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Time-boxing is a technique to limit the time spent to accomplish a task. A fixed amount of time is allocated to complete each process and activity in a scrum project. After the allocated time is over the task or goal is either accomplished or incomplete, but the time cannot be extended.

Why Time-boxing?

Time-boxing ensures that Scrum Team members do not take up too much or too little work for a particular period of time and do not expend their time and energy on work for which they have little clarity. Time-boxing is a technique for Risk Management that helps in identifying uncertain task/time relationships, i.e., tasks that may extend beyond their deadline. Scrum treats time as one of the most important constraints in managing a project. Scrum involves several short meetings (Sprint planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective).  In the Conduct Daily Standup process, the duration of the Daily Standup Meeting is Time-boxed. If these meetings are not boxed, there is a high risk that these meetings would become general discussions and consume considerable amounts of time and energy from all participants. Time-boxing is a critical practice in Scrum and should be applied with care. Arbitrary Time-boxing can lead to de-motivation of the team and may have the consequence of creating an apprehensive environment, so it should be used appropriately.

Some of the advantages of Time-boxing are as follows:

• Efficient development process
• Less overheads
• High velocity for teams
• More focused teams
• Well-prepared team members

Scrum Time-boxes:

Sprint: To achieve maximum benefits from a Scrum project and to provide maximum flexibility for change, the length of a Sprint should be as short as possible.

Daily Standup Meeting: The daily standup meeting should not exceed 15 minutes. The team members discuss the following:

a) What have I done since the last meeting?

b) What do I plan to do before the next meeting?

c) What impediments or obstacles (if any) am I currently facing?

Sprint Planning Meeting: This meeting is conducted prior to each Sprint as part of the Commit User Stories, Identify Tasks, Estimate Tasks, and Update Sprint Backlog processes. It is Time-boxed to two hours for each week of Sprint duration.

Sprint Review Meeting: The Sprint Review Meeting is Time-boxed to one hour for each week of the Sprint duration. For example, for a four-week Sprint, the Time-box for the Sprint Review Meeting should be four hours.

Retrospect Sprint Meeting: The Retrospect Sprint Meeting is Time-boxed to one hour for each week of the Sprint duration. For example, for a four-week Sprint, the Time-box for the Retrospect Sprint Meeting should be four hours. This meeting is conducted as part of the Retrospect Sprint process. During this meeting, the Scrum Team gets together to review and reflect on the current Sprint in terms of the processes followed, tools employed, collaboration and communication mechanisms, and other aspects relevant to the project.

Scrum treats time as one of the most important constraints in managing a project. To address the constraint of time, Scrum introduces a concept called ‘Time-boxing’ which proposes fixing a certain amount of time for each process and activity in a Scrum project. This ensures that Scrum Team members do not take up too much or too little work for a particular period of time and do not expend their time and energy on work for which they have little clarity.

Some of the advantages of Time-boxing are as follows:

• Efficient development process
• Less overheads
• High velocity for teams

Time-boxing can be utilized in many Scrum processes, for example, in the Conduct Daily Standup process, the duration of the Daily Standup Meeting is Time-boxed. At times, Time-boxing may be used to avoid excessive improvement of an item (i.e., gold-plating).

Time-boxing is a critical practice in Scrum and should be applied with care. Arbitrary Time-boxing can lead to de-motivation of the team and may have the consequence of creating an apprehensive environment, so it should be used appropriately.