Introduction to the Scrum Events

The Scrum events are key elements of the Scrum Framework. They provide regular opportunities for enacting the Scrum pillars of Inspection, Adaptation and Transparency. In addition, they help teams keep aligned with the Sprint and Product Goals, improve Developer productivity, remove impediments and reduce the need to schedule too many additional meetings.

There are five Scrum events (the Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective), each with their own purpose, time constraints and participants.

Purpose

While learning the details of each is very important for effective Scrum, at the highest level*, the purpose of each is actually quite simple:

• Sprint - All work in Scrum is done in a series of short projects called Sprints. This enables rapid feedback loops.
• Sprint Planning - The Sprint starts with a planning session in which the Developers plan the work they intend to do in the Sprint. This plan creates a shared understanding and alignment among the team.
• Daily Scrum - The Developers meet daily to inspect their progress toward the Sprint Goal, discuss any challenges they’ve run into and tweak their plan for the next day as needed. 
• Sprint Review - At the end of the Sprint, the Scrum Team meets with stakeholders to show what they have accomplished and get feedback.
• Sprint Retrospective - Finally, the Scrum Team gets together to discuss how the Sprint went and if there are things they could do differently and improve in the next Sprint.

* These descriptions are introductory, we strongly suggest a deeper understanding of each Event.

Time constraints

To help create discipline and focus, each of the Scrum events has a predefined time constraint, or timebox:

• The Sprint’s timebox is no greater than a month, though they are typically two weeks in duration.
• The Sprint Planning, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective are timeboxed to 8 hours, 4 hours and 3 hours, respectively, for a one month Sprint. The team generally sets the maximum duration of these events to be less when the Sprint is shorter than a month.
• The Daily Scrum is 15 minutes regardless of the length of the Sprint.

These timeboxes enable productive meetings that encourage relevant discussions while conversations not related to the event’s purpose are discouraged. If the team is able to achieve the purpose of the time-boxed events (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective) before the maximum time allotted is reached, they should simply end the meeting. 

When teams are unable to achieve the purpose of the event in the timebox, the team should investigate where they can find opportunities to improve how they conduct their events.

Driving focus into the timeboxed events is a discipline that allows team members to spend less time in meetings, freeing them to spend more time doing other work.

Participants

Each event has required participants from the Scrum Team. Not all Scrum Team members are required in all meetings. And particularly for the Sprint Review, it’s necessary to invite individuals from outside the Scrum Team to provide feedback and advice. Having the correct participants in each event ensures that the meetings are focused on their purpose.

Scrum Events Quick Reference

The following is a quick summary of the timeboxed Scrum events. The Sprint is a container for all of these events and is required to have a maximum duration of one month or less.