Stand ups are a ritual usually followed by scrum and agile teams. Many companies adopt daily stand ups as a standard practice, but their effectiveness varies widely. Most teams have adopted or adapted daily standups, but this often leads to inefficiency, especially when meetings become too long or lose focus. According to sources, 81% of scrum teams hold daily standups. Agile and non-agile teams too.f)f)
f)f)While they are considered an important part, they are overlooked. Daily stand ups often take place in a physical or virtual room, which can influence team communication and engagement. Daily standups can be a waste of time for the team when not done correctly. Poorly run stand ups waste time and reduce productivity. They aren’t worth it if they are unable to provide value and align the team on the same page.
Let’s dive further to explore it in detail and various formats that you may consider.
Daily standups are brief meetings (also known as stand up meetings or daily meetings) where team members share updates about their progress and discuss blockers. A stand up meeting is a traditional, often daily team gathering designed to streamline workflow and enhance team cohesion. The aim is to sync teams with the projects and it usually lasts for 15 minutes or less. These meetings typically rely on synchronous communication, where all participants interact in real time.
The motive behind these meetings is to promote productivity and efficiency among team members.
These daily standups can become wasted opportunities if not structured properly. However, when they take the wrong direction, it can cause trouble. Below are a few signs of the same: Some common problems teams encounter in daily standups include mismatched schedules, lack of engagement, and discussions that do not address real issues.
With these problems, it's no wonder that team members struggle to stay engaged or see the value in daily standups.
These issues often result in wasting valuable team time and productivity.
If the format is broken, the intended benefits of standups are lost and time is wasted.
A few of the reasons why standup meetings last for more than 15 minutes are:
When standups run long, the time spent can quickly add up—teams may lose several hours per week in extended meetings, impacting overall productivity.
Another factor behind inefficient standups is unrelated things discussed in the meetings. This not only leads to a lack of focus but also lowers participation in discussions. It dilutes the meeting’s purpose and gives less time for addressing real issues. Not every conversation needs to involve the whole team; detailed discussions can be handled separately after the standup. Hence, impacting the overall team’s progress and performance.
This is one of the common pitfalls of daily standups. When tasks or updates remain unchanged for an extended period, they become repetitive. Focusing too much on the past, such as repeatedly discussing completed work without moving forward, can make standups monotonous and less valuable. They stop adding value to these meetings and hence, team members start finding it boring. This lowers the opportunities to address challenges and collaboration among team members.
Daily standups may lose their essence when engineering leaders start micromanaging their teams. This can be detrimental to the team’s productivity when managers closely monitor and scrutinize their progress, as it undermines the trust that team members will deliver what is expected of them. Further, this can disrupt the flow of work as well as decrease their problem-solving skills.
Standup meetings are meant to be brief and straight to the point. When engineering leaders start taking up the challenges, they aren’t fulfilling the motive of effective standups. Solving a problem should be taken in the follow-up meeting. In-depth conversation is better suited for separate meetings, as standups should remain focused on quick updates rather than extended discussions. These meetings are for daily updates, progress, and discussion of blockers.
If done correctly, daily standups aren’t a waste of time. Accountability and transparency are two aspects of standup meetings. Transparency of work status is key to making standups effective. When engineering leaders stick to the right format for these meetings, they will be efficient and straightforward. An agile coach can also help teams improve the effectiveness of daily standups by providing coaching and guidance on facilitation and team dynamics.
Effective daily standups are short. It should be interactive and track the progress of the team members without controlling every aspect of it. Daily standups can also help ensure strategic alignment between the team’s daily activities and broader company objectives. Further, this can result in a productive standup that focuses on actionable updates and avoids unnecessary discussion.
Daily standups act as a vital communication tool within agile and scrum teams. When engineering leaders ask three standard standup questions ( We will discuss them in the next section), it helps in conveying need-to-know information quickly as well as distilling updates into clear brief standards. Effective communication in standups requires active participation from all participants to ensure that everyone's input and feedback are considered.
Daily standups help in staying clear with sprint goals, ensuring the team is consistently aligning their work with the sprint goal. Daily scrums are a key part of Scrum methodology, designed to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and enable quick decision-making. Reviewing the sprint backlog during standups helps the team inspect progress and adapt their plan as needed. This helps in gaining visibility into each other progress, discussing upcoming planned work, and understanding how these tasks support progress toward the sprint. The daily standup is an opportunity to inspect progress and ensure the team is on track to achieve the sprint goal.
It doesn’t mean that the engineering leaders need to take up the problems during the daily standups. Rather, they need to be aware of and acknowledge the challenges they are facing.
Since it is the first step to address blockers and blind spots. Meaningful conversations about challenges often happen after the standup, allowing for deeper problem-solving.
Standup meetings give a sense of accountability and ownership to team members. It is because they share their progress and commitments with other members. Team members are supposed to take ownership of their tasks and deliverables, ensuring they fulfill their responsibilities as expected. Hence, it encourages them to meet their obligations and deliver results on time.
Standup meetings allow team members to discuss their tasks and work on them according to their priorities. This helps them to set a clear daily focus, stay on track, and adapt to changing circumstances smoothly. An actionable plan for the day is a key outcome of an effective standup.
