This article is updated on 19 Nov 2024
In this section we are going to see some real-life scenarios faced often by the Scrum Team(s) during Daily Scrum
Daily Scrum is a by and for Developers Scrum Event. As the Scrum Guide Says, ” The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint
Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work.” .Developers conduct the Daily Scrum to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal. They then adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary. The 15 minutes timebox often poses a challenge. A few things to keep in mind are
- Only Developers decide the format of the daily Scrum
- Only Developers decide if Scrum Master/Product Owner bring Value to in the Daily Scrum and if they should join the Scrum Event
- If the Scrum Master and/or Product Owner also act as a Developer – then they must attend Daily Scrum as a Developer.
This article describes more details about Daily Scrum .
Daily Scrum Scenario I –
Scrum Master and/or Product Owner use the daily Scrum as an opportunity to “take status”
Snehamayee’s Perspective
Daily Scrum is an Event to track progress towards the Sprint Goal. It allows the Scrum Team to make a plan for next 24 hours. Developers are the people working on items to meet the Sprint Goal. So Scrum Master should enable them to have this event in way that helps them to track their progress towards Sprint Goal. Just a status meeting will not fulfill the purpose.
Usually, a typical status meeting involves giving status to some one and explaining why and what of that status. This may take away from the real purpose of making an actionable plan for the next working day. The status is in-fact an input to daily Scrum that helps to make and synchronize their work for next day.
Scrum Master and/or Product Owner asking for a status is a commonly seen anti pattern in industry.
If the Developers need help in learning to conduct an effective Daily Scrum, the Scrum Master should coach and mentor the Developers. A to conduct the Daily Scrum as a “forward facing” Scrum Event.
Daily Scrum Scenario II –
Developers often treat the Daily Scrum as a Scrum Master’s responsibility. They then end up skipping the Daily Scrum if the Scrum Master does not follow up with Developers to join
Snehamayee’s Perspective
Daily Scrum is an Event “by and for developers”. However, this Scrum Event is often misunderstood as Scrum Masters opportunity to track the daily work being done.
In such a case, it usually helps if the Scrum master is able to work with the developers and explain to them about self-management. Scrum team is self-managed. Which means that nobody tells the developers how to do their work. But it also puts the accountability of the work getting done squarely on developers shoulders. Daily Scrum is an opportunity for the developers to plan their own work and meet the Sprint Goal.
Daily Scrum Scenario III –
Developers find it hard to finish the Daily Scrum in 15 minutes
Snehamayee’s Perspective
Often Developers struggle to finish the Daily Scrum in 15 Minutes . The Event then drags on for 30 even 45 minutes every day. This some times can we wasteful. Some points to consider while trying to timebox the Scrum Event in 15 minutes
- In Daily Scrum is meant to identify the impediments that are coming in the way of achieving Sprint Goal . Scrum Teams often get in a trap of trying to create a solution. This means wasted time as well as may make other team members lose focus and interest. A technique called meeting after may help
- Some times certain team members tend to monopolize the discussion, leading others to close off. In such a scenario, some techniques like a talking stick or ELMO can help. Another technique that might help is rather than going round robin where every one speaks – we can ask upfront who has challenges that are stopping their progress towards the Sprint Goal? At times the Scrum Master may need to have a discreet conversation with the people who tend to be more aggressive or more reluctant to open up.
- Sometimes it helps to try different techniques to ensure that teams do not lose focus
Daily Scrum Scenario IV
Most of the developers in the Scrum Team do not see value in daily scrum. As a result, they do not want to join
Snehamayee’s Perspective
Many times, developers do not want to join the daily scrum as they do not find value. If this is the case, Scrum Master needs to counsel the developers on the value they possibly can get from a well-managed daily scrum. Along with counselling the scrum master should dig a little deeper into why the team thinks Daily scrum does not provide value to them. In my experience, I have come across a few common scenarios which mind contribute to the issue
- Daily Scrum runs too long – if the Daily Scrum runs too long, Developers lose interest – we have already discussed this in detail above
- Team struggles to create an actionable plan – Daily Scrum is often wrongly thought of as the status forum and team then spends a lot of time discussing status (past) rather than create an actionable plan for next day. Coaching team to create actionable plan can help
- Sometimes people other than Developers (and Scrum Master if needed) join the call routinely. These people then monopolize the discussion, often putting pressuring the Developers. Developers then lose their autonomy and do not feel comfortable discussing their impediments in front of the “out siders”. If this is the case, it might help if we coach the developers to update their status regularly. The stakeholders (or the product owner) can then check the status there instead of disturbing the Developers in their time to plan. Coaching the stakeholders (and the Product Owner) on the need of protecting this planning time for Developers is helpful too.