User Story Maps

You’ve come to the end of your sprint. Your team planned and prioritized the most important tasks and executed them as well as possible. It’s just almost time to begin planning again, and jump into the next sprint...

BUT — there’s a critical step you've overlooked. The team retrospective meeting.

What went well? What didn’t go well? What do you need to improve upon for next time?

We built this guide based on years of agile training and software development experience. Our ultimate guide to retrospectives has everything you need to run effective retrospective meetings, including the benefits of retrospectives, how to run them well, and extra resources.

An intro: what is agile?

But first, a review of agile. If you’re already familiar, feel free to skip ahead to the next section on retrospectives.

One of our favorite ways to differentiate the agile methodology from traditional, waterfall project management is to compare the approaches to jazz vs. classical music.

In classical music, a conductor brings a piece of music to an orchestra. The conductor guides the group through the piece, dictating exactly what happens where and when based on their own previously decided ideas. It’s a lot like traditional project management. A project manager creates a plan, brings it to their team, and tells them how to carry it out. Each step plays out as it was designed to, under the careful observation of the project leader.

Now, consider jazz music. Jazz is collaborative, with each bandmate feeding off of each other in a flexible environment. The band doesn’t go in completely blind. Everyone is working off of a piece of music — but it’s not strictly adhered to, allowing for new directions to be discovered in the moment. The band, just like an agile team, works together to create music flexibly and iteratively, with each iteration a little different — and hopefully even better — than the last.

💡 Learn more: Agile 101: A Beginner's Guide to Agile Methodology

Traditional project management isn’t flexible. Instead, team members must work in a sequential order that’s dictated by the original plan and project manager. Think of an assembly line. The same steps are followed from project to project. The linear structure means that if one piece of a project stalls, the entire project stalls.

Agile, on the other hand, is non-linear. It focuses on collaboration between team members, flexibility, and delivering consistent value to stakeholders throughout the development process. Each new iteration yields actionable insights about what’s working and what isn’t. This multidimensional way of working eliminates the bottlenecks and dependencies that are common with traditional project management.

What is a retrospective?

Retrospectives are a staple of many agile processes. They can be a critical moment for teams to come together and provide feedback about how processes can improve. Retrospectives keep the agile process — well — agile and encourage continuous improvement. No matter how well the last sprint went, there is always something that can be improved upon for the next iteration.

Agile retrospectives help agile teams gather data and feedback from those involved in the Scrum process. In Scrum, a retrospective is held at the end of every sprint, which is generally every two weeks. The retrospective is a chance for all team members to share what went well, what didn’t, and what could be improved upon for next time. The insights are taken into account in the next planning session to ensure teams learn from their mistakes, successes, and each other.

How retrospectives fit with Scrum

Retrospectives are conducted in a variety of agile methodologies, but for the purposes of our Retrospectives Guide, we’re going to discuss retrospectives within the Scrum process. It’s one of four critical meetings used in Scrum, coming at the conclusion of each sprint. So, how are retrospective meetings utilized in Scrum?

Scrum artifacts

Artifacts are the pieces of work the team completes over the course of the sprint. The product backlog is a compilation of tasks that the team believes need to get done in order to complete a product or iteration of a product. The product backlog is large and not very refined.

Items from the product backlog get moved into the sprint backlog when it’s time for them to be completed. The sprint backlog represents everything the team hopes to accomplish over one sprint, which generally lasts for two weeks. The sprint backlog is more refined — it focuses on the current state of the product, stakeholder feedback, and customer needs.

Scrum roles

There are three Scrum roles, and each has different duties within the Scrum framework. The product owner prioritizes the work that needs to be completed over the course of each sprint. They refine and prioritize backlog items, moving the necessary product backlog items into the sprint backlog.

The next role is the Scrum Master, who guides the team during the two week sprint, ensuring the Scrum framework is adhered to. This person is an expert in all things Scrum and can act as a facilitator during daily stand-ups and other important meetings. The Scrum Master tends to play a key role in leading retrospectives.

Lastly comes the development team. They make up the bulk of the team and complete the work set out in the sprint backlog. The development team participates in planning, attends daily stand-up meetings, and delivers work to the client and stakeholders.

Stakeholders and customers, while not directly on the Scrum team, play important roles in the Scrum process. Stakeholder and customer needs must always be at the forefront of development decisions. Stakeholders should be brought in early and often to provide critical feedback as a product is being developed.

Scrum ceremonies

The Scrum ceremonies are the events that take place within the Scrum framework. First comes sprint planning to set the stage, then daily Scrums or standup meetings, followed by a sprint review and a sprint retrospective.

The sprint planning meeting is when everything gets set up for the next sprint. Sprint planning meetings are opportunities to prioritize backlog items and get the entire team aligned on their goals for the upcoming two weeks. Without planning, the team won’t have clear goals, and they won’t know what tasks to tackle next.

The daily stand-up, sometimes called a daily Scrum, occurs every day of the sprint. The entire team participates in this daily meeting that updates everyone involved in the sprint. During the meeting, team members update each other on what they accomplished over the past 24 hours and what they hope to accomplish over the next 24 hours. This time also serves as an opportunity to discuss any issues that occurred or potential roadblocks that could prevent work from moving forward smoothly.

The sprint review meeting happens at the end of the sprint and is an opportunity to discuss the success of the sprint based on what tasks are considered “Done.” The sprint review can also bring stakeholders into the Scrum process to ensure everyone still aligns on where the product is going and what should happen next. Stakeholders provide invaluable insights that ensure the team stays on track to meet customer needs.

The last ceremony in the Scrum framework is the shining star in our guide. The sprint retrospective meeting arrives at the end of every sprint. It’s a critical meeting that helps the team improve from one sprint to the next. It allows team members to share what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what could be improved upon for next time.

We’ll dissect the elements of a good sprint retrospective throughout the rest of this guide.

💡 Learn more about the differences between these four meetings in our article: Agile Ceremonies: Your Guide to the Four Stages.

The benefits of retrospectives

Retrospectives put the iterative in agile. They provide a focused time for teams to learn from the past and each other so they can constantly improve the development process. Retrospective benefits are vast, and they trickle down into all areas of development. The insights from a retrospective can improve productivity, team dynamics, team trust, customer value, and the overall Scrum process.

Retrospective benefits include:

• Documenting feedback in real-time after each sprint
• Exposing issues from the previous sprint that are holding the product or team back
• Aligning the team around the most important issues
• Giving everyone involved an opportunity to express ideas, thoughts, and experiences
• Informing leadership of potential roadblocks
• Bringing the team together around common goals and action items
• Establishing a safe space for sharing positive and constructive feedback
• Encouraging a continuous improvement mindset
• Helping product owners make decisions for the next sprint
• Setting the team on a positive path for the next sprint

6 Effective retrospective techniques

Now that you know why retrospectives are so important to the agile process, it’s time to dig into how to run them effectively. Use our 7 retrospective techniques for a smooth meeting that keeps everyone engaged and always results in quality insights.

