Stand-Up or Scrum Etiquette

My new role is on a team that has a scrum with almost 20 participants. At this point, it is important to obey the ethos of a scrum (or stand-up) or there is a potential to waste the time of many people.

Here is my basic Scrum Etiquette. It is good to remind people of it at the beginning of a scrum at the beginning of a new sprint or when things are out of control.

Scrum Etiquette:

• Turn up on time. The scrum will start without you;
• If you can not attend the scrum then give someone your update and they will go through it on your behalf;
• Your update should consist of… 1) What I've done since the last scrum. 2) What I'll do between now and the next scrum. 3) Any blockers;
• Your update should take about 30 seconds;
• All other conversations should take place after the scrum in a Dev Huddle (for tech talk) or BA Huddle or Tester Huddle or specific delivery teams; and
• Speak to the team and not just the scrum master. It's about sharing with your whole team and not just reporting your status to the boss.

Scrum Anti-Patterns (for the Scrum Master to look for when running the scrum):

• More than one person acting as the scrum master;
• Everyone speaking to the scrum master;
• Long updates with too much detail;
• Technical discussions that other team members aren't interested in;
• People not mentioning blockers. People should explicitly state if they have no blockers; and
• People looking uninterested.

I did google this and there weren't enough clear definitions. Every team is different and you will adjust to yours. This is a good starting point.

Go forth and scrum.