Scrum Team Training
There are no breaks between sprints. Team members may need training at some point to improve skill sets. At what point do trainings come in? Is it at retrospective meetings?
At what point do trainings come in?
Continually, because we are always learning. If there's a training course to go on, it must happen during a Sprint at some point, since there are indeed no gaps between them. As such it ought to be considered during Sprint Planning, either by explicitly defining it as work in the Sprint Backlog which the team can then monitor, or by reserving capacity for that training which they manage separately.
No where in the Scrum Guide does it say that work in a Sprint must consume 8 hours a day for each team member. I'm going to paraphrase what I understand so this is my opinion.
A Sprint is time boxed to make planning easier and to have consistent delivery of value. Sprint Planning is where the team decides how much work can be completed during that time box that will deliver specific value as defined by the Sprint Goal based upon any restrictions that they are faced with.
When you are planning a Sprint, you account for people to have time to eat lunch every day. You account for them to attend company wide meetings. You account for them to be on vacation. So why can't you account for them to attend/complete training? The company I work for currently requires specific compliance courses because we are working in a government regulated industry. We know when those courses are required and account for them.
Stop trying to plan work that will keep people busy 8 hours a day. Instead plan work that delivers value to the stakeholders in ways that allow for empirical knowledge and adaption to take place.
Thank you very much for this clarification. It was really confusing at what point team members would need to complete training. I appreciate these insights.