What are Scrum meetings, and how to run them effectively in 2025

Scrum meetings are structured ceremonies that create alignment, clarity, and continuous improvement for development teams working in sprints. By establishing a predictable cadence, these five key meetings help teams deliver value faster while maintaining focus on business goals and preventing wasted effort.

In this article, you’ll learn about each scrum ceremony, who should participate in each, and practical tips to make them more effective. We’ll also show how platforms like monday dev can automate routine updates and visualize progress, letting your team focus on collaboration rather than administration.

Whether you’re new to Scrum or looking to optimize your existing process, mastering these fundamentals creates a system that supports clear communication, removes blockers, and gives everyone visibility into progress.

Key takeaways

• A clear cadence drives delivery: Sprint planning, daily scrums, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and backlog refinement work together to plan, coordinate, and improve.
• Timebox every ceremony: 15 minutes for daily scrums; ~2 hours per week of sprint for planning/review/retro.
• Prioritize problem-solving over status: Ask “What help do you need?” and push status to async updates.
• Use monday dev to reduce admin: Automate routine updates and visualize capacity so teams focus on collaboration.
• Invite the right people: Product owner (priorities), scrum master (facilitation), developers (daily coordination), stakeholders (sprint review only).

Scrum meetings at a glance

Scrum defines 5 events in each sprint. Together, they create the cadence for planning, daily coordination, feedback, and improvement.

• Sprint planning: Set the scrum sprint goal and commit to a realistic sprint backlog.
• Daily scrum (standup): 15-minute sync to align, surface blockers, and adjust the day’s plan.
• Sprint review: Demo working software and gather stakeholder feedback to inform the backlog.
• Sprint retrospective: Reflect on the process and agree on a few concrete improvements.
• Backlog refinement: Continuously clarify, size, and prioritize upcoming work so planning runs smoothly.

• Sprint: A fixed period (typically 1–4 weeks) to deliver a defined slice of value.
• Product backlog: The prioritized list of features, enhancements, and fixes for the product.
• Sprint backlog: The subset the team commits to for the current sprint, aligned to the sprint goal.

The 5 Scrum ceremonies

Each Scrum ceremony has a distinct purpose, participants, and timebox. Together, they provide structure without slowing execution.

1. Sprint planning

Sprint planning sets the direction for the next sprint (1–4 weeks).

• Who attends: Product owner, scrum master, and the full development team.
• Agenda: Review priorities, discuss how to deliver them, and agree on a realistic sprint backlog.
• Duration: About 2 hours per week of sprint (4 hours for a 2-week sprint).

By the end, the team should leave with a shared sprint goal and clear commitments.

2. Daily scrum standup

The daily scrum is a 15-minute sync to keep the team aligned.

• Who attends: Development team (others may observe).
• Agenda: Each person answers:
  • What did I complete yesterday?
  • What will I work on today?
  • What’s blocking progress?

Keep the focus on coordination. Problem-solving happens after with only those involved.

3. Sprint review

Sprint review closes the sprint by sharing completed work and gathering feedback.

• Who attends: Scrum team and stakeholders.
• Agenda: Demonstrate working software, discuss what was learned, and adjust the backlog.
• Duration: Up to 2 hours for a 2-week sprint.

Think of this as a collaborative session, not a presentation. The goal is meaningful dialogue about what to build next.

4. Sprint retrospective

This agile retrospective is your team’s chance to reflect on how you work together.

• Who attends: Entire Scrum team.
• Agenda:
  • What went well?
  • What needs improvement?
  • What will we try next sprint?
• Duration: About 1.5 hours for a 2-week sprint.

The scrum master facilitates, ensuring open conversation. With monday dev, teams can track retrospective action items across scrum sprints and measure which changes stick.

5. Backlog refinement

Backlog refinement (also called backlog grooming) keeps upcoming work clear and ready.

• Who attends: Product owner and development team.
• Agenda: Clarify requirements, size effort, and break down large items.
• Duration: 1–2 hours per week.

A well-refined backlog makes sprint planning faster and commitments more reliable.

Who participates and why it matters

Each Scrum role brings specific value to the ceremonies. Having the right people in the room keeps meetings purposeful and outcomes clear.

