Who starts the Daily Scrum?
Who should start the Daily Scrum meeting?
Any developer on the Scrum Team can start the Daily Scrum, but it does have to be a developer.
Only developers are required to participate in the Daily Scrum, and for that reason, only a developer can be tasked with officially starting it.
Neither the Product Owner nor the Scrum Master is allowed to participate in the Daily Scrum unless invited to do so by the development team. The Daily Scrum is for the developers and it is run and managed by the developers.
“The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team. “
– The 2020 Scrum Guide
There aren’t any specific rules in the Scrum Guide about who should start the Daily Scrum.
For those experienced in Scrum, the idea of a specific person being assigned the job of officially starting the Daily Scrum meeting is somewhat off-putting. Asking ‘who starts the Daily Scrum meeting’ is akin to asking:
- Who starts the conversation when the family gets together for Thanksgiving dinner?
- Who starts the conversation when your friends meet for wings?
- Who starts the conversation when you meet your friends at the dog park?
When a group of peers meet to discuss a topic they’re passionate about, there shouldn’t be any need to for someone to initiate the discussion.
If anything, there would be a need to limit the discussion so that it doesn’t go on for too long, which is exactly why the Scrum Guide puts the Daily Scrum in a 15 minute timebox.
What do developers do in the Daily Scrum?
According to the Scrum Guide, the Daily Scrum:
- Must take place at the same time every day
- Must take place in the same location every day
- May never go beyond 15 minutes in length
- Be used to inspect progress towards the Sprint goal
- Be used to adapt and adjust any planned work
The developers can use any techniques they like in the Daily Scrum, and structure it in whatever way works for them.
“The Developers can select whatever structure and techniques they want, as long as their Daily Scrum focuses on progress toward the Sprint Goal and produces an actionable plan for the next day of work.”
-The 2020 Scrum Guide
Are the 3 Daily Scrum questions still used?
Some teams have each developer answer the commonly asked 3 Daily Scrum questions of:
- What did you do yesterday?
- What do you plan to do today?
- Are there any impediments blocking your progress?
However, answering these questions is not necessary, and a requirement to do so every time the team meets might make the Daily Scrum feel more like a boring status meeting.
Experienced Scrum teams find that informal Daily Scrum meetings where a group of motivated and goal-oriented share their victories, setbacks and discuss ways to address issues that have arisen since the last time the team met are best. They’re also more natural and more fun for the developers who participate in them.
The Daily Scrum must happen every day at the same time and be started by one of the developers.
Who starts the Daily Scrum? One of the developers on the team starts it, because only developers are allowed to be active participants in the Daily Scrum. Which developer starts it? The Scrum Guide doesn’t say.
Daily Scrums where developers just naturally start discussing their progress towards the Sprint goal tend to be best. There’s really no need to single out any specific developer to start it.
The Daily Scrum allows developers be more Agile when adaptation is required.