Standup meeting or daily standup is quite self-explanatory – it is a daily meeting where all participants stand. It allows your team to come together to update each other on their status, set priorities for the day, and get help with any roadblocks. Standing up rather than sitting encourages keeping the meeting short and to the point.
Daily Scrum Meeting In an Effective Way
When I work with teams to help them adopt Scrum, I try to avoid absolute phrases like “always” or “never”. This is because Scrum is a framework that is based on empirical process and Lean thinking where in self managing and cross functional team deliver work Faster. I sometimes find myself using these terms, but other times I realize that “absolutes” can actually apply to certain situations because of the impact they have on the team as a whole. While this may sound like I’m contradicting myself, in working with many teams over the past few years, I’ve discovered a few phrases (and actions) that lead to negative results. As a result, I’ve decided to share some of these lessons I’ve learned while working with teams. Read ahead to see if they might be useful for your team.Daily Scrum Meeting In an Effective Way
Things you should never do in Daily standup Meeting
Say “what is your status?” –
This seemingly innocuous question can send your Daily Scrum/Stand-up down the wrong path faster than you can say “Scrum”. By using the word “status”, the team is subconsciously led to believe that this is a status meeting, which is one of the worst things that can happen in a daily scrum. Try to avoid this mistake and replace it with “what is our priority today?”, “what is our goal today?” or something similar to encourage collaboration.
Say “We’re still working on the same ticket as yesterday…no holds barred” –
This is by far one of the most common statements I’ve heard, and not only does it not help the team, it encourages other team members to do the same, which doesn’t improve transparency or teamwork . If someone on your team makes this statement, try asking open-ended questions like “what did you do to make progress toward our sprint goal? How can others help you?”
Ask a lot of technical questions –
By asking technical questions, you risk derailing the meeting and turning it into a problem-solving session, which is one of the most common mistakes teams make. Find a way to gracefully and politely redirect the question and stop the dialogue in flight as soon as possible; you don’t have to be a Scrum Master to see this happening, and you can stop this conversation by saying something along the lines of, “If it’s okay with you, maybe it’s best if we discuss this after the Scrum is over so we can jump into the details .”
Discuss Tasks that are NOT in the current sprint backlog –
The purpose of the daily scrum is to keep the team working towards the sprint goals, which means the team only needs to focus on the work that was planned for the current sprint. Some team members may have reason to discuss a future sprint or other work item in the product backlog that should be addressed outside of the daily scrum.
Make announcements about organizational activities –
Many teams I’ve coached engage in daily scrums that have sporadic participation from the Product Owner, as they are usually very busy with their “day job”. A common side-effect of this is that the product owner may feel the need to share organizational changes (ie “flow-downs”) from senior management. While this is important information for the team to have, the Daily Scrum is not a forum for this type of conversation because it distracts from the work and encourages a lot of questions. My suggestion: find another opportunity to share these types of announcements so the team can move toward their sprint goals.
Things You should do in a Daily Standup Meeting
When you get it wrong, daily standups become another chore that clogs up your team’s schedule. Instead of a series of one-on-one messages, use standup meetings as an opportunity to fully harness the power of collaboration. A standup meeting is a quick and effective way to motivate your team every day and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Here are some tips to keep your meetings focused and effective:
Follow the baton, not the runner
Individual progress should contribute to the progress of the whole project. Make sure team members keep this in mind when sharing their progress.
Walk the board from right to left
Focus most on what is almost done and how to get it done. We instinctively read information from left to right, but with a kanban board, tasks are closest to completion on the right side of the board. Like crossing items off a to-do list, each success builds momentum. Starting a meeting with tasks that are “almost done” and “done” is a great way to boost team morale.
Focus on what is critical
Look for obstacles that are holding the whole project back. Use this time with team members to ask what obstacles need to be removed to keep things running smoothly. Don’t let the meeting deviate from the speeches and brand new topics, but you can get a thorough discussion on how to deal with the most pressing obstacles.
Outdated work address
During standups, keep an eye on the oldest items in your process. Aging graphs show how much time each work item spends in the process and in each process state – prioritize completion of work items that exceed the average cycle time. The aging graph helps you identify where your process is slowing down while the task is still running.
Agree on the priorities for the day
Moving your project forward depends on multiple people doing dependent tasks in the right order. Use a daily standup to get everyone on the same page about goals and top priorities for the day.
Use engaging language
Rather than “what did you do yesterday,” start the conversation with “what challenges did you overcome” or “what will we accomplish today.” The words you use as a leader can energize or demotivate your team. Success depends on the motivation of your team, the daily standup is an opportunity to inspire them.
Maintain a positive team environment
When done poorly, standups can seem like surveillance, implying a lack of confidence in people’s ability to manage themselves. Standups are taken as reporting time,when there biggest benifiet is getting support and advice from your Team. Standups set the mood for the day – keep it positive and upbeat.
Summary
To conclude this short article, avoiding simple and common mistakes will often greatly increase the chances of success. This is why I’ve always been a big fan of “anti-patterns”. Watch out for this potentially negative behavior and your team should reap the benefits very quickly.
Reference to Know more about Daily Standup Meeting
https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-daily-scrum