Meetings are the most effective way to maintain transparent communication. Yet according to many research works, 40%-60% of people believe meetings in the workplace aren’t very useful.

Because most meeting attendees have nothing to say but listen to others only, which kills valuable working hours. Scrum is a popular meeting framework which can save you from wasting many valuable productive hours in the workplace.

There are several different types of scrum meetings used in workplaces. This article will introduce you to the scrum meeting types with a detailed discussion. Get started!

Different Types of Scrum Meetings

Scrum is actually an agile framework widely used in most software development companies to manage complicated projects. They help continue collaboration and continuous development of the projects. Here’s an explanation of the different types of scrum meetings.

1. Sprint Planning Meeting

Sprint refers to a specific time frame. It may range from 15-30 days within which certain tasks must be accomplished. Any medium or large project involves a series of tasks and responsibilities that you can’t solve at once.

This is why most workplaces today divide the entire year into 12-24 sprints or more. Team members are distributed with certain roles and responsibilities at the beginning of each sprint so the entire project can be completed by the pre-determined deadline.

So, sprint planning is a collaborative meeting where the sprint leader or product owner distributes the backlog tasks to the members. Workers can directly ask questions to clarify any confusion they have. Here’s how to conduct a sprint meeting.

2. Daily Standup Meeting

The Daily Standup is also known as the Daily Scrum. This is a 15-30 minute meeting that is routinely held at the beginning of each day. In this meeting, each team member briefly presents to the team leader how much work they did the previous day and what they will do today.

This way, the whole team can know about each other’s work progress. Plus, the team leader can also calculate whether completing the entire project within the specified time would be possible or not.

If a team member is on leave due to illness or faces a problem, the team leader can solve it and distribute the backlog to others in the next sprint. Thus, Daily Standup helps a lot in any project accomplishment.

3. Sprint Review Meeting

The Sprint Review meeting is conducted at the end of each sprint. The team leader assesses the performance of each team member and checks whether everything has been executed according to the pre-defined plan.

At this stage, the team leader may also discuss with the Product Owner and respective other stakeholders to know if any specific changes are required. According to the discussion, the team leader can provide you with feedback, describing what new features are to be developed and added during the next sprint.

Thus, a series of meetings during the Sprint Review meeting can help you create a better product.

4. Sprint Retrospective Meeting

The Sprint Retrospective meeting is held at the end of each sprint, like Sprint Review meetings. But the difference is, where all stakeholders are invited to the Sprint Review meeting, only team members are included in the Sprint Retrospective meetings.

The sole purpose of the meeting is to benefit only the scrum team. So, no outside players are allowed in it. The team leader identifies issues that team members faced during the last sprint.

Also, discussed what went wrong, what went right, and how the team performances can be improved from the next sprint.

5. Product Backlog Rectification Meeting

It may be impossible to continue working at the same pace during the project and product development for various reasons. As a result, several tasks may accumulate as a backlog. However, you must complete them within the specified deadline.

The product backlog rectification meeting can help you a lot in this regard. This type of meeting ensures that the backlog items are well-defined, understood, and ready for inclusion in the coming sprints.

At this meeting, the team leader reviews items in the product backlog, prioritizes them, and discusses them with the team members. Accordingly, he distributes the backlog tasks among team members during the running or the next sprint.

Best Practices for Arranging Scrum Meetings

Hope by now you know that scrum is a series of different types of meetings, serving as crucial touchpoints for the team to align their work, track progress, and adapt their plans as needed. Knowing the best practices for arranging scrum meetings is important so you can make the best of them.

Below, we have discussed several best practices for arranging scrum meetings. Take a look at them.

a. Have an Agenda First

Before conducting any scrum meeting, it’s essential to have an agenda first. It can help you set expectations and ensure the meeting is conducted efficiently for fruitful outcomes. Your agenda must include the topics to be discussed, members to be invited, and prevent issues that may make the meeting unproductive.

You can also explore the best project management strategies to get ahead of the game.

b. Maintain a Regular and Consistent Schedule

Consistency is an indispensable element in scrum meetings. You must establish and maintain a regular schedule for scrum meetings. This will create a predictable rhythm for the team and stakeholders, making it easier to plan and manage work. Plus, consistency can boost better communication and collaboration.

c. Use a Suitable Tool to Keep Scrum Records

You must keep a record of what has been discussed in all the scrum meetings. It’s often seen that someone has promised to work on certain roles in a meeting but denies the promise in the next meeting. If there is no evidence of the promise, the rest of the team members will be in an uncomfortable position.

We see many similar things happening around us daily. Maintaining Scrum Records will save you from many such situations that arise. There are numerous popular tools online, like WP ERP, WP Project Manager, Scrum Boards, etc., to keep scrum records.

d. Set the Sprint Goal and Objective

The goal and objective have conceptually distinct meanings. The goal refers to the ultimate purpose, which will be achieved at the end of the entire project, like developing a new product or software.

The objective refers to the shorter milestone, which can be achieved in a short period, like developing a new feature or updating an old one. Having well-defined goals and objectives in mind can help team members stay focused and prioritize their tasks effectively.

e. Recognize Every Accomplishment

Recognizing achievements is an important aspect of fostering a positive team culture. Although every employee gets paid for their work, if they get recognition along with it, their working morale gets increased to a great extent.

It also encourages establishing healthy competition among team members to grow their productivity by regular practising. As a team leader, you may personally reward the best team members or arrange team dining out for an evening.

Hopefully, implementing these best practices can help you contribute a lot to enhancing team collaboration and productivity by maintaining focus, transparency, and motivation.

Use the WP Project Manager Plugin to Manage Your Team and Support Scrum Meetings

We have already described the importance of using a suitable tool for managing and keeping a record of scrum meetings above. As scrum meetings are an indispensable part of the Agile team management framework, you must select a tool that goes with the Agile philosophy.

WP Project Management (WP PM) is a wonderful plugin you can use. It’s a WordPress-based powerful project management plugin currently used by thousands of users. Below are the things you can do with the plugin:

• Kanban Board: The WP Project Manager offers a Kanban board, allowing team members to visualize the progress and workflow of the defined tasks.
• Task Management: This lets you assign tasks to team members by breaking them down into manageable sub-tasks.
• Collaboration and Communication: Built-in features for team collaboration allow you file sharing, discussions, and comments on daily tasks.
• Time Tracking: Includes the time tracking functionality, letting team members monitor the time taken to complete certain tasks to calculate productivity.
• User Roles and Permissions: As a team leader, you can assign specific user roles and permissions to the team members to handle the project.

While arranging any scrum meeting, you can keep the WP Project Manager’s dashboard on your device screen. This will help you overview the current status of the entire project at a glance and make necessary decisions accordingly.

Plus, if you want to assign specific tasks or responsibilities to particular workers according to the discussion, you can do so instantly during the meeting. And this instant assignment will undeniably uphold transparency.

FAQ on Different Types of Scrum Meetings

There are many other terms and concepts associated with scrum meetings that you may be curious about. This FAQ section will introduce you to the topics and answer several others that might be roaming around your mind.

Sum Up

Scrum meetings play a vital role in the successful implementation of the scrum framework. Each meeting serves specific purposes and contributes to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the team workflow.

By understanding the purpose and value of each scrum meeting, teams and companies can maximize their productivity level, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. Hope you have enjoyed this article.

Please let us know through the comment box if you want to give some new input to this article. Thanks a lot for your time. Happy reading!