Tag: Daily Scrum

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David Fox’s Videos

David Fox created some interesting videos which can be found here: http://davidfoxit.com/media/

Scrum Tips for Scrum Masters with Virtual Meetings (1-2-4-all, W3)

Scrum Master Tips for spreading information (1-2-4-all, W3)

Easy but effective tips for better Sprint Planning (1-2-4-all, critical uncertainties, social network webbing)

Measure you own agility using whats important to you (shift & share, ecocycle planning & panarchy)

Tips and Tricks: The Daily Scrum (1-2-4-all)

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Agile Resources

I came across Andy Bacon his blog that lists some interesting articles and resources, you can find it here: https://andybacon.com/agile-resources/

And just in case he ever decides to take his website offline, here is a quick mirror 😉

Some Agile Basics

Agile Related Certifications

Scaling Frameworks

Retrospectives

Daily Scrum

Scrum Graphics

Checklists

User Stories

Role of Managers in Agile

DiSC Assessment (free)

Games

Metrics

Estimation, Data Driven Estimates, and Forecasting

Collaboration Tools

Happiness

Podcasts

Product Owner Resources

  • Opportunity canvas
  • Lean canvas
  • Product vision
  • Product roadmap
  • Release plan

Random Helpful Things

Technical Topics

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Overcoming Four Common Objections to the Daily Scrum

Some meetings are helpful and worth the time investment. Mike Cohn puts well-run daily scrum meetings in that category.

In this article, Mike Cohn shares how he handles four common objections to participating in daily scrums.

  1. We Talk A Lot Already
  2. Nothing Important Is Ever Discussed
    1. Set Expectations
    2. Determine if the Objection Is Valid
  3. Can’t We Just Do This by Email?
  4. The Meetings Take Too Long

He then shares some attributes of a well-run daily scrum so that there will be no objections to participating.

  1. Meetings Are at the Same Time and Place Each Day
  2. Meetings Start on Time
  3. The Meetings Are Kept to No More than Fifteen Minutes
  4. Problems Are Identified But Not Solved in the Meeting
  5. Participants Stay on Topic
  6. Rules Are Enforced by the Whole Team, Not Just the Scrum Master
  7. The Whole Team and Only the Team Participates

Read the complete article here: https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/overcoming-four-common-objections-to-the-daily-scrum

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Liberating Structures and (distributed) Scrum Events

For an upcoming meetup I’m preparing a session on how to use LS for Scrum Events and especially events where the participants are distributed and joining the event remotely.

Here’s a brief overview of some LS that can be used for the different Scrum events. I’ve marked all structures with an * that I’ve used myself in a distributed setting.

Refinement / Planning

Daily Scrum

Sprint Review

Sprint Retrospective

On the liberating Structures website you can find a design checklist for virtual meetings. Since the link is currently no longer working, you can find the document here:

DESIGN of LIBERATEDVIRTUALMEETINGS v2Download

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If You’re Working on Other Stuff, Say So in the Daily Scrum Inbox

It’s a good idea in the daily scrum for team members to agree to keep the discussion focused on progress toward the sprint goal.

But I like to also encourage some brief mention of work done in the current sprint aimed at having a successful next sprint. This might include:

  • A designer saying, “I did some user interviews yesterday and I’m starting to get a really clear idea of how the new screen will work next sprint.”
  • A product owner saying, “Yesterday I worked on splitting up some of the stories I’m going to ask for next sprint. (Yes, this implies I want product owners to participate in daily scrums.)

Occasionally, a team member or two may be frustrated by limiting discussion to the current sprint and sometimes a little about the likely next sprint.

This can happen when, for example, a team member gets pulled into work that is valuable for the overall organization but not to the sprint goal. Or perhaps when a team member spends time helping another team.

What I’ve found to work well in these situations is to give the person something to say in the daily scrum that indicates work done on something outside the normal boundaries of what’s discussed in a daily scrum.

The simple phrase, “other stuff,” works well for this.

Suppose I worked on something unrelated to the sprint goal yesterday, I would simply say, “I worked on other stuff.” Since it’s not related to the current or next sprint, that’s really all anyone needs to know.

This works well because it gives me something to say in the daily scrum. Everyone knows my “other stuff” might have taken all day or only ten minutes. So I don’t feel judged by an apparent lack of contribution yesterday.

Having all team members use the same phrase for this type of work can also help the Scrum Master. If, say, three people in a row report working on “other stuff,” the Scrum Master can say, “OK, everyone drop the other stuff. What happened? Did some stakeholder come to steal the whole team yesterday without me noticing?”

Or perhaps, it’s not three people in the same meeting. Instead, it’s the same person multiple days in a row. That, too, serves as a big, audible clue to the Scrum Master that whatever the “other stuff” needs to be discussed, either in the daily scrum or privately at first afterward.

Establishing a code phrase for work done beyond what is normally discussed in the daily scrum is helpful. It allows a team to keep the daily scrum focused while giving people a way to indicate they did work that was outside of the current sprint goal.

This will help your team succeed with agile.

If you want to receive one short tip to improve your use of agile or Scrum direct to your inbox each Thursday like the one above. Subscribe here: https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/subscribe