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Todd A. Jacobs
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If You Aren't Planning Together, You Aren't Working Together

The Daily Scrum is not for addressing "issues," minor or not. It's a just-in-time planning meeting for the Developers to collaborate on the current day's work. If there are issues or blockers identified that won't easily fit within the time box of the Daily Scrum, then this is the time to coordinate who will meet to discuss it, and when that discussion will happen—in other words, coordinating and planning around the issue!

The Daily Scrum is a mandatory framework event. In fact, the 2020 Scrum Guide says (emphasis mine):

To reduce complexity...[the Daily Scrum] is held at the same time and place every working day of the Sprint.

If the team routinely has nothing to discuss during the Daily Scrum, then that's a whiffy project smell indicating that the team is not actively collaborating around a central coherence for the Increment, or that the team may not actually be doing Scrum.

The Daily Scrum Can Be Shortened, When Appropriate

You can certainly trim the length of the Daily Scrum on days when the just-in-time planning and coordination takes less than the maximum of 15 minutes. If you meet for five minutes and none of the Developers have anything else to talk about, everyone gets ten minutes back in their day. If the purpose of the meeting has been fulfilled, you don't have to keep going until you exhaust the time box. However, to implement Scrum properly, you need to provide the framework events like the Daily Scrum at predictable intervals on a reliable cadence. This ensures the entire Scrum Team can rely on the event cadence to coordinate things you may not have thought about ahead of time, and that last-minute planning concerns have a clear place to be addressed each day.

Doing anything else actively works against the empirical control process and the underlying framework. Don't do that.

If You Aren't Planning Together, You Aren't Working Together

The Daily Scrum is not for addressing "issues," minor or not. It's a just-in-time planning meeting for the Developers to collaborate on the current day's work. If there are issues or blockers identified that won't easily fit within the time box of the Daily Scrum, then this is the time to coordinate who will meet to discuss it, and when that discussion will happen—in other words, coordinating and planning around the issue!

The Daily Scrum is a mandatory framework event. In fact, the 2020 Scrum Guide says (emphasis mine):

To reduce complexity...[the Daily Scrum] is held at the same time and place every working day of the Sprint.

If the team routinely has nothing to discuss during the Daily Scrum, then that's a whiffy project smell indicating that the team is not actively collaborating around a central coherence for the Increment, or that the team may not actually be doing Scrum.

If You Aren't Planning Together, You Aren't Working Together

The Daily Scrum is not for addressing "issues," minor or not. It's a just-in-time planning meeting for the Developers to collaborate on the current day's work. If there are issues or blockers identified that won't easily fit within the time box of the Daily Scrum, then this is the time to coordinate who will meet to discuss it, and when that discussion will happen—in other words, coordinating and planning around the issue!

The Daily Scrum is a mandatory framework event. In fact, the 2020 Scrum Guide says (emphasis mine):

To reduce complexity...[the Daily Scrum] is held at the same time and place every working day of the Sprint.

If the team routinely has nothing to discuss during the Daily Scrum, then that's a whiffy project smell indicating that the team is not actively collaborating around a central coherence for the Increment, or that the team may not actually be doing Scrum.

The Daily Scrum Can Be Shortened, When Appropriate

You can certainly trim the length of the Daily Scrum on days when the just-in-time planning and coordination takes less than the maximum of 15 minutes. If you meet for five minutes and none of the Developers have anything else to talk about, everyone gets ten minutes back in their day. If the purpose of the meeting has been fulfilled, you don't have to keep going until you exhaust the time box. However, to implement Scrum properly, you need to provide the framework events like the Daily Scrum at predictable intervals on a reliable cadence. This ensures the entire Scrum Team can rely on the event cadence to coordinate things you may not have thought about ahead of time, and that last-minute planning concerns have a clear place to be addressed each day.

Doing anything else actively works against the empirical control process and the underlying framework. Don't do that.

Source Link
Todd A. Jacobs
  • 50.7k
  • 7
  • 60
  • 181

If You Aren't Planning Together, You Aren't Working Together

The Daily Scrum is not for addressing "issues," minor or not. It's a just-in-time planning meeting for the Developers to collaborate on the current day's work. If there are issues or blockers identified that won't easily fit within the time box of the Daily Scrum, then this is the time to coordinate who will meet to discuss it, and when that discussion will happen—in other words, coordinating and planning around the issue!

The Daily Scrum is a mandatory framework event. In fact, the 2020 Scrum Guide says (emphasis mine):

To reduce complexity...[the Daily Scrum] is held at the same time and place every working day of the Sprint.

If the team routinely has nothing to discuss during the Daily Scrum, then that's a whiffy project smell indicating that the team is not actively collaborating around a central coherence for the Increment, or that the team may not actually be doing Scrum.