I typically use my blogs
to offer tips and tricks for business analyst and product owner roles, but in recent months, I have been hearing about and seeing several BAs stepping into ScrumMaster/Iteration Lead roles.
Is this a trend? Well, I won’t go that far, but “Agile BA” continues to be a hot topic. As more organizations explore and adopt agile principles, conversations about how and where BAs should serve agile teams will continue. As organizations experiment with team structures, it seems obvious that BAs will support their teams in a variety of ways based on interest and skill set.
If you’re transitioning to a ScrumMaster or Iteration Lead role, effective daily stand ups are part of the role! So, here are the top 4 signs your daily stand up meetings might be off-track:
- No visuals in the daily stand up.
- A visual of the team’s board (Kanban or Sprint Board) is a key tool for the team to keep the meeting on track. The team can see and easily understand discussions related to “in progress” items. This also keeps the team from veering off into other topics intended for other times.
- It lasts longer than 15 minutes.
- The standard agenda of a daily stand up includes each person stating what they got done, what is next today, and barriers. Other topics go offline (after the meeting) with only those needed. When the meeting lasts more than 15 minutes, it’s typically because the meeting goes into problem solving mode or the team is not getting face to face collaboration time outside the daily stand up.
- Everyone looks to the ScrumMaster/Iteration Leader for the answers.
- The Scrum Master/Iteration lead is the facilitator of the process and serves the team. When the team looks to them for answers, the SM/IL should ask the team a reflective question to help the team solve the issue vs. be the authority figure with all the answers. Be careful not to let this approach take the meeting off track–it may be a “let’s chat after the daily stand up about what options we have to remove this barrier.”
- Note taking.
- Many teams take notes to help those who can’t make the meeting, or to track action items. This is a slippery slope! Is taking notes sending the message it is okay to miss the meeting? The meeting is only 15 minutes. Everyone on the team needs to be there, and if they are out for the day or week, they can catch up when they return, or give their updates to a team member to provide to the team.
If you are in a ScrumMaster or Iteration Lead role, effective daily meetings will keep your team on track. Also, don’t forget to advocate for value-based planning and analysis. Agile still requires these strategic skills!