1. Choose a time that works for everyone and stick to it

It’s important that every member of the Scrum team participates in the retrospective. This means holding it when everyone is available, whether that’s in-person or virtually.

Get feedback from your team about the best time to set this meeting. It should take place right after the sprint ends but before the planning meeting for the next sprint. This can be a tight window, which is why it helps to schedule this meeting at the same time every two weeks.

Consistent meeting times help ensure the meeting actually happens and that an optimal number of team members can attend.

2. Find new and creative ways to acquire feedback

The Start, Stop, Continue format can take many forms, but the general process is the same. The team discusses what they want to start doing, what they want to stop doing, and what they want to continue doing in the next sprint. It’s a simple framework that addresses both what went well with the previous sprint and what could be improved for next time.

This is a tried and true method, but it’s also important to change up your format and ask different questions to keep the team engaged.

You are trying to acquire similar information each time (what to start, stop, and continue), but the way you gather that information can change and evolve. Add variety to your Scrum retrospective and mix things up every once in a while to keep everyone engaged.

Find new ways of asking similar questions, and bring in new ice-breakers that help the team feel comfortable discussing the past two weeks with honesty and clarity.

Other versions of “Start, Stop, Continue” include the Rose, Bud, Thorn exercise, where team members discuss something positive about the experience, a “budding” opportunity that can be expanded on for next time, and something negative about the experience that should be improved upon. Another alternative is the Anchors and Sails exercise. What about the last sprint weighed or anchored the team down, and what positives put wind in their sails, so to speak?

Boring retrospectives will make team members dread the meeting and will lower participation significantly. If participants aren’t engaged, they won’t contribute as openly, and they won't take ownership over the process.

Mixing things up is also a good way to uncover insights the team hasn’t considered before. New questions will spark new ideas, issues, and solutions that otherwise would not have been discovered.

3. Ensure all voices are heard

All voices need to be heard in the retrospective. It’s the responsibility of the meeting facilitators to make sure everyone has a chance to speak during the meeting and that loud or dominant personalities don't overtake the conversation. They have to be heard too, but not at the expense of more introverted team members.

If you notice some members of your team do not participate, start asking them direct questions. If this only makes them retreat further into their shell, take them aside at the end of the meeting for a one-on-one conversation. How can you make the meeting environment more comfortable for them? What will best enable them to collaborate effectively? Ensure this is framed in the right way so it doesn't sound like they're in trouble but rather like you value and appreciate their input.

4. Establish a comfortable environment

Ensure the retrospective feels safe and comfortable for everyone involved by instilling trust, collaboration, and open dialogue. Each team member should feel like their voice is important. It should be a place of positivity, not a chance for team members to dunk on one another. It’s up to the facilitator to ensure everyone is comfortable.

There should be room for everyone to speak. The whole team should feel like they can express their thoughts and opinions about what happened over the course of the sprint. If people feel uncomfortable or think their voice won't be appreciated or heard, they will hold back and not actually express their honest feedback.

This is detrimental to the process, as it can leave recurring issues to fester and worsen over the course of future sprints. It is in everyone’s best interest to be open and honest and to hear everyone out. The goal of a retrospective is to solve issues, prevent roadblocks, and improve the team’s processes. If team members are silent or dishonest about how they feel things are going, nothing will be solved.

Comfort plays a big role in how honest everyone will be. Ensure everyone is respectful and that speaking time is shared across the team. Take time building trust and allowing the team to get to know each other. A team that trusts one another can work together and build each other up — and you’ll be able to manage issues before they begin to hinder productivity, team wellness, or the Scrum process.

5. Document everything and create clear action items

If you don’t document it, it didn’t happen. Don’t rely on memory alone after the retrospective. Document the feedback team members provide, and ensure any important ideas or issues are brought to the next planning meeting.

Turn important insights into action items to make sure ideas are not lost. Ensure action items are specific and clear and that the whole team understands what “done” actually means for each task. Once an action item is created, make sure there is follow-up, ideally at the beginning of the next retrospective. Determine who is responsible for the action item and how important it is in the grand scheme of your product backlog.

6. Review your action items at the next retrospective

So, you’ve collected your and your team’s insights and made those insights into action items. The final step is addressing those action items during the next retrospective. Were they resolved, or did the same issues keep occurring?

It’s best practice to review your previous retrospective action items at the beginning of the next retro. Did the team make progress on the task? What else needs to happen? Do you need to follow up again at the next retrospective meeting?

What happens after the retrospective?

The retrospective may be the last meeting of the sprint, but it doesn't end there. Take those insights into the next sprint.

After the retrospective, the product owner reevaluates the product backlog and chooses what will go into the sprint backlog for the next round of work. They should consider past mistakes, successes, stakeholder feedback, and retrospective insights as they make decisions.

The sprint planning meeting comes after the retrospective and will help the team regroup and align on what they need to accomplish next. With each sprint, you will gain more information about the product, your customers, how the team works together, and your overall process. These lessons are taken into account to make improvements from sprint to sprint and product to product.

For better sprints, read our sprint planning guide, which includes everything you need to run efficient and effective planning meetings. ➡️ The Ultimate Agile Sprint Planning Guide.

Turn an action item into a Jira issue in just a few clicks, then schedule the work to ensure your ideas aren’t lost at the end of the retrospective.

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Retrospective mistakes to avoid

Collecting feedback may sound simple, but there are many ways a retrospective can go wrong — from overpowering team members to asking repetitive questions to failing to capture insights effectively. Read our list of common retrospective mistakes to make sure your team doesn’t drop the ball.

❌ Skipping or delaying the retrospective

Due to a lack of time or resources, teams may consider skipping the retrospective. This is a costly mistake.

Do not, under any circumstances, skip a sprint retrospective. This is a critical time when the team has a chance to improve their processes. Skipping a retrospective enables the status quo and encourages complacency. The agile process is about continuous improvement — without the retrospective, you lose a critical opportunity to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of your team and its processes.

Delaying the retrospective can also be detrimental to your progress as a Scrum team. It’s important that you gather insights right after the sprint ends — while the ideas and issues are still fresh.

Delaying the retro could result in team members forgetting how the process actually went, leading to bland feedback that lacks the kind of detail that can create positive changes. And if delayed too long, something else could come up that takes priority over the retrospective, meaning the meeting may never occur at all.

❌ Always asking the same questions

The Scrum process is repetitive by nature, but that doesn’t mean your retrospectives should be boring or unbearably dry. Sticking to the status quo is a huge mistake in retrospectives.

