Ask a different question at the Daily Scrum

Over time, the Daily Scrum can start to get a little repetitive. One way to re-invigorate your Daily Scrum is to ask a different question.

What do we mean by asking a different question? Many Scrum teams rely on the three questions to drive conversation at the Daily Scrum. The three questions are:

1. What did you do yesterday?

2. What will you do today?

3. Do you have any blockers?

For many teams, these three questions are the cornerstone of the Daily Scrum. Each Developer takes it in turn to answer these three questions as a way to stimulate conversation and collaboration. They're good questions, but they get boring after a while. And boring is not helpful, because it's hard to collaborate when you're bored.

Here are 8 new questions that you can ask at the Daily Scrum to help make this event less boring and more collaborative.

1. What's important for us to discuss today?

Simple, inviting and relevant. What I like about this question is that it takes us out of the status report mode right away and calls for engagement around what matters for the team.

2. Is there anything that might slow us down today that we can address now?

This question goes a bit farther than the first and encourages team members to collaborate around anything that might slow the team down.

3. What's the most significant thing you accomplished yesterday?

This question gives the team a better understating of progress towards the Sprint Goal.

4. Are there any surprises in your work that we should be aware of?

While it's an important question, what if the answer is no? If the answer is no, then I might follow-up with something that is a bit of a lower bar like "What's important for us to discuss today?"

5. What’s one thing you’re focused on today to move us closer to our goal?

This is a powerful question - but only if most of the team members have work that aligns with the Sprint Goal. If you work a team many different types of work in your Sprint Backlog, you might want to skip this question.

6. Is there any cross-team collaboration needed today?

This one is a great question to ask if your team pair programs or works closely together during the Sprint.

7. Are we on track to meet the Sprint goal?

Straight to the point! The benefit of this question is that it reminds everyone right out of the gate that the purpose of the Sprint is to deliver a done increment that meets the Sprint goal.

8. What are you working on today that will contribute to our overall value delivery?

I like this question because it refocuses the team on value delivery.

Conclusion

By simply asking a new question at the Daily Scrum, you can help drive productive conversation and get your Scrum team focused on the Sprint goal. Are there different questions that you ask in your Daily Scrum? Add your thoughts in the comments!