Daily Stand-up
This is the most important part of the day, and it doesn't take more than 15 minutes. The idea behind these meetings is not to control what every team member does but to talk about the progress they've made each day and the obstacles they're facing. It's the best opportunity to talk about joint ventures and cut misunderstandings at the root.
Scrum masters may follow more than one team within a company, so they'll attend multiple daily meetings every morning.
Planning
Sprints usually last two weeks, and the planning meeting is designed to determine what should be the sprint's outcome. The team estimates each task, and no more than what fits in those two weeks makes the sprint's list.
Refinement
Software companies aren't the only ones with a backlog. Marketing teams usually have a pool of ideas that wait for their five minutes. Backlog tasks are often very vague and ill-defined. (Product) refinement meetings are the best spot for clarifying those tasks, assigning and prioritizing them, and determining what needs to be done to complete them. Refinements are held once per sprint, and they're very useful because they help prepare for the next planning meeting. When assignments are well-defined and prioritized, it's easier to include them in the sprint, and plannings tend to be shorter.
Review
Wrapping up a sprint means presenting what's been accomplished throughout its duration. Anyone can attend reviews if they're interested, but the most likely guests are the product owner, managers, and other teams whose tasks depend on the demonstrated accomplishments. Depending on the company policy, clients could be invited to these meetings as well. These gatherings aren't just one-sided dumps of information. The participants are welcome to give their feedback and ideas, which might end up in the backlog list to be refined later.
Retrospective
Just as the name says, retrospectives are meetings held at the end of each sprint, and their purpose is to look back and answer questions like:
What went right?
What went wrong?
What could we do differently next time?
Retrospectives are internal meetings attended by the team and the scrum master who moderates topics, discussions, and possible conflicts. It's normal for team members to clash over assignments, especially when one's delay or mistakes affect another. Scrum masters are there to help resolve any misunderstandings and promote a healthy work environment.
Checking the Burndown and Burn-up Chart
The burndown chart is updated daily, and it shows the remaining work. This chart will take up to 10-15 minutes of a scrum master's day, or none if the developers update it themselves. It's a great way to visualize how the sprint is progressing. The release burn-up chart, on the other hand, is updated at the end of each sprint, and it shows how close the team is to achieving the scope and how much the scope has changed.
Removing Impediments
A scrum master's main responsibility is to make sure processes flow undisturbed. This means making sure no team member is blocked when trying to complete their assignments. Sometimes, impediments take the form of missing pieces of technology, and sometimes it's a pending approval that halts further progress. Whatever it is, the team relies on the scrum master to remove these obstacles and let them move on with their work. Daily meetings are ideal for speaking about potential or existing barriers. Thanks to their frequency, no obstacle should be present long enough to create a massive problem and troublesome delays.
Correspondence and Communication
Regular meetings aren't the only occasion for scrum masters to exchange opinions and updates. They spend most of their days communicating with teams, managers, clients, and other project stakeholders.
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