The Daily is the meeting we do the most. Every day we meet for 15 minutes and discuss the current iteration – be it in Scrum or Kanban. Therefore, for this blog article series, I would like to start with the Daily & discuss what makes a good Daily, what pitfalls to watch out for and what it is all for in the first place.
What is a Daily?
The Scrum Guide defines the daily as following:
The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work. […] Daily Scrums improve communications, identify impediments, promote quick decision-making, and consequently eliminate the need for other meetings. The Daily Scrum is not the only time Developers are allowed to adjust their plan. They often meet throughout the day for more detailed discussions about adapting or re-planning the rest of the Sprint’s work.
Scrum Guide, 2020
Fortunately, this description contains everything we need to know to conduct a good & productive Daily!
Inspect
You create transparency – as a team – what is going on in the iteration and how far you progressed with the items on the board. Blockers/impediments are raised and everyone is informed about it.
The daily should also reduce the need for other meetings: If we focus and transport the information within the 15 minutes we don’t need more meetings to discuss what is currently happening in the iteration.
Adapt
Only inspecting without adaption is useless. After all, what’s the point of informing each other and creating transparency about blockers if we don’t derive any action from it? In the Daily we form a new plan and adjust to new events and developments – be it a technical blocker, a short-term change in requirements or a discovery that we overlooked in the refinement. As a team, we decide on the next steps to respond to the changes.
Goal
The first sentence in the Scrum Guide about the Daily mentions the “inspect & adapt” in regards to the sprint goal. “Inspect & Adapt” only makes sense if you know what to adapt & what you want to achieve with the adaption. Otherwise you are not able to determine the priority of actions & items in the sprint. Without a goal to evaluate, the Daily usually devolves into a mere status update and never goes beyond the “Inspect” phase.
What pitfalls to avoid?
Here are some common pitfalls that can creep into your daily routine over time:
Blindly following the 3 questions
The three questions: “What have I done yesterday? What I want to do today? Any blockers?” used to be a tool to help getting into the inspect & adapt mode. The pitfall here is not to evolve beyond that. It can happen that everyone answers the questions, but people don’t listen to each other and no actions are derived from the new insights. In the Daily, we need to listen first and foremost, not speak. If we do not listen to each other, we are not able to derive actions & together form a plan to achieve the goal. Don’t just do a report – focus on your challenges and potential areas for teamwork!
All talk, no action
The next pitfall is not to derive any actions from the “inspect” part. This happens especially when you don’t have a goal to work towards. Because without a goal it is difficult to derive an “Adapt”, because you do not know what you want to achieve and what is problem is currently blocking.
Waiting for the daily
The Daily is there to facilitate communication. However, it should not stop us from forming a new plan outside the Daily. We should not wait until the Daily to address blockers and problems. As the Scrum Guide also says: “The Daily Scrum is not the only time Developers are allowed to adjust their plan. They often meet throughout the day for more detailed discussions about adapting or re-planning the rest of the Sprint’s work.” If we always wait for the Daily, the Daily blocks us from solving problems and achieving our goals.
No Preperation
Like any other meeting, we should prepare the Daily. Each participant should think about what topics they want to address. Possible questions to ask for this are:
- Are we on track? Will we be able to reach our goal?
- Do I need help? Where do I need help?
- Is there any new information that affects the goal?
Too Long; Didn’t Read
To make a Daily work you need 3 elements: A goal, inspection of the goal, adaption of the plan to reach that goal. If one thing is missing you get less out of the meeting.
What are some pitfalls you discovered? What makes a Daily a good and effective daily in your opinion?