The Daily Huddle

The Daily Scrum, aka Daily Stand Up meeting, should not be a status meeting. If your stand-up feels like a status meeting, then treat it instead as a huddle, just like the huddle in football. All the team members huddle to make their plan for the day, while the coach (or Scrum Master) remains on the sideline, listening for any roadblocks or follow-up discussions that may be needed.

Let me be clear: I’m suggesting that the coach / Scrum Master should not be asking everyone the dreaded 3 questions. Instead, coaches should teach the team how to run their own huddle, and make sure all the information they need is visible: Scrum board/task board/kanban board, burn down chart, etc. Then the coach can step back, listen, and intervene only if something goes awry.

Team members collectively answer the question “what is the right thing to do today?”, using those visible information radiators for status along with any relevant inputs from individual team members.

This is the first in a series of tips for better Agile practices - to help your team and organization to crank your Agility up to 11!