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. Since usually Developers are the people working on items to meet the Sprint Goal, they should be enabled to have the Event in way that best helps them!
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 are treating the Daily Scrum as a Scrum Master’s responsibility and the Scrum Event gets skipped 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 there. Own work and accept developers should be most accountable for this Scrum Event.
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 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