Rituals are defined as a series of “actions or type of behavior regularly and invariably followed by someone.” No where is this truer than in Scrum rituals. So many Scrum teams repeat rituals so regularly, invariably, and mindlessly that they end up losing the benefits these rituals provide..
Like all things Agile, responding to change > mindlessly following a plan (or process) and teams should not be afraid of “retro-ing rituals” i.e. frequently assessing and enhancing their Scrum rituals through the use of ritual retrospectives.
Below are some of the most useful Scrum ritual changes I’ve learned, encountered, and/or implemented over the last 8+ years.
Daily Standups
Daily standups are one of the most abused Scrum rituals. An objective of having quick 10–15 minute alignment can quickly and easily turn to an hour of intense discussions. Not assessing and enhancing standups can easily lead to loss of interest, and a dip in attendance and productivity.
Here are a some of the most useful examples of evolution of the daily standup as a result of retro-ing:
- To ensure focus and that people shift their mindset, start your standup with a 1–2 minute warmup exercise; nominate someone to ask a question that requires a one-or-two word response, ideally somewhat related to what everyone is working on. Some examples include “What is the feature that you are most excited about in the new module?” or, on a somewhat lighter side, “What did you have for breakfast?”
- If you are late to the standup, or missed a couple of consecutive standups, don’t ask “what did I miss” in the middle of the standup. To get up to speed, schedule a quick discussion with your Scrum master.
- Remote joiners need to be logged in 5 minutes ahead of the standup. Any setup to facilitate remote joiners needs to be setup 5 minutes ahead of the standup.
- Conduct a standup retrospective surveys (use anonymous surveys) after 10 consecutive standups. Use feedback and learnings to reassess and enhance.
- Absolutely no cell phones! (my personal favorite)
Sprint Demos
Demoable code a the end of a sprint is one of the key tenants of Agile & Scrum. Let’s face it, demos can also very easily turn into just another meeting or a one-sided talk that does not foster any kind of engagement or excitement. In addition, demos can become a very formal affair where feedback and discussions are discouraged, or limited to just key stakeholders.
Some of the most impactful demo changes I’ve encountered fall under the umbrella of openness/encouraging participation, and “switching it up”.
- Encourage inactive participants to share their inputs openly; questions, and feedback should always be welcomed.
- Enable typical non-presenters, like engineers, to conduct the demos.
- Have a varying mix of participants in every demo; invite people from outside your direct teams. Cross pollination is important!
Sprint Retrospectives
The least popular, most misused and misunderstood part of all Scrum rituals.
The reasons retros are not conducted as seriously or frequently as other rituals is that Product teams don’t equate the importance of internal feedback with the importance of external one.
In addition, it’s never easy to be completely candid around your team ; fear and anxiety seem to always get in the way.
One cannot possibly fix something without knowing it’s broken to begin with.
Some of the changes that I’ve seen and conducted make feedback more actionable and attempt to ease fear and anxiety to really enable people to talk.
- Feedback without action is pointless. Apart from simply discussing the “what went well, what did not go so well, and what we can do to change?”, the feedback should be translated into actual tangible and measurable improvements that have to be discussed and reviewed at the beginning of the subsequent retros.
- To enable people to speak freely, I experimented with coloring (yes, coloring as in adult coloring books) during my retros.
According to scientific research, coloring has the ability to relax the fear center of your brain, the amygdala.
I still remember the look of shock and utter incomprehension on attendees’ faces when they walked into the retro meeting and saw coloring books and pens on the table. To everyone’s credit, they kept an open mind, and started to color. At a certain magical point, we all really felt that the mood became much more relaxed, and for the first time, the attendees starting really talking.