guide · scrum
Scrum meetings: a simple guide to every scrum event
Scrum has four meetings, called events, inside each sprint: sprint planning, the daily scrum, the sprint review and the sprint retrospective. Most teams add a fifth working session, backlog refinement.
Each one has a clear purpose and a timebox, the maximum time it should take. Below is what each meeting is for, who joins, how long it lasts and an agenda you can copy.
Scrum meetings at a glance
Shorter sprints get shorter meetings. For a two-week sprint, plan on about 4 hours of planning, 2 hours of review and 1.5 hours of retro at most.
- Sprint planning: start of the sprint, up to 8 hours for a one-month sprint (usually 2 hours per sprint week).
- Daily scrum (stand-up): every day, 15 minutes.
- Sprint review: end of the sprint, up to 4 hours for a one-month sprint.
- Sprint retrospective: after the review, up to 3 hours for a one-month sprint.
- Backlog refinement: ongoing, typically no more than 10% of the team’s time.
1. Sprint planning
The whole scrum team agrees why the sprint is valuable (the sprint goal), what can be done (backlog items) and how the work will get done.
- Product owner shares the goal and the top of the product backlog.
- Developers check capacity: holidays, support duty, recent velocity.
- The team pulls in the items it believes it can finish and writes the sprint goal.
- Developers break the first items into tasks.
2. Daily scrum (daily stand-up)
A 15-minute check-in for the developers to inspect progress toward the sprint goal and adjust the plan for the next day. Same time, same place, every day.
- What moved toward the sprint goal since yesterday?
- What will I work on next?
- Is anything blocking me? Solve blockers after the stand-up, not during it.
3. Sprint review
The team shows what it built to stakeholders and gets feedback. It is a working session, not a slide deck: demo real, finished work, then discuss what to do next and update the product backlog.
4. Sprint retrospective
The team looks at how it worked: people, process and tools. It ends with one or two concrete improvements to try next sprint. A popular format is Start / Stop / Continue.
Backlog refinement
Not a formal event, but most teams book it. The product owner and developers clarify upcoming items, split big stories, add acceptance criteria and estimate, so the next sprint planning goes quickly.
Run scrum meetings online
skillzunoscrum gives a team a SprintDeck sprint board for planning, stand-ups and velocity, with epics and stories, plus a real-time retro board. Guests can join with a link, so stakeholders do not need an account.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 4 scrum meetings?
Sprint planning, the daily scrum (stand-up), the sprint review and the sprint retrospective. Backlog refinement is a common extra working session.
How long is a daily scrum meeting?
15 minutes, at the same time and place every day.
What is the difference between a sprint review and a retrospective?
The review looks at the product: what was built and what to do next, with stakeholders. The retrospective looks at the team’s way of working and is usually just the scrum team.
Who runs scrum meetings?
The scrum master makes sure the events happen and stay within their timebox. The product owner leads the backlog side; developers own the daily scrum.