When you repeat the same meeting every two weeks, you need to add variety in order to keep the team engaged. As soon as you lose team attention, engagement will drop, and the quality of the feedback you receive will too.

When running a retrospective, check in with yourself and the team to make sure engagement and interest stay high. If you are losing people’s attention and find engagement is dropping, change your format or the types of questions to keep everyone awake, attentive, and on their toes. Switching up who facilitates the meeting is another way to add variety into the mix.

❌ Allowing some of the group to dominate the conversation

Every voice on the team needs to be heard, but sometimes it’s the loudest ones that come through, well, the loudest. 📢 Effective retrospectives require multiple perspectives to deliver fresh insights.

Don’t let a select few voices dominate the conversation. A domineering team member will use all of the meeting’s time and limit the insights you can gather. If every voice isn’t heard, problems with the process could persist throughout multiple future sprints, severely impacting the effectiveness of your team. Plus, those who aren’t as loud will feel less involved and undervalued.

❌ Failing to empower softer voices

Along with discouraging domineering behavior, you need to amplify the softer voices.

Some people will be less likely to engage, or they may be too shy or afraid to express their opinions in a group setting. Watch out for this. If you notice it, find ways to make those underheard voices heard. It could mean asking them questions directly during the meeting, or it could mean taking a shy team member aside after the meeting to collect insights one-on-one.

If they find the group or your process intimidating, make the necessary adjustments to ensure everyone feels comfortable expressing their thoughts about the sprint. A retrospective is a collaborative process. Do what you can to engage and empower every member of the team.

❌ Jumping to conclusions without discussion

A single statement from one team member isn’t the end of the conversation. When team members bring up issues or ideas, they need to be discussed as a team. Do others feel the same way? Is it critical that this idea be implemented immediately, or can it be put on the back burner for now? How does a particular insight impact the product or customer needs specifically?

Don't jump to conclusions without having a meaningful discussion. You can gather information from your team quickly without throwing off your set meeting timeline. Don’t let any one topic throw you off course, but ensure you aren’t overlooking anything. If the team agrees an idea has merit, turn it into an action item that can be followed up on at the next retrospective meeting.

❌ Not implementing insights into the next sprint

Unfortunately, this is quite common. A team holds a retrospective meeting and does almost everything right only to fail to thoroughly record their team’s insights and put them into practice.

The whole point of the retrospective is to help your team improve. If you don’t properly document the feedback you receive from the team and don’t put those insights into action, you’re not getting the most from your retrospectives.

Turn feedback and discussion topics into clear action items you can follow up on later. Take important action items and insights into your sprint planning meeting and check in at your next retrospective. Were you able to make progress on the previous retrospective’s action items? What roadblocks did you hit? Do the action items require any further attention or follow-up?

❌ Not improving your retrospective process

Even a retrospective could use a retrospective! 🤯

Every now and again, take time to review your retrospective process. Ask your team to provide feedback on how they think the meetings are going. What do they like, what do they not like, and how do they think the retrospective meetings could improve?

You can improve on each aspect of your agile process. Go straight to the source to gather the opinions of those involved in the meeting. Do team members feel heard? Have issues been addressed to their satisfaction? Have the meetings grown stagnant?

When it comes to improving your retrospectives, your team has the data. Do not hesitate to ask.

Just because retrospectives come last in the Scrum process doesn’t mean they aren’t important. Don’t lose steam as you cross the finish line. Hold a retrospective at the end of every two-week sprint. Ensure each sprint retrospective includes insights from each team member and that insights are documented and transformed into clear action items.

📚 Additional resources

We have a wealth of free resources on the Easy Agile blog, and we continue to add to it every week. We recommend checking out our other guides as well as our top-performing agile content.

• The Ultimate Guide to PI Planning
• The Ultimate Guide to User Story Mapping
• Product Roadmaps: Your Guide To Why and How To Use Them
• The Difference Between a Flat Product Backlog and a User Story Map
• What's the Difference Between Kanban vs. Scrum?
• DEEP: The 4 Characteristics of a Good Product Backlog

Thanks for reading our ultimate retrospectives guide! 👏 If you have any questions about this guide, our other content, or Easy Agile products, reach out to our team. We love talking to teams and individuals about agile and how to work better together. We’ll continue to update this guide as we gain more retrospective insights, techniques, tools, and best practices.

Using Easy Agile to improve your Agile process

If your sprint retrospective isn’t effective, your next sprint will suffer from the same issues. It is imperative that Scrum teams gather at the end of each sprint to discuss what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what can be improved on for next time. Otherwise, you invite complacency and stagnation into your Scrum process — the antithesis of agile.

Improve your Retrospectives with Easy Agile TeamRhythm. The Retrospective features in TeamRhythm help your team stay on the path of continuous improvement. Watch the highlights tour to see how Easy Agile TeamRhythm makes sprint planning, managing your backlog, and team retrospectives easier. Visit Atlassian Marketplace to start your free, 30-day trial today.

Scrum teams create release plans to support successful product releases. This helps them maintain their focus on the product vision and feature deliverables.

Here, we’ll explore the definition and purpose of agile release planning and its essential template elements.

Find out what goes into creating a planning meeting and how to set your Scrum team up for successful product releases.

What is agile release planning?

Because software projects are unpredictable, release planning helps team members prioritize their workflow. A release plan focuses on getting specific product features ready for the market. It should examine the product scope, the release date for feature completion, and the resources needed for each release.

The development team then looks at the feedback from earlier product iterations to guide their planning. Product owners and Scrum teams get together to discuss the agile release plan. That’s because team members need to understand what level of product functionality must go into their work. They also need to understand work effort to plan their deadlines for each product increment.

Instead of planning for a significant product release, team members divide the project scope into short sprints or iterations. Many Scrum teams use Jira software to help them plan their sprints, as it helps everyone see the project status at any time.

Creating a prioritization list ensures that team members focus on the most vital product versions the Scrum product owner prioritizes.

What is the purpose of the release plan?

Project release planning helps software development teams plan, direct, and release each project in increments to serve the customer experience. Teams often use this methodology for short sprints of product development.

Release planning provides agile and Scrum teams with a solid direction to complete their projects. Team members also use this opportunity to use sprint feedback to create increments that align with the next release’s project roadmap.

Getting the product plan together

Release planning seems complex, but with some foresight, it can be simple. Let’s review each part of the process.

1. Who leads the release plan?

Typically, the product development team takes its lead from the Scrum master or the product owner. During the meeting, this leader will raise questions about the product backlog to ensure that sprint discussions align with the final product.

All the product stakeholders should participate in the release plan to ensure their feedback is taken into consideration. Without input from everyone involved in the product development, the team risks missing out on vital information to keep the product roadmap on track.

