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fraser smithDaily stand-up meetings have become a common ritual of many teams, especially in Agile software development. However, there are many subtle details that distinguish effective stand-ups and a waste of time. The whole team meets every day for a quick …
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Some people are talkative and tend to wander off into Story Telling. Some people want to engage in Problem Solving immediately after hearing a problem. Meetings that take too long tend to have low energy and participants not directly related to a long discussion will tend to be distracted.
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Signal the End of the stand-up with a throwaway phrase (e.g., "Well, enjoy your lunch everyone.") or some other action.
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if anyone thinks the current conversation has gone off topic, or is no longer effective, then they raise a hand.
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Rotate the Facilitator
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It’s a time to raise issues and surface ideas, not a time for in-depth problem-solving.
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09 Mar 16
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08 Mar 16
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The whole team meets every day for a quick status update. We stand up to keep the meeting short.
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well-run stand-ups add significant value to teams
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make explicit the benefits and consequences of common practices for daily stand-ups
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One of the team members steps up to talk about the card on the furthest right of the board, closest to the point of deployment. He’s still having some problems with the deployment script. Another team member suggests that she can help resolve that. The sequence continues from right-to-left, top-to-bottom, people describing what is happening with each of the work items, and others chiming in if they can help resolve obstacles. On the side, the team leader is recording the raised obstacles on the improvement board.
At one point, there is a slightly longer discussion exploring how to deal with a particular problem. Noticing the stall, the team leader subtly raises a finger to interrupt... just before one of the people suggest that they should take it offline.
A short time later all the cards are covered and the team leader asks if anyone else has anything else to share. Someone points out an interesting idea she had about a new feature that would make some of what was planned obsolete. This piques the interest of the product manager who always attempts to attend the stand-ups and they both agree to talk about it after.
The team leader then rolls his eyes as the team starts the traditional ending ceremony... 1... 2... 3... Excelsior! Not his thing, but he had to admit, it ended things on a high note.
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As a mnemonic device, think of GIFTS:
Good Start, Improvement, Focus, Team, Status
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Good Start means that the stand-up meeting should give energy, not take it. Energy comes from instilling a sense of purpose and urgency; a clear sense of the purpose and a clear understanding what needs to be done to achieve it
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We can't fix problems we don't know about so a large part of stand-ups is about exposing problems to allow us to improve. Improvement is not just about problem solving though. Sharing better techniques and ideas is also important.
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It is too easy to confuse effort with work. The stand-up should encourage a focus on moving work through the system in order to achieve our objectives, not encourage pointless activity.
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More so than artificial “team-building” exercises, effective teams are built by regularly communicating, working, and helping each other
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This is also strongly tied with team members helping each other with shared obstacles.
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- How is the work progressing?
- Is there anything else interesting that the team should know?
Status is about answering a couple questions:
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People not directly involved can disrupt the stand-up if they are unclear about what is expected behaviour. This may be addressed by simply informing new participants and observers of expected norms beforehand
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Not all forms of reporting will be, nor should be, covered by the stand-up format. For example, overall project progress would be better communicated with a Big Visible Chart such as burn-down, burn-up, cumulative flow diagram, etc.
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Instead of thinking of the daily stand-up as a ritual for the people, think of it as a ritual where the Work Items Attend (e.g., User Stories in an Agile context) and the people attend only to speak for the work items... since obviously the work items can’t actually talk
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The Yesterday Today Obstacles questions may still be used but will be from the perspective of the work item, rather than the person. This also means that not every person may talk. There is no sense of obligation to say anything that is not relevant to progress the work.
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- What did I accomplish yesterday?
- What will I do today?
- What obstacles are impeding my progress?
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Other topics of discussion (e.g., design discussions, gossip, etc.) should be deferred until after the meeting.
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Yesterday Today Obstacles
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Post raised obstacles to an Improvement Board. This is a publicly visible whiteboard or chart that identifies raised obstacles and tracks the progress of their resolution. An Improvement Board can be updated outside of stand-ups and serves as a more immediate and perhaps less confronting way to initially raise obstacles
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A common mistake is to not write large enough to allow people to read the blockages from a distance
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The simple act of writing an issue down and therefore explicitly acknowledging it is a very reliable way to reduce drawn out conversations. So even if not everyone agrees that any particular item is an obstacle, it is worth simply writing it down for discussion after the meeting has ended.
