Daily Scrum - A simple format for getting to “Done”

I often get attendees at our Scrum Training ask me for my preferred format for a Daily Scrum. I don’t know that I have a preferred format, but definitely not “What I did yesterday, what I plan to do today and discussion about Blockers”. However, if I can get you to reflect on the purpose of the Scrum Guide:

… to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work.

A good format might be:

1. Developers remind themselves about the Sprint Goal; this simple kickoff helps bring the Sprint Goals back into focus for the developers.
2. Walk through the backlog items in the Sprint; discuss the progress on those items and highlight any issues on the individual items. It is important to always think about the “Definition of Done” whilst discussing progress on the back log items that contribute to the sprint goal.
3. It is important to make sure that there is a plan to progress toward the sprint goals, for example, making sure every member of team is clear on the path to getting the Sprint Goal delivered.
4. As part of making the plan for the next 24hours, the developers should pay attention to team members that might need help; practices such as mobbing or pairing might help get specific Sprint Backlog Items across the line to “Done”
5. Walk through all other backlog items in the Sprint Backlog that might not necessarily contribute to the product goal

Regardless of the format that your teams choose to adopt, it is important that developers understand the purpose of the Daily Scrum and continue to find value in the Daily Scrum. As an agile coach at J P Morgan, I encoraged developers to reflect regularly on the Daily Scrum; identifying practices that didn’t serve the team and the developers experimented with different formats of the Daily Scrum until they found a format that worked for their context.

We all know that the Daily Scrum should not be a status updates to the Scrum Master, Delivery Lead or the Product Owner but a planning meeting for the developers; however I have observed that when teams do not use a Sprint Goal, the Daily Scrum very quickly degenerates into a status update.

To learn about the Scrum Framework and its associated principles, join one or our Scrum workshops in the coming weeks.

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