Tips to Run Daily Scrum Meeting Effectively

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It can be hard for new teams to decide on a Daily Scrum format, so here are some recommendations that work well.

• Focus on the Sprint Goal. This is the most important thing that should drive you during the Daily Scrum. The main output from this event is a plan for the next 24 hours that will help achieve this goal. It’s a good practice for every Developer to explain what they did in the last 24 hours and what they will do in the next to get closer to the Sprint Goal.
• Use a Scrum board with the “Walk the Board” approach. A Scrum board helps people concentrate on current tasks. We suggest using the “Walk the Board” approach, where the team walks through all the work items on the board from right to left. The work items that are closest to “done” are discussed first. This helps identify impediments and keep everyone concentrated on completing tasks to move them to the Closed column. Try to avoid only using ticket numbers to refer to tasks; this makes your updates generic and provides less value to the rest of your team.
• Start using Work Item Age for your tickets on the board. During Daily meetings, pay attention to and discuss tickets with the highest Work Item Age to understand why they are taking longer and how this will impact the Sprint Goal. What actions do you need to include in the plan for the next 24 hours to proceed with these tickets?
• Do a brief review of past work. Developers run the application and inspect its state. Let every Developer describe their part of the work, discuss, and agree on next steps towards the Sprint Goal.
• Developers speak freely, not according to a set schedule or called upon by the Scrum Master. Developers independently pass the word to each other. Why do we use this approach at Exadel? First of all, people start listening to each other, at least to remember who hasn’t talked yet. Secondly, eventually it helps build self-management skills.
• Daily Scrum is not a problem-solving meeting; it’s about identifying a problem. Many teams book time right after the Daily Scrum to discuss outstanding issues and work on resolution.

Use the Fist to Five method. It helps measure the team’s level of confidence that the Sprint Goal will be achieved and gives a great insight if something has gone wrong. It is also a good input for the Sprint Retrospective.