What Should The Perfect And Ideal Daily Stand-Up Scrum Meeting Consist Of As Per The Official Scrum Guide?

The daily stand-up scrum meetings play a vital role in ascertaining that the development activity is carried out in a sustained manner. The meetings are usually time boxed to 5–15 minutes and are held standing up to remind people to keep the meeting short and to-the-point. Stand-up scrum meetings also help to find potential pitfalls experienced during ongoing sprints. It is important to know how the daily meetings are carried out, and what they should ideally consist of. On the basis of official scrum guide specified by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, the originators of scrum methodology, the article tries to explain in details about the daily scrum meetings.

·       Who should attend the meeting?

Everyone associated with the scrum project should attend the meeting. It is important for the scrum master and the team members to remain present, while the product owner and stakeholders too can remain present if they desire to do so.

·       What should be discussed during the meeting?

It is very important to remain focused and only discus about those topics which are directly related and associated with the sprint activity. The attendees should try not to wander off the main topic and discus about other trivia which are not pertaining to the scrum activity. In fact, the guide is specific about discussing topics which are directly connected to the sprint to be carried out during the particular day, even other topics dealing with the project, or project related issues should be avoided during the stand-up meetings. There are special provisions like the sprint retrospective meeting to discuss about such issues.The main topics to be included during the meeting should consist of:

-      What tasks were accomplished during the sprint carried out the day before?

-      Which tasks are to be developed today?

-      Did the particular team member face any problems or impediments during the sprint implementation? If so, what were they?

  

·       In what order should the discussions be carried out?

There is a lot of flexibility while deciding about the order in which the discussions can be carried out during the meeting. Team members can take turns in discussing about what they have achieved, and what they plan to do on the particular day. Alternatively, the scrum master may decide who should speak first and which team member should follow the discussion. A popular method is to take up discussions regarding important tasks first, followed by the order of priority. The order of discussion can vary from project to project, and from need to need. 

·       Where and when should the meetings be held?

The stand up meetings should be ideally held at the place of work, and in front of the task board. While they can be conducted almost everywhere, including conference rooms, holding the meetings in the actual place of work can help the team members to remain more focused and target oriented. The meetings should be held before the daily sprint is initiated.

·       How to sustain the energy levels during the meetings?

The stand up meetings are also commonly referred to as “huddles” by many people, simply because each team member stands very close to the next one during the meeting. The scene is much similar to the scrum used in rugby. The proximity often encourages the team members to become proactively involved in the discussion. The energy levels start rising up as each team member briefly, and professionally, discusses and outlines his or her activity for that particular day. The meeting is to be held in such a manner that the “atmosphere” becomes charged up with anticipation, and each member focuses upon the goals he or she plans to achieve during the sprint carried out that day.

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