What Are Agile Meetings?
Think of Agile Meetings as tools. Tools you can utilize to achieve a particular goal. If you need to place a nail in the wall, you grab a hammer and start pounding. Yes, you could use a screwdriver, but you’re going to nick up the wall (or maybe a hand).
For years, the idea of a meeting has been unaligned with best practices – especially in corporate America. Meetings have become the screwdriver. If you want the benefit of walking out of a meeting knowing what decisions were made and who is responsible for next steps, you need to grab the right tool. You need the steps that clearly outline how to achieve your goals.
Agile meetings are highly focused and designed to be as time efficient as possible. Each meeting has a clear objective and can be replicated over and over as your team moves through sprints.
Key Agile Scrum Meetings
While there are others, the key Agile Scrum meetings include:
Spring Planning Meeting
Daily Standup Meeting
Sprint Review Meeting
Retrospect Sprint Meeting
Sprint Planning Meeting
This planning session allows the Scrum Team to discuss what work they have ability to tackle in the upcoming sprint and then documents their tasks appropriately.
Goal: Create the Sprint Backlog (the work the Scrum Team plans to complete during the next Sprint).
Daily Standup Meeting
As the name suggests, this meeting happens every day of the Sprint cycle. It’s a time for each team member to share what they completed, what they plan to complete next, and what blockers or issues stand in their way.
Goal: Ensure everyone on the Core Team is aware of how they are tracking towards the sprint goals and what is holding them back.
Sprint Review Meeting
On the last day of the Sprint cycle, the team holds a Sprint Review where the team presents the work that was completed. The items reviewed are measured against previously determined criteria.
Goal: To review all completed user stories of the Sprint and accept or reject them based on the defined acceptance and done criteria.
Retrospect Sprint Meeting
This meeting allows the Scrum Team to consider how the Sprint cycle went – not the resulting product or output, but how they worked together. They evaluate what went well and what didn’t and determine what they would like to do differently in the next sprint.
Goal: Team to discuss what went well during the previous Sprint and determine 1 – 3 improvements they would like to make as a team for the next Sprint as it relates to team dynamics, process, communication, tools, etc.
Components of an Agile Meeting
While each of these four meetings serves their own purpose, there are certain components that are true for all Agile meetings. Most notably that the logistics are known ahead of time. The logistics include the goal, attendees, facilitator, length, frequency, and the agenda.
Another component of Agile meetings is preparation. Just like there is necessary preparation for effective presentations, preparation is crucial for meeting success. As such, best practice outlines clear steps to take in preparation for each of the key Agile meetings.
