So, we have covered Retrospectives and the Daily Stand Ups in previous posts. Today we will actually go through the rest of the major ceremonies that a Scrum Master must deal with each and every sprint.
Sprint Planning is simply a meeting where it is determined what will be worked on during the next sprint. This is where the sprint goal – a quick, short sentence saying the overall goal of the sprint – is determined by the team. The main focus that will be worked on during the sprint will be determined by the entire team – from the development team to the product owner.
First, the Scrum Master needs to determine the capacity of each person for this sprint – taking into account PTO days or holidays. Then the group goes issue by issue through the backlog – which has been put into priority order by the product owner / manager – with developers volunteering for items they would like to work on. Once the team is close to capacity for that sprint and the product owner signals that they are okay with the items that have been picked for the sprint, then the Scrum Master will once again check with everyone to make sure that everyone on the team believes that the team – working together – can finish the sprint successfully.
The final ceremony that needs to be discussed is the Sprint Review. During this ceremony, the entire team should get together and show off what was completed during the sprint. This is a time for everyone – from the development team to the QA team to the business team – to get together and discuss what was completed and any major/minor wins so that everyone can celebrate the progress being made.
This is also a great time to get feedback from any stakeholders in attendance at the Review session. These stakeholders can discuss what is needed for the next sprint or to discuss some new information that has come to light since the last sprint was finished.
To conclude this series, let’s review the 4 major Sprint ceremonies and what is done during each of them:
- Sprint Planning – The team meets to determine what should be completed that sprint
- Daily Stand Up – Quick meeting (usually every day) to discuss what has been completed and what will be completed.
- Sprint Review – Demo of what was finished for that sprint
- Retrospective – Honest meeting about what happened during the sprint and what could have been better
So, with that we have wrapped up the major ceremonies of SCRUM. Next time, we’ll delve into other items that the Scrum Master has to deal with during each sprint.