What is the Point of the Daily Scrum?

In Marvel’s popular movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill is trying to come up with a plan to stop the villain and save the day and confesses that he only has 12% of a plan put together. As he engages support from his teammates, they each stand as they commit to the goal. As the final member, Rocket, stands he says “Well now I’m standing. Happy? We’re all standing now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle.”

Does that remind you of your Daily Scrum? That scene struck a chord with me. I hear so many students and clients complain about the Daily Scrum. Yet the things they claim not to like, only reveal that they don’t understand the point of the Daily Scrum. They believe the myths and create anti-patterns that degenerate Daily Scrum into a waste of time.  

The original copy of this post appeared in 2019. It’s time to update it since the official, free Scrum Guide was revised in November 2020. It’s also an opportunity to further clarify a few more facts:

1.     What Does a Scrum Master do Every Day? It’s certainly not conducting the Daily Scrum. That’s right. That wasn’t a typo. It’s a myth that the Scrum Master shows up to the Daily Scrum and call on each person. The Scrum Master is not an adult daycare provider. An empowered team of Developers conduct their own Daily Scrum. A Scrum Master teaches them the intent of the Daily Scrum and ensures it occurs as intended. What if the Scrum Master is out on vacation? Does the Daily Scrum get cancelled?  No! If they have taught the Developers well, the Daily Scrum can go on without them. It’s an opportunity for the Developers to talk to each other about the Sprint Goal and to make a plan for the day.

2.     What’s the Point of the Daily Scrum? The Daily Scrum is intended for the Developers to provide Transparency about the Sprint Goal on a Daily basis so that they can Inspect and Adapt. Why let 10 days, 15 days, 20 days go by to learn that there’s an error message holding someone up or an impediment in getting an item done? Isn’t it better to have a quick check in and find out potentially every day what’s holding up work or the product increment from being complete? Of course, that means people actually have to be transparent but that’s for the Scrum Master to teach. That doesn’t make this a status report to the Scrum Master or to the Product Owner either. The Developers conduct the Daily Scrum - they talk to each other to make a plan for the day. If a person needs assistance and another team member hears the issue they may chime in and say “I can help with that. Can you hang on the line or stay after so we can chat?” If that works for them, great. If staying doesn’t work, they can plan a time that works better. They aren’t holding everyone else hostage while they step through all the details about the item in question.

3.     Do we Have to Stand? No! That’s another myth we often have to bust in CSM® workshops. The Developers conduct the Daily Scrum so they get to decide what time the event occurs and whether there’s an agreement about standing or not standing. And no, it doesn’t have to be in a circle either. Some believe standing keeps the event short and sweet but standing is not “required” nor is that listed in the Scrum Guide as any sort of rule.

4.     Why is the Daily Scrum at the same time each day? This helps reduce complexity and cuts down on needless administrivia with calendars. If it’s at the same time and same place every day, there’s no need to constantly update that information. It’s known.

5.     How Long is the Daily Scrum? The Daily Scrum is 15 minutes or less.  The intent is not to hash through an error message raised or an impediment raised in that short amount of time, the point is to give transparency into what is happening. That way a plan can be made for who needs to be involved, and more importantly who is not needed, after Daily Scrum is over. People also forget the “or less” part of the suggested timebox. It’s intended to take 15 minutes to provide transparency on the Sprint Goal and make a plan to address those items. If that takes less than 15 minutes, get on with your day.

6.     Do we have to Answer the 3 Questions: What 3 questions??? They have thankfully been completely removed from the official Scrum Guide. Why? Because they were ignored or creatively edited over the years. It was never “here’s what I did yesterday, here’s what I’ll do today, no blockers”. Those weren’t the actual suggested questions. It’s no wonder the Daily Scrum is useless if those are the questions that your team is using. It probably has them rattling off a laundry list of tasks including what they ate for lunch and bunch of other things that add no value in learning where we’re at on the Sprint Goal. The questions used to be:

·       What did I do yesterday that HELPED the Development Team MEET THE SPRINT GOAL?

·       What will I do today to help the Development Team MEET THE SPRINT GOAL?

·       Do I see any impediment that prevents me or the Development Team from MEETING THE SPRINT GOAL?

It seems over the years people have just eliminated the sprint goal – which is the whole point of the Daily Scrum: transparency, inspect and adapt on the Sprint Goal. If you’re wondering ‘what the heck is a Sprint Goal’ it may be time to check out that free, official Scrum Guide which can be found here: https://scrumguides.org/Or maybe we’ll do a post dedicated to the topic of the Sprint Goal or feature it on an upcoming Ignite-Agility®podcast.

Hopefully this helps clear up any myths about what a Scrum Master does every day in regards to the Daily Scrum. Come to think of it, maybe we’ll do another post all about how the Scrum Master spends their time effectively. In the meantime, use this dose of reality about the Daily Scrum to get daily planning back on track, revealing impediments quickly and focusing the Developers on working together to accomplish the Sprint Goal.