SCRUM Ceremonies

Literal Meaning of Ceremony: a formal religious or public occasion, especially one celebrating a particular event, achievement, or anniversary.

Ceremony: I love this word ceremony. Even before you say anything everyone gets an Idea something to celebrate and exactly what it is. Everyone gathers, talk to each other and celebrate their achievements.

Ceremony	Participants	Time	Purpose
Sprint 0	Complete SCRUM Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team)	Once at starting. Before Sprint 1 Normally if Need arises normally before start of first Sprint.	a) Set up an initial architecture (development, quality assurance, test environments) so that the team can hit the ground developing on day 1 of sprint 1 b) Identify initial product backlog, so there is a robust backlog to prioritize for sprint 1 c) Schedule required ceremonies d) Prepare preliminary design that can be used as a foundation for the first stories, but that can be refactored and added to as the project progress. Note: Sprint 0 is no formal SCRUM ceremony, I have presented it here as many times it is needed to create an Initial Product Backlog and Product Backlog is where SCRUM starts. So make sense to put it at top.
Sprint Backlog Refinement/ Backlog Grooming	Complete SCRUM Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team)	10% of Total Sprint Time. This is Done in Middle or End of the Sprint	a) Product Backlog refinement is the act of adding detail, estimates, and order to items in the Product Backlog. This is an ongoing process in which the Product Owner and the Development Team, collaborate on the details of Product Backlog items. During Product Backlog refinement, items are reviewed and revised Note: Sprint Backlog Refinement/ Backlog Grooming is not a SCRUM Ceremony, but good to understand to capture the flow.
Sprint Planning Meeting	Complete SCRUM Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team)	1-2 Hours for each week of Sprint, proportionately shorter for shorter sprints. Sprint Planning meeting is done at the beginning of a sprint.	a) Discuss each item with the development team. b) The group collectively estimates the effort involved. c) The development team will then make a sprint forecast outlining how much work the team can complete from the product backlog. d) Also discussion is done on how to achieve the same. Note: That scope of work chosen by Development then becomes the sprint backlog.
Daily Standup / Daily Scrum	Complete SCRUM Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team)	15 Min each day – Typically Morning.	Each Development Team member updates on following: a) What was done yesterday? b) What will be done today? c) Any impediments? d) Scrum of Scrums? (If any) Note: Stand-up is designed to quickly inform everyone of what’s going on across the team. It’s not a detailed status meeting.
Sprint Review Meeting	Complete SCRUM Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team) + Any other stakeholders who are interested in the project success	30-60 minutes. Sprint Review Meeting is done towards the end of the Sprint, Like last week of sprint	a) Demonstrate the product to stakeholders and get feedback b) Inspect, Increment and Adapt Note: a) It’s a time for team to showcase their finished work within this sprint and get immediate feedback. b) Remember, work should be fully demonstrable and should adhere to Definition of Done (DoD)
Sprint Retrospective Meeting	Dev Team, SM	30-60 minutes. Towards the end of the Sprint o milestone, Like last week of sprint	a) Product Feedback. b) Inspect and Adapt Processes. c) Discussion on What went well, What not went so well, What can be improved.
Sprint	Complete SCRUM Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team)	2-4 Weeks	Literal Meaning of Sprint: run at full speed over a short distance. In Agile: a Sprint, a time-box of one month or less during which a “Done”, useable, and potentially releasable product Increments are created. Note: Sprint is not a SCRUM ceremony, but I have mentioned it here so to make rhythm with actual ceremonies.
Product Backlog	SM, PO, Dev Team	The product backlog is emergent is nature which means it is never considered complete, new features, issues, technical changes keep coming and become part of the Product Backlog. Sprint 0, Sprint Planning and Backlog Grooming are the SCRUM ceremonies where it is actually groomed and discussed with the entire SCRUM team	The Product Backlog is an ordered list of everything that might be needed in the final product of the project. It is managed by the product owner in collaboration with Scrum Master and the team. A backlog of the product is an ever-changing list based on the new features, modifications, findings etc. The aim of grooming is to keep the user stories in a prioritized manner where immediate ones are also properly estimated and ready for consumption in the sprints. Note: Product Back is also not a SCRUM ceremony.

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