2. Agile release plan aspects

While the release plan is meant to be agile, it also follows a strict process to ensure that teams keep the product roadmap in sight.

Agile teams take all the sprint planning discussions and evaluate these to detail new product deliverables. Although most organizations will use various approaches in their release planning process, each sprint review should include the following aspects:

• The agreed product development releases at each stage of the sprint
• A direction for each new product release
• Specific current and future iterations due in each upcoming release
• What features and functionality should accompany the iteration
• Specific task requirements for each feature delivery to meet the release goal

By going through an in-depth release planning process, software development teams harness the value of these sprint meetings. The ability to rapidly change direction as necessary ensures the team releases the best possible product.

This constant iteration in each sprint review is also valuable in the dynamic environment of product development.

This level of planning, combined with an iterative schedule to account for the dynamic nature of software, is what makes Agile product development so valuable.

3. Sprint meeting discussions

Sprint meeting discussions revolve around user stories, product backlog, and product backlog items. Scrum release planning also considers other issues such as dependencies and product functionality. Other aspects that the team speaks about involve the next release and the number of sprints they must complete and deliver.

Essentially, team members must keep the product vision in mind for effective release planning. This vision helps team members isolate minimum market sprint feature batches and their release dates.

Sprint meeting discussions should include:

• Release plan prioritization of impending new product features and functionality
• Evaluation and inclusion of stakeholder feedback for each sprint
• Detailed descriptions of sprint deliverables and whether these fall into the category of product short-term increments or major longer-term releases
• Which product version will be ready for release and the ideal sequence of product releases to achieve each release goal

Development teams build several product versions. After creating these versions, they prioritize them to release the most important ones to users.

Part of the purpose of release planning is to ensure that all stakeholders are on the same product development page. Another element of these sprint planning meetings is to drive ownership and acceptance of the product vision.

Development of the release plan

There are four steps that software development teams follow to create their product plan.

1. Creating the vision

First, you need to define the vision for the product. Creating a clear vision produces a roadmap for the team to follow in each consecutive sprint. This vision should align with market demand and the product owner’s goals.

It also encourages team members to sift through which features they should prioritize. Similarly, the product roadmap helps teams evaluate the resources they need during the sprint review. Product planning also enables teams to be flexible. Planning reviews ensure direction changes to accommodate ongoing increments to achieve overall release goals.

2. Prioritization of the product backlog

After defining the vision, team members focus on prioritizing features in the product backlog. Here, stakeholder inputs must align with the vision to successfully implement user stories. User stories are vital to the process as they provide the background for detailing product features or functionality.

The product manager provides the team with direction at this stage to outline a viable release plan. This release plan must include the product release goals, release dates, and prioritization of user stories.

3. Set the Scrum planning meeting

The next step in the planning meeting is for the stakeholders to review the plan. Team members now have the chance to adjust deliverables in line with the vision.

Everyone must agree to the release plan at this stage before they can move forward to the next release.

Meeting agenda

Setting up a meeting agenda helps manage the release plan. The essential elements of the agenda for the Scrum framework include:

1. Product plan assessment

The Scrum team reviews the product roadmap to ensure that everyone accepts the product vision and goals.

2. Architecture evaluation

With each release, the Scrum team and product owner evaluate the previous sprint’s architecture. They examine the technical details of the product development and discuss any potential problems that can impact the product release.

Scrum teams go over the scope and estimates of their release plan. Team members determine whether their planning includes the risk of technical debt and if they can complete certain task aspects, such as documenting their work to meet deadlines. Stakeholders also review dependencies that can influence the product versions’ functionality.

3. Velocity and iteration assessment

Scrum teams go over previous iterations to review their velocity estimates. They align their estimates with the suggested iteration schedule to ensure they cover all vital elements.

The product manager controls this assessment to ensure points are assigned to user stories. Assessing user stories and assigning points demonstrate the level of effort the team must invest in each iteration. The total number of story points then represents the estimation of release dates for each sprint release.

An iteration schedule is built by the agile team to determine their velocity for the current and subsequent sprints during this assessment.

The team creates the release scope, which includes all the necessary releases. The Scrum master assigns work to each team member, and all the stakeholders agree to the plan before moving to the next step.

4. Agreement on the definition of done

The team members must now discuss what will qualify as the definition of done for each feature release. Team members must consider whether their evaluation of user stories meets all the product owner's acceptance criteria for release. Once they can prove the acceptance criteria are met in their assessment, they will know that a release completion is valid.

The definition of done must confirm that team members have completed all their assigned tasks for the user story. Team members must also record each task so that the product owner can assess their work.

5. Populate the product release schedule

The project manager can now populate and complete the release plan schedule. All stakeholders should be able to access the calendar to track progress. This release plan schedule helps everyone stay focused on product deliverables and release dates.

Get help with your release planning

Agile release planning is a vital part of the software development team’s success. Create a comprehensive agile release plan for minor or major releases, and you make your life simpler for an upcoming release.

Focus on the release plan calendar helps keep product owners and team members aware of the overall product vision.

Most Scrum teams can use a little help in creating their release plans. At Easy Agile, we offer Jira software that helps Scrum teams execute their release plans to perfection.

Easy Agile TeamRhythm supports collaborative release planning in Jira. The highly-visual story map format transforms the flat Jira backlog into a meaningful picture of work, making it easier to manage your backlog and plan your release.

Let's face it! Project management for agile teams can include a lot of tough calls, from managing product owner expectations or undefined quality standards.

Sure, you have good days and bad days. But why not set your sights higher and aim for the ideal day?

To help you do just that, planning poker, also called Scrum poker, uses playing cards to simplify agile estimating and planning. The result? Your agile estimating and planning process runs more smoothly, and your development team increases its productivity.

In this article, you’ll explore the driving force behind planning poker,  how it helps estimation, planning poker’s history, and how to play this game.

The driving force behind planning poker

The purpose of planning poker is engaging the whole team in collaboration. Scrum poker makes it easier to make valuable time and effort estimates so your team can create satisfying deliverables.

Instead of team members verbally expressing their estimates, they use a deck of playing cards to speak for them. Drawing cards and simultaneously placing these playing cards face down eliminates bias. Everyone follows this route in the estimation process, which supports individual estimates and negates peer influence.

Other project estimation techniques use time to determine how long a task will take. Agile estimation uses story points. These story points refer to the level of effort to undertake a task.

In planning poker, the whole team assigns story points to each task. Each story point is a visual representation of the amount of work to be done and the effort that must go into completing each task. This method wins out over time since it is visual and focuses on effort involved instead of time constraints

Work estimation in agile development

The estimation process is vital to team members because it determines how much work will go into each sprint. Dividing the product backlog into bite-sized tasks helps evaluate the workload.

