Ideal Scrum and Practical challenges

1. How can SM ensure that the 3questions are answered?

Where do you see in the Scrum Guide that there are 3 questions that have to be asked at the Daily Scrum?  It is supposed to be a planning meeting that the Developers use to plan their daily work and determine any adjustments needed to their plan. It is not a status meeting. Why does the Scrum Master need to be present when the Developers plan their work?

2. if there are impediments - who and how can they be resolved?

The Scrum Master does not identify and resolve impediments.  The Scrum Master causes that they are being removed.  Sometimes they may need to be involved but usually the people doing the work are better suited to work in the removal.  If the Developers need help in removing an impediment, they should ask someone who can influence the removal to help.

3. Whether or not each member of development team is committed to the Sprint goal?

Why would they not be?  And if there are issues like this, why can't the Developers self-manage the issue? Why do they need you to do it?  Also, what if one isn't?  What are you going to do about it?

4. That the daily scrum is happening and within the 15mins standard?

If, as Scrum Master, you have helped the Developers understand the purpose of the meeting, it usually isn't necessary for you to worry about this.  They will want to have the event because it is useful to them.  I typically will observe a few Daily Scrums when teams are first forming so that I can help them better understand the purpose.  But I have found that the need for me to ensure that it is happening becomes unneeded. 

5. That the daily scrum is positive, productive?

This is something that becomes very evident in the work that the Developers do.  It isn't something that you need to be present to understand.  Also, if it isn't positive and productive, the Developers will let people know.

6. Changes, suggestions if any from the development team?

The Developers are adults and professionals.  They should be able to communicate to you in some way if they feel that something needs to change.  Also, the Retrospective is focused entirely on how the team works together.  This should come up there.

7. For one month Sprint, are 8hrs sufficient for Sprint planning (can complex projects like for example a banking application's almost all  product backlog items are created, accounted for)?

Honestly, I have never worked with a team that needed more than 2 hours for Sprint Planning with Sprints of a month.  And usually, it took even less time.  But all of those teams spent time refining their Product Backlog.  They would spend time looking at it on their own and in groups so they knew the items pretty well.  They also were very communicative with their Product Owners on a daily basis.  This helped them to understand the future directions so that they could prepare.  The key to efficient Sprint Planning is being prepared and communicating as a self-managing, self-organizing SCRUM TEAM.

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There is not a Development Team in Scrum.  There is only one team, the Scrum Team, and no sub-teams within it.  Everyone is part of the same team and everyone is committed to the same work.  Everyone is trying to achieve the same goals.  Everyone is responsible for the results that are produced. This is the key to what I have found are successful teams.  The Scrum Guide removed the Development Team in 2020. It is also the basis for all of the certifications available on this site. Anything you might use from other sites may not be accurate.  They may still refer to past editions of the Scrum Guide or inject the misconceptions of the authoring entity.  

The fact that you mentioned "the 3 questions" leads me to believe you may have been using some third party resources that aren't communicating the true Scrum framework.  The "3 questions" came to be because they prompted the Developers to communicate.  However, the intention was never to just stand there and provide answers to 3 questions. It was to invoke purposeful communication that invoked thought from all.  I found this posting from Jeff Sutherland where he discusses it. However, I have never seen the "3 questions" listed in any of the Scrum Guide revisions I have read. I have also never used found them used in any Daily Scrum on teams I have been associated.  They can be useful for people new to Scrum as a reminder of the type of information that they should communicate but not good as a standard that everyone does in each Daily Scrum. 

I found that, some of the questions were tricky, and some were that is not or were not discussed, directly, indirectly elaborated in the scrum guide topics.

The practice tests here will test your knowledge of the Scrum framework and the ability to apply that knowledge. Not your ability to memorize text. That is one of the reasons that I favor these certifications over others.  

For query 8:

8. Is it necessary to identify all the business requirements (product or service application requirements) known before Sprint planning meeting?

If it was actually possible to identify all requirements up-front, why would Scrum be needed at all? What purpose would Sprinting then serve, when experimentation, and the empirical validation of assumptions, is unnecessary?

What is needed for Sprint Planning to begin is a Product Goal, and enough work that is ready to enable discussion. If the Developers understand work sufficiently well to know it can be Done, then it's ready.

Thank you Daniel,

1. How can SM ensure that the 3questions are answered?

Where do you see in the Scrum Guide that there are 3 questions that have to be asked at the Daily Scrum?  It is supposed to be a planning meeting that the Developers use to plan their daily work and determine any adjustments needed to their plan. It is not a status meeting. Why does the Scrum Master need to be present when the Developers plan their work?

------ my question is if the SM is not present in the daily Scrum meeting, then how do they know what's happening in the meeting ? Are the developers informing the SM ?

If yes, what is the medium? Another meeting I believe, but then this kind of meeting will be required on daily basis.

So, Isn't that counter productive? 

Daily reporting to SM is needed because they have to update the Jira for user stories, task assignment, status updates on assigned user stories, tasks.

SM have to update their superior/management (this was common pratice in one of my previous company to ensure project progress).

 All this is usually done by BA in the Scrum team if not by developers or SM to keep development team focussed on development as these tasks are considered to be time consuming data entry job which deprives the development team of their productive time.

So conclusion- we were not following the Scrum framework then. It was an incorrect interpretation of Scrum.

Thank you Daniel,

2. if there are impediments - who and how can they be resolved?

