This is Part 1 of a series of articles that would throw light on the many misconceptions of the Agile methodology. This article is focused on the contributions (or not) of the different Scrum team roles during the daily stand-up.
The daily scrum, also known as the daily stand-up, is a core agile planning tool. This tool helps keep the team members focused on the sprint goal while helping identify potential issues before they escalate and completely derail the project. The daily scrum or daily stand-up is a 15 minute timeboxed meeting that is held at the same time in the same location everyday while the Sprint is in progress. It is the responsibility of the Scrum Master to ensure that this meeting takes place everyday and to help remove any challenges identified. The daily scrum is primarily for the members of the development team. The development team uses the daily stand-up to align their work and to report any obstacles/challenges they might be facing with completing their tasks. The daily stand-up meeting has a limited scope; each member of the development team is required to answer three different questions about their progress towards achieving the sprint goal:
1. What have I accomplished/done/completed since the last meeting?
2. What do I plan on doing today?
3. What are the obstacles-if any, to my progress?
The answers to these questions enable the team members to assess their progress toward the sprint goal. While answering these questions, the development team members address one another, and any further discussion outside of the questions listed above would have to take place offline.
The Development Team
As earlier stated, the daily stand-up is essentially for the development team. This meeting is designed to keep the team updated on their overall progress towards achieving the Sprint goal. Once the above questions have been answered, each development team member is abreast of the progress of their teammates and this helps achieve synchronization within the team.
The Product Owner
This is the person responsible for ensuring that the business value for which the product is being developed, is maximised. The Product Owner is responsible for managing the product backlog and for ensuring that the backlog items are up to date and appropriately prioritized based on business value. Although the Product Owner is responsible for prioritizing and updating the backlog, he is not an active participant in the daily scrum/daily stand-up. His attendance is optional and from my point of view, recommended. His contribution(s) however, should be left for after this timeboxed meeting. This is because the stand-up is only 15 minutes long with averagely 5-9 developers answering the 3 questions above. If the Product Owner were to attempt to make inputs during this meeting, there is a high likelihood that this meeting would exceed it’s 15 minute timebox or at best, that the developers would have to rush their attempts to address the three questions above. If this were to happen, the purpose of the stand-up which is for synchronization of work would be defeated. The team can have a meeting to address the Parking Lot (issues documented on a flip chart or section of a whiteboard) after the daily stand-up, this is the best avenue for the Product Owner to address any issue that arises from the daily stand-up.
The Scrum Master
This is the role responsible for ensuring that the Scrum methodology is understood and applied effectively. The role involves, amongst other things: shielding the development team from interruptions, removing impediments to progress, communicating the project vision and providing the needed resources to keep the development team productive. During the daily stand-up, the Scrum Master’s presence is recommended but not mandatory. Depending on the maturity level of the team, the Scrum Master could occasionally be absent. If the development team is quite Agile and understands the purpose of the daily stand-up and can respond accordingly, the Scrum Master could sometimes leave the team to manage the meeting on their own. For a new Scrum team however, it is expedient that the Scrum Master who serves as a Coach, is present to observe the flow of the meeting and to make corrections/inputs, after the meeting using the Parking Lot items. It is best that any issues the Scrum Master observes during the daily stand-up are captured by the Scrum Master on the Parking Lot and addressed right after the daily stand-up.
I do hope this article gives clarity to the different Scrum team roles and their activities during the daily stand-up.