Daily Scrum Playbook

Overview

Daily Scrum is a short meeting where the Team inspect the current state of the product, their work and their goal in order to arrive at a plan for a single day. The Team arrive at their plan by having each Team Member share what they did yesterday, what they'll do today and what help they might need in order to optimise their productivity and achieve their Sprint Goal.

Outcomes

Alignment and a shared understanding of what has to happen today for the Team to achieve their Sprint Goal, visibility of progress and impediments.

Purpose

Team bonding
Alignment on what has been done and what needs to be done next
Coordination of activities
Cooperation on the most important work
Collaboration towards completing deliverables
A plan for one day

Participants

ALL Team Members
Scrum Master
Product Owner
Interested observers, (who are welcome to observe, but do not contribute or disrupt)

Difficulty

2 - Easy

Duration

15 minutes

Materials

Team's Visual Management Board

Meetings to cancel when you set up your Daily Scrum

Status updates
Any task management meetings
Any alignment or coordination meetings (at the Team level, you will retain coordination meetings at the project or portfolio level.)

Preparation

Ensure the Team's Visual Management Board is updated before the event
Ensure ALL Team Members attend
A pre-set time and place every day
Strict time-box of 15 minutes
Standing up. It helps keep it short
Have a space ready to write down actions

Ensure interested observers understand that they are welcome to observe the Team's Daily Scrum, but they should not contribute, disrupt or ask questions.

Facilitating the Daily Scrum

Facilitate for psychological safety

Psychological safety is an essential attribute of an effective Daily Scrum.

Welcome impediments and thank Team Members for raising them
Be aware of the possibility of reduced psychological safety or a desire to report to leaders If they attend as interested observers.

Facilitate for equal voice

Equal voice ensures everyone is heard and all progress, plans and impediments are raised and given appropriate focus.

If you find the same Team Members are speaking first every time, ask one of the quieter Team Members to start you off
If you find some Team Members are getting too detailed in their contribution, set a timebox of a minute or two for each person's
Using a "talking stick" that Team Members pass to each other, only the person currently holding the talking stick may speak. Any object that is easy to hold and pass to each other can be used.

Questions that can be used to structure the conversation:

What did I complete since the last Daily Scrum?
What am I planning to complete between now and next Daily Scrum?
What impediments are holding me back from going faster?

**These questions are just a guideline to generate a conversation that allows the team to self organise and hold each other accountable

PRO TIP!

Stick to the same time and place every day
Ensure people stand up, (this helps make it quick and effective)
Encourage Autonomy
Avoid Team Members reporting to the Scrum Master or Product Owner rather than collaborating with each other
Meet where the Work happens and not in a meeting room so that it creates memory triggers for what is going on
Ensure Team Members are thanked for raising impediments and that a clear action and owner are agreed
Attendees from outside the Team are welcome, but they should not speak
Ensure you conclude with a clear plan for the day
Encourage facilitation by team members instead of Scrum Master running it all the time
Encourage Team Members to share what they have worked on and what they will work on next without going into too much detail, the Daily Scrum is not a design discussion.

Take it off-line - The 'After Party'

Sometimes a detailed conversation is required in order to help a Team Member achieve an outcome, but often that conversation doesn’t need to include everyone on the Team or the Product Owner.

When a Team Member’s update exposes a question or starts a conversation that might drill down into a level of detail that isn't valuable for everyone, that’s your opportunity to, ‘take it offline.’

Using a whiteboard, capture items and participants for the after party, choose from the following list the things that suit your context.

Who is requesting the conversation
What work item it relates to
Who is needed in the conversation
How long will the conversation need