Daily Scrum - an Opportunity to Inspect & Adopt
Daily Scrum is not a daily status call
Daily standup is not really a daily status call. If you are treating it (scrum standup) as daily status update meeting then you are doing it wrong.
for status we have scrum board; which is very transparent and one can understand status on individual tasks by looking at it.
Daily stand up is not for individuals to update their status on task in-hand.
Generally, in daily standup, we follow standard path by asking 3 questions –
- What have you completed since the last meeting (standup)?
- What do you plan to complete by the next meeting?
- What is getting in your way?
But that is just half true. Actual questions are:
- What have you completed since the last meeting to achieve sprint goal?
- What do you plan to complete by the next meeting to achieve sprint goal?
- What is getting in your way in achieving sprint goal?
Whatever you do as part of sprint is for achieving sprint goal and not individual’s goal of finishing your own task or user stories.
Scrum team may need innovative ideas to run daily scrum call...
Innovations can be achieved; if we keep following points at the core of daily stand up.
- Daily stand up should be treated as an opportunity to inspect & adopt.
- Daily stand up - Where you plan and re-plan list of tasks that you are going to finish as a team and not individual.
- Daily stand up is an opportunity to inspect and adopt.
- Daily stand up is an opportunity to identify help needed for other team members to finish their task.
- Daily stand up is to identify impediments and help each other in scrum team to achieve sprint goal.
- Daily stand up is an opportunity to show your cross-functional skills
- Daily stand up is an opportunity to re-plan and adjust not only to achieve sprint goal but to bring in continuous improvement day by day
Scrum follows PDCA cycle – which provides or creates tremendous opportunities to inspect & Adopt.
All events and ceremonies in scrum should be treated as an opportunity to Inspect and Adopt.
@MIlind I do not think that this strict guideline works for Daily Scrum events. I have spoken with a number of developers in the past and often times this meeting seems to seem (sadly) exactly what it should not be: A Status Update.
Furthermore many developers tend to dislike the format in general when they are asked the three questions. I tend to treat these questions as a guideline as most of all the meeting should have one purpose only: The team should grow together.
Of course one needs progress and updates in a project but imagine if you are called up every day to "justify" your actions. I understand why many developers do not like this idea very much. Only if the Scrum Master and management support the team can this kind of meeting work for the benefit of the team.
Yet saying people must adhere to questions or rules defeats the purpose since only the developers should be present during the meeting. The only thing that should be followed is the 15 minute time-box and this is the job for the Scrum Master.
One of my teams has 9 devs.
With this larger team of 9 we use the Standup to:
- Identify impediments and get the developer help.
- Guide each developer to someone who can help solve the problem
- Guide each developer to someone who can help them or speed up development.
We use the Scrumboard as a talk piece and start at the top of the board and go quickly down through each item that it is In Progress. The developers involved quickly explain what they are at today and particularly if they have a problem.
I have spoken with a number of developers in the past and often times this meeting seems to seem (sadly) exactly what it should not be: A Status Update.
That might indicate that they stop at the inspect part and don't recognize the adapt opportunity in this meeting.
This might indicate that they just work on their "own" stories and don't feel responsible for the complete increment.
@Norbert, if a team has a pattern of cycling through the 3 questions person-by-person, at what point in the meeting should the "adaption" take place? As soon as the need for it arises, or left until the end? I can see it holding things up if it's addressed at the time. Perhaps noted and parked? Interested in your thoughts.