Scrum Master Guide

This guide covers everything a Scrum Master needs to manage meeting streams, assign roles, and facilitate effective standups and team meetings in NASA - Not Another Standup App.

Role Overview

To use NASA as a Scrum Master, you must be assigned the Scrum Master role in at least one meeting stream, and NASA must be installed on your Jira Cloud instance. See User Roles & Permissions for the full permissions matrix.

As a Scrum Master, you can:

• Create, configure, rename, and delete meeting streams

• Assign Scrum Master, Coverer, and Participant roles

• Start, pause, and end live meetings

• Configure board connections, filters, notifications, and schedules

• Flag items for follow-up during meetings

• Load absent participants' prepared updates into live meetings

Getting Started

Creating Your First Stream

Quick Setup with Templates (Recommended)

1. Open NASA from the Jira sidebar.

2. Click Create New Stream or the + button.

3. Select a Meeting Template that matches your ceremony (Daily Standup, Sprint Retrospective, etc.).

4. The template pre-configures meeting type, default questions, time allocations, and scheduling.

5. Adjust any settings to match your team's needs.

6. Click Create.

Manual Stream Setup

1. Open NASA from the Jira sidebar.

2. Click Create New Stream or the + button.

3. Name your stream (e.g., "Development Team Daily Standup").

4. Select the Jira board to associate with this stream.

5. Choose the meeting type.

6. Configure the schedule (days and time).

7. Click Create.

The Streams Overview gives you a central dashboard of all meeting streams in your instance, showing stream names, meeting types, assigned boards, roles, and schedules at a glance.

The Streams Overview where Scrum Masters manage all meeting streams

Configuring User Roles

1. Go to Settings → Users.

2. Set yourself as the Scrum Master if not already assigned.

3. Add Coverers who can lead meetings in your absence.

4. Select Participants from the user list.

5. Click Save Changes.

The Users tab in Settings lets you manage all three role types for each stream.

The Users settings tab for managing Scrum Master, Coverer, and Participant roles

Essential Stream Configuration

After creating a stream, review these settings in the General tab:

• Meeting Board - link to the appropriate Jira board

• Time & Date - set recurring schedule and timer options

• Notifications - configure Slack or email reminders

• Filters - set up filters for suggested Jira issues

• Meeting Questions - customize questions for your team or keep template defaults

Running Meetings

Before the Meeting

• Verify Notifications are configured so participants receive reminders.

• Check My Overview to see who has completed their preparation.

• Review the Team Journal for follow-up items from previous meetings.

• Complete your own My Update to lead by example.

Starting the Meeting

1. Navigate through your My Update preparation steps.

2. Click Enter Meeting Lobby on the summary screen.

3. Wait for participants to join the lobby.

4. Click Start Meeting when most team members are ready.

During the Meeting

The live meeting interface provides a timer, agenda navigation, and participant controls. Use the arrow buttons or keyboard shortcuts to move between agenda items.

The live meeting interface with timer, agenda, and participant controls

For Standups:

• Use the timer to keep each person within their time limit.

• Flag items for follow-up rather than discussing in detail.

• Address blockers by identifying who can help.

• Redirect off-topic conversations to follow-ups.

For Team Meetings:

• Navigate between topics using the agenda panel or arrow buttons.

• Monitor per-topic timers to keep the meeting on schedule.

• Add new agenda items on the fly if needed.

• Reorder topics based on priority.

Loading Absent Participants

During a live Team Meeting, click the Load Non-Joiners button to pull in prepared updates from participants who did not join. This lets the team review their items without requiring the participant to be present. Coverers also have access to this feature.

Ending the Meeting

1. Review flagged follow-up items.

2. Click the Stop button to end the meeting.

3. NASA automatically saves the meeting record to the Team Journal.

Advanced Features

Follow-Up Management

Items flagged during meetings appear in the Team Journal. From there you can:

• Create Jira issues for actionable follow-ups

• Add follow-ups to the next meeting's agenda

• Track resolution of recurring blockers

Stream Management

As your team evolves, use the Streams Overview or Settings to:

• Edit stream configuration (board, schedule, questions)

• Create new streams for additional projects or ceremonies

• Add or remove participants

• Reassign Scrum Master or Coverer roles

• Duplicate an existing stream as a starting point

• Delete streams that are no longer needed

Planning Poker

NASA includes a built-in Planning Poker feature for estimation sessions. See the dedicated guide for setup and usage.

Best Practices

• Lead by example - always complete your own preparation before the meeting.

• Start on time - respect the schedule to build team discipline.

• Use the timer - keep updates concise and on track.

• Flag, don't discuss - move detailed conversations to follow-ups.

• Review the Team Journal - track patterns and follow through on commitments.

• Iterate on format - adjust questions, time limits, and meeting types based on feedback.

• Use templates - start new streams with proven configurations.

Troubleshooting

Related Pages

• Participant Guide - guidance for meeting participants

• Jira Administrator Guide - installation and instance-level configuration

• Meeting Templates - pre-configured stream templates

• Meeting Settings - detailed configuration options

• Live Meeting Features - full reference for in-meeting controls

• Planning Poker - estimation session setup and usage