• Product owner: Owns the product vision and backlog. They guide priorities during sprint planning, adjust the backlog after sprint reviews, and prepare upcoming work during backlog refinement.
• Scrum master: Facilitates ceremonies, removes blockers, and ensures the team follows Scrum principles. Their role is to keep meetings on track and create a safe environment for open contribution.
• Development team: Builds the product. They run daily scrums, estimate and commit during planning, demo completed work in reviews, and suggest improvements in retrospectives.
• Stakeholders: Join sprint reviews to provide feedback and align direction with business goals. They step back from other ceremonies to keep the team focused.

For larger organizations, a scrum of scrums can coordinate across multiple teams, ensuring alignment at scale. With a platform like monday dev, leaders get portfolio-level visibility without disrupting daily execution.

How to structure each scrum meeting

Even well-intentioned ceremonies can drift off course without clear guardrails. Setting expectations for time, agenda, and format helps teams get the most out of every session.

Duration and timeboxing

Each ceremony has a recommended length, and sticking to those limits keeps energy high and focus sharp. For a 2-week sprint, plan on about:

• Sprint planning: 4 hours
• Daily scrum: 15 minutes
• Sprint review: 2 hours
• Sprint retrospective: 1.5 hours

Teams working in longer or shorter sprints can adjust, but the principle remains — use timeboxes to respect people’s attention.

Agenda and format

A predictable structure makes it easier for participants to contribute meaningfully.

• Sprint planning starts with the goal, then backlog selection, task breakdown, and commitment.
• Daily scrums follow the three-question format, so updates are consistent.
• Sprint reviews begin with working software and end with stakeholder discussion.
• Retrospectives often use “Start, Stop, Continue” or similar techniques to surface insights.

Supporting remote or hybrid teams

Distributed work doesn’t change the ceremonies — it changes how you run them. Reliable video, clear audio, and collaborative boards make remote participation seamless.

Scheduling with time zones in mind matters, and engagement tools like polls or breakout rooms help keep energy up. monday dev provides shared sprint boards, asynchronous updates, and real-time visibility, making it easier for distributed teams to stay aligned without losing momentum.

7 tips for effective agile development meetings

Scrum meetings work best when teams apply a few practical habits. These tips help meetings feel valuable rather than routine.

1. Set expectations early

Share the purpose and prep work before each ceremony. People arrive ready, and the discussion moves faster.

2. Respect the clock

Stay within the timebox. Capture off-topic items in a parking lot instead of derailing the session.

3. Encourage team ownership

Daily scrums belong to developers, not managers. Retrospectives work only if everyone feels safe to contribute. This helps bridge a common perception gap where leaders often overestimate the sense of ownership felt by their teams.

4. Shift from status to support

Replace “What’s your status?” with “What do you need help with?” to spark collaboration instead of reporting.

5. Resolve blockers with urgency

When an impediment comes up, assign responsibility and track it visibly until it’s closed. The scrum master should work on removing obstacles between meetings, not just collect them during ceremonies.

6. Use tools that lighten the load

Scrum tools support teams that use the Scrum framework. A platform like monday dev uses automation to reduce manual updates, surface trends, and highlight potential risks before they stall progress.

7. Keep experimenting

Teams evolve. Adjust formats, timing, and facilitation styles based on what delivers the most value. Retrospectives are a good place to check whether your ceremonies still work.

Run smarter, faster ceremonies with monday dev

Ceremonies run smoother when teams spend less time on administration and more time on collaboration. The monday dev platform gives development leaders the tools to make that shift.

• Planning with clarity: Visual boards show team capacity, backlog priorities, and sprint goals in one place.
• Daily updates that run themselves: Progress is tracked as people work, with automated notifications instead of manual reporting.
• Reviews with real evidence: Integrations let you demo working features directly, while stakeholder feedback flows back into the backlog.
• Retrospectives that drive change: Track improvement items across sprints so you can see which adjustments stick.
• Refinement that stays on track: AI-assisted categorization and effort estimates keep future work ready without slowing today’s sprint.

Whether your team is adopting Scrum for the first time or scaling across multiple squads, monday dev provides the structure and flexibility to keep everyone aligned — and moving fast.