Hacking the Daily Scrum— The After-Party
Contrary to popular belief, there is no need for a one-size-fits all way to facilitate a Daily Scrum (aka Daily Standup). And by that I mean, among other things, that there are plenty of ways to have this conversation without the “three questions.” In this case I’m not going to delve into what directions attendees might choose to take early in the conversation anyway, but instead, what happens at the end, or even just after the meeting is over.
Note: For a longer description of ways to facilitate a Daily Scrum, see what I wrote on this topic several years ago:
How Does it Work?
During all sorts of meetings, many people employ a “Parking Lot” as a construct, where there is a tacit agreement to have a visible/virtual place to capture things that come up during conversations, which are not directly related to the focus of the meeting.
In a Daily Scrum context, the “After Party” is much the same idea, where it’s time either at the end of the Daily Scrum, or just after it concludes, set aside for discussion of side topics. For instance, some topics might not require the whole team to be present, so why spend time on those during the Daily Scrum?
Many teams also find it helpful to have a visible or audible cue which signals to others that something can wait until the After-Party. And because such situations also might indicate that the conversation has gone into the weeds, it is not uncommon for there to be a audible cue like “Deep Dive,” or a comparable hand motion, mimicking what happens when diving to the bottom of a swimming pool, and then resurfacing. Another favorite is ELMO, short for Enough Let’s Move On.”
Whether a team is meeting in person, in a hybrid setting, or fully remote, it’s a simple matter to experiment with different conventions to use for saving topics for the After-Party. For instance, maybe the team has a visible place for a simple list of such topics, along with the names of the people most likely to need to stick around to discuss those topics.
And since we’re calling it an After-Party, there could be one or more things that the team chooses to celebrate, like solving a particularly hard problem, or just expressing appreciation to one another. Teams might also choose to set aside time on an ad hoc basis for something like Show and Tell, to get early, rapid feedback on what they’re working on.
Acknowledgement
I’d like to thank Jimmy Janlén for the inspiration for the After-Party concept. You can find lots of cool ideas for hacking the Daily Scrum in his book Toolbox for the Agile Coach — Visualization Examples.
