for them to be completed within the sprint.
Not-so-daily standups.
Another common suggestion is, “Let’s try having standups just 2-3 times a week.” I get it. You’re going for fewer meetings. But what are you saving? You’re saving about 30-45 minutes of meeting time. Now, what does it cost? Having less frequent standups will likely make your remaining standups go longer, eating into your precious saved time.
There is also something about the rhythm of connecting briefly each day that keeps the team in sync in a way that every other day just doesn’t. This frequency increases collaboration and synergy within the team and reduces redundancy and other waste.
Scrum has a lot of meetings and it can be hard to keep them straight, especially when you're getting started.
The Scrum meeting checklist has all the details you need to run effective Scrum meetings.
Related Guides
I hope this article helped you identify and understand the purpose of the different Scrum meetings. This clarity is essential when helping a new team learn Scrum.
Action Plan
If you want to learn more about specific Scrum topics, below are a few to choose from or check out my What is Scrum? A Guide for Everyday People to Learn Scrum. If you have more questions, please feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.
Still not sure about your next step with Scrum? I offer a couple of free coaching sessions each month. You can signup for a free 1-hour coaching session, and we can work together to identify a good next step for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Scrum events overview
What are the Scrum events?
The rhythm of scrum consists of various events.
- Sprint planning
- Daily standup
- Backlog refinement
- Sprint review
- Sprint retrospective
- The sprint
The last on the list is sometimes debated as to whether or not it’s actually a scrum event. I include it because it's critical to creating a cadence of work for the team.
Learn more about the rhythm of scrum. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
What scrum events are timeboxed?
Most scrum events are timeboxed relative to the length of the sprint:
- Sprint planning: 2 hours / sprint week.
- Daily standup: 15 minutes.
- Backlog refinement: 2 hours / sprint week.
- Sprint review: 1 hour / sprint week.
- Retrospective: 45 minutes / sprint week.
Just because an event has a timebox doesn’t mean it needs to be that long. The timebox is the maximum time allowed for the event.
Learn more about the different scrum events. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
When should scrum events be held?
Scrum events are generally held in the following order
- Sprint planning: Held at the very beginning of a sprint.
- Daily standup: Every day at the same time and place.
- Backlog refinement: Flexible. Held at whatever time and frequency best serves the team.
- Sprint review: Held on the last day of the sprint.
- Retrospective: Very last event of the sprint.
The backlog refinement session is unique in that it can be held anytime.
Explore further the events of scrum. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Which scrum event is most important?
I included this because it is frequently asked, but the question misunderstands the importance of the scrum events. It’s like asking which of your limbs is most important. You may be able to answer, but they are really all critical.
If pressed for an answer, the daily scrum probably has the greatest impact on the team's effectiveness.
Learn more about the events in scrum. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum events responsibilities
In which scrum event(s) is the product owner mandatory?
The product owner is required to attend the following scrum events:
They are not required to attend the daily standup, though it is still highly recommended.
Learn more about who attends each scrum meeting. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum events purpose
What is the goal of each Scrum event?
- Sprint planning: Clarify the direction and goal for the sprint.
- Daily standup: Everyone on the team gains updated visibility into everyone’s work.
- Backlog refinement: Understand upcoming work.
- Sprint review: Present finished work to stakeholders for feedback.
- Sprint retrospective: Review how the team works and make necessary adjustments.
Understand the purpose of the scrum meetings. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Which scrum events facilitate inspection and adaptation?
Inspection and adaptation (along with transparency) are pillars of scrum, so all events involve them.
- Sprint planning: the purpose and work of the sprint are inspected.
- Daily standup: progress toward the sprint goal is inspected, and adjustments are made.
- Backlog refinement: upcoming work is inspected, and PBIs are adapted.
- Sprint review: delivered work is inspected, and upcoming work is adapted
- Retrospective: team health and interactions are inspected, and norms or plans are adapted.
Learn more about the role of events in scrum. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Which scrum event is for process improvement?
Process improvement aligns closely with the scrum pillars of transparency, inspection and adaptation.
- Sprint planning: How do we improve the product?
- Daily standup: How do we improve our approach to the sprint goal?
- Backlog refinement: How do we improve the quality of the product backlog?
- Sprint review: How do we improve the functionality being delivered?
- Retrospective: How do we improve how our team works together?
Out of all the events, the retrospective is the most focused on process improvement.
Learn more about events in scrum. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
What is the goal of the scrum of scrum event?
