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Stand-up Meetings

Daily stand-up meetings are the most commonly used agile practice. [1] The Scrum methodology calls it the "daily scrum".

TODO: This is not a status meeting. If it turns into that, it's a waste of time to have everyone listening to everyone else report their status to the project manager. The Kanban board (or something similar) should represent the majority of the status information that is required. (If it's not, that is something that should be addressed.)

TODO: Stand-ups help us focus on the work ahead.

TODO: Stand-ups are another chance for us to improve the way we work. By identifying obstacles in front of the team, other team members can make suggestions on how to proceed. By listing accomplishments, we can mention some things that we found that worked well.

TODO: Communication and self-management.

TODO: Short mid-day stand-up. Especially if you're doing half-day pair switching.

TODO: Standing up gets you away from the distractions of the computer. It also makes you want to get the meeting over quickly so you can sit down and get back to work.

TODO: Time boxing. It's for summaries, not the whole story. It's not a time to solve problems, only identify them, and point toward possible solutions.

NOTE: You don't have to wait until the stand-up meeting to raise obstacles. Many teams have "turn-around" meetings, where they just ask the rest of the team to turn around to have an impromptu discussion.

Suggested Starting Point

  • Start every day with a stand-up status meeting. Most teams schedule it at the latest starting time during the normal core work hours.

  • Stand up for the stand-up meetings. This will help to keep the meetings short and to the point. If the team is co-located, gather around in a circle or semi-circle.

  • If you're using some sort of Kanban board, use it to direct the conversation. Otherwise, go in order around the circle.

  • Each team member should answer these 3 questions:

    • What did you accomplish yesterday?
    • What is the plan for today?
    • What obstacles are impeding progress?

  • When answering the questions, don't think of it as a status report. Think of it as a way to communicate with the rest of the team.

  • Each person should be time-boxed to 1 or 2 minutes. Anything longer should be discussed at a later time.

  • Ideally, the stand-up meeting should take about 5 to 10 minutes total. Try to achieve that goal.

[1]: VersionOne Agile Survey 2012

Resources

http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/itsNotJustStandingUp.html