2020 guide: Daily Scrum more restrictive?
The question is if there is a difference in regards to Daily Scrum. 2017 vs 2020. It might look like the phrase "The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team." makes the Scrum rules more restrictive to participation in Daily Scrum and ONLY the developers can participate, The statement from SG 2020 can be interpreted that if you have PO and SM preset at Daily Scrums it is no longer Scrum.
Well, on the other hand this phrase might be just a shorter, cleaner wording and nothing is changing is fundamentally for the event (which is my personal view on the topic). I personally believe that the statement from "The Professional Product Owner: Leveraging Scrum as a Competitive Advantage, First Edition" is still valid:
"The Daily Scrum is about the Development Team inspecting and adapting their Sprint Plan on a daily basis. As the Sprint Plan is owned by the Development Team, the Daily Scrum is not for you, the Product Owner. Therefore, this is not your opportunity to ask for a status update or to inform the Development Team on recent events. You are welcome to attend to show your engagement and to make yourself available afterward, but you do not participate during the Daily Scrum. Having regular communication with the Development Team is still a great idea. Just do not hijack the Daily Scrum for this. Set something else up that works best for your particular situation.
In addition to that, Scrum Master may also silently be at Daily Scrum so that she can make notes on the dynamics of how the event goes, so that she can later teach or coach the developers later on how the developers can facilitate the meeting better.
Do you think Scrum Guide 2020 is inducing restrictions on participating in Daily Scrum to the development team only?
Difference to the previous is that in the text it is no longer time-boxed, but a 15 minute event. Though it is time-boxed from another chapter, where it is said that all Scrum events are time-boxed.
Other than that, the 2017 guide said
it is a 15-minute time-boxed event for the Development Team
So there is not really a change
I'm a bit mixed on this one. The 2020 revision added some ambiguity.
It's not clear what "for" means. I do agree that the Daily Scrum is for the Developers. The Developers are, according to the Scrum Guide, the only active participants in the Daily Scrum. As the group responsible for the Sprint Backlog and progressing to the Sprint Goal, this is their opportunity to focus on the next immediate steps to get closer. However, it's not clear if saying that the event is "for" the Developers means that the event is "not for" others. That seems to be one possible interpretation, but not the only interpretation.
The 2020 Scrum Guide did remove the guidance about the Scrum Master's role in ensuring that non-Developers who attend the Daily Scrum do not interrupt the event. The Scrum Master still serves the Scrum Team in "ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox", which could allow for the Scrum Master's presence to do some more hands-on coaching of techniques to make the Daily Scrum effective.
Personally, I prefer the interpretation that the primary purpose is for Developers. However, having other attendees may be valuable if it helps Developers achieve the purpose of the event. Other attendees could be the Product Owner to help decide how to best approach the Sprint Goal and deliver value, the Scrum Master to help coach and facilitate, or other stakeholders from outside the Scrum Team. Ultimately, though, the Developers should be the ones to decide who is involved and how they participate since the event is "for" them.
Do you think Scrum Guide 2020 is inducing restrictions on participating in Daily Scrum to the development team only?
No. Nor is it introducing restrictions that prohibit team members from having further scrums that day. Any Scrum Team member can call a scrum at any time for any reason. As professionals, they ought to know when it is appropriate to do so. The Product Owner and Scrum Master, as collaborative team members, may also have that right.
I don't see anything that changes the purpose of the Daily Scrum and to me that is the most important aspect. It is still for the Development Team to discuss what they have learned so far and then plan their work until the next Daily Scrum occurs.
The removal of the word "timebox" means nothing to me. It is still intended to be a 15 minute meeting which can end early is necessary. It can also go longer than 15 minutes if the Development Team feels necessary but, in my opinion, that should be determined at the time not something that is always planned. In a team of up to 9 people that are constantly communicating through the day, 15 minutes should be more than enough.
The guide now says nothing about the Scrum Master in regards to the Daily Scrum. I actually think that is a good thing because too many people used the old wording as a reason for the Scrum Master to be there which often lead to them "running" the meeting. As a Scrum Master I helped teams "ensure(sic) that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox." without attending most of those events. Especially when it comes to the Daily Scrum. I focused my efforts on educating the individuals why the events are needed, explaining why the timebox is useful and providing guidance on how to effectively hold the events to the intended purpose. I will attend them but the team is also able to faciliate the events without me. I really like that the "facilitating events" verbiage was removed.
Do you think Scrum Guide 2020 is inducing restrictions on participating in Daily Scrum to the development team only?
No. I don't think anything new was introduced. I think a few things were removed in order to make it clearer the intent and to remove items that caused some misuse of the Daily Scrum.
Thank you for the answers!