[teampractices] Dialy Scrum and timezone differences

[Christian Aistleitner]

Hi,

the analytics team is currently spread between UTC-7 and UTC+3. Our
Daily Scrum meeting is at 17:00 UTC, so in local time it varies
between 10:00 .. 20:00.

Having mandatory meetings every single workday at 20:00 can easily
kill your social life, which is bad™.

Scrum books and the intertubes mostly mention the problem, and some
even offer some guidance [1]. But we're still looking for a good
solution.

How do other WMF-teams handle this?

Best regards,
Christian



[1] For example:

* Have separate Daily Scrums for different regions.

  E.g.: Separate Daily Scrums for America, and for Europe.

  That approach rather disconnects the team. And with 2 devs per
  region, it would make for really small Daily Scrums for
  Analytics :-)

* Pick a time that works well for most people.

  That's the situation we're currently in, and it seems
  unsatisfactory.

* Change “mandatory” to “recommended”.

  This has worked for me, but for others who actually have friends
  *sniff*, it does not seem to work out too nicely.

* Meet less often.

  E.g.: Turn Daily Scrum meetings into Biweekly Scrum meetings.

  This approach cuts back on one the main reasons for meeting:
  synchronization.

* Rotating the time for Daily Scrum.

  E.g.: Per Sprint: For Sprint 1,3,5,... pick a time that is
  convenient for Americans, For Sprint 2,4,6,... pick a time that is
  convenient for Europeans.

  E.g.: Per day of week: Monday-Wednesday, pick a time that is
  convenient for Americans, Thursday, and Friday pick a time that is
  convenient for Europeans.

  I am stupid. I cannot remember ever changing schedules.

* Have Daily Scrum asynchronously.

  E.g.: Answer the three questions each day in email instead of a
  meeting.

  This hampers interaction. Saying “I can help there” is way easier
  then replying to an email / voice-recording.



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Christian Aistleitner
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