As a Scrum master, you have a difficult role to play. At the end of the ideal day, you want the product owner's user story to be exemplary. Simultaneously, as the Scrum master, you have a Scrum team to manage.

Agile development is a critical process that you need to control. Get the user story and story points right, and you're halfway there. Master the estimation process and sprint planning, and you control the product backlog and retrospective.

Software development teams can either use physical playing cards or software for planning poker. Using software that includes a Jira plugin is vital when you have distributed teams. When you have a Jira plugin, everyone can participate in and streamline the estimation process.

History of planning poker

Software development teams used to use another team-based estimation technique, Wideband Delphi. Although similar to planning poker, it took too much time to reach consensus with this technique.

James Grenning found that Delphi didn't work as a structured estimating approach and came up with the idea of playing poker in 2002. Grenning found that a physical deck of cards was an engaging approach for agile teams to make work estimates. He also found that Scrum poker worked better than Wideband Delphi.

Planning poker is more inclusive. The deck of cards ensures Scrum team participation in work estimates, and everyone must continue to participate until consensus is reached.

In 2002, Mike Cohn developed mountain goat software and stepped in with a deck of digital cards to use in planning poker. Scrum teams can use these digital playing cards from remote locations to improve agile estimating and planning and have some fun along the way.

Let's explore the ins and outs of the poker session and how to play the game.

What Scrum teams need for a poker session

Agile teams need a few essential items for their planning sessions. These items include:

• A deck of cards
• Estimators (the agile team)
• A moderator
• A features list
• An egg timer

Choose your playing cards

In Scrum poker, team members (estimators) each have a deck of cards. They use these playing cards to indicate their high or low estimate on how long each item on the list of features will take to complete. These list features can be the user story, story points, or ideal days to complete sprint planning.

The playing cards the development team use will follow a Fibonacci sequence. This Fibonacci sequence follows the 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 pattern, where each consecutive number is the sum of the two preceding numbers.

Alternatively, team members can use a different deck of cards where the value of each number has a fixed ratio, such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 12 and so on.

Different card decks provide adapted sequences, such as 0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, and 100. Other commercial decks have cards to indicate that the agile team needs a coffee break or an infinity symbol which means that it is impossible to complete a task.

Similarly, team members can adopt a standard deck of cards for Scrum poker. Here, the team members use the Ace, the 2, 3, 5, 8, and the King.

How to play Scrum poker

Every Scrum team will have different goals, but the general sequence for playing planning poker is as follows:

• All team members have their own deck of cards except for the moderator.
• Team members ask the moderator (often the product owner) questions about themes, user stories, story points, product backlogs, agile retrospectives, or whatever else they need for their agile estimating and planning process. Questions typically surround the product owner's acceptance criteria. Questions can include whether the backlog items are complete and what the next best step is to complete the sprint.
• Once the moderator answers the agile team's questions, each team member selects a card estimate. That represents how long they think the work item will take.
• Team members then place their cards, face down, on the table or use a Jira plugin for distributed teams.
• Playing cards are placed face down to prevent anchoring, or influencing each other's evaluations.
• The moderator reveals the Scrum team's cards to view their estimates.
• If team members have a high or low estimate compared to other team members, they need to explain their reasoning. The agile team can ask more questions for clarification. This questioning period is often limited by using an egg timer.
• The process is repeated until the agile team agrees on the estimate of how long it’ll take to complete each user story.
• Agreement is frequently reached on the second or third draw of the playing cards for each work item.

Agile estimation that involves the whole team

Planning poker is an accurate, collaborative, team-building method of estimating the work for each user story.

While you prepare to use planning poker in your next product roadmap planning meeting, consider Easy Agile TeamRhythm. The app helps you group Jira items into themes so stakeholders can easily keep track.

Jira is the #1 software development tool used by agile teams. It’s designed to help development teams plan, track, and release awesome products. With Jira Software, teams can work within multiple different frameworks, including Kanban and Scrum, while gaining access to agile reporting, integrations, and automations.

It’s completely versatile, so teams can work in whatever way best suits them. Plus, Jira Software is designed to help teams continuously improve their performance. This agile project management and agile software development tool is available in three different packages:

• Jira Core: The basic Jira platform
• Jira Software: Jira Core plus additional Agile functions
• Jira Service Desk: Service experience delivery

In this post, we’ll focus on all of the features available for teams using Jira Software. We’ll cover what’s included and how your team can make the most of Jira Software features and add ons.

Jira Software Scrum boards

Jira Software is designed to work within various agile frameworks. The Scrum process helps devops teams bring iterative and incremental value to stakeholders and customers.

One Scrum is usually made up of a two-week sprint that aims to complete a specific set of backlog items from the product backlog. Product owners plan sprints, and a Scrum Master guides the development team through the various stages of the Scrum.

The team works to complete the most important work while meeting for daily standups to review their progress and any potential roadblocks. The daily standup allows teams to learn on the go and use an iterative and customizable approach.

Jira Scrum boards unite teams around a single goal while promoting iterative, incremental delivery. The tool provides data-driven Scrum insights so that product owners and team members can keep track of sprint goals and improve retrospectives. Jira’s customization helps teams deliver consistent value to stakeholders quickly and effectively based on ever-evolving customer feedback.

With Jira Scrum boards, you can:

• Build a single source of truth for all of the work that needs to be completed
• View your progress visually during the development cycle
• Provide all team members with a clear view of what’s on their plate
• Quickly identify any blockers or potential blockers
• Organize work around the sprint time frame
• Avoid over-committing on work at any given time
• Don’t lose track of key dates or milestones.
• Utilize key metrics, including burndown charts and velocity reports

Jira Software Kanban boards

Image credit: Atlassian

Kanbans provide workflow transparency for development teams by establishing a visual representation of what needs to be done, what’s in progress, and what’s been completed. They also help teams understand their capacity so they can focus on one key task at a time. Work to be completed moves from one column to the next — from To Do to In Progress to Done.

Jira Kanban boards provide a framework for teams to continuously and efficiently deliver work. They are simple to use, visually engaging, and completely customizable to the specific needs of the team. Jira Kanban board columns can be customized based on other requirements, such as In Review or Waiting for Client Feedback.

With Jira Kanban boards, you can:

• Clearly visualize workflows
• Depict work at distinct stages
• Build a single source of truth for all of the work that needs to be completed
• View an at-a-glance summary of where work stands
• Capture relevant information for Jira issues, tasks, stories, or bug tracking
• Limit the amount of work-in-progress
• Prevent bottlenecks and spot them before they delay work
• Configure workflows to be as simple or as complex as needed
• Customize boards based on the needs of the team
• Utilize real-time visual metrics

Jira Software roadmaps

Roadmaps help agile teams see the big picture surrounding the development of a product. They establish a flexible plan for what the team hopes to accomplish and provide a visual of how all of the pieces connect.

