Thursday, June 13, 2019

When is the best time to update the scrum board?

I have worked with teams that have updated the board at stand-up and other that have updated it as they go throughout the day.  I am starting to think daily updates is an anti-pattern.

Updating the board on a daily basis turns the board from a tool the team uses to stay in sync, into a manually updated report used to tell people outside the team where you got up to yesterday.

If the business decided the priorities on the board were in the wrong order, or that some work is not longer needed... should they wait until stand-up to move the cards?

Waiting to the next day to move your card also encourages people not to pick up new work the same day another piece is completed - forcing waste into your process.

If delaying the point at which a cards gets moved doesn't have people getting confused about what to pick up next, then your cards probably don't move very often... which is also an indication each card represent too much work (and project risk).

Sometimes I get pushback that it lets the team celebrate team progress together... but if you can't ring a bell or some other signal in your work area when a story is done tor trigger a cheer... you are probably in a shared office space with other teams working on other things... and that in itself is another anti-pattern.

What do you think?

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