There are various daily standup formats you can try to not make them monotonous and ineffective. Some teams use daily check ins, which can take the form of quick synchronous meetings, Slack updates, or asynchronous written reports, especially in remote or hybrid environments. Following good practice in choosing and adapting standup formats is essential for team success. A few of them include:
This is a well-known standup format where three questions are asked during the daily scrum or daily standup meetings. The daily stand up is intended to be a brief, goal-oriented meeting focused on collaboration and progress, rather than a status update or lengthy report. According to the Scrum Guide, these questions are designed to help the Scrum team inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and plan the next 24 hours. The scrum team is responsible for participating in the daily scrum, while the scrum master facilitates the process and ensures the event occurs as prescribed. The product owner typically does not attend the daily scrum but plays a key role in backlog management and stakeholder communication. These include:
This question encourages team members to share what tasks they have completed the previous day. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and an update on how much progress has been made.
This question allows team members to outline their plans and tasks for the current workday. This lets them prioritize their work according to scrum planning and align with other individuals.
Team members can discuss the blockers and challenges they are facing while doing a specific task. This allows the team to address the blindspots early and ensure the team stays on track.
Such types of meetings can be a good starting point for new agile and scrum teams. As it helps in creating small, achievable goals that can be shared with everyone.However, ensure that it doesn't turn out to be another dreaded status update. It may also not be suitable for large teams as it can be time-consuming and unproductive.
This standup format focuses on managing the work, not the people. The question asked during these meetings is simple - “What can we finish today?
”This helps the team to not give needless status updates to prove they are working.
In this format, all you have to do is:
It is a visual progress tracking. Using data from the board helps the team make informed decisions about priorities. Hence, it lets team members understand the tasks better and prioritize tasks accordingly.
However, it may considered to be a rigid format and may not always work for remote teams.
This format focuses on the emotional state of the team members. It helps in keeping a check on how they feel about their work. Sometimes, a short break can help team members reset and improve their focus.
In this format, you have to ask individuals whether they are feeling red, yellow, or green (representing traffic light colors).
Red means that they are feeling blocked, distracted, overwhelmed, or exhausted. The reason may vary from person to person. It gives you an idea to focus on them first and have a one-on-one meeting. Ensure that you prioritize these individuals as they may resign from the organization or be mentally unavailable.
Yellow is somewhere between they are present yet not able to focus fully. They are probably facing some minor issues or delays which need to be addressed early. Hence, it could signify that they are looking for help or collaboration.
Green signifies that team members are feeling happy, energized, and confident at their workplace. The reasons may vary such as working as per sprint planning, aligning well with their team, or no blockages.
Although it may not work as a daily standup you can combine it with other standup formats. Ensure that you don't use it as a team therapy. Rather, to understand the team's mental well-being and the blockers they are facing, if any.
Also known as ‘Async standups’ or ‘Written standups’. Here, the team members communicate their updates in written form. Such as using email, slack, or Microsoft Teams. An asynchronous stand up is a flexible format where team members share updates at different times, rather than meeting simultaneously.
This allows them to provide updates at a time that is convenient for them. It is also best suited for remote teams across various time zones. As information and updates are written, it becomes easily searchable and accessible. Asynchronous stand ups can be enhanced by using digital tools or AI tools for tracking and summarizing updates, improving efficiency and clarity. However, asynchronous standups can be ineffective in some cases. This could be when meetings require a high level of collaboration and problem-solving or where quick feedback and immediate adaptation are critical.
With this format, two things are in focus. A project manager can help facilitate the discussion and ensure all voices are heard. It includes:
Team members share their wins, progress made, or any other positive developments since the last meeting. This encourages them to celebrate their achievements and improve their morale. It also allows members to acknowledge each other work and contributions.
Team members share the obstacles or challenges they are facing while moving forward. It can include anything that is hindering their performance. Such as technical difficulties, unable to understand any task, or due to any other team member. It allows prompt resolution and addressing blockers.
These two aspects help in identifying the blind spots earlier as well as building a positive environment for team members.
However, this format may not be able to give a clear picture of the tasks the team is currently working on.
Remember to choose what suits you the best. For example, if your team is short and new, you can go for scrum standard questions. And when your team is growing, you can choose other formats or customize them accordingly.
To make your task easier, you can sign up for Typo, an intelligent engineering platform focusing on developers’ productivity and well-being. Typo supports the agile process by streamlining daily standups and team coordination.
These two above-mentioned features not only gain visibility in your team members' work but also act as an upgrade to traditional standup meetings.
Daily standups are a vital part of the organization. Every company should evaluate how stand ups work for their teams and projects to ensure alignment and effectiveness. They aren’t inefficient and a waste of time if you know the motive behind them.
Ensure that you don’t follow old-age best practices blindly. Customize these standup meetings according to your team size, preference, and other aspects. The agile manifesto emphasizes collaboration and adaptability, reminding us that stand ups should foster trust and teamwork.
After all, the best results come from what is thoughtful and deliberate. A well-run stand up can align the team and drive project success. Not what is easy and familiar.
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