Your daily stand-up meetings can be better
Doing the same thing for a long time can make you forget why you started doing it in the first place. You just proceed, and you don’t reflect on what you are getting out of it. Daily standup meetings are a perfect example of this. There is a standard way of proceeding with them, which has become quite established in our industry, but you should still challenge it and ask yourself if what you do is what nets you the most possible profit. We did, and we found some adjustments that drastically improved our dailies.
The Three Questions vs Walk the Board
Three simple questions. We all know them; we all started our Agile journeys getting used to answering them; and we face them every single day.
“What did you do yesterday?”
“What will you do today?”
“Are there any obstacles in your way?”
People like to talk about how well they are doing by solving the tasks assigned to them. Unfortunately, people do not find the same level of pleasure standing up while listening others ramble. The three questions help the team members get an idea of what others are working on, how well the tasks are progressing, and if there are blockers in the way. However, it also brings in other, less desirable side effects. Blocked tasks that nobody worked on during the previous day may be overlooked and people will explain that they had to work on tasks not related to the team: more, they are very likely to not be of interest to the people listening and people will often engage in storytelling. The short story is that the questions make the meeting focus on the people, not on the tasks.
Walking the board helps reverting this situation. It consists of dropping the questions and, instead, reviewing the status of every task on the board, starting from the ones closest to completion and ending with the ones still in progress. People are more interested in tasks, and not so interested in their teammates, so this is what is answered while walking the board. A good common question could be, “What do we need to do to move this story to the next stage?”
The most obvious benefit is that the focus is on the tasks, not on the people — so, the amount of storytelling is significantly reduced and interaction between team members naturally emerges.
When do we talk about unplanned tasks?
Now that the team is going to speak about the tasks in the board and not about what each person did, what about unplanned tasks? You can create post-it notes for them, but, if you care about the planet, you can have a dedicated section on the board where you can make notes about unplanned items that deserve a moment of attention. This way, unplanned tasks get their share of attention without shadowing main and more important items.
Does the Scrum Master command the meeting?
The Scrum Master ensures that the team has the meeting, but the team is responsible for conducting it. Having the Scrum Master command the meeting and decide who can speak at any given time is a bad sign. Team members should be engaged and interested to learn about the status of all tasks on the board. After all, each team member is there because it serves a purpose towards the objectives of the team. The Scrum Master should promote dialogue and encourage team members to “pass the mic” to each other after they are finished speaking. Having each person move the post-it notes that they have helped to progress is also a good thing to do, as it is a rewarding and satisfactory moment.
Should the stand-up meeting start the day?
Having the meeting at the same place and same time every day is important. But is it mandatory to start the day with it? Why not ask the team? It’s their event. Therefore, let them choose the time that suits everyone the best — this increases the feeling of ownership and encourages people to attend the meeting on time.
Spice it up!
Small details can make a difference. Try expanding the information that the post-it notes provide, by writing some annotations in the whiteboard — resources that the tasks need, the test environment that the code is deployed at, and similar information. If somebody states that a certain task can be finished on a certain date, you can note it down while pretending it is a firm commitment. It is only a joke, but people will not only find it amusing, as they will also learn to pay more attention to what others — and themselves — are saying.
Another simple detail is having customized avatars for each team member. You just have to pick a theme — cartoons work well as they are easily recognizable — and have each team member choose a character to represent them. For example, my team decided to use the Simpsons characters:
Adapting a standard recipe to fit particular needs is not easy and requires time. Use this idea to get some inspiration and do not be afraid to make changes to your daily meeting routines. Keep what works for you and revert what does not. Change should be, in fact, continuous.
