Daily Planning as a Scrum Master is an often overlooked task. I’d say daily planning in general is often set aside whether you’re a Scrum Master or not.
And you may think…
Daily planning is pretty intuitive, and it’s not something that would be different for a Scrum Master from any other profession.
Let’s see…
Daily Planning as a Scrum Master
The role of a Scrum Master is vital in ensuring that a Scrum team operates smoothly and efficiently.
We are responsible for facilitating the team’s adherence to the Scrum framework, removing obstacles that may prevent the team from delivering the product incrementally, and encouraging the team to improve its processes continually.
To perform these duties effectively, we as Scrum Masters must be well-organized and have excellent planning and communication skills.
Planning as a Scrum Master
As a Scrum Master, I’ve always had a way of doing daily planning according to the Scrum guide. And then one day I realized, I was spending more time structuring out my daily planner than actually doing the planning.
If you’ve been in one of my classes you might have noticed my obsession with aligning all of the notes in a pretty and clean setup 😂
To reduce my mild case of OCD (at least when it comes to daily plans), I came up with a beautiful and efficient format and I want to share it with you.
The planner has everything a Scrum Master needs on a daily basis, from planning and tracking work to guidance on working with a Scrum team and providing checklists to follow.
Let’s take a closer look at it…
What the daily planner of a Scrum Master should look like?
I made a list of the most common types of notes I take when working with a team and that became the guideline for building my planner.
Onboarding Checklist for Scrum Masters
A Scrum Master’s first few days on the job can be very overwhelming. From day one you immediately need to get familiar with the team, understand the product backlog, and plan for the first sprint.
In this process, it’s very easy to lose track of important tasks and information if you’re not well organized with checklists.
To help through this process, the Scrum Master Planner includes an onboarding checklist for Scrum Masters. This step-by-step guide will help you start on the right foot and set you up for success.
Team Health and Scrum Assessments
One of the responsibilities we have as Scrum Masters is to ensure the team’s health and well-being.
What does that mean? Checking up on their eating habits or sleeping schedule?
Almost!
An Agile team’s well-being is measured by monitoring the team’s:
- morale
- productivity
- progress
The Scrum Master Planner includes checklists that will help you evaluate your team’s state and plan for improvements.
These assessments cover various aspects of the team’s performance, including:
- communication
- collaboration
- adherence to Scrum practices
These aspects can be very easily overlooked when they’re not written down. And only a Scrum Master can truly appreciate the value of “soft” information for the future improvement of the Agile team.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan
After completing the assessments, a Scrum Master needs to create a summary of their findings and work on the next steps.
And I don’t know if you’ve noticed writing on a blank page takes double the effort than when you are given a queue.
When I have my action plan laid out, I don’t need to pause and think of the next step in my Scrum Master task.
The Scrum Master Planner includes pages for you to document your assessment results and improvement plan. Track progress over time and ensure that you’re moving in the right direction.
Doesn’t that simplify your life?
Sprint Schedule
You know that the Sprints are the building blocks of Scrum. And as Scrum Masters, we need to ensure that our teams follow the best practices to build a schedule that they can follow for successful sprints.
Sounds like a lot of pressure…
So where do we begin?
By creating a schedule that complies with the latest version of the Scrum Guide.
The Scrum Master planner gives you guidance on how to create a Sprint schedule that works for your team, including tips on estimating and prioritizing backlog items.
Backlog items are the trickiest part of a Sprint Schedule, and I find that having these tips and quickly running through them without having to look back at my notes or counting on my memory, has helped me a lot in making the best possible decisions while scheduling a Sprint.
So talking about pressure… Having the information handy takes the pressure away!
Sprint Events Guides
While Scrum Masters technically don’t have to facilitate all of the Sprint events, they should know what a good planning, daily scrum, review, and retrospective should look like.
Firstly, because you may actually need to facilitate them (especially, with new to Scrum teams).
Secondly, you will need to coach your team on making the most out of these events every time!
But let’s be honest, being on top of these takes a lot of work and effort.
So how do we make our lives a little easier?
The Scrum Master Planner includes detailed notes on how to prepare, run, and follow up on every Scrum meeting. This section covers all Scrum events, including:
- Sprint Planning
- Daily Scrums
- Sprint Reviews
- Sprint retrospectives
By following these guides, you can ensure that your team is making the most out of these events and achieving their objectives.
Sprint Reports
Sprint Reports!
Don’t we all love that two-page summary of the key information you need to create a useful sprint overview?
I thought it was key to add 14 Sprint Report templates to the Scrum Master Planner that you can use to track your team’s progress and identify areas for improvement.
These Sprint Report templates cover various aspects of the sprint, including:
- Sprint goal
- Backlog items completed
- Impediments
- Retrospective action items
- …and more.
This is a handy tool to simplify your Planning, Review, and Retrospective as it walks you through key topics and questions you need to ask to stay on top of things.
My Toolbox
In my past 10 years of experience, I’ve gathered a unique set of tools and practices. And I bet that as a Scrum Master, no matter how much experience you have you also have your own tools and practices that make you the best Scrum Master you can be.
With that in mind…
The Scrum Master Planner has a space specifically created for you to make notes on your favorite tools and practices.
This will help you stay organized and ensure that you’re using the right tools to get the job done.
And if you don’t have any set of defined practices that are particular to you yet…
This is a great opportunity to grow in your Scrum Master practices!
My Backlog
This can be the trickiest and most overwhelming part of the Scrum Master’s Daily planning.
Because in addition to your daily tasks, you’re likely to have bigger to-do items such as improvements and experiments you want to run.
Keeping track of these tasks is way harder on a daily basis. Which is why moving them along with your daily planning and seeing them every day helps to get them done in a more organized manner.
Meeting Notes
This one is especially important for when you start working with a team and conduct your initial interviews with everyone (check the onboarding checklist for more).
Hasn’t it happened to you before?
You attend a meeting, you write your notes on a random piece of paper, and a few days later, you wrap up the work you talked about in the meeting BUT!
You forgot something you wrote on a flimsy piece of paper and you didn’t add it to the Sprint Schedule.
This is why I included some guidance on how to run your 1:1 meetings with your team and space to collect the most important notes from meetings.
Having it all in one place definitely helps to do our jobs as Scrum Masters better and easier.
Daily Planner for Scrum Masters
This tool is 130 pages of a simple Scrum team, sprint, and daily planner to keep you on track with your improvement plan and your backlog.
Being a Scrum Master is a critical role in any Agile development team. We are responsible for ensuring the team follows the Scrum framework, maximizing productivity, and continuously improving the team’s performance.
As a Scrum Master, the pressure is on to be organized, adaptable, and capable of leading a team toward success.
The Scrum Master Planner can be an invaluable tool to live up to the potential of a true Scrum Master.
And honestly, the Scrum Master Planner is an excellent investment for anyone looking to become a successful Scrum Master. It is a comprehensive guide that provides all the tools and resources needed to succeed in this critical role. With the help of the Planner, a Scrum Master can lead their team to success, maximize productivity, and continuously improve performance.
And what’s your favorite part of the Scrum Master Planner?