What is the Daily Sprint Meeting, and when does this ceremony take place and who is involved in it? The Daily Sprint Meeting is one of the most important ceremonies in a Scrum Project.
The Agile Daily Scrum Meeting
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The Daily Sprint Meeting for Scrum Masters – Part 2
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The Daily Sprint Meeting: Why is this meeting important to the process?
In theory, what a daily scrum should look like seems inspiring and productive, in practice, it can be challenging so let’s break down some of those common challenges.
The Daily Sprint Meeting: The Stakeholders
1. You have a stakeholder who regularly comes and wants to talk and give updates at the daily scrum.
This meeting is for “scrum team members only”. Stakeholders may be involved in the project but are not committed to the work and should not speak at the daily scrum. If they want to come and hear what the team is up to that day, that is fine but they should not be speaking at this meeting. If this becomes a problem, the Scrum Master should handle this impediment. Remind the person what the purpose of the meeting is and encourage them to work more closely with the Product Owner (the voice of the customer) to disseminate updates.
The Daily Sprint Meeting: The Team Members
2. Team members are rambling during their time to speak.
This one is harder, but the Scrum Master will develop a sense for when things are going on for too long. The Scrum Master can take discussions offline and gently remind team members that this is not a status update but rather a time to quickly commit to the work you are doing. The team doesn’t need to know the details of how you accomplished your task yesterday, he just needs to know it got done.
Our Favourite Agile Books
We found these books great for finding out more information on Agile Scrum:
The Daily Sprint Meeting: Punctuality
3. Team members are showing up late to the standup or are missing it altogether. When one person doesn’t show up, it affects the whole team’s progress. It is up to the entire team to ensure all team members are present and on time. The Scrum Master should make sure that the team understands the purpose of the meeting to keep it running smoothly and efficiently. By recognizing that this is not a status meeting to a manager but rather an update to the team, the meeting focuses on the right thing, making sure the team is working together to complete the sprint. This meeting helps you stay agile, stay updated, and stay focused on the sprint as a team.
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User Stories Applied
A 59 Seconds Agile Book Review
User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn is one of our favourite books on Agile User Stories. The book starts with an overview into user stories, and details what a user story is and the different aspects of them. He then discusses how to go about writing a user story, and provides details of the INVEST criteria that can be used to determine if the story is meeting all of its objectives. Next Mike gives an in depth discussion of who user stories are written for and where to begin when gathering the details for them. The book then discusses acceptance testing user stories, including how to go about specifying these criteria and the responsibilities of the development team and customers during this process.
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The Daily Stand-Up Meeting
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