The scrum of scrums is an extra scrum event used when multiple scrum teams are collaborating together on a single product.
The scrum of scrums follows a similar pattern to the daily scrum session. The session allows the teams to update each other on what has been done, what obstacles have been encountered, and what to do next.
The scrum of scrums allows those teams to stay in sync and account for dependencies that bridge across teams. When facilitated well with healthy teams the scrum of scrum can even create collective ownership you see in self organizing teams.
If multiple scrum teams are collaborating on a single product then ideally both teams care more about it the product as a whole succeeds versus just caring if they did their part. The transparency, evaluation and adaptation from the scrum or scrums can make this possible.
To learn more explore the most common terms in a Scrum glossary.
Facilitating scrum events
How to facilitate scrum events?
Scrum events have a clear purpose and agenda but are still very interactive. Facilitation of scrum events is at its best when everyone is engaged, asking or responding to questions. All events are timeboxed, so the facilitator must ensure the team is always moving toward the goal.
Learn more about team member's responsibilities during scrum events. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
How to improve scrum events?
Three strategies for increasing participation in scrum meetings are
- Clearly state the goal. Sometimes people don’t engage because they are unsure about the purpose.
- Use facilitation games. There are many facilitation exercises available for the scrum events.
- Invite feedback. Inspection is a pillar of scrum. Ask the team for feedback on what went well and how to improve.
Learn more about everyone’s roles and responsibilities during the scrum events. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Who facilitates (or owns) scrum events?
Scrum cultivates shared ownership for all the events, but each still has a facilitator.
- Sprint planning: Scrum master.
- Daily standup: Development team.
- Backlog refinement: Product owner.
- Sprint review: Product owner.
- Retrospective: Scrum master.
Learn more about everyone’s roles and responsibilities during the scrum events. Then explore the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Does the scrum master facilitate all the scrum events?
The scrum master primarily facilitates two scrum events:
- Sprint planning
- The retrospective
The scrum master can help facilitate other meetings while a new team is beginning to learn scrum.
Learn more about roles during scrum events. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum backlog
What is the backlog in Scrum?
There are actually two backlogs, the product backlog and the sprint backlog. They each contain the definitive list of work to be done. The product owner keeps the backlog ordered by priority.
Learn to use the backlog in Scrum and check out the sprint backlog vs product backlog in Scrum.
How are the product backlog and sprint backlog different?
The product backlog prioritizes the features needed in the product. It is a singular visible source of requirements for the product.
The sprint backlog represents the work to do in a given sprint. It is a definitive list of all the scrum team is being asked to produce for the sprint.
Learn more about the sprint backlog vs product backlog in Scrum.
What is a PBI (product backlog item)?
Each item in the backlog represents precise work and value to deliver. Often these PBIs are written using both user stories and acceptance criteria. The PBIs are what gets refined during the backlog refinement session, and if one is too large, it may be broken down into smaller PBIs.
Learn more about how backlogs are used in scrum, the sprint backlog vs product backlog in Scrum and explore the essential Scrum glossary.
What is the Scrum sprint backlog?
The Scrum sprint backlog is a prioritized list of items from the product backlog that the development team plans to complete during the upcoming sprint.
It is a plan for the Sprint and is created during the Sprint Planning meeting where the Development Team decides on how to build the functionality that meets the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Backlog typically includes user stories, bugs, technical work, and other items that the development team needs to work on during the sprint. Each item in the Sprint Backlog has a clear definition of done, so the team knows when the item is considered complete.
The Development Team is responsible for creating and updating their Sprint Backlog throughout the Sprint, making sure they are on track to meet the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Backlog is a working document that helps the Development Team visualize their progress and make any necessary adjustments to their plan as they go along. The Sprint Backlog is also transparent, allowing stakeholders to see what work is being done during the Sprint.
Learn more about the backlogs of Scrum.
What is the Scrum product backlog?
In Scrum, the product backlog is a prioritized list of features, bugs, technical work, and other product-related items that need to be addressed by the development team.
It serves as a single source of truth for what needs to be done on the product.
The items in the product backlog are ordered based on their importance to the product owner and the value they bring to the end-user. As the project progresses, the product backlog is constantly updated to reflect new priorities, changes in requirements, and feedback from stakeholders.
The product backlog is a living document that evolves throughout the project's lifecycle. It provides transparency and enables collaboration among all members of the Scrum team.
Learn more about the backlogs in Scrum.
