New Perspective On The Daily Stand Up

That morning meeting, where you stand-up for 15 minutes, and folks go around the room answering the 3 questions (and for a ScrumOfOne, I answer them for myself without feeling like I have multiple personality disorder), you know, the Scrum… how are you liking it?

Does it tend to feel like a status meeting?

The Scrum is meant to… have a different feel. Yes, when the Scrum founders whittled down product development process into a few core meetings, the Scrum was one of them, and it was meant to do a number of things:

  • intensify team focus
  • collaborate & clarify
  • crush impediments
  • motivate team spirit

We get to this different flavor of morning get-together via asking a modified version of those 3 questions:

  1. What did I do for the team yesterday?
  2. What will I do for the team today?
  3. Is there anything blocking me from maximizing team velocity toward the sprint goal?

Team-focused. Go team. Sounds corny, sure, but it does do a great job of removing the focus from ‘me’ to ‘us’ and how fast ‘we’ are moving, ’cause it’s not the individual that wins in Scrum: it’s the group. I think it’s a clever spin.