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Myth about Daily Scrum being a status meeting

by | Aug 28, 2020 | Scrum Myths and Antipatterns

Common Misconceptions and Negative implications

Most teams conduct Daily scrum as a status meeting. When this happens, following negative implications result

  • Developers start thinking that this is Scrum Master’s forum
  • Developers don’t take accountability
  • Developers lose interest and start saying “there is nothing to status report every day”

Recommendations:

  • Primary intention of Daily Scrum is to Inspect and Adapt. This is supposed to be a forum where the Developers finds out if things are going in the right direction. If they are not, then it is time to discuss the same and adapt as soon as possible. If required, the scope needs to be adjusted, decisions need to be taken so that the Developers comes back on track.
  • It is good to keep the “Sprint Goal” at the centre when the Daily Scrum discussions are on. This is not about day-to-day tasks. This event is about knowing if we will be meeting the “Sprint Goal” or the business objective.
  • Daily Scrum should be an opportunity for the Scrum Master to help the team become self managed.
  • The three questions (while they are not compulsory in Scrum) actually are mis-understood by most teams. The three questions are not about “What did you do?”, “What are you going to do?”, “What are your impediments?”. The tree questions are about Sprint Goal and not about what tasks you are doing . So the correct 3 questions are
  1. What did I do yesterday that helped the Developers meet the Sprint Goal?
  2. What will I do today to help the Developers meet the Sprint Goal?
  3. Do I see any impediment that prevents me or the Developers from meeting the Sprint Goal?
  • Daily Scrum is also an important opportunity for collaboration for the Developers. Scrum Master is actually a facilitator in this forum. Scrum Master’s job is to make sure
    • The Daily Scrum happens
    • Negative things which happen regularly are prevented
    • To make sure that it finishes off on time within 15 minutes and teams are free to go back to work.
  • The only mandatory participants of Daily Scrum therefore are the Developers members and not Scrum Master and Product Owner. PO if at all joins,  his presence is limited to clarifying scope.