Scrum Master is not mandatory to attend the daily scrum. However, they can attend when necessary.
The daily scrum is for the development team. The role of a Scrum Master in the daily scrum is to ensure this meeting happens daily.
Scrum is designed to help teams become self-organised. The team running the daily scrum themselves is the first step in that direction.
Therefore, it’s important the Scrum Master makes this clear to the team from the beginning.
Let’s take a look at other common questions around daily scrum.
Is daily scrum compulsory?
Yes, the daily scrum is a mandatory event in the Scrum framework. It serves as a crucial touchpoint for the development team to discuss progress towards the sprint goal and identify any obstacles.
Daily scrum or daily standup meetings foster transparency, accountability, and quick problem-solving, ensuring the team stays aligned and productive.
Skipping the daily scrum can lead to miscommunication, delays, and a lack of cohesion, undermining the effectiveness of the sprint.
Like every other scrum event, the daily scrum has its purpose and benefits.
As a result, consistent participation of the development team is essential for maintaining the rhythm and success of the scrum process.
Who supervises or facilitates the daily scrum?
This is one of the common questions I get as a Scrum Master. So, if the Scrum Master doesn’t need to be in the daily, who should lead or facilitate the event?
Well, since daily scrum is for the development team, and it’s not mandatory for Scrum Master, any of the developers can take the lead.
The most important thing is to ensure the event’s purpose is achieved.
A scrum team need no supervision to run the daily scrum event effectively. So the question of who facilitates the event is for the development team to answer.
However, once the team understand the rules and the purpose of the daily scrum, I recommend they rotate who takes the lead.
In the end, as the team matures, daily scrum will become a normal formal conversation between the developers.
What is discussed during the daily scrum?
The daily scrum focuses on three key questions each team member answers:
- What did I do yesterday?
- What will I do today?
- Are there any impediments in my way?
This structure ensures that the meeting remains brief and to the point, allowing the team to synchronize and plan their day effectively.
When team members share what they did yesterday, it provides a quick overview of progress and helps identify any dependencies or completed tasks.
This transparency ensures everyone is aware of the current state of the project and can offer help or adjustments if necessary.
Discussing plans for the day helps the team align efforts, identify overlaps, and coordinate to achieve the sprint goal.
Highlighting impediments brings obstacles to light, allowing the team to address them promptly with the Scrum Master’s help if needed.
By focusing on these three questions, the daily scrum fosters communication, identifies challenges, and keeps the team aligned and productive throughout the sprint.
When should the Scrum Master attend the daily scrum?
The Scrum Master should attend the daily scrum if the team is new to the Scrum framework.
At the early stage of adoption, teams need a Scrum Master for their daily scrum to coach, guide and support them in learning the rules and practices.
As a result, the Scrum Master needs to attend and facilitate the daily scrum. They should only do this for a couple of Sprints.
The team should be comfortable running it themselves after a couple of Sprints.
As soon as the team understands the daily scrum rules, the Scrum Master should gradually withdraw him/herself from facilitating the event.
Who is mandatory in the daily scrum ceremony?
While the Scrum Master is not mandatory to be in the daily scrum, the developers must attend. The daily scrum ceremony is explicitly for the development team.
This doesn’t mean the Scrum Master, Product Owner, or even someone outside the team cannot attend. However, only the development team should participate actively.
The daily scrum is not a meeting where everyone who attends gets to speak. Other attendees may passively participate by answering questions from the developers.
The Scrum Master or Product Owner can also talk if they attend, but it should be about something related to the developers’ updates.
It shouldn’t be a question that will throw the team off course or a discussion for another event like the Backlog Refinement or Sprint Retrospective.
What about the team’s impediments if the Scrum Master is not in daily scrum?
While the Scrum Master may or may not attend the daily scrum, it’s the team’s responsibility to inform the Scrum Master about any impediment.
The Scrum Master doesn’t need to attend the daily scrum before they are made aware of the team’s impediments.
Therefore, whether it comes in the daily scrum or during the developers’ daily activities, any impediment should be flagged to the Scrum Master.
For a remote team, in addition to reaching out to the Scrum Master, developers can leave a comment on the affected user story about the impediment and tag the Scrum Master.
In my experience, this is effective, especially if the team use Jira. Another method is adding a “blocker” column to the team’s sprint board.
This ensures everyone, including the Scrum Master, can immediately see any user story that’s blocked.
Can we address detailed problem-solving during the daily scrum?
No, detailed discussions and problem-solving should occur after the daily scrum. The primary purpose of the daily scrum is to provide high-level updates and identify any issues that might impede progress.
It’s only a 15-minute, time-boxed meeting to keep the team aligned and focused. If a significant issue arises during the daily scrum, it should be noted, and a separate meeting should be scheduled to address it in detail.
This approach keeps the daily scrum ceremony concise and efficient, preventing it from becoming a lengthy problem-solving session.
By maintaining this structure, scrum teams can maximize the effectiveness of their daily check-ins without derailing the focus or extending the meeting unnecessarily.
In addition, handling detailed problem-solving outside of the daily scrum provides the opportunity to involve the right stakeholders and ensures thorough issue resolution.
This approach prevents disruptions to the flow of the daily scrum. It also respects the time of all team members.
In most cases, not everyone needs to be involved in the detailed resolution of specific issues.
Should the product owner attend the daily scrum?
Yes, the Product Owner can attend the daily scrum if they choose to do so. Nothing in the Scrum Guide says the Product Owner shouldn’t attend the daily scrum.
Nevertheless, the Product Owner must understand the meeting is for the development team to discuss progress and identify any impediments.
The meeting is not for Product Owner to question the team, discuss problems, or bring up undiscussed unplanned work.
However, when necessary, the Product Owner can attend the daily scrum to answer questions and provide clarification about user stories in the Sprint.
Can the Product Owner facilitate the daily scrum?
It’s not the job of a Product Owner to facilitate daily scrum. While the Scrum Guide is not against the Product Owner attending the daily scrum, they should participate only if they have valuable information to share (if they have any) as a team member.
The Product Owner attending the daily scrum may help build a good relationship between them and the development team.
Nevertheless, it’s not their responsibility to facilitate the event. They should only be a passive participant if they choose to attend.
What happens if someone is late or misses the daily scrum?
Regular attendance at the daily scrum is crucial for the team’s success. When a team member is late or misses the meeting, it can disrupt the flow of communication and impede the team’s ability to synchronize effectively.
This can lead to miscommunications, delays, and missed opportunities to address impediments promptly.
If lateness or absenteeism becomes a recurring issue, the team should address it collectively.
In addition, open discussions during retrospective meetings can help identify the root causes and develop solutions.
This might involve adjusting the meeting time or addressing personal challenges team members may have.
By collectively addressing attendance issues and finding practical solutions, the team can maintain the effectiveness of the daily scrum.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Scrum Master is not mandatory to attend the daily scrum.
However, if the team is new to the scrum framework, I recommend they attend and facilitate the daily scrum for a couple of Sprints.
It’s the responsibility of the Scrum Master to coach and support the team to help them become self-organised and self-dependent.
If attending the daily scrum as a Scrum Master will help you in achieving that goal, why not? You should attend, observe, and provide feedback to the team when necessary.
The daily scrum is for the development team, and they should be encouraged to run it without help from anyone.
Are you a Scrum Master? Here’s my post on the number of teams you can handle as a Scrum Master.
I hope you found this post helpful.
