Scrum Events: Artifacts, Diagram & Cheat Sheet in 2024

Key Takeaways: Scrum Events

There are five official scrum events in total: the sprint, sprint planning, daily scrums, sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives.
Backlog refinement is not an official scrum event. Backlog refinement can occur anytime, but it generally happens during the sprint review event.
Scrum events are held so scrum teams can collaborate more efficiently, create better plans and communicate with clients and stakeholders.

Facts & Expert Analysis About Scrum Events:

Terminology: When researching Scrum, you will find that the various meetings are collectively called scrum events, scrum ceremonies or inspect and adapt events. Don’t let this confuse you; they’re all the same.
Scrum artifacts: Scrum events and scrum artifacts are not the same. Scrum events are meetings that occur throughout a project. Scrum artifacts are plans, such as the product, sprint backlogs and iterations of the software.
Project management software: Many project management platforms, like monday.com, ClickUp, Zoho Projects and Jira, allow scrum masters to plan and notate what happens in scrum events thanks to real-time collaboration documents and premade templates.

The multitude of scrum events can strike fear into the hearts of those who are new to the Agile framework. However, though they seem complicated, these scrum meetings are nothing to be afraid of. In fact, when embraced and used in conjunction with the best project management software, they can greatly increase the chances of success for the project you’re working on.

In this guide, we’ll explain what scrum events are, what they’re used for, who should attend and how long they last. We’ll provide samples of scrum event calendars and scrum event cheat sheets, and explain what scrum artifacts and backlog refinement are. We know you’re eager to learn, so let’s jump in.

Meet the experts

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Brett Day (Writer, Editor)

Brett Day is an accomplished project management expert, with over a decade of experience in retail management, leading projects for major retailers like CVS, Old Navy, and Kohl’s. His proficiency in project planning and process improvement is augmented by a Six Sigma White Belt certification, demonstrating a commitment to enhancing business strategies and workflow optimization. With 13 years of writing experience, Brett’s insights have been featured on platforms like Yahoo and SmartBrief, highlighting his expertise in technology, software and strategic execution.

More about Brett Day

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Samuel Chapman (Writer, Editor)

Samuel Chapman, a writer and editor at Cloudwards, possesses over four years of experience specializing in online security, privacy and cryptocurrency. Holding an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine, Samuel combines his academic background with a diverse professional portfolio, including writing web copy for notable brands and editorial contributions to various platforms. Beyond his professional life, Samuel indulges in fiction writing, historical fencing and board games.

More about Samuel Chapman

Learn more about our editorial team and our research process.

Definition: What Are Scrum Events?

Scrum events, also known as inspect and adapt events, are meetings that take place during a project. The events allow scrum teams to discuss work, demo software, plan, meet clients’ stakeholders and discuss wins and losses.

Scrum Ceremonies or Scrum Events?

Scrum events are sometimes called scrum ceremonies or scrum inspect and adapt events. Don’t let the different terminology fool you; all of these terms refer to the same concept. The official term in Scrum is scrum events; however, many other Agile methodologies that use the same meetings refer to them as ceremonies.

How Many Scrum Inspect and Adapt Events Are There?

In total, there are five official scrum inspect and adapt events, all of which take place frequently. If your organization uses the Scrum framework, you’ll find yourself taking part in the following events:

The sprint
Sprint planning
Daily scrum
Sprint review
Sprint retrospective

The 5 Scrum Events in Order

In the following section, we’ll closely examine the five scrum events and provide more detail about each meeting. You’ll learn what happens during the event, who attends and more.

1. The Sprint

Unlike the other scrum events, a sprint is not a meeting. It’s a timeboxed period of work that lasts one to four weeks. A sprint is called a container event because it houses all the other scrum events. When one sprint is complete, another begins. This cycle repeats itself until the project is complete.

monday sprints — Sprints can be planned with project management software like monday.com.

Why Is the Sprint Essential?

The main goal of a sprint is to plan, create and deliver a working increment of the software or product that the client or stakeholders have requested.

What Happens in the Sprint?

