7 TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE REMOTE SCRUMS AND 

3 COMMON MYTHS

Posted by Amit Goel on 18th June 2020

Remote working is getting more common as more employers are offering the flexibility to work from home, due to COVID-19 lock down or other reasons. This poses new challenges for the team in having effective daily stand-ups that may result in teams losing interest in Scrum ceremonies. 

Ineffective daily stand-up meetings and poor coordination in the teams have a negative impact on the overall project progress and demotivate the team. Below, quick tips provide you with the mechanism that has helped me in my projects. 

Tip #1

Have a working agreement in place that addresses the basic rules of remote agile events such as mute yourself if you are not talking, or raise your hand if you want to talk, or that the video signal is always on.

Tip #2

Be the first one to ensure everything is working. We do face technology challenges at times and it is important that it is resolved in time to avoid delays or hurdles. Starting early guarantees that you are up to speed, everything is setup and you are ready to go. 

Tip #3

Make sure you have a common reference board to keep everyone on the same page. JIRA, Monday.com, and other visual KANBAN boards help visualize each user story and work item, as team members share what they’re working on and where they’re blocked. 

Tip #4

Make team members visual by using Video conferencing or other conferencing tools.

Tip #5

All team members in the meeting should be using the same communication channel. Having most participants in a room and others on phone doesn't give the equal distribution of airtime and bandwidth among participants. The moment you allow co-located people direct access, there will be an imbalance at the expense of the remote participants. Avoid Hybrid meetings.

Tip #6

Create a rule to keep long talkers to a minimum like the ELMO rule (Enough Let’s Move On).

Tip #7

Keep your peer informed if you can't make it to the stand-up. It saves everyone's time and the team does not feel disrespectful. 

COMMON MYTHS

MYTH #1: "Who cares? I should sit during the stand-up" 

Please remember it is daily "stand-up" and rules are for a reason. Not only does standing up keeps you focused but also avoids long discussions. It helps in maintaining the daily scrum within time box, disciplined and purposeful 

MYTH #2: Working from home means "I can avoid daily scrum"

This is a common myth and I tell people that not only do they lose the opportunity of sharing their impediments with the team but not attending the daily scrum makes them uninformed of the team's progress. Avoiding this 15 minutes stand-up eventually leads them to write long emails, discussions, and status updates. Don't avoid daily scrum whether you are in the office or working from remote. 

MYTH #3: Scrum Master is responsible to organise the daily scrum

We all have to agree that this myth is not only have to do with remote scrums. The daily scrum is "owned" by the scrum team. If the team is working from remote, it is the shared responsibility of the team to have daily scrum organised.