Is it ok to bring reminder notes to a Scrum standup meeting?

Question

Quite often I would complete numerous daily tasks i.e. not working on anything one component in particular. Therefore, I find it quite difficult to remember these individual tasks in our next day stand up meeting. Is it ok to bring a small sticky note with a few reminder points on the previous days tasks? For example, the contents of the sticky could be:

Yesterday:
----------------
- Implemented component X
- Refactored Y class
- Updated Bamboo build settings
- Submit test request to 3rd party harness
- Read up on X API

Today:
----------
- Write tests for component B
- Implement component B
- Document install instructions
- Code review meeting

Obstacles:
----------------
- Sys admin still haven't opened external port

What are your views on this?

Answer 1

A key point of scrum is that it's not written in stone -- you should adapt it to whatever works best in your organization. However, the daily standup meeting is meant to be short, so if you bring notes, you should use them as a reference, not like a meeting agenda.

Answer 2

I don't know if it is "officially" ok but I do this all the time. If you are like me and lose track of the last thing you did because you are now focusing on something new then write stuff down. Its better to show up at SCRUM with a short list then to show up and say: "now ... what was it I was working on?".

Answer 3

Yes, short notes are fine. Long stories probably destroys the relationship with your coworkers.

Answer 4

Implement Scrum in a way you feel it comfortably. Stand up meetings should be short, but who is saying that they can't take so much time as you need it?

If you are using some kind of Scrum tool, you don't have to take your notes, all is written in tool - obstacles, tasks status, comments.

Answer 5

I think notes are ok, but you are talking about subjects which may not be pertinent to user stories in your sprint. If you keep focused on that rather than other tasks that you have performed you will keep the scrum meeting short and relevant.

If the tasks are relevant say what story they were part of to give co workers context.

Answer 6

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be OK to bring some notes to the daily meeting.

In our team, we have extended the daily scrum a little bit. It consists of the following parts:

1. The normal daily scrum (yesterday, today, obstacles). This should not take more than 5-10 minutes.
2. We update the sprint backlog. Should not take more than 5 minutes. This ensures that the whole team knows about the the current state of the sprint backlog.
3. If required, we discuss any important topics (which concern the whole team)
4. If required, we schedule meetings between team members (or directly hold the meetings after the daily scrum).

Because of the way we do the daily scrum/daily meeting, it is quite normal that everyone brings some short notes, for example about what topics they need to discuss with others.

After all (as others already mentioned), you should implement SCRUM in a way that works for you and your team. And of course you should always be open to improve/change your process if you found some problems (e.g. during a retrospective).

Answer 7

The answer to the basic question is yes. It is entirely appropriate to bring notes to a standup if it helps you.

Your example, however, points to a common pitfall in standups... providing detail on activities that may not be important to the team. You read something, and you attended a meeting. Those are examples of what I sometimes refer to as "justifying your 8-hours".

The key is - share what you did and what you will do without elaboration. If someone has questions on something particular, they can ask for details outside the meeting.

Answer 8

Why would they not be?

Only rules are:

• Answer the three question
  • what did you do yesterday
  • what are you going to do today
  • what is blocking you
• you speak to the team (not any one individual)
• you keep it short
• no story telling
• no problem solving
• speak when you have the token
• know who to send the token to next (not someone that has already spoken)
• if someone goes long or tries to problem solve others may call for a focus meeting after the stand up
• Story card wall should be visible
• A person in the room updates the blocker boards as blockers are called out

Notes are fine, as are projectors, laser pointers and beanie caps with propellers.