The Scrum framework has four key events: 1) Sprint Planning, 2) Daily Scrum, 3) Sprint Review, and 4) Sprint Retrospective. At Sprint Planning, we set a Sprint Goal that binds the team to work together on a common mission towards delivering a real outcome by the end of the Sprint. The plan (otherwise known as the Sprint Backlog) is the team’s best idea on how to accomplish its mission towards the Sprint Goal. So, how many plans have you ever made in your life that happen precisely the way you initially thought? If you are in the camp of “the plan is the plan is the plan”, it might make sense to get together every day and give a status update to your fellow team members on where you are with executing the plan. In the solutions delivery business, that’s just not reality!
What if, instead of it feeling like a status meeting, the Daily Scrum was….
A Daily Re-Synchronization of the Plan
One more time…The Daily Scrum should be a daily re-synchronization of the plan. Let’s put that thought in context of what’s supposed to happen during the Daily Scrum.
The key part of the Daily Scrum is having all Development Team members (i.e., those actually doing the work) answer three questions:
- What did I do yesterday that helped the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal?
- What will I do today to help the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal?
- Do I see any impediment that prevents me or the Development Team from meeting the Sprint Goal?
When answering the “yesterday” question, each Team member should be focused on letting the other Team members know how they contributed to evolving the product toward the Team’s mission. This is your time to be accountable back to your teammates for progressing results toward the Sprint Goal. When answering the “today” question, each Team member is signaling their intent for the work they will be picking up in the next 24 hours. This is the time for the team to align on “who’s doing what” and help ensure the sequencing of the work maximizes the chance of achieving the Sprint Goal. When answering the “impediment” question, each Team member needs to feel a sense of responsibility to make very visible those issues and impediments keeping the Team from achieving its mission. This is a time to believe in the “Power of the Team” – that by exposing that which is holding me back, the Team will help knock down those barriers better than just by myself.
Some other tips on having a great Daily Scrum:
- Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel - Make sure it’s held at the same time and same place every day – Ideally, your team is fully co-located. If that’s the case, book a room or designate your team space as the constant place and get consensus from all team members on a time that everyone will be on-time, every day. If you are not co-located, make sure everyone has an invite on their calendars with super clear instructions on how to join the meeting. Ideally, you should select collaboration technologies (like Sococo) that have “instant on” capability – no fuss, no muss for getting connected to your team. Make attending the Daily Scrum like breathing air – you don’t even have to think about it.
- All Aboard! - Use Task Boards, whether posted on a wall or in your favorite agile tool (i.e., JIRA, VersionOne, etc.). By having Team members point at the “yesterday” tasks and the “today” tasks, we are inherently keeping focused on work for the Team’s mission – if it isn’t on the board, why are we working on it?
- Done in a Day – When in Sprint Planning, make sure to keep your tasks to something that can be accomplished in a day or less (probably 6 hours or less for most teams). It is hard to be accountable to your fellow Team members if you keep coming into Daily Scrum saying “I’m 25% done with Task A” and then tomorrow “I’m 40% done with Task A”. When tasks are small, there is binary - done or not done - accountability for completing tasks you signed up for in yesterday’s Daily Scrum.
- Know Your Stuff – Spend 30-60 seconds before the Daily Scrum to remember your “yesterday” list and figuring out your “today” list. It is sometimes hard to remember all that happened in the past 24 hours, especially if a weekend is in the middle of your two Scrums. One way to revert the Daily Scrum from a daily re-synchronization to a status meeting is to have Team members come in and say “I don’t remember what I worked on” or “I’ll figure out what I’m working on today after the Scrum”. Keep away from these traps.
- I’m Burning, I’m Burning for You – Use the Sprint Burndown effectively by: 1) making sure everyone has updated their remaining hours on their tasks at an agreed to time before the Daily Scrum, and 2) reviewing the Burndown after the three questions round robin. This quick review by the Team should be focused on determining if there is something else the team should be doing to drive towards zero hours of tasks remaining – and more importantly – the Sprint Goals achieved by the end of the Sprint.
So, the Daily Scrum is an opportunity for the team to come together every day during the Sprint to re-connect on its chosen mission and do everything in its power to stay on mission and drive towards great results – consistent achievement of its Sprint Goals.
Happy Daily Scrumming!