The Daily Scrum

That title almost sounds like a hip little coffee shop here in downtown D.C. Alas, it doesn't focus on caffeine delivery but rather on how project teams meet at least once daily to discuss together their status. Yes, status. That feared word in every team (or office) of the endless "go around the table and talk about what's going on" meetings that bore people to tears and take 3x longer than they should. It's not a total loss if someone bothers to bring some donuts like those from our local sweet spot named the Fractured Prune; I especially like those little Strawberry Shortcake ones. But I digress.

Actually, one of the few, but key parts of Scrum is its focus on the Daily Scrum (or daily meeting). Unlike a typical meeting, a daily scrum is time boxed to 15 minutes regardless of team size. Imagine that - a meeting that lasts a maximum of 15 minutes. In practice, mine last around 10 and we zip around and get through business pretty quick. And it's a stand-up affair. No lounging back in some comfy conference chair dozing off until it's your turn.

Here's how it works.

The team, and I mean the whole team, meets at a designated time each day during the sprint. Typically the meeting time is beginning of day. In my case, we have one at 11:45am; it's just before lunch and people are motivated to keep it short. In addition, my team is geographically dispersed along the East Coast and in Canada. So we have to do this each day via conference call and with team members that are here in D.C. But it works well despite the logistics.

Each team member is expected to discuss 3 and only 3 things each day:

What the person did yesterday (ie what they accomplished)

What the person expects to do today (ie their goals)

What impediments/blockages they face (ie what's holding them up)

The format is a part of the Daily Scrum format and is followed rigorously. If team members start having a "conversation" around an item, the Scrum Master gently clips the conversation and suggests it be held afterwards. If team members are matrixed such as DBA's, Network Services, etc they may have done non-Sprint related work the day before. Those items are not discussed as they are irrelevant to the Sprint itself. Impediment discussion is a way of alerting the team and the Scrum Master to upcoming or existing blockages that are affecting forward momentum. It's up to the Scrum Master to work to see that these are eliminated.

Sounds straightforward and easy compared to doing major prep for a standard status meeting. But it's deceptively simple.

When the team goes around the "table" talking about their 3 items, they address each other, not the Scrum Master, not the Product Owner, or anyone else perceived as the "boss". Sometimes in teams this can happen if the Scrum Master is perceived as the boss; the team will address their comments to the boss rather than to each other and this defeats the team nature of Scrum. In my case, I'm the engineering manager as well as the Scrum Master. But I made it a point to drill into the entire team that my role is to be the Scrum Master-only in these sessions. So I walk around, stare at my notepad, and just listen. With encouragement, they talk directly to each other or into the phone as in our distributed team arrangement.

The idea of the Daily Scrum is that it aids in the essence of what Scrum actually is - a giant feedback loop. In order to be a feedback loop, information must be acquired constantly and re-inserted into the system so the system can recognize the data and make adjustments. The Daily Scrum ensures that everyone is focused on progress being made, what work is being started and what is keeping them from accomplishing the goals of the Sprint. Without this constant, daily discussion, the team may assume that things are going well, when in fact they aren't.

In practice, I've found that a cross-functional team of people gets to the point of looking forward to these daily, very short meetings. It cuts down on surprises and ensures that people know what is going on at all times. It also helps in tracking forward progress in the Sprint using something called the Sprint Burndown Chart.

Which I'll get to next time.

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Posted by Mark M. Baker at 04:06 PM  Permalink