Daily Scrum Strategies
The Three Questions
Traditionally, at the Daily Scrum, each Developer would answer three questions:
- What did I do yesterday that helped us* meet the Sprint Goal?
- What will I do today to help us* meet the Sprint Goal?
- Do I see any impediment that prevents me or us* from meeting the Sprint Goal?
* I have replaced ‘Development Team’ with ‘us’ for clarity. The term Development Team was removed from Scrum in 2020, and we now refer to Developers instead.
These questions aimed to allow the Developers to understand their progress quickly, plan their day, and identify impediments. Whilst well intended, in practice, many Scrum Teams find that the three questions result in the Daily Scrum turning into a reporting session rather than focussing on planning, which is the correct intent.
As a result, the three questions were removed from the Scrum Guide in 2020. While some Scrum Teams still use them and find them helpful, many have abandoned them in favour of alternatives.
Walking The Board
“Walking the board” during the Daily Scrum refers to using the team’s visual representation of work, typically a Kanban board (or Scrum Board), to guide the discussion. This board usually displays Product Backlog items and tasks organised in columns representing different stages of the workflow, such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.”
When “walking the board,” the team may start with the rightmost column (excluding the Done column, which likely does not need discussion) and progresses item by item, column by column, discussing and planning around the important items on display.
Walking the board makes the Daily Scrum highly visual and centred on the work and progress. It moves the focus from the people to the work, which can help to take perceived pressure from answering “The 3 Questions”.