What is a Daily Scrum Meeting?

One of the advantages of adopting Agile Scrum is that it is an easy framework to use and implement. And what contributes to its simplicity is the artifacts and events like the daily Scrum that create more transparency and collaboration between teams.

Scrum meetings are held not just to track progress but also to acknowledge small successes and team milestones. Organizations transitioning to Agile often find it difficult to implement the Agile culture that is more transparent and collaborative. One of the ways to ensure a successful Agile adoption is to religiously enforce Scrum meetings that aim to promote Agile values.

So, what is a Scrum meeting and why is it so critical for Agile success? Let’s find out in this blog.

What Is a Daily Scrum Meeting?

Scrum is an iterative and incremental approach to project development. Large projects are broken down into smaller chunks called sprints. These sprints are of a fixed time length and require the teams to complete a certain set of allocated tasks according to priority. The end goal of each sprint is the delivery of a workable feature or a product.  

The sprint is a Scrum event that encompasses many other events, all of which are necessary to ensure the smooth working of the project and team collaboration. The main scrum events included in a sprint are: 

• Sprint planning 
• Daily Scrum 
• Sprint Review 
• Sprint Retrospective 

So, what exactly is the Daily Scrum?  

According to the Scrum Guide, which completely defines Scrum, “the purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work.” 

The Daily Scrum, as the name suggests is an event that needs to be carried out daily. 

The Daily Scrum is held at the same time and the same place each day of the Sprint, to reduce complexity and eliminate confusion. The daily meeting is a time when problems are discussed, work completed is evaluated, work is allocated and the tasks for the next day are planned. 

This daily meeting that fosters communication is a great way to build teams and keep them motivated.

Who leads the daily Scrum and what’s the intent behind it?

A typical Scrum team is made up of: 

• The Scrum Master 
• The Product Owner 
• The Developers 

The Daily Scrum is led by the Scrum Master and the main focus of this daily meet is to bring the team together and discuss the status of tasks and progress. Developers list out any grievances they might be having that is hampering the workflow and set tasks for the next day.  

The questions that Daily Scrum generally helps to answer, include: 

• What did I accomplish yesterday and how did that help the developers attain Sprint Goal? 
• What will I do today to help the developers meet the Sprint Goal? 
• Do I foresee any impediments or roadblocks that may prevent me or the developers from reaching the goal?

How long should the daily scrum take?

The daily scrum according to the Scrum Guide, should be a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum team. The reason it is timeboxed is because Scrum believes in simplicity and reducing time and overheads associated with events. Since the team meets daily, members need not spend too much time discussing things. A timeboxed session ensures that only critical matters are discussed and progress is tracked.

Long scrum meetings are more of a distraction and negatively impact the productivity of the team. Team members may lose interest if the meeting loses its casualness. This in turn leads to loss in value. 

A short meeting that is carried out by team members standing around in a circle near the task board, is the right way to go about it.

Who Attends a Scrum Meeting?

The Daily Scrum is an event mainly for the developers and they are the main participants of the meeting. The other team members including the Product Owner or Scrum Master can participate in the meeting if they are actively working on items in the Sprint Backlog, provided they provide useful contribution or participate as Developers. If not, then they may attend but as listeners.

What Are the Different Types of Scrum Meetings? 

While there are different types of Scrum meetings, the format that each team chooses depends on team member preferences. These meetings can take on different styles and can be customized to suit the needs of the team.  

• Sprint Planning Meeting: Once a project gets the go-ahead from investors and company management, the Product Owner sets up the team and helps it understand the product vision, goals, objectives and mission. This initial stage is critical to chart out the process to be followed in the development process. The project is broken down into events and sprints and the team decided which tasks need to be allocated to the sprints based on their priority on the product backlog. This process needs to be thorough, which is why this meeting can go on for several hours during which the items are moved from product backlog to the sprint backlog and the order of development is decided.  
• Daily Scrum and Sprint Execution: Once the product development is underway, the team meets daily for the daily scrum meeting. This daily scrum meeting is preferably carried out at the same time and same place. The team reports on its progress and any issues it might be facing. This is an essential part of the Scrum process and fosters collaboration and ensures that all are in synergy with the sprint goal.  
• Sprint Review Meeting: The sprint has been completed and the goal is ready. Now the team has to demonstrate the solution and its workability to the Product Owner and the stakeholders. In the Sprint Review Meeting, a live demonstration of the feature or product built is carried out and the Product Owner, Scrum Master and stakeholders can suggest changes or improvements that can be implemented.  
• Sprint Retrospective Meeting: Once the sprint is completed, the team gets together for the sprint retrospective meeting to reflect upon the progress made, any impediments that slowed down work and how things can be made better in the upcoming sprints. The review meeting is causal and participants take a non-judgemental and non-accusatory tone with the aim of doing better in future sprints/projects.  
• Backlog Refinement Meeting: In this meeting Backlog refinement is carried out, which is a process where the Product Owner and the developers work together to ensure that the items on the product backlog are: 
  • Ordered according to priority 
  • Understood by all involved in the project 
  • Estimated based on effort 

While generally carried out at the end of the current sprint or the start of the next sprint, backlog refinement is an ongoing process and the meeting can be held at any time during the sprint. The goal is to ensure that the product backlog is clean and ready for the next sprint and that the developers are reasonably confident about achieving sprint goals.  It is attended by the Product Owner, Scrum Master and the developers and they discuss the priority items for the next sprint.

What Are the Benefits of Scrum Meetings?

Scrum offers many modes of open communication, transparency and collaboration and scrum meetings are one of them along with burndown and burnup charts and more.

There are several benefits that come with Scrum Meetings: 

• Improved communication between team members and also with stakeholders 
• Identification of impediments and consequently minimizing risks 
• Quick decision-making 
• Time saving 
• Daily addressal of progress and roadblocks, which can then be solved immediately 
• Creation of an environment of trust where team members can speak freely  

Conclusion 

The aim of all Scrum meetings is to aid in the incremental and adaptive development process of Scrum and encourage an environment of open communication, trust and collaboration in the team. The Daily Scrum is an important aspect of fostering these qualities and must be implemented as a necessary part of the Scrum project.