I’ve observed many new scrum teams claiming that they are doing Scrum very well because they are religiously attending Daily Scrum meeting.
They believe that attending this ritual is the silver bullet. It will solve all the problems they’re having. Not matter what the problems are…unclear requirements, unclean code or inadequate skills of the team members…whatever.
All they know that they need to answer three magic questions and they’ll be able to solve all the problems:
- What did I do yesterday?
- What I’ll do today?
- What are the blockers?
But, does it happen that way? Ever?
I doubt.
Haven’t you ever observed your team saying that there aren’t any blocker issues but fail to deliver as committed? I have.
So, where is the problem, Is Daily Scrum Overrated?
As I see it, Daily Scrum isn’t overrated but the teams following it sometimes believe that just attending Daily Scrum they will succeed. That never happens that way and they think if Daily Scrum is overrated.
A Scrum team has to understand that there are no silver bullets. In fact, three magic questions provide the team a framework to exhibit the team-commitment and bring the nastiest impediment out such that it can be eliminated sooner than later.
To really get benefits from the Daily Scrum, the team has to have the right mindset.
The mindset that makes the Scrum team effective is:
They are the ONE team, not individual piece of excellence.
If Engineer X is having an impediment in coding part, Engineer Y who works on quality assurance part is equally concerned and vice versa.
There are no silos. No team member is successful till every team member is successful.
Each team member is committed for ensuring that every other team member wins. Chief goal is to deliver to sprint commitment, not to the individual commitment.
There is shared ownership and shared celebrations.
Daily Scrum is less about doing “Daily Scrum” ritual and more about ensuring that team delivers as per the commitment. [Tweet this]
When team gets it right, Daily Scrum starts generating immense value.