If you’re considering Scrum, you’ve probably noticed there are several new meetings.

Do you have to do all these Scrum meetings?

I empathize with this question, and I don’t like unnecessary meetings. I want to protect focused time for deep creative work. If you’re considering Scrum but concerned about how many meetings there seem to be, this article is for you.

Key ideas we’ll cover:

• Understanding how each Scrum meeting focuses on a clear purpose
• Identifying which current meetings get replaced by Scrum
• Exploring the danger of only implementing some of the Scum meetings.

Understanding how each Scrum meeting focuses on a clear purpose

How often have you been in a meeting you didn’t need to be in? Or maybe it was a meeting nobody needed to be in. It just didn’t need to happen. This kind of experience is all too common and has given most of us a general suspicion when it comes to new meetings. 

When meetings lack clarity around format and function, people want to avoid them

Death by Meeting is an entertaining and insightful book by Patrick Lencioni. At the end (spoiler alert), he compares meetings to types of media. A TV show, a movie, or a commercial each have different lengths and formats, just like they have different purposes. We generally accept these differences because we have clear expectations of the format and understanding of the media’s purpose. Nobody wants to see a 2-hour commercial or a 90-second movie.

Similarly, when meetings lack clarity around format and function, people want to avoid them. But meetings can be both engaging and effective when there is clarity about why we’re having the meeting, and it is formatted to support and fulfill this purpose.

So let’s look at the purpose of each Scrum meeting

• ‍Sprint Planning: Clarify the direction and goal for the sprint. Establish an initial plan for how the whole team will complete the work in the sprint backlog to complete the sprint goal.‍
• Daily standup / Daily Scrum: Everyone on the team gains updated visibility into everyone else's work. They evaluate and make adjustments as needed to stay on course.‍
• Backlog Refinement: Understand upcoming work, clarifying the goals, motivations, and dependencies.‍
• Sprint Review: Present finished work to stakeholders for feedback.‍
• Sprint Retrospective: Review how the team worked during the sprint to make necessary adjustments to continue working more effectively.

Each meeting in Scrum has a clear purpose, and the whole team should have a clear shared understanding of this purpose. This reality alone makes the meetings better than 90% of other meetings.

You’ll see each meeting has a part to play in the three pillars of Scrum

• Transparency: How does this make things more visible? 
• Inspection: Where does this create space to evaluate? 
• Adaptation: When does this encourage growth? 

When you end a meeting and aren’t sure if it was worth it, it may be because you were clear on the reason for the meeting beforehand. Each meeting in Scrum has a clear purpose, and the whole team should have a clear shared understanding of this purpose. This reality alone makes the meetings better than 90% of other meetings.

Identifying which current meetings get replaced by Scrum

In order to see what meetings can be replaced by Scrum meetings. We need to start by clarifying how often Scrum meetings occur.

Scrum meetings have a maximum length. If they can be shorter, do that, but Scrum time-boxes meetings to keep them from going too long.

Frequency of Scrum meetings

Most meetings occur at some regular cadence, and it may be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.

• Sprint Planning: Once a sprint, at the very beginning, lasting about 1 hour per week of the sprint.‍
• Daily standup / Daily Scrum: Every day of the sprint (except maybe the first day if it’s redundant to sprint planning). The meeting only lasts 15 minutes in total.‍
• Backlog Refinement: This meeting may vary depending on the length of the sprint. Usually 1-3 times a sprint. The total time for all the refinement meetings is around 1-2 hr/ week of the sprint.‍
• Sprint Review: This is on the last day of the Sprint. The maximum length of 2 hours.‍
• Sprint Retrospective: The Retro is the final meeting and concludes the sprint. The maximum length is 2 hours.

You’ll notice many of the meetings have a maximum length. If they can be shorter, do that, but Scrum time-boxes meetings to keep them from going too long.

Now that you’ve seen what Scrum meetings accomplish and when they occur, you may begin looking more critically at the meetings already taking up space on your calendar.

What traditional meetings do Scrum meetings replace?

This will certainly depend on the meetings you have as a team, but here are a few typical meetings you can cancel or reduce because Scrum meetings fulfill their purpose.

Let’s be honest; some of these meetings could be replaced by an email.

Weekly catch-all meetings 

Sometimes called a staff meeting, this meeting is often near the end of the week where the team discusses some important topics, maybe evaluates the week and looks ahead to plan future projects. Much of the content of this kind of meeting is covered by the backlog refinement, review, retrospective and sprint planning meetings. This meeting is no longer needed when practicing Scrum.

Status meetings

Let’s be honest; some of these meetings could be replaced by an email. A key value in agile is Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Therefore we want to maintain interaction when providing updates. The sprint review and daily standup accomplish this purpose very effectively. You can cancel your other status meetings when practicing Scrum. They aren’t needed.

Ad hoc discussion meetings

These kinds of meetings are the type that sneaks in and takes over most people’s calendars. They are the 1-hour meeting to discuss a specific topic the team is working on. When practicing Scrum, the team still needs conversations to problem-solve or coordinate on crucial points. But they tend to be shorter interactions, like a 15-minute conversation or a slack message. They already have context and maybe even started the discussion during the standup or backlog refinement. These ad hoc meetings can be both shortened and less frequent.

Exploring the danger of only implementing some of the Scum meetings.

I’ve had leaders ask if they could just implement some of the Scrum meetings. Each meeting has a specific purpose, and if you take a Scrum meeting out of your regular team rhythm, you will likely have a gap around that purpose.

Let’s look at two common scenarios where skipping meetings is a problem.

Limited backlog refinement

Sometimes, people will suggest, “Just let the product owner and scrum master handle the backlog.” Behind this comment is a misunderstanding that the Scrum Master is in charge of the Scrum team and decides what they do. Agency is critical to the health of a self-organizing team, and removing it will significantly reduce their effectiveness.

Each meeting has a specific purpose, and if you take a Scrum meeting out of your regular team rhythm, you will likely have a gap around that purpose.

Another problem with not including the team in the backlog refinement is the loss of visibility and insight. The team won’t know about the work coming up, and that understanding may critically inform the work they are doing now. Members of the team have areas of expertise, and thus their insight is needed during the backlog refinement meeting.

Not-so-daily standups. 

Another common suggestion is, “Let’s try having standups just 2-3 times a week.” I get it. You’re going for fewer meetings. But what are you saving? You’re saving about 30-45 minutes of meeting time. Now, what does it cost? Having less frequent standups will likely make your remaining standups go longer, eating into your precious saved time. 

There is also something about the rhythm of connecting briefly each day that keeps the team in sync in a way that every other day just doesn’t. This frequency increases collaboration and synergy within the team and reduces redundancy and other waste.

Next steps for understanding Scrum meetings.

I hope this article helped you identify and understand the purpose of the different Scrum meetings. This clarity is essential when helping a new team learn Scrum.

If you want to learn more about specific Scrum topics, below are a few to choose from or check out my What is Scrum? A Guide for Everyday People to Learn Scrum. If you have more questions, please feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.

Still not sure about your next step with Scrum? I offer a couple of free coaching sessions each month. You can signup for a free 1-hour coaching session, and we can work together to identify a good next step for you.