Mastering the fundamentals of Scrum? One of the first things you’ll learn about is the sprint. Sprints are the Scrum equivalent of an Agile iteration, which is a short time period in which a team works to produce an end deliverable. Sprints usually last about two weeks.
The Scrum framework is based on three pillars:
- Transparency
- Inspection
- Adaptation
Within each sprint, there are Scrum inspect and adapt events. Also known as ceremonies, these meetings are held by the Scrum team to clarify the purpose, progress, and results of a particular sprint.
There are four Scrum inspect and adapt events in total: sprint planning, daily Scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective. Let’s take a look at each one in more detail.
The 4 Scrum inspect and adapt events
The sprint planning process is carried out by the entire Scrum team: the product owner, Scrum master, and development team members. At the beginning of each sprint, they come together to go through the product backlog, which is a list of items that need to be completed within the timeboxed period. The team prioritizes which items to work on and determines the overall goal of the sprint.
The next event is the daily stand-up meeting. Once work has commenced on the sprint, team members meet up for approximately 15 minutes every day to share a brief update. They discuss individual progress, raise potential issues, and outline what they intend to work on for the next 24 hours.
When the sprint is over, the team meets again to review how it went. This is an important part of Scrum inspection. Developers share feedback on their particular tasks and a product demo may be shown to highlight new functionalities. The product owner validates the sprint work and updates the product backlog in preparation for the next cycle.
When it comes to adaptation in Scrum, the sprint retrospective is a key event. Here, the team members reflect on how to improve their overall process. They identify any previous obstacles faced and discuss how to adapt and overcome these issues in future sprints.
Now you know how to inspect and adapt in Scrum, you can choose a software platform to help you plan these events accordingly.