What is Daily Scrum in Scrum? Explain anti-patterns and failure examples

The Daily Scrum is one of the important Scrum events.

Although the daily scrum is strongly recognized as progress confirmation, the purpose of the daily scrum is not the only one in “achieving the sprint goal”.

Also, if you are a Scrum Master or aspiring to be a Scrum Master, it is important to understand how the Scrum Master should be involved in the Daily Scrum.

In this article, I explain the purpose, method, and flow of the Daily Scrum.

Please use it as a reference.

What is Daily Scrum

What is Daily Scrum

“Daily Scrum” is one of the five Scrum events “Sprint”, “Sprint Planning”, “Sprint Review” and ” Sprint Retrospective “.

Sometimes called daily standups, these are short 15-minute meetings each day.
In Japanese, it’s called morning meeting.

In this article, I will explain the purpose of the Daily Scrum and how to do it.

the purpose

The Daily Scrum is like a strategy meeting for the team to achieve the Sprint Goal.
The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to clarify the work for the day and coordinate the plan. Also, if there is a problem, we will work to resolve it quickly.

So the whole point of the Daily Scrum isn’t “reviewing the work that team members completed yesterday”. It’s about thinking ahead, such as “how to tackle the day” and “how to remove obstacles for the team”.

Daily scrum rules

Daily Scrums are recommended to be held at the same time and in the same environment to keep the team in rhythm.

Daily Scrum time is 15 minutes and held at the same location

Since the Daily Scrum happens every day, it should be a short 15 minutes and the team should stick to it.
Also, if the place and time change every day, unnecessary resources will be used for checking the schedule. Keep the same time and place every day and be aware of the environment where the scrum team can concentrate on development.

Daily Scrum Participants

	Product owner	scrum master	Developer
Obligation to participate	Optional	Optional	Required
Right to speak	none	Facilitate only	Yes

Usually the Scrum Master/Product Owner does not directly participate in the Daily Scrum unless he is working as a developer in the sprint.

However, if you are not participating in the sprint as a developer, the Product Owner and other stakeholders can join as listening participants. They may want to participate to keep track of their progress towards the Sprint Goal.

The Scrum Master may also guide developers on how to make the Daily Scrum productive and how to complete it in the 15 minute window.

How to do daily scrum

The Daily Scrum must be used effectively within the 15-minute timebox to achieve the Sprint Goal. For this reason, preparation in advance is also important.
Before the daily scrum method, I will explain the advance preparation in the daily scrum.

Daily Scrum method and progress

Let’s take a look at how to do it in detail. There is currently no set agenda for the Daily Scrum.

The three previously designated Daily Scrum Questions are:

I think this question is useful for teams starting Daily Scrum.
However, at the same time, I sometimes hear voices saying that it will become a mere existence.
In that case, there is no problem in adding variations or arranging them freely.

Examples of Daily Scrum Improvement |

In principle, the daily scrum is held in a 15-minute timebox, but there are times when the time runs out, or there is too much tendency to check individual progress, and the recognition of overall progress cannot be shared within the team, it may not go well.

The Daily Scrum is not strictly defined in the Scrum Guide .

Just like Agile, keep improving your daily scrum by iterating and experimenting. Here are some examples.

Get rid of the standerized question “What did you do yesterday?”

By getting rid of the standard “What did you do yesterday?” question, you’ll save time on simple progress reports that are only meant to check progress.
However, the scrum board must be kept up to date.

Pre-share “block” items on the scrum board among development members

Briefly share the ‘block’ items of the scrum board in advance. By doing so, you may find more improvements and ideas.

Ask more specific questions to focus the discussion

Narrow your focus by asking more specific questions, such as “Tell me two or three highlights from yesterday.” By doing so, you can succinctly shorten one person’s conversation.

Don’t ask negative questions or discuss, make it a place to discuss how to improve in a positive way

Avoid backward-looking questions and answers. Think only ahead and focus on what you are trying to do next, what is holding you back from achieving your sprint goals, and how you can improve. This allows the team to stay positive and focus on achieving the sprint goal.

Have a discussion that confirms overall progress rather than confirming individual progress

Discuss the progress of the work as a whole rather than individual updates. By doing so, it will no longer be an individual report, so one person will be able to make multiple statements in detail, not just once.

Daily Scrum flow and improvement

It will be held at the same time and in the same environment. The team should agree on this in advance.

Set a timer for 15 minutes and stick to the daily scrum time.

Let’s start with the 3 Daily Scrum Questions.

Discuss ways to improve the Daily Scrum in the Sprint Retrospective.

Iterate through the approach in whatever way works best for you to see your progress towards meeting the Sprint Goal.

Examples of Daily Scrum

Below is an example of how a daily scrum meeting should proceed.

In this example, the scrum master is facilitating, but it is desirable to have a scrum master in the sense of teaching at first, and then any developer can facilitate once they get used to it.

The Daily Scrum Anti-Pattern

The above is a common problem and a common case as a question.
Let’s take a look at some daily scrum tips.

Daily Scrum FAQ

I feel that the daily scrum is long. How to keep within 15 minutes?

The Scrum Master, or Facilitator, displays a 15-minute timer for everyone to see.

What if one person talks too much in the Daily Scrum?

Someone gives a simple signal. You can make a sound, or you can use a doll to make it look cute. If you agree on these rules in advance with your team, you won’t feel bad.

The same people always speak at the Daily Scrum, how can we improve?

Rotate facilitators to give all members the opportunity to serve as facilitators.

Long Daily Scrum! 
What should I do if the discussion diverges and goes on for longer than 15 minutes?

If it cannot be resolved within 15 minutes, try to meet outside the daily scrum. And I’ll move the issue to discuss to the parking lot. In the parking lot, issues can be displayed side by side like a parking lot, and the necessary members can check and discuss when necessary.

What are the points to improve the daily scrum?

During the Sprint Retrospective, we look back at the Daily Scrum and see if we can improve it.

Is the Daily Scrum held in the evening? 
What time of day is best?

There is no fixed time of day for the Daily Scrum. It is generally held at the morning assembly or evening assembly, and I think many people do it at the morning assembly.

Tell me Joe! Can I get rid of the Daily Scrum?

Good question. I believe that if the team mobs (collaborate), the Daily Scrum will inevitably go away.
Mob means working in a team, so there is no need to set up a new forum to share information and issues. If the team is mobbing or sharing within the team in some way, there is no problem even if the daily scrum is eliminated.
But if not, I recommend running a daily scrum. The Daily Scrum is an important process for the team to achieve the Sprint Goal.

* What is a mob?
Mob is a way for a team to all work on the same thing at the same time, in the same environment, on the same computer.
Many of you may have heard of mob programming, but teams that practice mob use it in many situations, not just software development.
(The 3-5 player mob evolved from the 2 player pair.)

Daily Scrum Summary

The Daily Scrum is one of the key Scrum development events for the team to be productive and effective in achieving the Sprint Goals.

The Daily Scrum is a meeting by developers for developers.
When a problem occurs, people tend to make negative comments, but the important things are ” What are you trying to do
next? ” Can we improve if we do this?” By making positive statements toward the goal in this way, the team can focus on achieving the sprint goal with a positive mindset. By all means, please try to find the best daily scrum method for your team while repeating improvements!