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Overview
Overview
Stand-Ups are a chance for the whole team to get together and update on how they’re progressing on their tasks or get help on blockers from the rest of the group. The three usual questions for each team member to answer each morning in a fifteen minute time slot are are:
- What I worked on yesterday
- What I’m working on today
- What’s blocking me?
Introduction
Introduction
Stand-Ups are a quick check-in that should usually last no longer than 15 minutes, with the whole team to assess how they’re progressing towards their tasks (Kanban), the Sprint goal (Scrum) or just seeing what everyone’s up to that day in order to pair up on a task to help it get done more easily.
Can you really get value from a fifteen minute chat?
Can you really get value from a fifteen minute chat?
If you’re doing it right, yes! Stand-Ups aren’t planning meetings. They’re not Retrospectives. They’re not a demo. Teams tend to start out with the three questions listed in the overview and often develop into enhancements on those questions, such as:
- Any info the team needs to know, e.g. I'll be working on this piece of code which means others can’t for X amount of time
- I’m in a lot of meetings today so can’t assist with this
- I really want to work on X ticket but I’ve picked up Y so can I swap?
A Stand-Up can help show the progress being made towards goals and also highlight blockers that the rest of the team (or Scrum Master, if you have one) can help resolve. Doing Stand-Ups every day helps create a well-bonded and communicative team who should be aware of what everyone else is working on, at least at a high level.
Customise it!
Customise it!
The great thing about Stand-Ups is that you can adapt them to work for you however you want.
- Not a team who are focused in the mornings? No problem; have a pre-lunch Stand-Up instead
- Getting bored of the three standard questions? Walk your board (go through every ticket right to left) instead to have a delivery-focused discussion
- Make everyone give someone else’s update to make sure the team has a collective knowledge of all the work going on
- Gamify the meeting by playing bingo every time someone says a certain phrase
- Find people aren’t listening? Get them to nominate the next person (needing them to pay attention to who hasn’t spoken yet), or start their update with the first letter of the last word of the previous persons update
It works for remote teams as well, following similar formats, or even typing an update in whatever messaging tool you use (like Slack) and highlighting things you may want to go into more detail about in a remote call.
Summary
Summary
The only rule of Stand-Ups is to stay under fifteen minutes, take any further discussions about problems or solutions out of the meeting and remain focused on the goal - sharing your progress and what you need help on to achieve your work for the day.
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