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Agree that the Last Arrival Speaks First. This is a simple rule that also has the added benefit of encouraging people to be punctual about showing up for the stand-up.
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Take a Card
During a stand-up, attendees need to know who is supposed to speak first and after that, who is supposed to speak next. Having a facilitator decide who should speak is a subtle though definite force against self-organisation. The team is not keen on Pass the Token because they typically have coffee cups in their hands.
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Have each team member Take a Card to determine which order to speak. Imagine a stack of cards, each of which has a number on it. As each team member comes to the meeting, they can select a card which then tells them what order to speak in.
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Walk the Board, that is, structure the stand-up by walking through each work item that is displayed on your visual management board.
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Meet Where the Work Happens, not in a meeting room. If you have a “story wall” or “Kanban board”, meet in front of that.
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Have the team agree on and run the daily stand-up at the Same Place, Same Time. Do not wait for stragglers, including architects and managers. The meeting is for the whole team, not for any particular individual. This is especially important if you Use the Stand-up to Start the Day.
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Same Place, Same Time is not intended to be blindly inflexible. The important thing is for the start time to be mostly consistent and rescheduling to be rare. If rescheduling is required often, it may be an indication that the start time should change. If a particular location is inconvenient for everyone to get to, it's probably an indication the location should change.
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the start time should be set at a time so that everyone can attend.
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The stand-up tends to serve as the ritual to set focus for the day, especially if you Use The Stand-up to Start the Day. Because of this, team members tend not to work on features until the stand-up. When the meeting is not actually held first thing, this tendency may have a significant impact on productivity.
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Don’t Use the Stand-up to Start the Day. Schedule the daily stand- up meeting far enough into the day that it will not be psychologically associated as starting the day.
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The stand-up should be more of a Huddle than a meeting. If it's difficult to hear, bring everyone closer. Beyond allowing for a more relaxed speaking volume, being physically closer tends to cause participants to be more attentive on their own. Being able to stand physically closer is also an expression of greater trust within the team
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Some people are talkative and tend to wander off into Story Telling. Some people want to engage in Problem Solving immediately after hearing a problem. Meetings that take too long tend to have low-energy and participants not directly related to a long discussion will tend to be distracted.
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Have all attendees Stand Up during the meeting. Use standing up to link physical with mental readiness. Physical discomfort will also remind attendees when a meeting is taking too long. A simple way to encourage this is to simply hold the meeting where there are no chairs.
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Most people will wander mentally when they are in long meetings. A long, droning meeting is a horrible, energy-draining way to start the day
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Keep the daily stand-ups to Fifteen Minutes or Less. As a general rule, after fifteen minutes, the average person's mind is going to wander which doesn't help with setting focus.
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Signal the End of the stand-up with a throwaway phrase (e.g., "Well, enjoy your lunch everyone.") or some other action.
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Time the Meetings and publish the results. Most of the time, attendees just don't realise the impact of Story Telling, not being prepared to Take It Offline, or not preparing have on how long the meeting will take. Make it quantifiable.
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There is a difference between Problem Solving and a clarifying question. Information that is not understood is not useful. The extent upon which clarifying questions are allowed should vary depending on how large the team is and whether it will impact Fifteen Minutes or Less.
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Rotate the Facilitator. Rotate assignment of a role responsible for ensuring people attend the stand-up and stick to the agreed upon rules.
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The facilitator should Break Eye Contact as a subtle way of reminding the speaker that s/he should be addressing the team, not just one person. One way to do this is to move around so that the current speaker can't see the facilitator.
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18 Mar 14
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The whole team meets every day for a quick status update. We stand up to keep the meeting short.
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25 Jan 14
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24 Oct 13
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focus on moving work through the system in order to achieve our objectives, not encourage pointless activity.
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- Any impediments in your way?
- What are you working on today?
- What have you finished since yesterday?
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- Things I have done since yesterday's meeting
- Things I am going to get done today
- Obstacles that I need someone to remove
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board design
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Problem Count Containment Countermeasure Status Name of problem Ongoing count of occurrences Short-term solution Long-term solution based on root cause analysis Plan - Do - Check - Act -
Another style is more like a task board:
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Todo In Progress Done Index cards representing raised obstacles Obstacle cards move here when we’re actively working on them Obstacle cards move here when we’ve resolved them -
It’s a time to raise issues and surface ideas, not a time for in-depth problem-solving.
