Participation at Scrum Events

The best Sprint Retrospectives I have been part of have involved all team members bringing data (key occurrences, reactions, feelings ideas to try, etc), participating in analysis of the data to gain insights and agreeing actions to which all team members can share (and hold each other to account when agreed action is not taken).

The best Sprint Reviews I've attended have involved all team members taking pride in the increment they have delivered, telling the story of each item to stakeholders, taking note of feedback and standing together as a team when things haven't gone according to plan.

The best Sprint Planning I've experienced has involved everyone in the team playing their roles: listening to the PO's Sprint Goal, pulling in items from the Product Backlog that would best fulfil the Goal, possibly negotiating with the PO to possibly revise and split items, then formulating a plan on how each items will be turn from idea into Definition of Done as regards the various functions within the team's direct control (analysis / design / code, verify, database / API / UI, unit / integration / acceptance tests, etc).

The best Daily Scrums I've seen are mini planning sessions, where the plan agreed in Sprint Planning is reviewed and either continued progress is agreed or a change to the plan is immediately (immediately after Daily Scrum).

I think all Scrum team members has the potential to contribute to all Scrum Events in a way that increases their value.

For example, testers you have a particular role to play in representing the customer e.g. in Sprint Planning, ensuring the acceptance criteria is sufficient to clearly define the solution space without going as far as specifying an actual solution and checking that we are planning to deliver the smallest 'vertical slice' of functionality that provides the end user with the PO's desired capability. One way of doing this is to ask a well-timed, salient and considered open question. I testers doing this at Scrum Events to powerful effect.

It is my expectation that all team members attend all Scrum Events. It is my expectation that all team members actively participate. If there are impediments to team members actively participating then is my challenge (as SM) for issues to be identified and resolved where possible and desirable to all parties.