GSA/christopher

---
title: Conducting a Daily Scrum / Stand-up
category: Agile
audiences:
  - Developers
  - Designers
  - Project Managers
---

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The **Daily Scrum / Stand-up** allows the Scrum Team to highlight what they are working on and any impediments to progress. It provides the opportunity for rapid communication and decision-making; ensuring issues don’t "fall through the cracks" and eliminating the need for lengthy status meetings that may drag on. 

While the Scrum Master may facilitate the Daily Scrum / Stand-up, it is the Scrum Team who conducts the session, “inspecting and adapting” as they work to achieve the sprint goal. The Product Owner and management may attend, but only as “silent observers” - available to provide clarification on user stories or to assume responsibility for impediments that need escalation.

### Daily Scrum / Stand-up Best Practices
The Daily Scrum / Stand-up gets it name from the huddle-like appearance of a rugby scrum. Similarly, Scrum Team members “huddle” in-person, or virtually, around their working board or electronic tool (i.e. JIRA, Trello, GitHub, etc.). Team members are encouraged to stand in order to keep the meeting timeboxed to *no more* than 15 minutes. Any member can start the Daily Scrum / Stand-up as the Team should be prompt (i.e. no need to wait for stragglers) and respectful of each other’s time. **Only** individuals working directly on the effort should participate. The Scrum Team should communicate their updates using the following three questions:
* What did you do yesterday?
* What are you doing today?
* Do you have any blockers / impediments?

### Fostering Communication
While the Daily Scrum / Stand-up should never be the sole means of communication, it is an effective ceremony for promoting team collaboration. When the ability to have face-to-face conversation is impeded, Stand-ups can also be conducted via collaboration tools, with some even offering “Stand-up bots” that remind the Scrum Team to add their updates (e.g. Slack). Remember, the Daily Scrum / Stand-up is **not** a status meeting. The goal is for the Scrum Team to *quickly* communicate progress, unearth obstacles, and make needs for assistance or additional work known - not belabor issues or introduce new topics. If necessary, follow-up discussions can scheduled with the appropriate parties by the Scrum Master or Product Owner. 

### Good Reads
These are good references for conducting a Daily Scrum / Stand-up:
* [5 Scrum Meeting Best Practices: Master the Daily Stand-Up](https://sprint.ly/blog/scrum-meeting-best-practices/)
* [7 Mistakes During the Daily Stand-up Meeting](https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2014/july/7-mistakes-during-the-daily-stand-up-meeting)
* [Agile Alliance: Daily Meeting](https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/daily-meeting/)
* [Effective Scrum](https://www.slideshare.net/SndorZoltaSzkelySipo/effective-scrum)
* [How to Use the Daily Stand-up Meeting Effectively](https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2012/june/how-to-use-the-daily-stand-up-meeting-effectively)
* [It's Not Just Standing Up: Patterns for Daily Standup Meetings](https://martinfowler.com/articles/itsNotJustStandingUp.html)
* [Stand-up meeting : (Not?) to do lists](https://blog.netapsys.fr/stand-up-meeting-not-to-do-lists/)
* [Top Five Reasons Product Owners Should Attend Daily Scrums](https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2013/december/top-five-reasons-product-owners-should-attend-dail)
* [Top 10 Best Practices for Productive Stand Ups](https://www.solstice.com/blog/top-10-best-practices-for-productive-stand-ups)
* [What is a Daily Scrum?](https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-daily-scrum)
* [Why the Three Questions in the Daily Scrum Meeting?](https://www.scruminc.com/why-three-questions-in-daily-scrum/)