Facilitating the Standup Meeting

A standup meeting is a quick meeting for the team to plan their work, and share progress, problems and discoveries with each other.

Typically the meeting is held every day first thing in the morning. The whole team stand in a semi circle around the team board and everyone says what they did yesterday, what they're going to do today, and any problems they're having. The meeting is for the teams benefit, and is not status reporting to the coach or project manager.

Benefits of the Standup Meeting

• A time to plan and prioritise work, so that everybody always knows what they should be doing.
• A forum to ask for help, and to give help.
• The standup meeting helps to build a jelled team. A team where everybody is encouraged to speak, where everybody is listened to and where everybody is equal.
• It stops people feeling isolated and caring only about their piece of the puzzle.
• Team members should be interrupted less during the day as non urgent questions can be saved till the next standup meeting and asked then.
• A time where progress, milestones, requirements, customer reactions, technical discussions and technical problems can all be discussed and clarified. ( Provided the discussion is short and relevant to most participants.)

The agile coach needs to observe the meeting very closely and 'take the temperature' of the team.

• Is everyone engaged, motivated, excited?
• Is it a team, or a bunch of individuals working together?
• Are they sharing problems and asking for help?
• Are they offering to help?
• Are they volunteering for tasks?
• Are people stressed, frustrated, distracted?
• Is the team adding value to the product they are working on?
• Do they understand what they should be doing?
• Are they trying to achieve the team goals?
• Are they working on the highest priority tasks?
• Are they able to concentrate on their work?
• Are they being truthful and open about their day?
• Are the team on track to achieving their goal?
• Are they focussed?
• Is everyone making progress?

 

Note down problems mentioned. Some of them will need to be solved urgently, while some might be better suited to being solved at a retrospective.

 

Listen out for problems the team haven t articulated. They might not realise something is blocking them because they are too involved and can t see the wood for the trees, or they might know there is a problem but think it is rude to name it, or they may feel there is no point in complaining because it is unsolvable.

 

The meeting should be held standing up, because this both keeps the meeting short and exposes more body language. Standing up to start the meeting also signals that everybody is engaged and part of it. It should be held in your team space, near your team board, and not in a meeting room. Once it moves to a meeting room the meeting will take longer.

 

Team Announcements can be made during the meeting as well as reminders for when and where other meetings are. The agile coach can also comment on progress.

 

·        Are we ahead of schedule (as shown on the burndown / burnup chart)?

o       Wonderful. Congratulate them.

 

·        Are we behind schedule?

o       Ask the team - Will we complete the work this iteration?

§         Encourage them to commit to the goal.

o       Ask the team - What needs to happen in order to complete the important tasks?

 

It is very important that it is the team s meeting, and not the coach s. So the meeting needs to run itself. Team members must not be  reporting to you, but rather talking to each other about stuff that is interesting to the team.

 

Introducing Standup Meetings

 

Explain the purpose and benefits of the meeting and get the teams agreement to hold the meeting.

 

If there are serious objections to the meeting don t force the meeting on the team but work through the objections. If there is a neutral attitude or only slight reluctance suggest that the team tries the meeting for a month and then votes on whether to continue or abandon them.

 

Ask the team when they want to hold the meetings. If the team all arrive at work at a similar time then this shouldn t be contentious. Normally the meeting is held so that everyone has time to get to work, get a coffee, and is ready to start the day.

 

However if you have flexi time and some people start early while others start late it is harder to choose a time. Let the team decide. They could choose to have the meeting late enough for the last person to make it, or they could have the meeting not at a fixed time, but rather when the last person shows up. Hopefully this would encourage everyone to come in by a reasonable time as it will be very obvious what time they arrive.

 

Problem Solver

 

The team behave like the meeting is about reporting to the coach / scrum master.

If the team are constantly reporting to the coach rather than sharing knowledge with the team you could:

 

·        Remind the team about the purpose of the meeting which is not a status report, but knowledge sharing.

 

·        Make sure the team are standing in a circle or semicircle and you are part of it.

 

·        Make sure you don t direct the meeting. An easy way for the meeting to run itself is for each speaker to pass a token (whiteboard pen? ball?) to the next team member after they ve finished. To start the meeting give the token to somebody.

 

·        Make the meeting relevant to everyone there, not just the coach.

 

 

Nothing useful is being said at the meetings.

If the meeting becomes  paint by numbers where everyone speaks at such a high level ( Yesterday I worked on task A, today I m working on task B ) that nothing useful is being said, and the meeting is very short, then the coach needs to ask probing questions to draw them out. E.g.

 

·        Why didn t you finish that task yesterday?

·        Why is the database running slowly?

·        How did you do it?

 

Encourage others to also ask questions and discuss anything interesting being said.

 

However only use this technique if your meetings are finishing too quickly. The ideal meeting length is 10 - 15 minutes. Also if your team is large (> 10 people) probably don t do this.

 

The reason you want the meeting to take more than 5 minutes is because once you ve interrupted everyone you want to put that time to good use and stop them being interrupted later for something that could have been quickly solved then. The standup meeting should help minimize interruptions during the day.

The team is constantly being negative or sarcastic.

Don t allow a lot of negative or sarcastic comments because this can drag motivation and morale down. The coach should make a point of being upbeat and positive. Praise people and the team for good work as much as possible.

 

When someone makes a negative comment the coach can challenge it.  In your opinion XYZ went badly. (Although ABC went well / was pleased.) What can we do to stop that happening again?

 

The meetings take too long.

If the meeting is taking too long (more than 15 minutes) and you feel it is not all useful then you need to raise the  off topic flag and ask them to discuss it later.

Team members aren t arriving to work in time for the meeting.

What do you do if you ve agreed a fixed time and someone is late? This will depend on the individual, the team, and the company culture. I generally hold the meeting without them because I like to encourage a culture of meetings starting and finishing on time.

 

Always ask the person why they were late. If it is occasional and due to circumstances outside their control (e.g. a broken train or a sick child) be sympathetic and fill them in on anything they missed.

 

If someone is persistently late then you need to act.

 

·        Should you (with the team s permission) move the time of the meeting?

·        Do you need to ask this person to come to work on time?

·        Are they deliberately avoiding meetings?

o       Why?

·        Are they engaged, focussed and motivated?

o       Why not?

o       How can you make the job more rewarding for them?

 

The meeting isn t wanted.

Standup meetings are scary. They are scary because the developer is now exposed. They have nowhere to hide. If they are not being productive it will now be really obvious. This is exactly why you need to have them. If someone is objecting to standup meetings this should raise a warning flag to you about how much progress this person / team actually makes.

 

If someone is objecting because it is a waste of time, then that is a signal that they are not working together as a team.

 

If the whole team is objecting you have a very serious problem. You need to back off and regain their trust. Have you been introducing agile too quickly? Have you spent sufficient time building rapport and networking? Do you like, trust and respect your team?

The team size is too small.

If the team is very small (2  3 people) a standup meeting may be the wrong format to use. Using a more informal  chat over a cup of coffee approach might work better. Don t restrict what team related subject the team talk about. These discussions could wander into problem solving, technical design, requirements etc. without it being a problem because everyone at the informal chat should be interested.

 

Summary

 

The standup meeting is important because it is a chance for the whole team to meet every day and discuss problems they are having. It ensures team members are always working on the most valuable task. The agile coach can observe this meeting to gauge progress  both on delivering the project and on effective working practices. A well run standup meeting is an important part of team building.

 

Checklist for Standup Meetings

 

• Is it 10  15 minutes long?

• Is it relevant to everyone?

 

• Are team members discussing problems?

 

• Are team members volunteering for tasks?

 

• Does it start on time?