5 Dysfunctions of a Daily Scrum

since agile concept is adapting to changes and improve how the team works, there must be a reason for most scrum masters treat daily stand up as an update session..instead of labelling it as dysfuntion, why not see it as improvement?

I would disagree. It is often in my experience treated as an update because that is an easy trap to fall into, not the preferred method. If just status, read the board. It is about communication, teaming and understanding what helps is needed and if there are changes to process required. It is about being sure that you are moving forward (hence the use of the term Scrum) together as a team toward the Sprint Goal. Check out a great video on why the Daily Scrum is Not a Status Meeting.

Also, I suggest that you refrain from calling it a "stand up" for many reasons.

1. the term itself almost begs for tit to be a status meeting. It is called a Scrum because it is about moving the project forward.
2. you may leave people out just with a term. Not everyone can stand. I have had people on my Scrum Teams who are wheel chair bound and they immediately feel left out.

Hi Piyush,

All 5 Dysfunction of daily scrum looks real time issues which all the scrum masters encountered. But i partially agreeing Dysfunction 2. I agree point up to "The only job of Scrum Master with respect to Daily Scrum is to teach the Development Team keep it within the time-box of 15 minutes."

I would like to share my experience on these lines - "A lot of Scrum Masters lead the Daily Scrum by asking each Development Team member the three questions. They do not stop there but go ahead and ask explanation if anything that was discussed is not yet completed. Focus is moved away from "the progress towards Sprint Goal" to answering the three questions with details."

Here am afraid that i couldn't agree on "Focus is moving away from the progress towards sprint goal". One of the Objective of the daily scrum is to identify the impediments which is hindering the planned sprint progress (goal). it could be external unforeseen dependencies or Dev team might be struck technically somewhere in between. What we do normally, if anything is not done from the previous day target as per plan, we put it in parking lot (end of the meeting) to discuss in detail about that item with respective dev to understand where exactly we are struck and how we stop it becomes bottleneck to meet sprint goal. Also, other team members are advised to drop off from the meeting. Here focus is not moving away from the sprint goal. We try to get this on track to meet a sprint goal.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Hi Lakshumanan,

I somewhat agree to what you said on trying to see the progress on meeting the sprint goal like keeping the items that could not be completed in the parking lot to discuss if there were any impediments and try to remove the risks; however, I think you got it wrong on what Piyush said. His focus on this particular point was more on "They lead the Daily Scrum by asking each Development Team member the three questions. They do not stop there but go ahead and ask explanation if anything that was discussed is not yet completed." We quite often have seen that SMs do get into the trap of "Project management" where they tend to question the team members on the status instead of letting team members to self organise and resolve the issues; and that is one of the critical dysfunction of the daily scrum, reason, the teams will always wait for the SM to question them instead of being Proactive and becoming empowered.

@Piyush, correct me if my understanding is wrong.

Thanks,
Jaya

Hi Jaya,
Thanks for the clarification. This is exactly what I meant.

Hello Lakshumanan,
Thank you for sharing your experience. What you are doing is fine, as the guide also describes that a Daily Scrum is often followed by a meet after to discuss any challenges that would prevent the team from meeting the Sprint Goal.

Also, you are correct that Daily Scrum is good place to highlight any impediments that the team might have; which would stop them from meeting the Sprint Goal. However, if Daily Scrum is the only place where your Scrum Master becomes aware or checks for the impediments then believe me; you have a bigger dysfunction than just the Daily Scrum.

With the Dysfunction 2, I wanted to highlight that Daily Scrum is Development Team's event and they should be allowed to organize and conduct it as they see fit. A Scrum Master is not required. But often Scrum Masters lead it in a traditional fashion asking for answers; which is absolutely incorrect.

I hope this helps.

Dear Hafizi Kamaruzzaman,

I believe you might be aware about the game of soccer. Would you call it an improvement if the players start using their hands to stop the ball. I believe not, because it changes the rules of the game.

Similarly, in the product development game where we use Scrum, there are certain rules and guidelines. When you move away from those, I do not see that as improvement but more of a dysfunction.

Hello Eric,

Completely agree; it is an easy trap, which most teams are prone to. Daily Scrum is a crucial Inspect-Adapt opportunity where the team can plan and adjust their daily work. It helps them to stay focused and meet their goals.

Often teams stick to the template and loose an opportunity to Inspect and Adapt.

Your article is amazing. It is really clears the concepts of dysfunctions of daily scrum.
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