Purpose of Daily Scrum Meeting

Scrum Framework is one of the most widely adopted Agile frameworks as it is lightweight and easy for many organizations to understand. Scrum works iteratively and incrementally where the values are delivered in time-boxed periods called Sprints. When the project begins, the team builds the basics of the product that could be released in the market. Later, based on the feedback of the customers and the users, the Developers start adding product increments to the Sprints. Scrum conducts four essential meetings called Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective. While each Scrum event has a crucial role in product development, in this article, we learn more about the purpose of the Daily Scrum, also called Daily Stand-up. 

What is Daily Scrum?

Daily Scrum is one of the most important Scrum Events that help Developers reduce complexity in product development and easily communicate with each other and the Scrum Master and Product Owner. It is a 15-minute event where the Developers discuss the techniques and structures they are using to progress forward for the Sprint Goal. The Daily Standup is held at the same place and time every working day. If the Scrum Master and the Product Owner are also working on the items of the Product Backlog, they participate as Developers. Daily Scrum aims to provide a structure for the Developers to form an actionable plan for the day. It improves the self-management of the Developers and helps them to create focus in their work. 

One of the most important Daily Scrum purposes is to enhance the communications among the Developers such that they can find out impediments that would hinder the product development process earlier. Daily stand-up also helps in promoting quick decision-making skills such that the team need not hold other meetings that may have erupted if a particular problem would not have been solved. Another point to understand is that Daily Scrum is time-boxed, and each individual only gets a limited amount of time to explain how they are working with the process and how much progress they have made since yesterday. Daily Scrum is not the only time that the Developers communicate; they can have detailed discussions and meetings throughout the day to adapt and re-plan the rest of Sprint’s tasks. 

What is the purpose of Daily Standup?

The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to evaluate the progress toward the Sprint Goal so that the team can make changes to the Sprint Backlog as needed and hence, update the existing work remaining in the Sprint. The Daily Scrum is used to assess the progress of the team and evaluate how they are working towards completing the Sprint Goal. It helps the team to understand how much they have to work such that they achieve the Sprint Goal. The Sprint aims to create an anticipated Product Increment at the end of the Sprint to add value to the product. Daily Scrum helps the Developers to communicate and accomplish the aim and help the team become a self-organizing team.

The Scrum team often meets immediately after the Daily Scrum so that they can discuss Sprint's tasks in detail. They adapt and re-plan the remaining work in the Sprint, such that they can achieve the Sprint Goal. The Daily Standup helps the Developers improve their knowledge level and makes them concentrate on communicating with other team members. The Daily Scrum's main purpose is to remove any impediments that may arise during the development and solve them before they become bigger issues. 

Purpose of Daily Scrum Questions

Before the Scrum 2020 update, the structure of the Daily Scrum was standard. The Developers had to answer three questions to help everyone understand their progress towards the Sprint Goal. However, after the Scrum 2020 update, there is no specific structure in which the Developers have to structure their updates about their progress. Nevertheless, as a Scrum beginner, knowing about the three Daily Standup questions would give individuals clarity of what they have to present in the Daily Scrum.

The three Daily Scrum questions are:

• What did the Developer do yesterday that contributed to the Sprint Goal?
• What will they do today that will bring them closer to the goal?
• Are they facing any impediments that are blocking their progress?

As these questions are pretty straightforward, one can understand what the Developer has to know before going for the Daily Scrum. The main purpose of Daily Scrum meeting questions are:

1. Ensure that everyone on the Scrum Team is on the same page and knows who has completed particular tasks. This helps the Developers understand what tasks need completion and what plans could be changed today based on yesterday's results.
2. The team could see a complete picture of the Sprint's progress so that they can help adjust their plans to complete their goal.
3. The blockers/impediments could be removed by the team and help each other finish their Sprint tasks.

Role of Scrum Master in Daily Scrum

The main task of the Scrum Master is to make sure that the meeting takes place every day. However, they do not act as the primary person who conducts the meeting. The Scrum Master encourages the Developers to facilitate the meeting such that they promote self-organization in the team. The Scrum Master also ensures that the Daily Scrum is time-boxed such that it is completed within 15 minutes. As the Daily Scrum is an internal meeting among the Developers, other people from outside the team are not allowed to disrupt the meeting. The Scrum Master makes sure that the meeting goes smoothly and the Developers do not have any disturbance from outside. 

