Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Questions
Trigger an alarm to start the meeting I read that one team blasts
out Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up”
For people who are late, you can actually have a bit of fun and
penalize them or even “fine them”. Check out:
where they are forced to do the ‘Cupid Shuffle’. You can also use
the technique, in which the person, who arrives last, speaks first.
It’s a good way to ensure people are on time. The late person is
usually the least prepared, so be careful because your meeting
might not start off so well.
Speaking of the order, you can start by getting the team to pick a
card; cards 1–6 for example are randomly picked which decides
the order people speak. I’m a massive fan on making the order
random each time. I find the best way is to use a ball or stress toy
to throw around, whoever has the ball gets to speak. This is great
for ensuring interruptions are minimal too. The ball should be
thrown at random which helps people to remain engaged, because
they don’t know if they are going to speak next. If it’s the same
routine every day, the last people to speak can sometimes lose
interest. This is also a great way to promotes self-organisation in
the team.
Have it at the beginning of the day, I find it’s a great way to start.
At the end of the day people are usually tired and just wanting to
go home. But it’s important to note that the stand-up should not
trigger the start of the day. The team should not stop working or
wait to start because the stand-up hasn’t commenced.
Have clear rules, maybe print them out and stick them on the wall
where the meeting takes place.
Engagement
Do it standing, sitting takes out some of the energy — it’s obvious
but it’s called the daily stand up for a reason.
Don’t spend too much time updating your PM tools though, listen
first — it’s the most important. It’s easy if you use a physical scrum
board, if it’s not so simple, update it after the meeting.
Keep the focus. Everyone in the meeting should be engaged. So no
one should be at their desk (ideally), no phones, no email.
It’s called the daily scrum for a reason. Huddle the team together.
This helps with team building too; no one has to shout, and this
should make people more comfortable, and promote trust.
If you are the scrum master, and the person talking is only
addressing you, its good practice to break eye contact with the
person, just to remind them there are other people in the meeting
too!
Priorities
Focus on the baton, not the runners
Discuss all the work in progress. All work Items must attend the
meeting, even if not all of the team does. Think from the
perspective of the work — it can’t speak for its self.
Goals
Use the acronym GIFTS for the goals of your daily stand up,
standing for:
Attendees
It’s ok for the product owner or stakeholders to attend, but they
must be observers only. It’s actually good if they are there if a team
member needs a quick clarification, but again — any specific
discussions should be taken offline. The whole team probably
doesn’t need to go into too much detail about the clarifications you
need on some of the UI — you have tomorrow’s meeting to update
the team on the general progress.
If you have a big team, consider splitting the meeting into two. It’s
not ideal, but neither is a daily stand up with 15 people. If you are
in different locations, try to use video conference or web cams as a
first option, I find being able to see everyone makes the meetings
more engaging, and you can see who is interested and who is not.
Voice calls over skype are not ideal, especially if everyone is at
their desks because they will be tempted to work at the same time
and not be fully engaged.
Meeting Length
Keep it short. It’s short for a reason. The longer the meeting the
less engaged people become. Everyone should understand the
importance of the meeting. If it is more than 15 minutes, then you
are doing something else rather than providing a simple update on
progress. Take anything else off-line. You can use the timer on
your phone to ensure everyone speaks within the permitted time.
Summary
Here is a brief summary of things to avoid during the stand-up:
Not standing
Not at the same place or time
Teams joining late
Product owners can’t join
Reporting to the leader / Scrum Master
Not remembering what you did (preparation)
Storytelling
Not discussing impediments until the last minute
Missing important updates
Allowing distractions (tea, phone calls, speaking to a passer-by)
Starting a side discussion
Problem solving
Not listening to other team members
Not limiting to 15 minute
Not using a physical board
Here are some examples of what a daily stand-up should look like: