The jump from the waterfall methodology to scrum technology is not a drastic one. It is a constant process which consists of steps, slides and many bumps. It is difficult for old teams to accept the new terms, especially when it comes to the development team.
There are many new traditions that have to be embedded in old teams to make the scrum approach successful. Few of these include daily sprints, weekly sprints, horizontal approach etc. Sprints are a little hard to follow initially and are of little use if the conduct is not proper.
The essential condition for the scrum to be a success, the teams must know the value of daily scrum. The daily scrum is a rather nascent and new tool for the development team.
So, one must explain it in detail and make it crystal clear to all the employees in order to carry out a successful administration. To know more about CSM Certification please visit StarAgile site.
1] What is a daily scrum
The daily scrum is known by many names, such as Daily Stand up, Stand up etc. A daily scrum in simple words is defined as a 15-minute meeting, in which all the teams discuss the ongoing process, the milestones achieved and hence synchronize with one another all the aspects of the project.
The daily scrum meetings have proved to be a very small yet beneficial tool which ultimately leads to a bigger and better product.
However, on the downside, the corporations have been using Daily scrum more as a status update rather than concurring the ideas about ongoing projects of development teams. So, it is very much important to make all the teams clear about the aim of the daily scrum.
- Make the objective clearer – Each and every member of the team must be clear about the objective of such meetings. Traditionally, the team members are used to the approach of giving status updates to project managers. However, it’s a need to change their mindset from this and let them know the real picture of daily scrums.
- Form the common understanding – Until and unless each member knows what the meeting is about, it is impossible to achieve the goal. Each member must know the established rules and work religiously on the minutes of the meeting.
- Clarity on specifications – The daily scrum meetings are not about updating the manager about the status, it is about coordinating with other teams and forming goals which can be productively achieved.
- Discuss- Improve- Achieve – The teams must re-discuss the points retrospectively so as to get the improvement done on the achieved goal. Daily scrum provides helps us to even re-evaluate the achieved goals and significantly improve it.
2] How to use daily scrum to achieve success
This is the most sought out question in today’s world. The world which is fast changing we need to adapt to the newer idea more aptly. The idea of the daily scrum was formulated in order to change the age-old practice of first defining the goals and then discussing it.
The daily scrum focuses more on daily achievable targets first discussed, then posted and then eventually achieved. This nature of this qualitative algorithm to make the goals that are achievable rather than setting the goals which are out of bounds helps the scrum teams to achieve success.
The daily scrum focuses both on the individual developments well as play a great role in forming a mesmerizing end product which is marketable and profitable both for the consumer and the producer.
- The daily scrum meetings are held regularly on day to day basis -The daily scrum meeting works with a core idea of “One day at a time”. The purpose of the daily meeting is to discuss the targets achieved, the problem encountered and other beneficial improvement techniques that can be embedded.
- The time span of the meeting is 15 minutes – If the meetings are long and held daily, it losses its effectiveness. A short meeting which is effective and can be immersed in everyone’s calendar and this is what is aimed at in this scrum approach.
- The development team is responsible for conducting the mentioned meeting – The Daily stand up meetings are specifically made for the development teams to coordinate and cooperate.
- Each and every member must attend the meeting and try to participate in the discussion – Attendance of every member is essential otherwise the objective of the meeting is not met and its sheer waste of time. Though each member need not participate in the discussion, but it is mandatory to attend and be updated.
Daily scrum meetings once embedded in the system has proved to be very beneficial for the system. So, it might be a bumpy road initially but it sure brings in a smooth highway for the better product manufacturing ultimately.
