I once observed what was probably the worst daily scrum ever. Just when I thought it was over, something interesting happened.

Visiting a team in an organization I worked with, I got to see one particular scrum master run a daily scrum – into the ground. This is the story of how he did that – but it’s also the story of how the team miraculously survived this train crash of a meeting.

Every morning, the team would gather around a large whiteboard, where the scope for the sprint and the relevant tasks were posted in the form of a bunch of sticky notes. The meeting would not begin until the scrum master, literally, pointed at a person, and asked:

– “What have you been doing since yesterday?” Upon hearing this, the indicated person would give a very brief account about what tasks had been worked on.

Then, the scrum master proceeded by asking:

– “What will you be doing today?” Again, a short answer, which seemed mostly directed at satisfying the need to say something in response to this direct question.

The third question asked by the scrum master was:

– “Do you have any impediments?” I noticed that the answer to this was always no, for all members of the team. I knew this answer couldn’t be true, because this was a team that struggled mightily every single day.

When I thought it couldn’t possibly become any worse, the scrum master fired off one last and revealing question:

– “Do you have any hours to reduce”

At first, I was surprised by this very direct way of trying to make the burndown point downwards, but it dawned on me that it was perfectly congruent with the scrum master’s unspoken goal: to preserve the illusion of control. The answer to this fourth question would go along these lines:

– “Hours to reduce? No, not really. But, I guess I have been working on this task a bit, so let’s see. Yesterday, the estimate of remaining time was 16 hours. I guess it’s about 14 hours left now. No, 13 and a half.” Hearing this, the scrum master nodded and smiled, and noted the change in his notebook.

Directed by the scrum master, the team continued in this fashion in a round-robin style. Whenever “some hours were reduced”, the scrum master would nod approvingly and take some notes.

I could hear no requests, and no offerings of help. No really valuable information seemed to be surfaced. Energy seemed to be at a rock bottom low.

Then something interesting happened.

The scrum master declared that the meeting was over, and turned his back to the team to work on his notes from the meeting. Because his back was now turned to the team, he never really witnessed what happened next.

With the official part of the meeting over, the team suddenly seemed to come alive. They suddenly huddled together and started a lively exchange about their plans for the day. One person would suggest a course of action, and someone else would fill in with some additional information. Someone asked a question, and others jumped in to answer it.

With the directive scrum master out of the game, the team took the reins and did what needed to be done to lay the groundwork for working together during the day. They performed an effective daily scrum. Energy was high, information flowed, and when needs had been met the meeting was over.

This real scrum went on for just a few minutes, with me watching in amazement. The scrum master never saw what happened. I know, because I asked him afterwards:

– “Did you see what happened after you ended the meeting”?
– “No.”
– “The team came together and sorted out the day.”
– “OK.”
– “Do you think you need to change the way you run the meeting?”
– “No. It works for me.”

How’s your daily scrum? Is it working for you? How about for the rest of the team?

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Published by Tobias Fors

I'm a software management consultant. I help other people succeed with software development. In my work, I help teams and organizations be more effective and ship software.