Opening Communication Within a Scrum Team During the Daily Meeting

Mike Vizdos, https://www.michaelvizdos.com/implementing-scrum/

Introduction

This article examines something called "The Daily Scrum Meeting" used by Scrum Teams on Agile Software Development Projects around the world. Using some real-life stories and cartoons, you should walk away from this with a better understanding of what not to do, what to do, and then how you can make changes if the first team looks more like what your Scrum Team is doing today.

Before we start, I'd like to introduce you to the concept of a Chicken and Pig on a Scrum Project. I think this comic strip will help you when thinking more about the context of this article.

Team X -- Scrum Meeting -- 8:38 AM Tuesday Morning

The room for the Daily Scrum Meeting is the best-of-the-best conference room in their organization, containing thousand dollar plus individual leather chairs around an imported teak wood conference table, with coffee and donuts available. A state-of-the-art conference calling system in place.

The Daily Scrum is supposed to start at 8:30, and only 1/2 the team is there. Nobody bothered calling into the conference bridge line. Of the Scrum Team Members who are there, one just rolled in from an all night party smelling of smoke and cheap liquor. He is clearly hung over (and possibly still drunk). Again. Nobody on the team seems surprised. People are chatting on their phones or thumb-typing into the crack berries.

No ScrumMaster is present. Instead of the Product Owner being in attendance, a Senior VP has decided to show up, and so far she does not seem impressed. She is looking at her watch. And. Looking at someone to take charge. Clearly in her mind this Scrum thing is not in control. She is planning on talking to the Product Owner right after this meeting if she can find that committee of people.

The drunk team member rips out a large burp, and hangs his head over the back of the chair, moaning.

It is now 8:45. The team looks around the room at each other and decides the Daily Scrum meeting is over. They spent their fifteen minutes in the conference room and all of the good donuts are gone anyway. That's what they expect a Scrum Team should be doing on a daily basis. All Scrum Team members leaving sighing in relief an thinking, "We have real work to do, this is such a waste of my time."

All the team members head back to their cubicles in different parts of the campus, the drunk one heading to the bathroom to pray to the Porcelain Princess. The Senior VP is standing there. In shock. Thinking, "Heads will roll on this." E-mail wars begin going up and down the chain of command. There is no ScrumMaster in sight. The Senior VP's telephone starts ringing with a familiar tone from Jimmy Buffet. The lights go out and she leaves the room very frustrated, thinking now is a good time to get HR to make sure they get a Project Manager to take control of this ScrumMaster job they are clearly not doing today.

Team Y -- Scrum Meeting -- 8:38 AM Tuesday Morning

The room for the Daily Scrum Meeting is the same room where the team completes their work on a daily basis as a collocated team. Information radiators abound -- including a Story Board, a BurnDown Chart and Team Norms.

The Scrum Team has been together for about four months, and know that the main reason for the Daily Scrum Meeting is to keep it under fifteen minutes so that the team can get together and coordinate what has occurred since the last meeting (normally yesterday!), what will happen today, and what impediments are slowing people down.

They know it is not a daily status report to anyone. It is for the team.

Most of the Scrum Team members are there and the meeting started promptly at 8:30 AM. The ScrumMaster is absent and the team is not concerned as they know the ScrumMaster is not a traditional Project Manager of past waterfall projects they have worked in (before moving to more agile software development techniques).

They also know the ScrumMaster would not be here today, as a personal item came up with the family that takes priority over any work they are doing. The team has a sense of a work-life balance and tries to hold each other accountable to make sure this team norm is followed by everyone on the team.

They are in the process of building a high performing team, and their ScrumMaster has facilitated the team to get through the forming, storming, and norming cycles of team development (as they learned about from a model by Bruce Tuckman and some corny exercises along the way).

One of the team members walks in at 8:38, clearly late for the meeting. Without hesitation, the late Scrum Team Member walks over to the corner with an extra large pickle jar, silently opens it, and starts chomping away. The late team member joins the circle that has formed for the group this morning.

