How to Run a Great Daily Scrum Meeting: Agenda, Participants & More Scrum is a framework that allows teams to address complexity. It comes from software development, which is part of agile project management. It’s designed for small teams who are working in what’s called “sprints,” short periods of no longer than 30 days and usually only two weeks. A daily scrum meeting is a way for the scrum team to track their progress in the sprint. They are also called standup meetings because the team stands t o make sure the meeting is short. How can you get the most out of these brief daily scrum meetings? Let’s first understand what a scrum meeting is. Daily Scrum Meeting Questions A daily scrum meeting is not about addressing issues in the project or solving problems. These matters are subjects for other scrum ceremonies . A daily scrum meeting can be broken down into three questions: 1. What did we do yesterday? 2. What are we doing today ? 3. What is in our way? Each team member answers the three questions briefly, and then the next person does the same. This is a simple, efficient and fast way to discern what has been done and what still needs to be done. Don’t confuse this with a status report. This isn’t to determine who is ahead, behind or on track. Rather, it’s about getting commitments from each team member. Daily Scrum Meeting Agenda There really isn’t an agenda for the daily scrum meeting outside of the three questions that are asked of the team. Therefore, to give you a better idea of what happens during a scrum meeting we’ll look at a daily scrum meeting example. Let’s imagine a chat app that is under developme nt. What tasks did you complete yesterday? The team imported emojis that can be used to personalize the messages. What tasks will you work on today? The team is going to develop profile pages that include the team members’ names, departments, skills, etc. Do you foresee any roadblocks for issues that might slow you down? Yes, the designers are behind schedule in creating the template for the profile pages. That’s a very simplistic example of a daily scrum meeting but from it you can see how important the st andup meeting is. By starting the day this way, you can review past work, identify goals of the day and blockers that might prevent you from completing the tasks. Daily Scrum Meeting Best Practices Name Your Team and Give Them a Totem It might sound silly to give your team a name (after all you’re working not playing), but sometimes a small laugh is all it takes to get the team on the same page. When you assemble the team, before executing the project, see if there’s a commonality among the group. Or, ask t hem to throw out some names as a fun icebreaker for the meeting. Say they love sea life and call themselves Team Octopus. Well, get them a rubber octopus, and use it as a talking stick to pass around during your scrum meeting. Whoever holds the octopus speaks. It’s a goof, but before you know it, T - shirts are being printed. The point is to get your team bonding and working collectively like the eight arms of their mascot. Report Round Robin Style Ritual is important. It creates structure and embeds that routine, so the ritual can be followed. But you don’t ever want to do something without thinking, which is the danger when you meet every morning and do the s ame thing repeatedly. For example, going around the team and getting the answers to the three questions that make up a daily scrum meeting. You wait your turn and say your piece, and then on to the next person. To keep team members on their toes and not su cking down hot coffee to stir them from a stupor, try mixing it up. Usually, the scrum master will ask someone to speak, and then they’ll go clockwise or counterclockwise from there. The problem is, that each team member can space out a bit until it’s thei r turn. Instead, have the team report round - robin style. That is, ask for a volunteer to get the meeting started with their report. Then, when they’re done, have them pick the next person to speak and so forth. This way everyone is on their toes, and they can even turn it into team - building , making the meeting productive but playful. Use a Scrum Board A scrum board might not sound like a barrel of monkeys, but as an idea, it’s a great way to run a daily scrum meeting effectively. A scrum board is simply a way to visualize the project tasks and their progress. Think of it as a snapshot of the current sprint backlog . Everyone can see at - a - glance what work still needs to get done and what work has been completed. It complements the three questions everyone will answer in the meeting by providing another way to see what has been accomplished and what needs to be done. Tips from Agile Pros to Take Your Scrum Meeting Even Further We got some quotes from real agile professionals who hold scrum meetings every day at their organ izations. They had a few additional tips for getting even more productivity out of your scrum meetings. Be Ruthless About Time Christopher McFarlane, a Scrum Master and Agile Coach at Walmart Canada say s that you have to be very meticulous about time if you’re going to dedicate a small part of every day to a scrum meeting. MacFarlane said, “Start on time irrespective of the fact that some team members have not arrived. Order and discipline are the essenc es (never be late).” Additionally, for those that are struggling to keep scrum meetings efficient, he says you should use a timer. “Keep pace in Scrum meetings by setting a timer! The constraint can help the team to keep focused and to the point. Prioritize discussion topics and start with the most important. Encourage team members to come to meetings prepared and over time track the team’s progress to keep within a time box.” Stick to the Point Hernan Santiesteban, an agile expert at the marketing agency Great Lakes Web , discusses the importance of staying on topic and removing ex cessive details. “Make sure that any detailed conversations are properly diverted. For example, You are running a daily stand - up meeting where scrum team members report status. One member is having a problem that requires a detailed conversation. When you realize this, it’s best to divert that discussion to a different time. The key is to keep these meetings short and allow everyone to complete their brief report out. If you’re struggling with leading scrum meetings, try to reduce the scope of the meeting. Focus on getting a smaller objective completed in the same amount of time.” We hope these daily scrum meeting tips will help you better implement scrum at your organization!