During a sprint, the development team plans the sprint (sprint planning), defines the user stories (tasks) by creating the definition of ready and determines what a complete user story looks like by establishing the definition of done. Once these steps are complete, work on the deliverable begins.

A sprint ends when all user stories for that sprint are complete. If the work isn’t finished during the sprint, the team will decide with the client and stakeholders to either continue the sprint until the work is finished or to move the user story to the next sprint. The next step is to hold a sprint review to demo the product for clients and stakeholders and receive feedback.

Next, the scrum master holds a sprint retrospective with the entire team to discuss the work that was just completed. After the retrospective, the sprint is complete and planning for an upcoming sprint begins.

Best Practices for an Effective Sprint

To ensure a sprint runs smoothly, the scrum master and product owner must ensure the planning stage, daily scrums, sprint reviews and retrospectives are not skipped. Open communication and team collaboration are key, and client and stakeholder feedback must be taken into account.

2. Sprint Planning Meeting

The sprint planning event ensures the product owner and the development team understand what needs to be accomplished during the sprint.

Why Is Sprint Planning Essential?

Sprint planning allows the product owner and the development team to ensure everyone is on the same page for the upcoming sprint.

What Happens in Sprint Planning?

During sprint planning, which should last eight hours for a month-long sprint and less for shorter sprints, the product backlog (a list of tasks) is developed or refined, the definition of done and definition of ready checklists are created, and each user story is assigned a difficulty level (story points) or estimated completion time using Agile estimation techniques.

After all the user stories have been defined, the scrum team decides how long the sprint will last based on the complexity of the user stories.

Best Practices for an Effective Sprint Planning

To ensure sprint-planning sessions take place, the scrum master should set the date and time for the meeting and communicate with the entire team. To boost productivity during the meeting, the product owner should create a product roadmap so the entire team knows what’s expected of them, and scrum developers should be prepared to speak up and share ideas.

3. Daily Scrum

The scrum master leads daily scrum meetings with scrum developers to increase the likelihood of delivering a working product increment by the end of the sprint.

confluence daily scrum — Scrum masters can use software like Confluence to
record responses to daily scrum questions.

Why Are Daily Scrums Essential?

The daily scrum event, which only lasts 15 minutes, allows the scrum master and the development team to discuss the work being completed from the product backlog.

What Happens in Daily Scrum?

During the daily scrum, each developer gives the scrum master three pieces of information: what they worked on the day before, what they’re working on that day and the issues that stand in their way. It’s important to understand that daily scrums are not problem-solving sessions, though they can be used to identify impediments.

Best Practice for an Effective Daily Scrum

It’s essential for the scrum master to hold daily meetings in the same location at the same time and stick to 15 minutes. If these meetings run longer, the chances of them turning into problem-solving sessions increase. The development team should arrive on time and be ready to share the requested information.

4. Sprint Review Meeting

The purpose of the sprint review is for the team to meet with clients and stakeholders, demo the latest version of the software and collaborate on the sprint backlog.

jira backlog — Project management software like Jira offers product backlogs that are easy to manage.

Why Is the Sprint Review Essential?

The sprint review, which should last no longer than four hours for a one-month sprint, allows the scrum team to meet the client and stakeholders, demo the latest software iteration, receive feedback and refine the backlog for the next sprint.

What Happens in Sprint Review?

During the sprint review, the scrum team meets with clients and stakeholders to showcase the latest product iteration. This allows the client to see if the product meets their expectations and gives them the opportunity to request changes. In addition, the development team and the product owner refine the backlog and prioritize user stories for the next sprint.

Best Practices for an Effective Sprint Review

The scrum master should organize the meeting and create a sprint review agenda so it does not exceed four hours. The scrum team should be prepared to showcase the product they have been working on, answer questions and receive feedback.

5. Sprint Retrospective

The final scrum event, the sprint retrospective, takes place so the team can review the previous sprint, discuss Scrum and Agile best practices, celebrate wins and boost team morale.

Why Is Sprint Retrospective Essential?

