Use the Daily Scrum Canvas as a template to help you and your team run effective Daily Scrum events.
The Scrum Guide defines the Daily Scrum as a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team… The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work. The Daily Scrum is a daily planning and coordination event for the Developers and by the Developers. It is not a status meeting. Only the Developers are required. The ScrumMaster and Product Owner are both optional. The daily Scrum happens every day at the same time and place. In the Daily Scrum, the Developers review their progress towards the Sprint Goal and then collaborate to adjust the Sprint plan and update the Sprint backlog accordingly.
Sprint Goal
Developers start the Daily Scrum by reviewing the Sprint Goal and assessing how much progress they are making towards the goal.
Impediments
Next, Developers identify any impediments that are preventing them from accomplishing the Sprint goal. It’s important that these are made visible and that someone is actively working on removing the impediment.
Done
Developers that just finished an item start by updating the team about it and then offering to help anyone needing support in getting an item still in progress wrapped up. If no one needs help, then the Developers can select a task from the to-do list and start working on it.
Doing
Developers working on items that are in progress go next. Everyone is encouraged to ask for help to get an item done as soon as possible. New tasks might get added or removed from the Sprint Backlog as more is discovered. If an item turns out to be a lot more complicated than initially thought and discussed in Sprint Planning, then Developers inform the Product Owner and consider pulling that item out of the Sprint and sending it back to the Product Backlog for further refinement and re-consideration for a future Sprint.
To Do
Developers that are free volunteer to help anyone needing support in getting an item still in progress wrapped up. If no one needs help, Developers pick up a new task from the To-Do list and start working on it.
WIP
WIP is Work In Progress. It is a good idea to have a Work In Progress Limit to ensure Developers focus on finishing or getting to done vs. starting new work. The WIP limit limits the number of items that can be in progress at any one time (in the Doing column). This means when the WIP limit is reached, no Developer can start working on a new item and instead must help existing Developers finish in-progress items. A WIP limit that is less than the number of Developers promotes teamwork, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and avoids silos.
The Daily Scrum ends with an updated Sprint Backlog and a plan for the day to help the Developers get closer to accomplishing the Sprint Goal.
Click here to download a pdf template of the Daily Scrum Canvas.
