ScrumMaster Murphy: Ten problems in the Daily Scrum, and what you can do about them!

March 25, 2009 by Peter Stevens

“If that team can find a way to revert to Waterfall, it will!” “Any team that can find a way back to Waterfall will find a way back to Waterfall!” These modern corollaries to Murphy’s Law haunt every Scrum transition and manifest themselves in the Daily Scrum. If the ScrumMaster lets it degenerate, the success of entire transition is called into question. 10 Warning signs that something is wrong in your Daily Scrum and what you can do to correct the problem.

The Daily Scrum is simple daily routine to help the team self-organize, focus, and identify and eliminate impediments to progress. As the backbone of the self-organizing team, the Daily Scrum has nearly nothing in common with a classical project meeting. Team members synch up with each other on what is being done and lay the ground work for self organization — which takes place after the Daily Scrum.

What to watch out for

1. Storytelling, problem solving and gossip. The ScrumMaster must be ready to prompt the team members to answer the right questions and to stay on track.
2. Reporting to the ScrumMaster. The purpose of the meeting is for the team members to talk to each other. The ScrumMaster keeps his role to a minimum and keeps the focus of the discussion in to the group. If the team falls back to reporting, conversations become bilateral between ScrumMaster and team member, and other team members risk tuning out. The ScrumMaster’s taking notes is a symptom of this behavior. A variety of strategies, such as rotating the facilitator, passing a “microphone” or having the last person to come start the meeting can be used to mitigate this effect.
3. Accounting for time rather than results and goals. Team Members should focus on goals and not just on how they plan to pass their time.
4. Invisible (electronic) task boards make it much harder for people to identify and focus on their goal for the day or identify when a team member has not fulfilled his commitment. Ask your team how to solve this problem.
5. Other stakeholders attending the Daily Scrum. This is not forbidden, but it is an opportunity for them to give to attempt to give unsolicited advice and instructions. The ScrumMaster should pay close attention to the dynamics and prevent inappropriate interference.
6. Late Arrivals and Unexcused Absences. Arriving late disrupts the Daily Scrum, threatens the time box and increases the cost of the meeting. Information transfer doesn’t happen or has to be repeated. These can be a sign of resistance or rebellion or other deeper problems which need to be addressed. The shared commitment is called into question. If the delinquent team members also refuse to pay their fines, this is a further sign that work on the team identity, commitment, or the value of the Daily Scrum is necessary. The Retrospective is the place to discuss the value of the Daily Scrum and the teams commitment to doing it.
7. Not raising impediments. In some contexts (e.g. if trust is lacking or in cultures where maintaining face is important), it may be difficult to raise issues in a meeting. People sometimes forget to mention things in the Daily Scrum. In either case a visible impediments list on the task board where team members are expected to post impediments directly, may be helpful to raise and track impediments.
8. Not handling impediments. This might be a weakness in the ScrumMaster (e.g. conflicting priorities, overwork, or personal preference) or it might be a visibility problem. In either case, it can be demotivating -- why report problems if no one will do anything about them? Making impediments visible on the task board can help with this problem.
9. Not helping each other. “I’m a developer! You can’t expect me to help a tester.” Getting the team to work together as team is a major goal of the ScrumMaster during the first few months of doing Scrum.
10. Low Energy - People come, they go through the motions and they leave. And no one really cares. If this is more than just a Monday morning phenomena, then it is a problem to be identified in the Retrospective. Personally, I would be inclined to call a retrospective immediately if this problem persisted for more than a few days.

Do you need a coach?

In theory, the Daily Scrum is simple. In practice, it’s hard to do correctly. Without experience, it can be difficult to recognize and react to these problems. Big companies transitioning to Scrum, like Allianz or Yahoo!, cite coaching as a major factor in the success of those transitions. Coaching and training may seem expensive but these investments usually payback quickly and dramatically: a successful Scrum transition typically brings productivity improvements of at least 30%. The ROI of these investments can easily achieve 100% in the first year.

Murphy is lurking in every meeting. The ScrumMaster’s job is to keep him at bay. If the Daily Scrum is working as it should, it is a powerful tool for improving the productivity and cohesion of a team. What used to be an excuse for non-achievement of some goal becomes a call to action to fix the problem. The payout for doing Scrum well in enormous. Get a coach if you need help, but whatever you do, keep Murphy out of the Daily Scrum to unleash the power hidden in your team.

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