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If done well, a daily scrum or daily standup is a great way to keep a project on track. It’s also a great team building tool and motivator. But if it’s not done well, it can be costly. A daily standup can be a great way to share progress, get feedback, measure productivity and adapt together, in order to keep a project moving in a positive direction. Although it is easy to lead a daily scrum or standup, it is not difficult to do so well. We want our project teams to succeed as Scrum masters and project managers. Here are some tips to help you run a more productive daily standup meeting.
Transforming a Daily Stand-Off into a Scrummier Stand Up
The Scrum framework’s daily standup (or daily sprint) is a well-known component. It’s also the one that falls over the SDLC (software development cycle) waterfall, which agile framework is trying not to. What starts out as 15 minutes, three questions and a daily Scrum ceremony, quickly deteriorates into a status meeting, which lost control of the rapids, bounced off some stones, and now sits still in the pool below the waterfall. How can we prevent this from happening and keep the standup moving, clear of the waterfall? Continue reading, friend.
Let’s first look at the characteristics of an agile team that meets every day.
15 minutes or less
Answer three questions: What did I do yesterday?
What can I do today?
What’s stopping me from making progress in my career?
For Scrum teams, create a 24-hour plan for action
Everyone standing (not required but encouraged)
These simple properties can become too routine and laziness can take over, and your daily scrum goes wrong. We lose sight of the intended outcome and benefits of collaboration and understanding and planning. We become standoffish and team members compete for attention or worse, stop engaging altogether. These are five easy tips to make your daily standup less standoffish.
1. Change the Standup Language
These three questions sound very status-like. We’re trying not to do that! You can easily change a few keywords to communicate obstacles, progress and plan towards sprint goals outcomes.
What did you do yesterday to help me get closer to our sprint goals and objectives?
What can I do today to help us get closer to our sprint goals
What’s stopping me from achieving my sprint goals?
This change also eliminates the conversation of: “I attended a meeting,”” “I ate lunch at Pizza for Lunch,” “I took my dog on a walk (wait! weren’t you at Work?!?!). )”
2. Eliminate the Waste
You might find that your daily meeting is too slow or involves too much chit-chat. Try two questions instead.
What should the whole team know?
What are you looking for help with?
The world has changed. Why is this happening? Smartsheet transforms your work.
It achieves the same result, but it eliminates some of those conversations that are not directly related to achieving our sprint goals. Is it necessary for the team to know what you ate for lunch. No. They don’t need to know where you went to meet. Maybe. What do you need assistance with? Yes!
3. Get Rid of All Distractions
This is an easy one. If someone is looking out of a window, move on or pull a shade. Are other teams too loud? Move to another area. Teams are looking at computers and multitasking. Use a board. Not listening? Do not listen to them.
4. Walk the Board, not The Team
Many teams use a board for displaying their sprint stories. Many teams run their standups in the same order every day. Yes, we have to take turns but rather than organizing the board by team members, view each user story column by column on your task board.
Now, teams will be able to see all items in progress simultaneously.