Scrum 2020 Update for Daily Scrum Meeting

In 2017, the Scrum guide made the three questions optional and in the update, the Scrum guide eliminated these questions. The main aim of the Scrum guide update is to encourage the Scrum Framework to be more open and less prescriptive. By eliminating the questions specifically, the Developers can explain more easily what exactly they are working on. This gives them more flexibility to work and perform better. The Developers can suggest any questions which shed light on the project progress and answer questions regarding the Sprint Goal. The course of a developer's day can be explained in detail and does not have to be bound only with the three Daily Scrum questions. This update helps the team members answer and address only important tasks which would help the company’s business and add value to the product.

Participants of the Daily Standup

• The Daily Scrum primarily consists of the Developers who have to meet every day at the same time and place. After the Daily Scrum, the Developers can meet among themselves and discuss the plan in detail such that they can schedule their work appropriately.
• The Scrum Master is also an important member of the Daily Standup as they ensure that the Daily Scrum occurs every day. The Scrum Master helps the Developers to make the meetings time-boxed within 15 minutes.
• Since the Daily Scrum is an internal meeting among the Developers and the Scrum Master, the presence of other Scrum team members is optional. The product owner and other stakeholders may join the meeting but should not disrupt it. 

How to conduct a Daily Standup meeting?

For any Daily Standup to be effective, it should contain a pinch of motivation and experimentation so that the Scrum Team could benefit from this short meeting. Many people treat the Daily Standup as a place to discuss the details of the project in general, which may take longer than expected. The meeting may be unfocused and can head in a vague direction. However, if one follows the guidelines below, the Daily Scrum can be very effective. 

• Hold the meetings in a fixed place and at a fixed time and also make sure that everyone is one time as the meeting is a really short one. Nobody should leave early or should be late for this meeting as they may miss points that are discussed in the meeting. The main purpose of the Daily Scrum would be to decrease the communication gap such that everyone interacts effortlessly, naturally, and smoothly.
• Since the name of the meeting is called Daily Stand-up, no one should sit and discuss the points and only stand and communicate. This would help everyone finish the meeting easily as having a meeting in a comfortable position will only increase the time to get settled won etc. Hence, this would also make sure that the meeting ends in 15 minutes.
• As per the new Scrum 2020 update, there is no need to strictly follow the pattern of answering three questions in the Daily Scrum. Here, everyone can take those questions as a base and add concise and appropriate statements that describe their work more accurately. The team members should remember that only a gist has to be spoken about, not the entire details of the update.
• The developers' problems and work status are the topics that must be focused on during the Daily Scrum.
• In this meeting, each Developer doesn’t need to report their work to the Scrum Master specifically. They should address their status update to the entire team so that everyone associated with the feature is aware and transparency is created in the Scrum Team. Hence, this ensures maximum collaboration for the entire team and every organization.
• Every person gets their chance to speak and each person has to speak only once. Other members have to listen and understand everyone’s update so that they could see if any update also interacts with their work. The team members can ask questions so that they can have clarity of tasks that they have to complete for the day.
• The automated Scrum management software helps track the project target (eg, Sprint board for user stories). 

Conclusion

The Daily standup aims to improve the communication among the Developers and the Scrum Master. The main aim is to make sure that everyone on the Scrum Team understands all the goals and tasks properly and can share their status of the work with the entire team.

At Simpliaxis, we recognize its pivotal role in fostering collaboration and ensuring clarity on project goals and tasks. Our Certified Scrum Master (CSM®) course equips participants with the skills to orchestrate effective standups, emphasizing proactive issue identification and resolution. The Daily Scrum is not just a status meeting, it also helps the team to identify any problems /blockers /impediments such that they are removed before it becomes a bigger issue. The Daily Scrum should be conducted at the same place and time such that it becomes a habit for everyone to come prepared for the meeting and discuss first thing in the morning. Using the questions as a reference to explain the current progress of the project is also a great way to communicate among the Developers. And lastly, the Daily Scrum is an excellent method to enhance the team members' decision-making abilities and increase their knowledge.