In some orgs, Scrum just means a bunch of extra meetings and a couple of funny job titles.
But if you strip away the baggage and focus on the “why” of each piece of Scrum, you end up with a minimal set of responsibilities and coordination points that pretty much every product development team needs. From that minimal framework, you can experiment to work out the specific practices, tools, and agreements to maximize your team’s impact and flow.
In this video, we explain why Scrum works when it works:
Need the quick version for better Scrum right away? Here’s our best advice on the Scrum events in less than 5 minutes.
One Breakthrough Tip to Improve Each Scrum Meeting
Sprint Planning
Sprint Planning can be a quick coordination point where a team decides what to focus on in the upcoming sprint. In this video, we share our advice for how to make Sprint Planning fast and effective:
Daily Scrum
Is your Daily Scrum a boring status meeting where everyone talks about how busy they are and the conversation spirals off into detailed task discussions? It doesn’t have to be. Check out this video for our tips on making the Daily Scrum a quick and valuable daily planning session:
How To Have a More Effective Daily Scrum Tomorrow
What your Daily Scrum can reveal about the health of your team:
The 15 minutes that reveal the health of your team
Daily Scrum taking too long? Here’s how to fix it:
Sprint Review
It should include a demo, but it’s not just a demo. The Sprint Review is a chance to close three important feedback loops to make your product better. Learn how:
If you find it hard to get useful feedback in your Sprint Review, try this agenda:
Sprint Retrospective
The retrospective is the one Scrum event we’d pick if we had to choose just one. With good retrospectives, you’d naturally end up experimenting your way into something very similar to the other Scrum events if you needed them. But too many retrospectives feel like a waste of time. Here’s our advice for reliably useful retros:
Two Key Moves for Better Sprint Retrospectives
Backlog Refinement
A good backlog makes everything better. Sprint Planning is more efficient when you come in with a well-refined backlog. The sprint is more focused. And the team is more likely to produce meaningful outcomes. Backlog refinement, though, can be painful. Here’s how to avoid the most common issues:
Three Keys to Productive Backlog Refinement
Scrum Roles
What do the Scrum roles—Product Owner, ScrumMaster, and Developer—look like in the real world when they’re done well? Here’s our perspective:
Are you a new ScrumMaster? Here’s what we suggest focusing on:
What Should a New ScrumMaster Focus On?
New to Product Ownership or PO in a new context?
What Should a New Product Owner Focus On?
How does the developer role change when you adopt Scrum?
