The daily meeting in the Scrum team should help the product owner to optimize the development and prepare the product or service for release on time and without errors. This is a beautiful theory. In practice, the Scrum meeting can quickly turn from an effective short meeting into an incomprehensible routine. How to provide the team with a useful daily meeting and not to turn it into a “binding”?
A meeting in Scrum (or Scrum Stand Up) is a scheduled meeting that helps grocery groups be more efficient and update daily processes. It is recommended that the rally does not last more than 15 minutes. In addition to the product owner and the Scrum master, other team members also participate in the meeting.
The main idea of the meeting in Scrum is to spend 15 productive minutes with the whole team, informing each other of the work status. During the meeting, each team member tells the audience about the current state of their affairs.
The format of the Scrum meeting does not imply the availability of the table and chairs. Everything happens while standing, so as not to “stretch” the meeting for a long time. If some issues require additional attention, they may be discussed by those involved after the meeting.
Today, the daily meeting in Scrum is often criticized, it is sometimes considered outdated practice. However, the Scrum meeting remains quite popular among many development teams. Product owners around the world confirm that this meeting format helps to manage the team more effectively.
Organizing effective Scrum-meetings for product owners is not a unique talent. Competent preparation and conduct can be learned, practiced and constantly improve this skill. The following tips will help beginner product owners or those who organized Scrum meeting many times, but something went wrong.
8 simple tips for organizing an effective Scrum meeting
Define the format of the rally
In Agile-context, a daily Stand up occurs during a sprint, which is a work period of 2-4 weeks. During the sprint, the set of features and backlog requirements for the new iteration is determined.
An important task is to clearly define the time frame of the meeting, and remember that a daily Stand Up is different from other meetings (for example, from a retrospective meeting).
Invite the team and identify the meeting participants
The best solution for the Scrum meeting is 8-12 people interested in the discussion. This simplifies communication and does not delay the meeting. It is recommended that the meeting be attended by three main stakeholders who play the main roles in the Scrum team:
- Scrum master , who acts as a team coach and helps optimize performance.
- The product owner (product owner) or product manager (product manager), who represents a key interested party in the product. He / she is responsible for prioritizing and communicating with other interested parties and experts.
- Directly a team that includes different employees with important skills and responsibilities for the product (developers, marketers, support, etc.)
Often, outside participants or remote employees are invited to the meeting. However, it is important to remember about limiting the attendance of the meeting - this can really help build the confidence and confidence of team members.
Understand the place and time
As noted above, the Stand Up venue does not need a certain technique and attributes. A board with stickers or a monitor can be useful for using a special tool or a
service for project management , where statuses will be marked and notes will be recorded. In fact, you just need a free room.
Experts advise to hold a daily Scrum rally at the same time every day. It is better to do this at the beginning of the day - then everyone will have a clear idea of what the day will be devoted to.
If you have remote team members, make sure in advance that they are notified of the meeting and will be able to participate. In many companies, special convenient services are used to work with distributed employees. One of them is Standuply. The tool helps to conduct meetings or polls in Slack, and then send the results to the task tracker.
Standing but fast
Many would agree that the standing meeting will not be delayed by anyone. In addition, it helps to focus on the most important thing.
In some creative teams it has become fashionable to hold short meetings in the bar or doing other useful physical exercises.
Follow the agenda
A daily meeting in Scrum should be based on three basic questions that each team member must answer:
- What was done yesterday?
- What will be done today?
- What prevents to cope with the plan of the day? (if something interferes)
Answering these simple questions, the team can quickly identify problems that require special attention and optimization.
Do not forget to make notes and share them so that everyone will be aware and react in a timely manner.
Simplify the process
The agenda of the daily Scrum-meeting and statuses is desirable to visualize. For this, useful management tools are invented. For example, Kanban boards, which will not allow to miss more than one working question and put everything “on the shelves”. Here is how it looks in some services:
It is very important to see what and when ends, what is waiting for its turn, and what is generally better to get rid of. In this sense, product owners cannot do without schedules for well-known
prioritization techniques .
Collaborate and Communicate
Remember that your daily Scrum meeting is a valuable time that should be considered as a joint effort of the whole team. Each participant in the meeting must understand that everything he says must be useful and effective for all those gathered. Properly built communication is the key to productivity.
Avoid common mistakes
The most common mistakes during the Scrum-rally include the following:
- Long wait for the team. For a productive meeting, it is important to clearly observe the timing and appear on time. Do not waste precious minutes waiting for everyone. Who did not have time - he was late.
- New themes and ideas. Scrum meeting is not a planning, but a status meeting. Do not forget about it.
- Long “swimming” in different directions. Lovers of long and long talk should remember that every “lyrical digression” harms the overall effectiveness of the meeting. Everything that team members say should be valuable for everyone.
There is nothing new in these simple tips, but at the start of a career they will certainly help build a high-quality and effective meeting in any Scrum team. Over time, observing simple tricks and constantly thinking about the team, the product owner can really provide the team with an interesting and productive 15 minutes of meetings, which will come with pleasure, and not for the sake of a “tick”.
What are your secrets of holding a meeting in the Scrum team?