The Scrum events are used to create regularity and prevent meetings not planned in Scrum. As I read in an article of Martin Fowler, how can we control an unpredictable process? With iterations, each iteration in Scrum will be called Sprint.
A Sprint has a time-box of a month. This means that it can last a maximun of a month, or less. Limiting the risks to this time unit. At the end of the Sprint we will have an usable and potentially releasable product increment, which means that the client can give us feedback so we can adapt the process, and resolve errors that may appear with the use of the product in a real environment.
The tasks that will be done during a Sprint are gathered in the Sprint Backlog, which, as we will see in later posts, is composed with a selection of the Product Backlog’s items. The team must specify a Sprint Goal, this goal may be a milestone in the product and it will maintain the Development Team focused working towards it.
When a Sprint is ended, a new one starts. The Sprint englobes the other Scrum Events, it starts with a Sprint Planning Meeting and has a Daily Scrum event each day. At the end of the Sprint a Sprint Review and a Sprint Retrospective are done. We will start explaining them on Friday, but for today, take a look at the picture I created for you, so you can grasp a first idea about them.During a Sprint it is important that:
- No changes are made that would affect the Sprint Goal.
- Development Team composition must remain constant.
- Quality goals must not be decreased.
- The scope of the Sprint may be clarified and renegotiated between the Product Owner and the Developer Team as more is learned.
To end this post, we will add that a Sprint can be canceled, this is very unusual and can be only down by the Product Owner, although he/she may be influenced by the Scrum Master, the Development Team or the Stakeholders. A Sprint cancellation consumes resources and has to be justified. When does it pay off to cancel a Sprint? When the Sprint Goal has become obsolete or the company’s, market’s or technology’s direction/conditions have changed, which certainly may be very rare in one month’s periods. What to do if we have to cancel it? First we should review the “Done” Product Backlog items and reestimate the incomplete ones. If the product is releasable, the product owner will usually accept it.Have a nice weekend and please, help me sharing this content. Share it with twitter, link it or whatever. See you!
Source: Scrum Guide and my summaries about it.