Concept

To put it simply, scrum ceremonies are just meetings that allow stakeholders to be in sync with the product’s progress/state.

Stakeholders:
- Project Managers
- Product Owners
- Team Managers/Leads
- Developers
- (Anyone with vested interest in the product eg. Leadership)

Scrum ceremonies are performed every sprint cycle, and in some cases every two/three weeks depending upon project’s/team’s needs.

1. Sprint Planning

In Sprint Planning, sprint goals are finalized & tasks/tickets/action-items are drafted to the upcoming sprint, and likewise assigned to developers/stakeholders.

2. Daily Standup

In Daily Standup, updates are provided on the tasks/tickets and inspected against the sprint goals.

3. Sprint Review/Demo

Sprint Review is done at the end of the sprint, where a demo is provided on whatever was developed in the current sprint.

4. Sprint Retrospective

In Sprint Retrospective, whatever went well or didn’t go well throughout the sprint is discussed along with action items (improvement plans) to be implemented on the next sprint.

5. Product Backlog Refinement

Backlog Refinement is when new tasks or uncompleted tasks from the previous sprints are reviewed/revised/re-prioritized.

6. 1/1 Meetings

Not strictly a Scrum ceremony, but agile teams working remotely are generally expected to have 1/1 with their stakeholders to discuss/catchup on anything from either sides.

Preparing for meetings

It’s super important that one is prepared ahead of time before attending the meetings; because Scrum meetings can be both time consuming as well as energy draining and sometimes spending hours in meetings can take away a lot of productive hours. Top ways to handle meetings:

  1. Be informed on the meeting’s agenda, if not important then just skip!
  2. Take note where needed; or have the meeting recorded if it’s virtual
  3. Participate in discussions proactively