3 Questions Considered Harmful

Since I've been reading a lot of pre-agile books, Dykstra's GOTO Considered Harmful seemed fitting here.  I think that the standard three questions for Daily Scrums (what did I do yesterday, what am I doing today, any blocks) should be considered harmful, because these questions force people to focus on themselves--and we want people to focus on the team! So for years I've been experimenting a lot with the Daily Scrum, by changing the format with  hot potato, pull, and synchronization points, and by changing the questions:

• are we on target to finish this iteration on time?
• what's important?
• anyone want a second opinion on something they're working on?
• any decisions to be made by the group?
• what's left to finish the iteration?
• what can we deploy next?
• open-ended questions about stories that are active
• any topics for the parking lot?
• any ripple effects? [that is, for something I just changed or am about to change, who needs to know and what effect with it have?]

It would be great if we had a stable list of questions, but I find it more effective to use two or 3 from the list above for a month, then to use a new set--it keeps people on their toes, and this thinking creates better communication.

To help clients and conference attendees see what I'm talking about, I've also prepared a slide deck entitled Freedom In Meeting.