Daily Scrum is an event for developers to inspect and adapt towards the sprint goal. As the name goes, this event is supposed to happen every day. This is one event which brings the whole team together and helps them collaborate, synchronize their work and take collective ownership of sprint goal. This is an event which is timeboxed to 15 minutes.
However there are certain anti patterns or practices that prevent scrum teams from sticking to the purpose of daily scrum.
Here are the daily scrum anti-patterns:
- Daily Scrum runs as a status meeting – this usually happens when you have a project manager or a lead asking team members to give the status. If the organization has a culture of top down hierarchical, then it is likely that the team members see daily scrum as status meeting instead of an event that can help them collaborate with their fellow team members to inspect and adapt towards sprint goal.
- Daily Scrum chaired by Scrum Master – many times scrum masters see their responsibility to run scrum events. As per Scrum guide, one of the scrum master’s responsibilities is to facilitate scrum events whenever needed however when it comes to daily scrum, this is an event for developers to inspect their work and adapt. If a scrum master chairs the events, chances are that it will take away the opportunity for teams to self-organise or self-manage themselves. Scrum Master should however facilitate daily scrum when required with intent to teach team members on how to conduct daily scrum.
- Daily Scrum goes way over 15 minutes timebox – scrum framework is based on minimum viable rules and one of the rules is around timeboxing scrum events. Daily Scrum is timeboxed to 15 minutes and should be only used by developers to inspect and adapt progress towards sprint goals. Many times daily scrum becomes a meeting to have discussions, answer clarifications etc and this stretches the event to way beyond 15 minutes. The way to handle such situations is to have those discussions after daily scrum, so only people who are needed for the discussion can have the conversation and daily scrum stays within the timebox.
- Daily Scrum is dominated by few team members – per scrum guide, there is no hierarchy within the scrum team. While the rule is laid out by scrum guide, in practice organisations have their own internal hierarchy. Sometimes these hierarchies may not be explicit but may just be a power equation at play due to personalities within the team or may be due to varied experience levels. Domination of few team members may stifle weaker voices within a team and may take away the opportunity for team ownership and also for the team to be truly self-organised.
- Daily Scrum used primarily to update scrum boards – scrum boards should be updated by team members as and when the work is done and one should not be waiting for the daily scrum to update the scrum board. This allows transparency of work within the scrum team and outside of the team. Most teams with a legacy of status meetings, usually have the tendency to wait for daily scrum to update the scrum board.
- Daily Scrum used to get clarifications from PO – PO and the team are supposed to collaborate throughout the day towards questions, clarifications, reviews etc. however many a times daily scrum is seen as a place to get your clarifications. This shifts the purpose of daily scrum from inspection and adaptation to seeking clarifications. Developers must not wait for daily scrum for them to ask questions to PO. This adds unnecessary wait time for developers.
- Daily Scrum attended by managers – managers can attend daily scrums as observers however when they start to participate, it can impact the team’s ability to inspect and adapt. A manager with hierarchical authority may create a power equation within daily scrum that can further stifle open and transparent conversations. Managers also tend to give instructions to team members, which can take away the opportunity from the team to self-manage themselves. Scrum Master in such a situation should educate managers on the purpose of daily scrum and also work with them to understand his/her need to attend daily scrum and look at different strategies to take care of manager’s needs.
- No collaborative effort to assess the progress towards sprint goal – there are times when team members meet for their daily scrum however it becomes so formal that they each talk about what they worked on in the last 24 hours and what they plan to work on google next 24 hours and the blockers. But in the process of this update, the team as a collective unit should also assess their progress towards the sprint goal. The work that team members pick for the next 24 hours should align with their strategy to meet sprint goal. Usually if the teams have the culture of individual ownership, the collaborative effort to take ownership of sprint goal and hold each other accountable may get missed. This is where a scrum master can help by bringing awareness and shifting the paradigm of individual ownership to team ownership.
- Business or technical Problem solving in daily scrum – while solving business or technical problems are important, they tend to take away the focus from the purpose of daily scrum. Such problem solving can easily be done after or before daily scrum.