After a sprint ends, it’s vital that the whole scrum team meet to discuss the previous sprint. This allows everyone to learn from mistakes, brush up on best practices and decide the best course of action for the upcoming sprint. The meeting can enhance team collaboration and boost team morale.

What Happens in Sprint Retrospective?

During the sprint retrospective, the scrum master leads the meeting and presents data, such as the sprint velocity from the previous sprint. The team discusses what worked well, what could have gone better and what they can do to improve future sprints. The scrum master can also use this event to train team members, address Scrum anti-patterns and celebrate wins.

Best Practice for an Effective Sprint Retrospective

The scrum master should create a safe space where team members can speak candidly about the previous sprint. The meeting should be action-oriented so all team members are involved, but it should also be closely monitored so it doesn’t turn into a finger-pointing session.

Which Scrum Events Are Timeboxed, and Who Attends?

All scrum events are timeboxed, and different people attend each event. The table below breaks down each scrum event and lists what the events cover, how long they last and who attends.

Event:	Reason	Length	Attendees
The Sprint	A timeboxed period to complete work requested by clients & stakeholders	One to four weeks	Scrum master, PO*, development team
Sprint Planning	To plan work for the upcoming sprint	Eight hours for a one-month sprint	Scrum master, PO, development team
Daily Scrum	For developers to discuss what they have worked on & what they will work on next, & to identify impediments	Fifteen minutes	Scrum master, development team
Sprint Review	To demo the latest product iteration & receive feedback from clients & stakeholders	Four hours for a one-month sprint	Scrum master, PO, development team, clients, stakeholders
Sprint Retrospective	To discuss the previous sprint, discuss what can be done better during the next sprint & increase the scrum team’s effectiveness	Three hours for a one-month sprint	Scrum master, PO, development team

*PO=Product owner

Product backlog refinement is not an official scrum event. Backlog refinement occurs during sprint reviews. The idea behind backlog refinement is to reorganize and prioritize stories (tasks) that the scrum development team has to work on in the next sprint.

What Are Scrum Artifacts?

Scrum artifacts are the plans that scrum teams use to complete iterations of the product. They are transparent and readily available for the team, clients and stakeholders to view at any time. Examples of artifacts include the product backlog, the sprint backlog, and current and previous increments of the product being worked on.

Scrum Events Calendar

All scrum masters should create a scrum events calendar that shows when each scrum event will occur. The calendar should list not only the date the event will be held but also the time and location of the meeting. The image below shows a sample scrum events calendar that covers a two-week sprint.

Scrum events calendars can be created in many project management software platforms. Software like monday.com and ClickUp offer calendar templates that can help you create calendars quickly, or you can create your own from scratch. You can learn more about monday.com in our monday.com review and ClickUp in our ClickUp review.

Scrum Events Cheat Sheet

If you have recently started using Scrum in your place of business, creating a scrum events cheat sheet can be beneficial. The cheat sheet, which should be placed in a central location, can help inform the entire scrum team of each event and provide tips on how they can prepare for each meeting. Below is a sample of a scrum events cheat sheet.

Final Thoughts

Scrum is a relatively simple Agile framework, but it does have its fair share of events, which can confuse new teams. As long as you follow this guide and stick to the events in the order we listed, your team should have no problem adjusting to the scrum ceremonies. When conducted properly, scrum events can help scrum team members successfully complete projects.

What are your thoughts about the events in the Scrum framework? Do you find that they help or hinder teams? Do you know of any scrum event best practices you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading.

FAQ: Scrum Events in Agile

The five scrum events are the sprint, sprint planning, daily scrum meetings, sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives.
The four events in Scrum would be sprint planning, daily scrum meetings, sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives. In some circles, the sprint is not considered an event, which is why there is one less than the official number of events.
The five official phases of Scrum are initiation, planning and estimation, implementation, reviewing and releasing.
Scrum only has five ceremonies: the sprint, sprint planning, daily scrum meetings, sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives. Some would consider backlog refinement the sixth ceremony; however, it is not an official scrum event.

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