Everyone is standing up. Everyone in attendance is keeping focused on the three questions that should be addressed by each person during this meeting:

1. What have I completed since yesterday?
2. What will I complete before our next Daily Scrum Meeting?
3. What are my impediments?

Nobody controls the meeting or takes notes and one can feel the respect level among the team members speaking with the others.

One of the team members is having a hard time with a technical task, and knows this is not the time to dig down into a solution -- this is what they do during the day as the team is collocated and working together toward a common Sprint Goal. This team member brings it up as an impediment, and another team member agrees to follow-up with them after the Daily Scrum Meeting in order to remove the impediment together. Someone makes a note of it on the whiteboard listing out impediments and who is working on them, since they need to keep track of this kind of stuff for compliance purposes.

One of the team members starts to talk about a party being planned for tonight after work. The rest of the team, knowing that this is not part of what they should be discussing right now, reminds her of the three questions and asks that she please focus on helping get this Daily Scrum Meeting completed. She passes.

Story cards during this meeting are moved from "Not Started" to "Work in Process" to "Done" as needed. The feeling of "waterfall" projects is nowhere to be felt in this room; the team is focused on a very clear Sprint Goal that delivers specific business value at the end of this Sprint.

At the end of the meeting one of the team members adds up the hours remaining for the tasks in the Sprint, and updates the Burn Down Chart.

They all look at the Burn Down Chart and see if they are on track to complete the Sprint, and agree that all looks well right now. They agree with the Product Owner -- who is present -- to make sure they keep in touch during the day with the possible impediment mentioned earlier because they know they may have to de-scope a story from the Sprint Backlog and put it back onto the Product Backlog for future prioritization. Their is no sense of "us" versus "them" -- clearly this is one team working toward a specific goal who understand the larger picture and business implications of what they are delivering.

Throughout this Daily Scrum Meeting, a Senior VP has been standing outside the circle the team has formed around a small folding table with toys all over it, listening to what is happening -- real time. And. She has been quiet throughout the meeting since she knows she is not a contributing team member (she was a little ticked about being called a "Chicken" but now realizes the real difference between a Chicken and Pig as the metaphor for this Scrum Team).

It is 8:44. The meeting is over in under the maximum of fifteen minutes. The team breaks out into pairs and starts their daily work within their collocated room; they have a clear understanding of what needs to happen today and is excited about working together towards a real business solution.

A Quick Reflection

Here are a few questions for you and your team to discuss. Pass this around to your team members -- including both the Chickens and Pigs -- and decide what you as individual team members, the team as a whole, and the entire organization wants to do next.

If you are using Scrum today, which team looks like yours today -- Team X or Team Y?

Why?

If you are looking a lot like Team X, what is stopping you from becoming more like Team Y?

List the reasons and discuss them. As a group.

If you are not using Scrum today and are thinking about using it, which team do you want to be more like -- right from the beginning?

This will not happen overnight and takes a patient and effective ScrumMaster to help.

Next Steps

This article has given you a start regarding some of the tough conversations you have to discuss as a Scrum Team.

Talk about it with your Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the rest of your Scrum Team Members.

Why do I consider this so valuable? Because without communication people will shut down and start making assumptions.

And. As a member of a Scrum Team -- no matter what your role -- part of your job is to initiate these tough conversations so that you can become a high performing team. If you do not take personal responsibility and accountability, the rest of the organization around you will continue to try to push things back to the way they used to be.

So what if I told you I have seen teams transform from the hypothetical "Team X" into "Team Y" if the individuals, team members, and organizations supported this change.

You will always always always always (multiplied by infinity plus one) have a reason for not implementing a change within your organization. Change that wording "Yes... But" to "Yes... And" with your team and see what we mean by Scrum becoming the, "Art of the Possible."

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This article was originally published in the Fall 2008 issue of Methods & Tools