Stand-up Meetings: Add-ons

Stay focused!

 

There are very few add-ons that can make a daily stand-up meeting better. In fact most add-ons shift the focus of the meeting and could easily be classified as process problems. However, there are two add-ons that can add value to the stand-up meeting process: trolling for risks and hand-offs.

Trolling for risks. Anyone that has ever felt responsibility for the outcome of a project has had that nagging feeling that something was lurking just over the horizon that could reduce the value you are delivering. Project risks reflect the potential for something to go wrong. No one wants to have a risk that should be seen coming to catch them off guard. Therefore I periodically add a fourth question to the stand-up meeting questions: “Are there any project risks you are more concerned about this sprint than last sprint?” The goal is expose any new risks or any risks that are becoming more risky. At a project level I suggest adding this to the stand-up discussion once per two week sprint and do not let the conversation expand beyond the 15 minute time box. If the project has suddenly become so risky that more time is needed, treat the changed risk status as a blocker and have the scrum master pursue identifying the root cause so that specific action can be taken. Stand-ups for a program (very large project or a related group of projects) may need to monitor risk on a daily basis.

Hand-offs. Project teams are often distributed across continents, which can be used to a team’s advantage so that work begun in one time zone can be handed off and to be continued at the beginning of another team member’s day. This technique is often called “following the sun.” In order for this technique to work, the team members that are involved in the hand-off must understand that the hand-off is occurring, the goal of the shared task and the current status of the work. The daily stand-up meeting plays a critical role in this process. Involved team members can use their update to alert those they are handing work off to about the current status of their shared task or to schedule follow-on discussions if a more in-depth hand-off is needed. One common example of this practice is when developers are in one location and testers in another. The approach is first planned in sprint planning then coordinated during the daily stand-up meeting and other person-to-person interactions. The daily stand-up meeting generally acts as a formal control mechanism while conversation outside the meeting is less formal and more collaborative.

The stand-up meeting serves a very specific set of planning and coordination purposes. Add-ons generally push the daily stand-up meeting away from that purpose therefore become process problems. There are a few add-ons that fit well within the purpose of the meeting and the 15 minute time box. These add-ons focus on planning and coordinating and help the team get their work done rather than reporting on how the work is being done.