After this lesson, you will be able to: Explain sprints, standups, sprint planning, retrospectives, and the distinct roles of Scrum Master, Product Manager, and Engineer.
Scrum is the most-implemented Agile framework. This lesson covers the ceremonies and roles as they actually work in 2026 product teams.
Sprint planning (start of sprint, 1-2 hours): the team commits to a set of stories. Discuss WHAT and HOW. Daily standup (15 min, daily): each engineer answers: what did I do yesterday, what am I doing today, what's blocking me. NOT a status meeting for the manager. Sprint review / demo (end of sprint, 1 hour): the team shows working software to stakeholders. Sprint retrospective (end of sprint, 1 hour): the team reflects on the process. What's working, what's not, what to change next sprint. Backlog refinement (~1 hour mid-sprint): groom upcoming stories so planning goes fast.
Product Manager: owns WHY and WHAT. Decides which features to build, in what order, for which users. Writes user stories, prioritises the backlog. Scrum Master: owns PROCESS. Removes blockers, facilitates ceremonies, protects the team from outside disruption. Often a team member who wears two hats. Engineer: owns HOW. Estimates work, decides architecture, ships. When roles blur (PM dictating implementation, engineer changing requirements unilaterally) most Scrum dysfunction follows.
1 week: tight feedback loops; planning + retro overhead becomes ~20% of the week. Good for unstable products. 2 weeks: the default. Good balance of feedback and overhead. 4 weeks: more time per ceremony; harder to respond to change. Used by teams with long-cycle work (e.g. embedded). Pick a length and stick with it for at least 6 sprints before changing; otherwise you can't tell what's working.
Standups that turn into status meetings for managers. The standup is for the team; managers should listen, not interrogate. Sprint goals that are 'finish the stories on the board'. Real sprint goals describe outcomes, not work units. Estimation theatre: spending an hour debating whether a story is 3 or 5 points. The signal is in the relative size; don't optimise the noise. Retros that surface the same blocker every sprint with no action. Pick something achievable; do it; check next retro. Treating the Scrum Master as a manager. They facilitate, they don't decide.
Pick the most defensible answer.
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