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limit the Story Telling and not succumb to Problem Solving during the meeting. Take it Offline.
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facilitator should take care to encourage people to raise obstacles.
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23 Oct 13
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05 Sep 13
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10 May 13
Sergey SergeevBob Marley’s “Get Up Stand Up” starts up... acting like a Pavlovian bell as the team gets up to wander over to stand in front of the card wall without any additional prompting. That particular song is part of a rotation that plays at the same time in the morning, every day. Some people are moving cards to their correct points in the workflow, including affixing different coloured Post-Its with additional notes. A few interested people outside the direct project team have also wandered by to see how things have progressed
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09 Mar 13
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18 Dec 12
Mark Blair"Daily stand-up meetings have become a common ritual of many teams, especially in Agile software development. However, there are many subtle details that distinguish effective stand-ups and a waste of time."
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22 Jun 12
Jose Alvarez-Cornett Daily stand-up meetings have become a common ritual of many teams, especially in Agile software development. However, there are many subtle details that distinguish effective stand-ups and a waste of time.
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15 Jun 12
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06 Jun 12
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The whole team meets every day for a quick status update. We stand up to keep the meeting short.
-
On the side, the team leader is recording the raised obstacles on the improvement board.
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At one point, there is a slightly longer discussion exploring how to deal with a particular problem. Noticing the stall, the team leader subtly raises a finger to interrupt... just before one of the people suggest that they should take it offline.
-
- To help start the day well
- To support improvement
- To reinforce focus on the right things
- To reinforce the sense of team
- To communicate what is going on
As a mnemonic device, think of GIFTS:
Good Start, Improvement, Focus, Team, Status
-
Energy comes from instilling a sense of purpose and urgency; a clear sense of the purpose and a clear understanding what needs to be done to achieve it.
-
stand-up meeting should give energy, not take it
-
Sharing better techniques and ideas is also important
-
effective teams are built by regularly communicating, working, and helping each other.
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This is also strongly tied with team members helping each other with shared obstacles.
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Anyone who is directly involved in or wants to know about the day-to-day operation of the project should attend the single daily stand-up meeting.
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if the stories are so important to the project, they ought to be the ones speaking in the standup
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The larger question is whether Yesterday Today Obstacles is creating too much of a focus on personal commitment versus paying attention to the right things
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Post raised obstacles to an Improvement Board. This is a publicly visible whiteboard or chart that identifies raised obstacles and tracks the progress of their resolution. An Improvement Board can be updated outside of stand-ups and serves as a more immediate and perhaps less confronting way to initially raise obstacles.
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[S]tandups keep everyone busy. [W]alking the board keeps everyone focused on the most important things
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Most of the time, attendees just don't realise the impact of Story Telling, not being prepared to Take It Offline, or not preparing have on how long the meeting will take
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Some people want to engage in Problem Solving immediately after hearing a problem.
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There is a difference between Problem Solving and a clarifying question. Information that is not understood is not useful.
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Lack of preparation causes slower pace which causes lower energy. It also risks failing Fifteen Minutes or Less, which further reduces energy levels.
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16 May 12
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14 May 12
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30 Apr 12
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It is too easy to confuse effort with work.
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effective teams are built by regularly communicating, working, and helping each other
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17 Apr 12
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14 Apr 12
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Introduce an unpredictable ordering mechanism, like tossing a speaking token (e.g., a ball) to determine who should speak next.
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Have each team member Take a Card to determine which order to speak
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22 Feb 12
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- To help start the day well
- To support improvement
- To reinforce focus on the right things
- To reinforce the sense of team
- To communicate what is going on
There are several goals for a daily stand-up meeting:
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15 Feb 12
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12 Feb 12
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11 Feb 12
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13 Jan 12
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- To help start the day well
- To support improvement
- To reinforce focus on the right things
- To reinforce the sense of team
- To communicate what is going on
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- How is the work progressing?
- Is there anything else interesting that the team should know?
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eople are too Focused on the Runners, not the Baton. That is, everyone is busy but not necessarily progressing work items.
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- What did I accomplish yesterday?
- What will I do today?
- What obstacles are impeding my progress?
