Well, first, how often do we have one?

‘Obvious, toolshed, daily!!’ Well, apparently not so obvious to all. Some people think we need one twice a week.

Let’s go back to the purpose.

The purpose is to enable the team to make micro-adjustments in any dimension to land the plane more successfully.

What does ‘land the plane’ mean? Well, to deliver the team’s commitment (or promise) made in Sprint Planning to deliver 8 stories that sprint. (Well, it might have been more than 8 stories, depending on their size and the team velocity.)

What does ‘more successfully’ mean? Well, all 8 stories first. Higher quality, less technical debt. And maybe another story, or at least another story started. And given the usual ‘stuff happens’ around here (as it always does).

So, who is making the micro-adjustments? Well, anyone on the team. Probably really everyone on the team, both consciously and sub-consciously.

What a Daily Scrum should not be

Another stupid wasteful meeting.
A status meeting for the ScrumMaster.
A time to brag about all the wonderful things I did yesterday.
An endless discussion of, and attempt to fix, several impediments (with all team members present).
A time to hide the truth, because God knows what those stupid people might do with it.

Why Daily?

Well, we work each day, so the situation is always changing.
And because a serious impediment could arise any day. And often we don’t recognize the impediment until we get together and see the impact on the team.
There is a saying: “Take care of the small problems and the big problems will take care of themselves.” Maybe not always true, but this might be one hypothesis behind the Daily Scrum. If we fix the small problems when they are small, they do not grow to become big problems.

Related to this is that the bad news does not get better with age. So, identify it quickly and hopefully fix is quickly, before the bad news becomes worse.

What do you mean ‘micro-adjustments’?

Well, anything really, that can help us be more successful.
Working together more or differently.
Getting new information.
Fighting over a problem.
Asking for help.
Fixing an impediment.
Getting clarification of a mini-feature.
Different automated testing.
Etc Etc.

In general, this is true of all of us. So, there is no reason to get obnoxious about ‘I get Scrum better than you’. Still, in any case, someone has to talk to someone else, to the effect that, ‘I don’t think you are getting the values and principles well enough’. Sometimes this starts as a question, such as: “Why do we do the Daily Scrum?’

My answer: It enables the Team to land the airplane at the end of the Sprint.

Put another way, it enables the Team to get enough visibility about ‘everything’ that is going on, to identify the biggest problem(s), deal with them some, and then complete the Sprint successfully. Meaning all promised ‘stories’ are completed (‘done, done’ if you use that phrase).

Some smells or issues:
1. ‘We are reporting status to the ScrumMaster.’ OK, raise your hands anyone who enjoys reporting ‘status’ to any manager. Ummm. No hands. Shocking. No, dudes, you are not reporting status to any manager. You are enabling yourselves (the whole team) to be successful.

2. ‘No one is talking about anything useful.’ Then do the five Whys about the root cause of that.

3. ‘People want to hide.’ Well, it is natural to hide from pain or expected pain. Virtually 120% of the time, the implementers have been beaten up, harassed or at least disrupted if they told the truth. So, naturally, it takes a long time of not getting punished before they believe they won’t be punished any more. Figure out how to deal with that. Talking helps.

4. ‘Everyone says “No impediments”.’ Yeah, like that is true. First, explain that we are always removing the top impediment (that is happening for your team, right?). Then, emphasize that people themselves and their normal mistakes are not impediments. Or maybe better to say that we ALWAYS expect people to make a normal number of human mistakes. That is part of being creative. Then, ask them to identify ‘anything’ that is slowing the team down. (Sometimes they have too limited a view of what an impediment might be.) Then, tell them that each person must identify his biggest impediment. (And we all have one, since nothing is perfect.)

5. People arriving late. Umm. Sometimes a difficult one. First, review why you think the Daily Scrum is valuable, its purpose, stuff like that. Does that person agree? If yes, then why is he late? Ah, he has something more important almost every day? Does he really feel he is a team member? And continue on like this. But sometimes it just takes ‘tricks’. The ‘put a $1 in a jar’ one is well known. (The Team takes the money and buys donuts every so often, for example.) Or, try having the late person sing a song after the stand-up. Very effective for many. Or, have the person eat a pickle (in the morning). I have not done this, but I hear that a pickle tastes bad in the AM.
Now, if a team member sends in one’s answers to another team member before the stand-up, then one is not ‘late’.

6. They only answer the 3 questions. The 3 questions are only a help. The Team should talk about the most important stuff in 15 minutes (max) to land the plane. Together. Especially if some Sprints have failed (not gotten all stories done) and poor daily info feels like a root cause, then explore this.

7. Have the Daily Scrum around the Scrum Board. Finally, a positive one. I strongly encourage teams, especially beginning teams, to have the Daily Scrum around the Scrum Board, and to move the cards in the meeting. It is magic. (Lots of studies and theory explain what the magic is, but do you need to go there?) Yes, the works a lot better if the team is collocated.

Why do we have a daily Scrum?

Well, it’s just like Fred Brooks said in The Mythical Man-Month.
‘How does a project get one year late?’
‘One day at a time.’

If we take and address the top impediment each day, we are much more effective as a team.