If you find your current daily scrum valuable, consider how it could be even more beneficial. If you question its value, consider what’s preventing it from helping the team perform better.
This ceremony is often seen as a daily status meeting and is even referred to as one of the levels of agile planning. Yes, its main intention from the origins of both Scrum and xP were to help the team learn, inspect and adapt. And it should absolutely be viewed as one of the opportunities to create new, shared knowledge
and to be a 'feedback loop'.
But over the years much research has shown that the real, underlying benefits of the standard ceremonies are often something quite different to conventional wisdom.
At Victoria Labs we work with experienced agile coaches, use research and well established psychology theories to design simple, cost effective aids. We create aids to trigger behaviours and actions that help ordinary meetings and ceremonies become opportunities to foster real team behaviours.
When you have your daily scrum, ideally all of the points below are true. They are all conducive to a team performing optimally, creating real value for the business - normally by delighting the customer but there are other outputs and outcomes that benefit the business whilst improving your job satisfaction.
The Product Vision & The Customer
Always be mindful of why the product or service exists for your company, how it contributes to its success and what users need.
The Sprint Backlog...
Daily Scrum...
A Definition of Done...
Be clear on what 'done' means, that it ensures quality, can be achieved with minimal reliance on anyone outside of the team etc.
Sprint Burn-down Chart - Flow Rate Chart - Cycle Time Chart
Radiates information and, at a glance, suggests when things might not be on track.
If you are using fixed time-boxes you will burn-down or burn up valuable achievements across this time period.
If you are using Single Piece flow, such as Kanban, you have no time-box so you forecast 'backlog item completion dates' using metrics such as Lead-time and Cycle time*
(e.g. the sprint goal is at risk)
Non-team members…
At the End of the Scrum…
Can you see how each of these points can help to create an environment that helps teams thrive?
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Research has shown that a well facilitated daily scrum has these benefits:
... and of course provides your team an opportunity to learn, inspect and adapt on a frequent basis. This should all help you and your teammates to meet your commitments to one another and achieve any progress forecasts that you've shared.
Use our Online Checklist to assess your standup.
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*Lead time is the total amount of time a task spends from ‘order’ to ‘delivery’ in your system.
Cycle time is the amount of time you spend actively working on it.
Victoria Labs' Daily Prompt Cards are designed so team members can help Daily Scrums run smoother and quicker, and make it a place where underlying or systemic problems can get noticed more easily.