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Round Robin
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05 Dec 11
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22 Oct 11
John BalauatStand Up Meeting strategy
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Giulio De LuiseAgile Stand Up Meeting by Martin Fowler
agile standup scrum meeting development productivity communication
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alexei guevaraJust published a significant update to @jchyip 's essential article on running stand-up meetings: http://t.co/syXnnMa
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29 Aug 11
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when things go wrong with the stand-up, they will instinctively know what to adjust to fix the situation.
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it is important to make explicit the benefits and consequences of common practices for daily stand-ups
-
right-to-left, top-to-bottom, people describing what is happening with each of the work items, and others chiming in if they can help resolve obstacles
-
On the side, the team leader is recording the raised obstacles on the improvement board.
-
A short time later all the cards are covered and the team leader asks if anyone else has anything else to share
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People separate and start discussing various things that were raised, including the obstacles, the new ideas, and questions about certain work items.
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goals for a daily stand-up meeting:
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Good standups are crisp and motivating
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Energy comes from instilling a sense of purpose and urgency; a clear sense of the purpose and a clear understanding what needs to be done to achieve it.
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stand-up meeting should give energy
-
Improvement is not just about problem solving though. Sharing better techniques and ideas is also important.
-
The stand-up should encourage a focus on moving work through the system in order to achieve our objectives
-
effective teams are built by regularly communicating, working, and helping each other
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an effective team is autonomous,
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The stand-up should be supporting the creation of an environment that encourages people to raise problems by constructing a narrative of other people helping when problems are raised.
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about answering a couple questions:
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02 Aug 11
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29 Jul 11
darius kumanaJason Yip provides a comprehensive look at the daily standup meeting
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21 Jul 11
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18 Jul 11
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21 Jun 11
Yuval YeretSharing "We stand up to keep the meeting short" http://j.mp/lZ3f3E
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02 May 11
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If the whole team will not commit to taking responsibility for their own success, the team's performance will be necessarily worse.
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The underlying theme is self-organisation
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What is the purpose of the daily stand-up meeting?
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share commitment
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communicate daily status, progress, and plans to the team and any observers
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identify obstacles so that the team can take steps to remove them
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set direction and focus
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build a team
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Sharing commitment is more important than sharing progress or status.
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Communicate status
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the team updates each other instead of a manager, is a differentiator
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Identify obstacles
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Raising and removing obstacles earlier allows the team to maintain its momentum.
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Set direction and focus
During the daily meetings, the Scrum master would call attention to backlog item priority.
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Build a team
More so than artificial “team-building” exercises, effective teams are built by regularly communicating, working, and helping each other. This is also strongly tied with team members helping each other with shared obstacles.
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What do we talk about during the daily stand-up?
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Yesterday Today Obstacles
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Was I able to fulfill what I committed to?
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What am I comfortable committing to today?
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What is obstructing me in meeting my commitments?
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What might help or hinder others in meeting their commitments?
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Focus on the Backlog
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Blockage Board
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Post raised obstacles to a Blockage Board.
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Time the Meetings and publish the results.
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There is a difference between Problem Solving and a clarifying question. Information that is not understood is not useful. The extent upon which clarifying questions are allowed should vary depending on how large the team is and whether it will impact Fifteen Minutes or Less.
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Break Eye Contact
Team members are Reporting to the Leader, that is, they're only talking to the meeting facilitator instead of each other. We want the team to take ownership of the stand-up and this requires removing any dependence on a single facilitator.
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Therefore
The facilitator should Break Eye Contact [Nicolette, 2006] as a subtle way of reminding the speaker that s/he should be addressing the team, not just one person. One way to do this is to move around [Shimp, 2006] so that the current speaker can't see the facilitator. -
Smells are about when things are going wrong
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Reporting to the Leader
Team members should address the Team. This is not a "Reporting to the ScrumMaster" meeting
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I Can't Remember
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Daily stand-ups are meetings. Like all meetings, participants have a responsibility to prepare. In this case, all participants are responsible for knowing the answers to Yesterday Obstacles Today
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Obstacles are not Raised
There may be several reasons for obstacles not being raised. Not remembering, high pain threshold, lack of trust in raising issues (because Obstacles are not Removed, Observers Interrupt with blaming), etc. Depending on the context, just introducing Yesterday Obstacles Today and enforcing Pigs and Chickens may not be enough. Introducing a Blockage Board may provide a less confronting medium to raise obstacles. Retrospectives [Kerth, 2001] are an effective way of discovering the underlying reason why Obstacles are not Raised.
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22 Mar 11
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