Effective Stand Up Meetings

In my role as Agile Lead I decided to drop in on some of the daily stand up meetings that have sprung up in my department over the last few months. I was somewhat dismayed to see how unstructured they were - with lots of cross-talking, some people not talking at all, and even (deep breath) a stand up meeting that was held sitting down!

It's a common misconception that there are no rules for Agile - that you can basically make things up as you like. Anyone that has studied Agile methodologies knows this to be untrue. Agile is certainly less formal than traditional Waterfall approaches - but Agile has definite ceremonies intended to bring structure and routine.

Here are my suggestions for holding effective stand up meetings - at the heart are the 3 Scrum questions:

• Gather everyone together – make sure everyone in your team attends, schedule appropriately
• Actually stand up! Remove chairs if necessary
• Ask the 3 Scrum questions of everyone in turn:
• What did you do yesterday?
• What will you do today?
• What problems do you face?
• Stay on track – avoid cross-talk and tangents
• Keep it brief – aim for 15 minutes
• Stick with it, don’t cancel the meeting
• But if it starts flagging consider amending the format
• Also consider:
• Using a board to track progress
• Rotating leadership

Having said all this, Continuous Improvement is a core Agile principle. Don't expect to get things right first time. The most important thing is to start - to have a go - you can review and refine later.

Remember that to be Agile - more than any method or ceremony - requires the right mind-set. As an Agile coach you need to maintain momentum, maintain energy and maintain positivity.

Let's go to work...