Even though the roadmap lays out a clear view of the road ahead, it’s not a set-in-stone plan of what’s to come. The agile methodology and nature of roadmaps mean they are constantly updated and fine-tuned based on new information that continually flows in from team members, stakeholders, and customers.

Jira roadmaps are available to teams and organizations through Jira Software Premium. They help teams track progress based on the big picture to predict capacity and avoid bottlenecks.

With Jira roadmaps, you can:

• Sketch the big picture
• Map and account for dependencies
• Track your progress
• Account for team bandwidth
• View capacity on a sprint-by-sprint basis
• Iterate and update as you learn more about a project, product, or customer needs
• Sync in real-time so that everyone is on the same page
• Create multiple roadmap versions to account for different scenarios
• Share your roadmaps with stakeholders

We designed the simplest roadmapping tool for Jira. Our Easy Agile Roadmaps For Jira help development teams create product roadmaps that are simple to use, flexible, and collaborative. It offers an intuitive one-click drag-and-drop functionality and a super-clean user experience. Watch a demo of our roadmaps in action to learn more.

Jira Software reporting

Image credit: Atlassian

No matter how you choose to use Jira, you’ll gain access to a range of critical insights. Clear metrics will help your team make data-driven decisions. Utilize agile reports and dashboards to better understand what you’re doing well and where you can improve your process.

Use Jira reporting to analyze sprint reports, burndown charts, release burndowns, velocity charts, cumulative flow diagrams, and more. Real-time data helps teams track progress in a meaningful way, including managing sprint progress and accounting for scope creep. Take clear data into your retrospectives and provide customizable dashboards to stakeholders and leadership.

With Jira reporting, you can:

• Make data-driven decisions
• Track your progress against both product and sprint goals
• Monitor progress so you can take action if work falls behind
• Use past data to create realistic estimates
• Spot overcommitment and excessive scope creep
• Catch bottlenecks
• Predict future performance
• Take clear metrics intro retrospectives
• Provide stakeholders with visual data using customizable dashboards

Jira Software integrations

Image credit: Atlassian

Jira offers integrations with the tools and apps your team is already using. You can seamlessly connect Jira Software to plugins like Bitbucket, Trello, Confluence, GitHub, Slack, and many more. There are thousands of integrations available.

You can also extend Jira Software with over 3000 apps available in the Atlassian Marketplace. The marketplace contains apps for dozens of categories, including code review, design tools, reports, time tracking, and workflows.

That’s where you’ll find the Easy Agile products we designed to offer teams a customer-centric approach to product development.

Easy Agile TeamRhythm is trusted by companies of all sizes, including Amazon, Twitter, Adobe, AT&T, Cisco, JP Morgan, and Rolex. Our team agility app helps you and your team deliver for your customers by prioritizing the work that will deliver the most value to your users. It helps you work better together with smooth sprint and version planning, simple story mapping, easy backlog refinement, and team retrospectives for continuous improvement.

Access a free trial for 30 days. If you have questions, contact our team to learn more about our suite of Jira products.

For more content written for Jira users just like you, follow the Easy Agile Blog and tune into the Easy Agile Podcast for an inside look at the most interesting and successful business, tech, and agile leaders.

We’re off to the races! 🏃🏃‍♀️ Sprints are a key component of agile methodology. A sprint is a predefined time period in which agile teams work together towards an agreed-upon sprint goal. There are four types of agile meetings that occur over the course of a sprint, and each is vital to ensuring the success of the agile process. It’s all about sprinting through a predetermined amount of work to get to the finish line, where you learn from your process and begin the race again (only better off because of what you learned during the previous sprint).

Agile meetings are used to get team members, leaders, and stakeholders on the same page, and they guide the process of an agile sprint or Scrum.

This post will cover the four key agile meetings, which include sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives. Plus, we’ll discuss a bonus agile meeting that’s utilized for backlog refinement.

Agile meetings vs. Scrum meetings

Scrum is an agile methodology that’s most commonly used in software development. Scrum meetings are technically a type of agile meeting, but they have more specific parameters designed to fit within the Scrum framework. The process revolves around a 2-4 week sprint involving a product owner, Scrum Master, and the entire Scrum team.

We covered Scrum meetings (ceremonies) in detail in another article. For the purposes of this post, we’ll focus on the four main agile meeting types. These processes and best practices can be applied across multiple agile methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban. This framework can also be applied across industries beyond software development and can adapt to the needs of most teams.

Simply put: Scrum has a more rigid framework that follows four ceremonies/meetings. The agile process is much the same, with four very similar meetings, but there’s more flexibility to adjust the time frame of the sprint and adapt the process when not following Scrum guidelines specifically. Okay, maybe that’s still not simply put, but it wouldn’t be agile if it was linear and straightforward.

The 4 types of agile meetings

There are four central agile meetings: sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospective meetings. A sprint starts with a sprint planning meeting. Each day, a daily standup meeting is held. Finally, at the end of the sprint, a sprint review and retrospective are held. The process repeats with new springs until the product, project, or work is complete.

1. Sprint planning meeting

The sprint planning meeting occurs at the beginning of a sprint and involves the entire team. In sprint planning, the entire team meets to discuss and agree upon which work tasks (backlog items) should be moved to the sprint backlog — the items that need to be completed by the end of the sprint. During the meeting, sprint goals are determined, and the team aligns on expectations.

Without a sprint planning meeting to outline the sprint backlog (tasks that need to be completed), the team will waste time during the sprint trying to determine which work takes precedent.

Sprint planning mistakes to avoid:

• Starting planning without a refined backlog
• Not being on the same page as your stakeholders
• Ignoring the customer and the customer journey when making plans
• Creating a rigid plan that doesn’t have room to grow or adapt
• Using bland, flat product maps that lack critical context
• Failing to incorporate retrospective insights in the following planning session

Learn more about common agile planning mistakes and how your development team can avoid these pitfalls.

2. Daily standup meeting

The daily standup meeting occurs every day of the sprint. In the Scrum process, this meeting might also be called the daily Scrum meeting. It’s a chance for the team to connect about the work that was completed the previous day and what each person or team plans to complete over the course of the next 24 hours.

The meeting aims to answer three important questions:

• What work was completed since the last standup to help the team reach the sprint goal?
• What work do you plan to complete today?
• Is there anything currently in your way or hindering your progress?

This is a good time to address any bottlenecks. If work planned from the previous day wasn’t completed, what caused the delay, and how can the team work together to solve any problems keeping the work from moving forward?

A standup meeting is short and to the point so everyone can get back to the work they hope to complete. So short that it’s often recommended participants stand for the duration of the meeting. Hence the name daily standup. It includes all team members and ideally takes place at the same time every day to ensure everyone can always attend.

