50 Things Wrong With Scrum(*) - #2

(*)...that aren't in Scrum

What is the worst thing about Scrum? Depending on whom you ask, you're likely to hear many different answers. There's one complaint you're sure to hear often, though:

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Just run a quick search for "daily standup waste" and you'll find ???????? of results... some not family-friendly. Here's a sampling:

"Daily stand-ups are stupid because there's not enough to discuss after one day of work"

"I seriously hate daily standup, ours go on for half an hour, sometimes longer and I have to listen to completely unrelated s*** I don't know anything about."

"Not surprisingly, when the managers are out, our stand-ups are like 5 min, but when they're here, the stand-ups drag out to like 20-30 minutes."

"Most developers don’t need a meeting to do their work... However, most non-developers need meetings with developers so they can ask the developers questions, get engineering cost estimates, and get timelines for feature completion"

"The perception is that the only goal of the daily meeting is for the Scrum Master / PM to feel in control."

"All a daily stand-up does for me is waste 1 hour of my time."

Ouch.

Honestly, though, I don't find these reactions at all surprising. After all, what rational person would look forward to a recurring meeting if it:

• Provides no obvious benefit
• Isn't time-boxed, is easily randomized, and can drag on for 30-60 minutes
• Requires Developers to give statuses and answer questions for people outside the team
• Invites managers to intrude on the team's internal discussions

Then again... if this describes your team's stand-up, you're not attending a real Daily Scrum. Effective Scrum teams know their Daily Scrum must, at a minimum...

1. Be limited to 15 minutes max
2. Be held by and for the Developers on the Scrum Team - not to address anyone else's needs or curiosity
3. Be a planning meeting, in which the Developers inspect their progress towards the Sprint Goal and decide how to continue

Any meeting that doesn't meet these conditions is falling short of Scrum's intent. Worse, bad stand-ups are wasteful and frustrating for the team.

So, if you're suffering through awful stand-up meetings instead of a productive Daily Scrum, what should you do?

• A discussion with your Scrum Master might be a good step. Remind them how The Scrum Guide defines the Scrum, and ask for their help in getting things back on track.
• Retrospectives are also a great time to raise an issue like this. If your teammates are feeling the same, you can all work in unison to make a change.

However you approach it, the short story is: if your team's "Daily Scrum" seems to be a problem, the solution is to do real Scrum.