Daily Scrum

Your daily scrum meeting is a quick stand-up meeting with a simple purpose: Plan work to be performed in a sprint. This is generally a meeting for software developers or product managers, although many other teams are using daily stand-ups now, such as marketing teams.

This template should work for all of the above. It incorporates the most common daily scrum questions to help everybody understand where the work is at and where it’s blocked.

Now, remember that the scrum meeting is not a problem-solving meeting. When you surface challenges like being blocked on a task, you may feel you need to solve those issues immediately. Don’t. Problem-solving should take place outside of the scrum meeting. This scrum meeting agenda template is more for gaining transparency into what’s happening with the backlog so that the right people can team up to figure things out if needed.

Why is a daily scrum meeting a standing meeting?

Scrum meetings often take place standing up, with a kanban board on a screen for everyone to see. The team will review the backlog as a visual backdrop while giving these updates. 

To help the meeting go quickly, have your tasks in the correct columns or statuses before the start of the meeting.

You’re standing up as a reminder that the meeting should be fast. If you find your legs are getting tired, chances are your scrum meeting has gotten inefficient. Most teams only block off 15 minutes max for a scrum meeting. 

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ever have more complex discussions. It’s just that scrum is not the right place.

What should you say in your daily scrum updates?

In terms of what to say in this kind of stand-up meeting, you should keep your updates brief. Stick to the questions in this daily scrum meeting agenda template. Scrum isn’t a time for problem-solving or major discussion. 

If you are blocked or need to have a conversation, mention that during the meeting. Then sync up separately with the right people to resolve your issue. Being disciplined about what to talk about during scrum — and what not to talk about — helps make it so you don’t waste other people’s time.

Speaking of not wasting time, one very common update in a scrum meeting (and a personal favorite) is, “I have no new updates.” You might think that this makes you look bad — like you’re not getting work done. Instead, it’s quite the opposite. It shows confidence in what you’re doing while also showing respect for your team’s time.

If longer discussions are needed, split those out as separate huddles and keep your scrum as a high-level check-in.