Daily Scrum
A core part of Scrum to drive execution and create daily alignments
Description
It’s about making the most out of today’s working day, to generate the most value with the knowledge team has right now. Each team member shares what he or she is up to and if anything hinders from moving toward the Sprint Goal(s).
Material needed
Scrum board, physical or digital
Preparation
Team members should be mentally prepared to share and collaborate.
Implementation
- Before the team starts with Scrum, set three simple rules:
- Be on time
- Postpone detailed discussions
- End on time.
- Coach the Developers that they are the owners of the Daily Scrum. This is NOT reporting to the Product Owner or Scrum Master, so consider standing in the background.
- To take advantage of being a team, the key is to involve all team members. The easiest way to do that is to go “around the table” to enable that everyone has a chance to speak.
- Scrum Master captures impediments and makes sure there is a plan to adress them. The ownership of solving the impediments are shared within the full team depending on the type of obstacle.
- Continuously use the Retrospectives to agree on the exact setup of the Daily Scrum. This is created and committed by the entire team.
Input
- Yesterdays results
Output
- Today’s plan
- Identified impediments
Product owner responsibilities
- Be available
- Don’t suggest solutions
- Be collaborative
- Negotiate Definition of Done
Scrum master responsibilities
- Facilitate in new teams. Coach in mature teams
- Capture impediments
- Make sure it is held every day
Developer responsibilities
- Update progress
- Highlight impediments
- Improve way of working
- Agree on how to collaborate in the best way towards the Sprint Goal
Tips
- We have bad experiences in not having the Daily Scrum every day of the week since this tend to make each daily longer and more focused on reporting.
- Be observant of potential command-and-control behaviours, especially when moving from a traditional to an agile way of working. Use one-to-one coaching if that is observed.
- When there is more than one track/project/feature being worked on in parallel: Consider to once a week focus on those instead of the “round the table”.