Daily standup mistakes to avoid:

• Not keeping track of the time during the meeting
• Continually going over the allotted meeting time
• Rambling participants who aren’t prepared to answer the meeting’s key questions
• Skipping the meeting due to lack of time
• Team members showing up late to the meeting or missing it altogether
• Allowing the loudest voices to overshadow the rest of the team
• Letting someone state the same task on multiple consecutive days
• Failing to address potential bottlenecks
• Assigning work beyond a person's capacity

3. Sprint review meeting

The sprint review is an opportunity for the team to showcase the work they accomplished during the sprint. This meeting might be an internal presentation or a more formal demo to stakeholders, depending on the needs of the project and how far along work is.

Sprint review mistakes to avoid:

• Not properly preparing for the meeting or demonstration
• Not bringing stakeholders in on your process
• Failing to demonstrate how the work brings value to the customer
• Exaggerating or embellishing successes
• Failing to address any problems and how they were solved
• Not incorporating sprint review feedback into the next sprint planning meeting

4. Sprint retrospective meeting

The retrospective is a crucial part of the agile process. The meeting comes at the end of the sprint, bringing the entire team together to assess their processes and discuss how they can improve next time.

Which aspects of the sprint went well, and what can you learn from that success? What didn’t go so well, and what bottlenecks did the team hit? What could be done better next time? Since agile is all about learning and iterating, there are lessons to be learned after each sprint. Everything from the good to the bad to the mediocre can be transformed into actionable improvements.

Retrospective mistakes to avoid:

• Blaming individual team members for bottlenecks
• Allowing only the loudest voices to provide insight
• Failing to empower the softer voices in the room
• Repeating the same questions over and over without changing things up
• Allowing the retrospective to run too long (aim for two hours for a two-week sprint)
• Skipping a retrospective due to a lack of time or resources
• Forgetting about or not including stakeholder insights or needs
• Failing to improve upon the sprint retrospective process (retrospective the retrospective!)
• Failing to incorporate retrospective insights in the next sprint

Bonus: Backlog refinement meeting

It could be argued that there’s a fifth agile meeting, especially in the product development world. Before the sprint planning meeting, the product owner must create a product backlog, which comprises all of the tasks and items the team needs to complete in order to fully develop the end product or project. The items include user stories, bug fixes, features, and other tasks that must be addressed to achieve the end goal.

Backlog refinement prepares the backlog for sprint planning by ordering items to deliver the most impact over the next sprint. During backlog refinement, a product owner ensures that product backlog items contain enough information, detail, and prioritization for the team to make smart decisions about what to tackle when.

A meeting to refine the backlog may occur before sprint planning begins, depending on the current state of the product backlog. Outside of the product development industry, the product backlog might be akin to a master project task list.

Backlog refinement meeting mistakes to avoid:

• Not completing backlog refinement in time for sprint planning
• Leaving too much backlog refinement for the planning meeting
• Failing to prioritize items that provide customer value
• Not incorporating new stakeholder feedback, questions, and concerns

Agile meetings: Final review

So there you have it! The four key agile meetings are sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives, with an honorable mention going out to backlog refinement.

Let’s review each meeting’s purpose:

• Sprint planning gets everyone on the same page about what needs to be accomplished over the course of the coming sprint.
• Daily standups ensure the team stays on track and helps them address and resolve any potential bottlenecks.
• Sprint reviews are an opportunity for the team to showcase the work accomplished during the sprint to stakeholders and receive critical feedback.
• Sprint retrospectives allow the team to come together to discuss what went well, what didn’t go well, and how they can improve next time.
• Backlog refinement prepares the backlog for sprint planning in order to deliver the most impact over the next sprint.

Hold effective agile meetings with Easy Agile

Easy Agile is committed to helping teams work better with agile. Easy Agile builds products specifically designed for Jira users to help agile teams work more efficiently and effectively.

We regularly publish lists of tools, advice articles, and how-to guides for agile teams. If you work with Jira, you’ll find our resources are especially helpful in navigating the ins and outs of product development and the Jira apps that will improve the way your team collaborates.

This guide looks at the four ceremonies that bring one of Agile’s most popular frameworks, Scrum, to life.

Learn how each agile ritual helps empower teams and drive performance while highlighting some tips to help your organization get the most from your ceremonies.

At a glance:

• The four agile ceremonies are Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-Up, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective
• Ceremonies in agile facilitate visibility, transparency, and collaboration.
• Each ceremony has a clear structure and objective.
• Clear communication, flexibility, and cultural alignment are the keys to successful ceremonies.

What are the main agile ceremonies?

Agile ceremonies refer to the four events that occur during a Scrum sprint. Other forms of agile development, such as Kanban and Lean, also have similar practices.

The agile ceremonies list includes:

1. Sprint Planning
2. Daily Stand-Up
3. Sprint Review
4. Sprint Retrospective

While each ceremony is different, they facilitate the same overall purpose. The ceremonies bring teams together with a common goal under a regular rhythm, and they help teams get things done.

"With today's enterprises under increased pressure to respond quickly to the needs of their customers and stakeholders, they must bring new products to market faster and accelerate improvements to existing solutions and services." - State of Agile Report

Why are agile ceremonies important?

Agile ceremonies help organizations adapt to change and succeed. With work planned in smaller portions and over shorter timeframes, they help teams quickly shift direction and course-correct when needed. They form a key part of the broader agile approach that’s now widely adopted in organizations worldwide.

With agile ceremonies, teams in your organization can benefit from:

• Enhanced ability to manage changing priorities
• Acceleration of software development
• Increase in team productivity
• Improved business and IT alignment

It’s important to remember that while ceremonies are an essential part of Scrum, they’re just one of many rituals that help create agile teams and workplaces. To realize the true benefits of agile, you’ll need to do more than include one or more of the ceremonies into your waterfall project.

1. Sprint Planning

The Sprint Planning ceremony sets teams up for success by ensuring everyone understands the sprint goals and how to achieve them.

StructureAttendeesTimingDurationAgile FrameworkThe Product Owner brings the product backlog to discuss with the Development Team. The Scrum Master facilitates. Together, the Scrum Team does effort or story point estimations. The product backlog must contain all the details necessary for estimation. The Product Owner should be able to clarify any doubts regarding the product backlog. The entire Scrum Team (the Development Team, Scrum Master, and Product Owner)At the beginning of each sprintOne to two hours per week of iteration. So, if you're planning a two-week sprint, your Sprint Planning should last two to four hours. Scrum. Although Kanban teams also plan, they do it less formally and per milestone, not iteration.

Outcomes

After some team negotiation and discussion, you should have a clear decision on the work that the Development Team can complete during the sprint by the end of Sprint Planning. This is known as the sprint goal.

The sprint goal is an increment of complete work, and everyone should feel confident about the commitment.