The Scrum Master does not identify and resolve impediments.  The Scrum Master causes that they are being removed.  Sometimes they may need to be involved but usually the people doing the work are better suited to work in the removal.  If the Developers need help in removing an impediment, they should ask someone who can influence the removal to help.

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In my experience as BA working with Scrum framework, the developers in the development team were reluctant sharing the information related to their work progress or impediments, they rather let the impediments occur (may be they were not aware in some scenarios)  and then take more time in development. Either way the Sprint goal is affected.

So to ensure Sprint goal delivery, SM were supposed to be part of one or two daily Scrum if not all; in Ques 1 above.

Again I understand we weren't following the Scrum framework.

Thankyou Daniel,

3. Whether or not each member of development team is committed to the Sprint goal?

Why would they not be?  And if there are issues like this, why can't the Developers self-manage the issue? Why do they need you to do it?  Also, what if one isn't?  What are you going to do about it?

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Developers (the ones I worked with) were fully engrossed in core development and all other tasks were considered secondary or counter productive so of less priority hence neglected most of the time. So Sprint goal was not reached atleast 50% of the time.

Also developers wouldn't provide the complete information required from their side, Transparency not maintained. Inspection done incorrect so no question of Adaption.

Plus Scrum values (Commitment, Courage, Openness) compromised and to some extent Respect too...while they are Focussed on core development. I'm aware that Scrum framework has only one Development team, but developer team members are in a different world when they are Focussed (and they are supposed to be) on development.

So I said that SM needs to do it, reiterate the Sprint goal if they find someone adrift.

Thankyou Ian.

So I understand that we will need to do some (extensive) ground work upfront before conducting the Sprint planning meeting.

Daily reporting to SM is needed because they have to update the Jira for user stories, task assignment, status updates on assigned user stories, tasks.

 All this is usually done by BA in the Scrum team if not by developers or SM to keep development team focussed on development as these tasks are considered to be time consuming data entry job which deprives the development team of their productive time.

Why does the Scrum Master have to do this?  Why can't the Developers update them while they are working on the item?  Who know better what to say about the progress than the people doing it?  And does it really need to be done every day?  If the item being worked on is not making progress on a specific day, then why update it? The Scrum Master is not the secretary or record keeper for the team.  They are there to help the team and organization understand how to better organize in order to gain the benefits of the Scrum framework.  They are there to help the team and organization understand the Scrum framework in order to be able to gain the benefits of it.  They are there to help the team and organization understand when an impediment is present. They are there to ensure that the team and organization remove the impediments that are discovered, however it is not their job to actually remove the impediment.  If you, as Scrum Master, are updating Jira for everyone, then you are an impediment and you need to ensure that you are removed from that job. If this is considered "to be time consuming data entry job which deprives the development team of their productive time" then why does it need to be done by anyone?  Who gains from the record keeping? Find out why they think they are gaining from it and find better ways to make that information transparent.

if the SM is not present in the daily Scrum meeting, then how do they know what's happening in the meeting ? Are the developers informing the SM ?

Why does the Scrum Master need to know what is happening in the event.  Yes, event, not meeting. Events have a function, meetings have a purpose.  The Daily Scrum's purpose is to allow the Developers to plan their day's work and share any new findings that could impact the plan. A Scrum Master can see what is happening in the event by the useable, valuable increments that are created by the Developers in each Sprint.  That is all that a Scrum Master should need to know.

In my experience as BA working with Scrum framework, the developers in the development team were reluctant sharing the information related to their work progress or impediments, they rather let the impediments occur (may be they were not aware in some scenarios)  and then take more time in development. Either way the Sprint goal is affected.

This is an impediment.  From my experience with this, it is because the Developers feel that they are punished for speaking up and that they do not feel supported in attempting to improve their ability to do their work.  Or they feel like they are penalized for not identifying the impediment during their refinement activities.  As a Scrum Master, you should help the organization under the empirical nature of Scrum (and agile in general).  To truly understand something, you need to work on it in order to discover the proper information that leads to a solution. No one should be punished for new discoveries. Instead they should be celebrated for recognizing the impactful new information. 

Developers (the ones I worked with) were fully engrossed in core development and all other tasks were considered secondary or counter productive so of less priority hence neglected most of the time. So Sprint goal was not reached atleast 50% of the time.

It sounds like your Sprint Goal is to complete everything in the Sprint Backlog plus anything else that might be forced upon the Developers during a Sprint.  If so, that is not a good Sprint Goal.  A Sprint Goal provides focus and guidance to the Scrum Team (not just the Developers) on why the Sprint is needed.  It identifies the most important thing that has to be accomplished during the Sprint.  It changes from Sprint to Sprint based upon the needs of the Product, the impact to the Product Goal, the work that is identified as being possible to do during the Sprint.  The Sprint Backlog should contain the Product Backlog items that the Developers have deemed possible to complete during a Sprint and nothing else.  If there are other "tasks" the Developers are expected to do outside of those boundaries they are not listed in the Sprint Backlog and should be identified as impediments by the Developers if they prevent their ability to deliver their Sprint Goals.  A Sprint Backlog is not a To-Do list of tasks that Developers are expected to log time against.  It is a list of work that is needed in order to improve the Product on which they work and that can be turned into one or more usable, valuable increments of Product updates. 

Thank you once again Daniel for the detailed perspective about Scrum an its values, principles, practices.

Appreciate it.

However, when it comes to practical application in real life scenario, I find it a little difficult to achieve.

So, taking inspiration from your suggestions, I will try to practice them from now on.

I know it is challenging but I like to take them head-on. Thanks a ton.