Scrum Practice

Scrum Practice: Ceremonies

Scrum events (ceremonies) give structure to the work and create regular points for planning, checking progress, showing results, and improving. Each event has a clear purpose and helps the team stay aligned and focused. The main events are Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.

Figure 1. Scrum Sprint Cycle with Events and Artifacts

The diagram shows how the events connect together within a sprint cycle. The table below breaks each event down further—when it happens, how it looks in The Data Mine, and what its purpose is.

Scrum Events (Ceremonies)
Term	When	When in TDM?	Purpose
Sprint (1)	2 to 4-week cycle	2-week cycle	Sprints are the heartbeat of Scrum, where ideas are turned into value. The development team works on the chosen tasks for the sprint until they are finished.
Sprint Planning (2) (Choose work from product backlog for Sprint)	At the start of every sprint	During 1st lecture of the development sprint	Sprint Planning initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the Sprint. This is the meeting where the team decides what work they will focus on in the Sprint. They break big tasks into smaller ones and agree on what can be done and who takes ownership
Daily Scrum/ Standups (3) (Inspect progress)	Daily	Each lab of the development sprint (Weekly)	These are quick meetings (often 10–15 minutes) where each team member answers: What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? Do you have any blockers/problems?
Sprint Review (4) (Show results, get feedback)	Meeting held towards the end of a sprint to demo work	During 2nd lecture of the development sprint	At the end of the sprint, the development team shows what they completed to the scrum master, product owners, and others. It’s a way to check progress and get feedback.
Sprint Retrospective (5) (Reflect, improve for next sprint)	Meeting held after the review within a sprint	During 2nd lab of the development sprint	This is a short meeting after the sprint where the team talks about what went well, what didn’t, and what they can do better next time.

Encourage honesty in the hope of continued improvement.

TDM Sprint Schedule

The sprint start and end dates are slightly shifted depending on when a team has their lecture (50 minutes) and lab (1 hour 50 minutes). The idea is that sprints always starts with a lecture.

Sprint
Week 1	Week 2
Lecture 1 (Mon/Tue)	Lab 1 (Wed/Thu)	Lecture 2 (Mon/Tue)	Lab 2 (Wed/Thu)
- Sprint Planning	- Standup - Working session	- Sprint Review	- Standup - Sprint Retrospective - Working session

Sprint

Week 1

Week 2

Lecture 1
(Mon/Tue)

Lab 1
(Wed/Thu)

Lecture 2
(Mon/Tue)

Lab 2
(Wed/Thu)

- Sprint Planning

- Standup
- Working session

- Sprint Review

- Standup
- Sprint Retrospective
- Working session

This schedule can be modified slightly, but it is most important for sprint planning meetings and sprint review meetings to be held with corporate partner mentors.

Scroll down in the table below to compare the two schedules. You can also view the tables directly via this link.

Scrum Ceremonies Cartoon

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Figure 2. Turn the light switch off and there it is.

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Figure 3. I’m sure you will.

Cartoon illustrated by Marija Hajnal