Daily scrum and kanban board
Hello everyone,
I'm a beginning Scrum master and I faced with a problem. My chief tries to push me to implement best practices(?), e.g. each team member must stay towards the screen with our kanban board.
The Scrum guide doesn't define such behavior, and from my point of view, it's up to a team how to conduct the daily scrum event. Also, I suppose that looking at a speaking person is more natural than stare at the board. The main idea is that a team must approach the goals and it doesn't matter what way they chose.
The chief said me arrogantly to read more about practices. I tried to find out something similar to her idea, but it was in vain.
Could you help me with this question and recommend me resources to improve my skills? I have already received a PSM training and read Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide.
Best regards,
Pavel
If I were you, one option might be to ask your boss what their source is for such a practice, since I cannot locate anything to support it? ;-)
Welcome to Ideal Scrum VS. The real world.
I would remind her that it is your job to educate her on Agile/Scrum principals, not her job to educate you... but that may get you fired so think carefully before you do that.
Mandating who has to look where during a particulr Scrm Event seems excessive, but that's just my two cents ;)
Yes, I agree with the comments above... but... "each team member must stay towards the screen with our kanban board. The Scrum guide doesn't define such behavior" - of course it does not define kanban board! And yet you use it... See where I am going with this? :)
Using a visual aid for daily scrum meetings in my opinion is a crutch for developers to read off the screen and say what they should be doing as everyone can read whats in front of them instead of saying what they exactly have been doing.
As for education if you are looking to get an accreditation look into the CSM (certified scrum master) not sure which country you in, but the CSM is an easier exam than the PSM but will still give you a solid foundation into scrum practices.
Thank all of you for your opinions! I'll work on it assiduously :)
I agree with all the comments above. I believe your chief has good intentions. There are best practices that are not mentioned in the Scrum guide. For example, in daily sync, sometimes the team looks at the Scrum Master as they thing this is a report meeting. Techniques like instructing the Scrum Master to avoid eye contact with the speaker, or not stand in front of the room, or take a step back to avoid line of sight, might be useful.
The important thing in the daily sync is the sync of the team. This is the core item. If looking on the screen help for some reason then OK. Based on my experience, looking at the board doesn't really help. I read a few blogs that state that letting the people approach the board and update their notes online contributes dynamic to the meeting. Maybe this is his intention. If you are using electronic board (e.g. JIRA), then this is less useful.
Talk with him on the end goal of the daily - the sync. If looking at the board cause rejection from the team and reduces the sync, then this is a good reason why you should not do it and you can have this discussion with your chief.
each team member must stay towards the screen with our kanban board.
The underlying practice is that an information radiator may be useful to a team and a self-organizing one would be able to make best use of it.
That *could* be what he meant, or it could be that he has skimmed agile practice and identified magic totems and behaviors which he believes will do the trick if emulated.