Pitfalls of the Stand-up Meeting

In it's simplest form, the daily stand-up meeting seeks to answer three questions:

1. What did you do yesterday?
2. What are you going to do today?
3. What is preventing you from doing this work?

You know the drill. Each developer gets a turn at answering the above three questions. When everyone's done, so is the meeting. But in reality, it's not always as simple as that and stand-ups often go awry. Below are my thoughts on some of the common pitfalls of the daily stand-up and what you (the Scrum Master - or equivalent) can do to ensure they either don't occur at all or are eradicated over as short a time as possible.

• Timing. Ideally your stand-up should happen at the same time everyday - and people need to turn up on time. It's only a fifteen minute meeting, so having people rocking up halfway through isn't what you need. This means that vital information can be missed and that the overall message is sent that the meeting just isn't that important. Remind people that the meeting needs to start on time. Start rounding people up a couple of minutes before if you need to. Don't be late yourself.
• Level of detail. Finding the level of detail that you need to go into during the stand-up can be tricky. Some people will want to go into huge technical depth (which may result in others switching off), some people may only give a superficial overview that is of limited benefit. Ideally, you should be aiming for around 2-3 minutes per person. As the Scrum Master, you may need to keep people on track in the first few meetings by asking questions such as 'for the benefit of those who don't know, what is x?' or 'so Sam, can you summarize please?' With guidance, people will find the correct level.
• Wrong attendees. Make sure the right people are at the meeting - not just from development, but from other departments. This is about cross-functional communication. Get testers involved. Get the Project Managers in. Get in anyone else who is interested. Anyone who's directly involved in the project should definitely be there. It's about aiding communication.
• Others talk over the person  who's 'turn' it is. Try using a token that gets passed from person to person. Only the person who holds the token can talk. I usually caveat that with, "but it's OK to say":
  • I can help with that
  • Can we talk about that after the meeting
  • How are you getting on with x
• Meetings become dry - the same format ever day. Throw the token around the room so everyone has to be alert in case it's them next. Welcome suggestions on how to refine the meeting and keep the energy levels up.
• The meeting turns into a planning session. It's easy for developers and PMs to get into planning mode based on the comments that a Scrum team member has made. Use phrases such as 'Can we take that offline'. If this occurs regularly, remind people what the purpose of the meeting is and that detailed planning belongs elsewhere.
• Scrum team members direct their updates at the Scrum Master. The stand up is about updating the team. If you're the Scrum Master, break eye contact with the person who's talking. Get people facing each other, rather than everyone facing you.
• People can't remember what they were doing yesterday. If this occurs regularly, it's probably a sign of poor motivation rather than a genuine forgetfulness. Work on the root cause outside of the meeting.
• Obstacles are not removed. As Scrum Master, it's your job to record, action and remove (or find someone else to remove) obstacles that are preventing the team from performing the work to the best of their ability. Make sure that you follow up on these, or people will stop raising issues.
• The meeting fizzles out - people just drift away. Try offering a final up-beat statement, such as 'thanks everyone that's been really useful.' It doesn't sound like much, but it helps the energy level.

What else do you do to help your stand-up run smoothly.