APPLYING CADENCE IN SCRUM: PART 3 OF 3

By Aaron G. Tucker, M.Ed, SPC

When it comes to SAFe and Agile ceremonies, most of them come from SCRUM. There have been great resources created to help you understand the intent behind the ceremonies, and others to help you understand some of the structural best practices, but I often find scrum masters and teams need encouragement to apply cadence to their ceremonies, as they may not see or understand the benefits.

Too often, teams are continuously changing and updating the ceremonies, days, time, longevity, and agenda. While Agile encourages us to be flexible, I am not sure there is much benefit in the randomness of a poorly executed schedule. So, I challenge Scrum Masters to look at why we would want to apply cadence to these ceremonies, some of the challenges this will help them overcome, and the best practices in preparing for and planning them.

This is Part 3 of 3 of a deeper dive into those best practices to help you understand why I encourage such a cadence.

Read Part 1 of 3 of this series “Cadence-Based Best Practices” here. 

Read Part 2 of 3 of this series “Scheduling Best Practices for Team Ceremonies” here. 

•  Start your sprints/iterations on Wednesday or Thursday and end on Tuesday or Wednesday, respectively (Wed – Tues iteration is best)
•  Schedule all your scrum ceremonies on a recurring basis as far out as possible
•  Verify that the times work for everyone (mostly) at the beginning of each program increment and reschedule only when necessary.
•  Follow the Best Practices for all ceremonies, whenever possible.
•  Share your ceremonial calendar with your leadership to avoid scheduling conflicts.

Note the minimal interruptions this schedule provides the teams, allowing them to concentrate on their work, maximizing focus time, and minimizing task switching.