The Real Purpose of Daily Scrum is not to answer 3 questions, but prepare your teammates for the baton hand off or exchange of work. The honest truth is that your teammates don’t care what you did yesterday (unless it is time to celebrate). They want to know if your work is ready for them to carry the work through the next leg of the race. Just like a relay race, the daily scrum is about preparing your teammate to take the baton from you.
We call it a Sprint and not a Marathon for a reason.
We all know there are three 3 Basic Questions, similar to these three, taught in every scrum master class. They are supposed to be thought provoking questions and not strict interpretations:
- What did you get Done Yesterday?
- What are you going to Do Today?
- What is Blocking you from Reaching your Daily Goal?
So what do these three questions really mean?
What did you Get Done Yesterday?
Means “is it my turn to take the baton and finish the story?”
is it my turn to take the baton and finish the story?
Your Teammates want to know:
- Did you finish your task?
- Hand off time to take a story through the next leg of the sprint
- Is time celebrate with you on your achievement of getting your task Done?
- Can they all celebrate the completion of a story?
- Say what material you posted or that the story has been updated as a RESULT of the meeting. Not that you attended a meeting.
Hand off time to take a story through the next leg of the sprint
Championship of America, exchange between 1st and 2nd leg! Penn Relays Instagram .
FYI: 125th Penn Relays – April 25-27, 2019
www.pennrelays.com
What your teammates don’t want to know at Daily Scrum:
- Again they Don’t want to know what meeting you attended yesterday. Say what material you posted or that the story has been updated as a RESULT of the meeting.
- No one wants to hear that you got nothing done yesterday or you have nothing to report
- They don’t need a status report
They Don’t Want to know what meetings you attended
What are you Going to Do Today?
Your Teammates want to know:
- If you would like their feedback on something later in the day and When?
- When can I start a dependent task? Later today or Tomorrow?
- When can we to do a Code Review? Later today or Tomorrow?
- When can we test or migrate the code? Later today or Tomorrow?
These are especially important when working with teammates in different time zones.
What is Blocking you from Reaching your Daily Goal?
Here your team wants to know:
- If you are stuck, so they can help move the story along
- If there is something that could affect the team or the sprint goal
- If you are taking the afternoon off or going to out the next day, so they can plan their interactions with you
Basically, it all comes down to What Does it Mean for Me, Your Teammates! As your teammates want to use your information to plan their day and work.
What Does it Mean for Me? Your Teammates!
It is not about you, to be truthful. Except when they can celebrate your achievement because that is fun for all.
Think Win-Win!
Use Daily Scrum to get help from your teammates and to help your teammates Win together.
Have a Great Day and Happy Scrumming,
Greg
