When to use
Every working day of the sprint, at the same time and in the same place, physical or online.
Roles
- Developers: run the daily scrum. It is their planning meeting.
- Scrum Master: makes sure it happens and stays to 15 minutes, and owns the impediment log.
- Product Owner: attends when useful, to answer questions about scope or priority. You don't run the meeting.
Before you start
- Make sure the sprint board shows every item and task, and that it is up to date.
- Keep the impediment log open where the team can see it.
Steps
- Start on time, even if someone is missing.
- Look at the board, not at people. Walk the items from right to left, nearest to done first, and ask what it takes to finish each one.
- Check the sprint goal. Ask: "Are we still on track for the sprint goal? If not, what do we change?"
- Name impediments. Anyone who is blocked says so, in one sentence. Don't solve it in the room.
- Plan the day. Agree who works on what today, and who pairs with whom.
- Stop at 15 minutes. The people who need to resolve something stay afterwards. Everyone else gets back to work.
- Log and chase impediments. Straight after, the Scrum Master records each new impediment with an owner and a target date, and checks yesterday's.
- Escalate what the team can't fix. If an impediment is outside the team's control and older than two working days, the Scrum Master escalates it. Dependencies go to the Project Manager, and capacity or priority problems go to the Product Owner.
Incidents during the sprint
If an incident pulls someone onto Run work, say so at the daily scrum. If it will affect the sprint goal, the Product Owner decides the same day whether to drop or swap an item. Record the time spent, because it feeds the Run allowance in the next capacity plan.
Outputs
- A shared plan for the day, aimed at the sprint goal.
- An up-to-date impediment log, with an owner and a date for every item.
Pitfalls
- Status reports to the Scrum Master. The daily scrum is for the Developers to plan together, not to report upward.
- Problem-solving in the meeting. Stop at 15 minutes and take the conversation offline.
- Impediments that live forever. An impediment without an owner and a date doesn't get cleared.