Timing of Scrum events
Let's admit this: disregard the strict Scrum provision that "every new sprint starts immediately after the end of the old Sprint", we all, myself included, have fallen victim to the "9 to 5", "5 days per week", " Monday to Friday" mentality of the organizations whom we have worked for?
Retro is usually the last meeting of the week. Friday, evening, when everyone wants to go home, and management is eager to close the week; in some firms(whom Scrum choose to call "organizations" after Scrum became implemented in non commercial entities, and government) they decide to simply "skip the retro because there is not enough time"...
And who can blame developers who are asked by Scrum master to sit at a retrospective after a busy work week, instead of going to their hot girlfriends, pint of beer at the pub, fishing, hiking or whatever else they are thinking of?
Then everyone goes for a weekend , and like it or not Scrum is naturally interrupted by the break between old and new Sprints.
There is a good way to deal with it however.
Idea is that if the timebox allows, retrospective NEVER, ever happening on Fridays.
Never.
Last meeting of the work week is a Sprint review, and, if possible, it should happen in an unofficial environment-cafeteria, park, guest room, whatever.
The first meeting of Monday morning is a Sprint retrospective. And yes, sure, Sprint has not ended yet.
One retrospective ends, we hug, ring a bell or just congratulate each other with a sprint well done(always) declare the official end of Sprint.
And immediately, NEXT SECORD we begin the next Sprint panning meeting in the same room or online conference-first some general talk, and, after a lunch break more serious stuff.
In that case continuation is actually visible and clear.
I also suggest having Daily Scrums at lunch time or even late in the afternoon, just before everyone goes home, for a same reason, to escape the traditional corporate schedule.
The weekend offers 2 days where people can work. In your proposal, some developer can do work between Review and Planning. Or better: they have 2 days that they can't do work, because there is no Sprint Backlog.
I would not put end/start of the sprint near or around the weekend. Some teams do all the events on 1 day, and choose Tuesday (an example I've read somewhere).
For Daily Scrum, there are arguments for choosing a moment later in the day. But considering it's the planning for the day, it does make sense to have it in the morning: people can start doing what they discussed right away.
Midweek for end of the Scrum is even better. Tuesday or Wednesday..
The idea is to have no ACTUAL time interruption between Retrospective and start of next Sprint planning. Which retrospective preferably held in the morning hours. If you do it on Tuesday, then we are having generally same opinion.
As for Daily Scrum its a matter of opinion...
Yes, if developers do it in the morning they can do items they have discussed and argued about straight away.
If they do it in mid day, then they are more aware what work they did in a past 24 hours, and what impediments they had in past 24 hours, plus what is a work for the rest of the day and next morning. May be they don't jump on work, like it would be on a morning, but they would have better clarity in the heads.
As for the having the Daily scrum at the evenings, before Developers go home...
In Belgium and some other European countries there is a custom that after making important business decision, or after having some good idea people should do nothing, relax, have a nice evening, dine, vine, and go to sleep, and returning to the decision only in the morning. It is believed to be a good practice, because really good thought becomes mature lie a vine or cheese, and is getting strong that way, while bad thought is simply lost ...
I don't know this would completely fit into American business culture though, but why not...
Hello @Nicholas,
Thank you for bringing this interesting topic.
IMHO, you should discuss this with your team, you all join the Scrum events, you run experiments about days and then you adapt/change, repeat.
In my experience, it is not that easy to agree on the best slot anyway because of organizational or personal constraints/preferences.
Could you please clarify this "good practice" as you defined it? I would like to better understand how it works and how it can be applied to possibly make Scrum Events more efficient in our culture.
In Belgium and some other European countries there is a custom that after making important business decision, or after having some good idea people should do nothing, relax, have a nice evening, dine, vine, and go to sleep, and returning to the decision only in the morning. It is believed to be a good practice, because really good thought becomes mature lie a vine or cheese, and is getting strong that way, while bad thought is simply lost ...
Why not change the start and end of sprints then? We generally follow a Thurs - Wed sprint and works well for us.
Today, there are more geographically distributed teams than co-located ones. So finding a time that is "first thing in the morning" or "middle of the day" becomes much more difficult, especially if team members work on different continents. I coach the Scrum Team to find a time that works for everyone and takes into consideration that no one wants to work late or get up too early. I have worked with teams that had all of the events on a single day because that worked best for everyone based upon their geographic location. In the last 20 years I have worked with 3 teams that had all of their members in the same time zone. That was not all at the same employer, there was 1 team at 3 different employers that just happened to be that way. In that same 20 year cycle, I have worked with almost 80 different teams in some manner.
As a Scrum practitioner today, and for that matter any agile practices, you have to stop thinking about the team being in the same or adjacent time zones. It is also best to not try and introduce customs from other cultures unless there is a specific need for it even if you have someone on your team that lives in Belgium. A Scrum Master does not make these decisions. The Scrum Team does. So that team member in Belgium can tell the rest of the team about their local customs and if the rest of the team decides to embrace them they can. Or that team member can suggest times for the events that will allow them to take advantage of their custom.
Hello Daniel. It is true that teams are more remote at the moment, but in most cases they are still located in a same time zone, because of language and administrative aspects. Of course then you work with a team which is distributed from India to Alaska, including Europe the time zone difference should be taken into account, yet again even in such cases organizations often insisting that things to nbe done on Monday to Friday scheme, and timing of most events is this or other way tied up to the time zone where the head office of the organization is located.
Could you please clarify this "good practice" as you defined it? I would like to better understand how it works and how it can be applied to possibly make Scrum Events more efficient in our culture.
In Belgium and some other European countries there is a custom that after making important business decision, or after having some good idea people should do nothing, relax, have a nice evening, dine, vine, and go to sleep, and returning to the decision only in the morning. It is believed to be a good practice, because really good thought becomes mature lie a vine or cheese, and is getting strong that way, while bad thought is simply lost ...
I have a feeling there must already be something similar in Italian culture.
Its certainly present in Spain.
General idea is that when you are about to make some important decision(level of importance is up to the person it can be buying a house or simply repairing a bike) you don't jump on it straight away, but have a nice evening, preferably followed by a good time(whatever you consider a good time, from a dinner to visiting a theater or spending time with romantic interest) and making a final step next morning.
Some people like it, some hate(those who wait for you to make a decision certainly belong to the second category) :)
It is also best to not try and introduce customs from other cultures unless there is a specific need for it even if you have someone on your team that lives in Belgium
This part meant to be a joke
But the idea of ending the work day(assuming same time zone) instead of starting it with Scrum, and escaping the Monday to Friday scheme, is serious