The product backlog defines priorities that affect the order of work. Then, the Scrum Master transforms that decision into the sprint backlog.

Top tips

• Focus on collaboration rather than competition.
• Break user stories into tasks to get things more operational for the Development Team. If there's time, assign those tasks during the event.
• Factor in public holidays and any team member’s time off or vacations.
• Keep your team’s pace in mind – a track record of the time it took to implement similar user stories would be helpful.
• Focus on the product backlog and nothing else in terms of work for the sprint.

2. Daily Stand-Up

The daily stand-up brings the team together and sets everyone up for the day. The team uses this time to identify blockers and share plans for the day.

StructureAttendeesTimingDurationAgile frameworkThis is an informal, standing meeting. All members of the Development Team inform everyone about what they did the day before and what they’re doing today. Members discuss any blockages they have and ask for help from the team if required. Due to time restrictions, the updates should be brief.Development Team, Scrum Master, Product Owner (optional) Daily, usually in the morningShort and sharp. No longer than 15 minutesScrum and Kanban

Outcomes

The Scrum Master should clear all the blockages that slow down or prevent the Development Team from delivering. As a result, the development process might need to change.

This daily pulse check keeps the team in sync and helps build trust. Together, the group finds ways to support and help each other.

Top tips

• Use a timer to keep this meeting to 15 minutes.
• Hold your stand-up at the same time every day.
• Only discuss the work for the day ahead.
• If the team is distributed, use video conferencing with cameras on.
• Long discussions should happen after the event.
• As the stand-up encourages progress, everyone should provide an update, and everyone should feel accountable.

3. Sprint Review

The Sprint Review is the time to showcase the team’s completed work and gather feedback from stakeholders. A variety of attendees from outside the team offer valuable insights from different viewpoints. This event also helps build trust with both external and internal stakeholders.

StructureAttendeesTimingDurationAgile frameworkThe Scrum Master takes on the logistics of event preparation. The Product Owner should ask stakeholders questions to gather as much feedback as possible. They should also answer any of their stakeholder’s questions.Development Team, Scrum Master, Product Owner. Optionally, management, customers, developers, and other stakeholders At the end of the sprintOne hour per week of the sprint. In a one-week sprint, the Sprint Review lasts one hour.Scrum and Kanban. Kanban teams do these reviews after the team milestones, not sprints.

Outcomes

After this ceremony, the Product Owner might need to adjust or add to the product backlog. They might also release product functionality if it's already complete.

Top tips

• Schedule in time to rehearse before the meeting to help your team present with confidence, especially if external stakeholders are coming along.
• Don’t showcase incomplete work. Review your Sprint Planning and the original criteria if you’re not sure whether the work is complete.
• Besides product functionality, focus on user experience, customer value, and the delivered business value.
• Consider ways you can introduce a celebratory feel to acknowledge the team’s effort.

4. Sprint Retrospective

In this final scrum ceremony in the sequence, you look back on the work you’ve just done and identify ways to do things better next time. The Sprint Retrospective is a tool for risk mitigation in future sprints.

StructureAttendeesTimingDurationAgile frameworkThe teams discuss what went well throughout the sprint and what went wrong. The Scrum Master should encourage the Development Team to speak up and share not only facts but also their feelings. The goal is to gather rapid feedback for continuous improvement in terms of process. It’s also an opportunity to emphasize good practices that the team adopted and should repeat.Development Team, Scrum Master, Product Owner (optional)At the end of the sprint45 minutes per sprint weekScrum and Kanban (occasionally)

Outcomes

After this session, the team should clearly understand the problems and the wins that happened throughout the iteration. Together, the group comes up with solutions and an action plan to prevent and identify process problems in the next sprint.

Top tips

• Focus on both facts and feelings
• Gather information that helps you focus on continuous improvement – this might include tools and relationships
• Be honest and encourage ideas that solve process-related problems
• Even if everything went well, have this meeting – retrospectives provide ongoing guidance for the next sprint.

"With the speed of change expected to continue, the need has never been greater for an operating model that keep up." - McKinsey

Agile lessons to live by

As a team of experienced agile practitioners, we’ve picked up some key learnings about what it takes to get the most out of your agile ceremonies and create the foundations of a truly agile organization.

Here are our top tips to make your ceremonies a success:

• Be deliberately present - During the ceremonies, remember to take moments to pause and remind yourself of why you’re there. Show others that you’re present by giving them full attention and using your body language. In a remote setting, angle your camera as though you’re sitting across from them, look into the lens regularly, and use a distraction-free background.
• Practice active listening - Think about what the person is saying, who they are, and what they need from you. Are they looking for a soundboard, do they need your help or opinion, or are they looking for an emotional connection?
• Understand motives - Understand the motivations of your teammates before speaking. Consider why they should care about what you’re saying by connecting your message with their own motivations. Provide context where possible to let them know why your message matters.
• Be flexible - It's important to remember that there is not a one size fits all approach to agile ways of working. What works for one team may not work for another, so you need to experiment to find out what works then tailor processes to suit your team's needs.
• Create cultural alignment - The best processes in the world won’t deliver what you need if you don’t have the culture to support their delivery. Agile ceremonies need to be supported by a culture where people are actively engaged, confident to raise issues, and value continuous improvement.

Agile ceremonies lead to better results

While it can take time for teams new to agile to adjust to agile ceremonies, they are worth the effort. By providing a clear structure and achievable outcomes, they help align everyone on the product, communication, and priorities.

The result? Agile teams that provide better quality products faster – and deliver real business outcomes.

Wherever your organization is on your agile journey, it’s worth keeping in mind that each team and each suite of products are different, so there’s no standard recipe for success. The good news is that by working within the continuous improvement mindset the agile framework promotes; you too can iterate and improve your agile ceremonies over time.

Ready to get started?

Easy Agile TeamRhythm supports your team's agile practices in Jira. Supporting your team from planning right through to retrospective, TeamRhythm helps you and your team work better together to deliver value to your customers.

Features include:

• Agile sprint and version planning tool - Planning is quick and easy when you create and estimate issues on the story map. View your work under initiatives and epics, and see swimlane stats at a glance, ensuring team capacity is filled but not overcommitted
• Agile story mapping - Map the customer journey using initiatives, epics, and stories alongside your agile Jira boards. Quickly and easily add new or existing stories inside the story map. Drag and drop to prioritize by value to the customer.
• Product backlog refinement - Escape your flat backlog and view your work on the story map matrix. Drag and drop issues to prioritize or schedule. Quickly update story summaries and story point estimates with inline editing for a better backlog.
• Team retrospectives - Celebrate success, gain insights, and share learnings with team retrospective boards for scrum and kanban, encouraging collaboration and transparency, so you and your team are continuously improving.