Scrum Sprint

The most important element of Scrum is probable Sprint. Everything revolves around it, because the products are created during Sprints.

Duration of a Sprint

A Sprint usually lasts for 30 days (1 month), but sometimes it is set for 2 weeks. There are several opinions on this: some think it’s much harder to organize and prepare for a Sprint that lasts a month, rather than for the one that lasts only 2 weeks.

The aim of a Sprint

According to Scrum, any Sprint should result in a finished product that can be handed to the clients. But we must understand that it may be not finished at all, because a product could be developed endlessly. In this case we should stick to the end of a current Sprint, which will result in a working product at least. Another Sprint will improve it and result in another iteration of a working product.

As we may see in the picture above, the life-cycle of Scrum consists of preparation for Sprint and finalizing stages. A variety of events, described in this Knowledge Base are encountered during each part of the life-cycle.

Life of a Scrum Sprint – how does it work

Each important matter in our life starts with planning. The same can be applied to a Scrum Sprint. The only difference is the planning process: Scrum Sprints have their own rules and orders. The first meeting gather the Development Team, the Scrum Master, Product Owner, Managers, Stakeholders. It is called a Sprint Planning Meeting.

The First Scrum Sprint Planning Meeting

Participants:
Development Team, Scrum Master, Product Owner, Managers, Stakeholders
The Aim:
This meeting is held to define the aim of a Sprint and the required results. The aim of a Sprint is called a Sprint Goal.
When a Sprint Goal is defined, it is time to create a Sprint Backlog – the list of each task that should be done during the Sprint in order to reach the Sprint Goal.
Artifacts:
Sprint Backlog

The Second Scrum Sprint Planning Meeting

Participants:
Development Team, Scrum Master
The Aim:
A meeting of a Scrum Team only, during which the development issues are discussed. It should be noted, that Scrum, unlike other projects management systems, doesn’t allow any external interference with the work of the Team.
This meeting is held in other to define the tasks to be done in order to make this or that element of the project work. The team evaluates the time needed to finish each of the tasks. If it turns out that the Team will not be able to complete the whole Sprint Backlog, another meeting with the Product Owner is called, during which it is discussed, how can the Scope be shortened without losing any feature of the product. Very often a the Product Owner is somewhere near during the second meeting, but he is present at the conference room only on demand. More about Planning Sprint Meeting.

Daily Scrum Meetings

During a Scrum Sprint special daily 15-minute meetings are held. They are called Daily Scrum Meetings and used in order to detect any appearing problem and solve it in time. The overall progress of the work also becomes visible.
More about Daily Scrum Meetings.

Sprint Reviews Meeting

The end of a Scrum Sprint is accompanied with a demo of a final product. There isn’t a better proof of a successful work than a ready to use product. The duration of such a meeting is not regulated, as well as the order of the demonstration. The list of participants may also be changed, but it usually includes the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, the Development Team, Managers, Stakeholders and developers of other projects.
More about Sprint Reviews Meeting.

Scrum Sprint consists of a number of various element, but each of them is tied up to a Sprint. In order to understand the structure of a Sprint better, we recommend you to refer to our Knowledge Base.