What is a Stand up Meeting?

What Is a Stand up Meeting?

A stand up is a short meeting held daily for team members to discuss their work progress. It usually gets held before or after a sprint. 

The exciting part is that the meeting gets held while all members are standing to keep it short, focused, and concise. But remember, a stand up can also happen while seated (especially in a remote environment). It’s a matter of preference. 

In a stand up, the team members often discuss what work they have completed so far and discuss what they will accomplish in the upcoming work session. 

It helps to analyze if there is anything inhibiting productivity or blocking progress. If something like that comes across, you can find the solutions collectively to move forward and overcome the challenge. 

Stand ups are vital for team productivity and communication and are at the core of the agile development framework. Stand ups involve discussion among product owners, scrum masters and other team members discussing various factors entailing product management and product manager tools. 

Scrum meeting vs. Stand up meeting

The daily scrum

The daily scrum is a particular scrum activity you outline in the scrum guide.

The daily scrum is a meeting when the development team comes together to set a daily strategy. It is not an update for stakeholders! Only the development team speaks, and the time-box gets observed. The product owner has no part in the daily scrum, and the scrum master’s responsibility is to guarantee it occurs.

Using the three questions as a guide, the development team evaluates their success toward the sprint goal. Also, the trajectory toward finishing the tasks in the sprint backlog:

• What did I accomplish the day before to assist the development team in meeting the sprint goal?
• What are your objectives for today to help the development team meet the sprint goal?
• Is there anything in the way you or the development team complete the sprint goal?

Scrum doesn’t quite stipulate who should speak first or in what sequence. The development team should make this decision as a self-organizing entity. An anti-pattern is the scrum master dictating the play pattern during the daily scrum.

Scrum does not specify when or where a daily scrum should take place. Many teams find it helpful to have a constant time and location where they can see the sprint plan.

The scrum master can support autonomy. Scrum masters can prevent team members from speaking directly to them during status updates.

Stand up meeting

The daily stand up meeting is identical to the daily scrum but without any of the scrum guide’s constraints and supervision. Also, the daily stand-up is an opportunity to check in on the project’s status and ask for assistance as needed. 

A team that works on extreme programming might use it to decide on pairings for the day.

Although forcing all participants to stand up encourages brevity, the daily stand up does not need to adhere to the 15-minute time limit.

Finally, involvement does not have to be limited to the development team. Others, such as the product owner, may speak about their daily operations to increase transparency and openness.

What are the best practices for a stand up meeting?

Do not become comfortable with your surroundings:

It’s called a daily standup meeting, so get up. The session may run long, and team members may become sidetracked if everyone rests and becomes too comfortable.

Concentrate on three key issues:

A team’s meetings should preferably cover three primary topics:

• Where are we so far?
• What are your responsibilities?
• What are the current challenges that we face?

Keep members of your remote team informed:

Even though stand ups are brief sessions, team members working in a remote setting can contribute helpful information. Setting up a phone or video call can be time-consuming. Thus, involving distant workers in a digital workplace is the best solution for this type of meeting.

Set a schedule:

If you have a daily stand up meeting, try not to miss one except if there is a crisis or concern. Skipping a session can put your team off track and disrupt the Scrum process, which can be detrimental to the project.

Routines benefit teams using a structured agile method since adhering to the process ensures the best possible output for your product or project. The entire team can get thrown off if meetings are held at various times each day or week.

Consider using a meeting software tool:

If you use traditional meeting procedures, the outcomes of your stand up may be forgotten or lost before they can get implemented. Try using a meeting software tool instead. There are numerous ways to organize information on a digital whiteboard.

Meeting software is ideal for teams that need to see what’s happening in real-time. It can involve remote personnel, so they don’t miss anything.

If you use a Kanban Board or another board form for your meeting, make sure it’s revised before you start so you don’t waste time. 

Prepare your team for the meeting by mapping out the topics of conversation and adding any needed visualizations, such as videos, photographs, or notes.

What to include in the stand up meeting agenda? 

For your daily stand up agenda, here’s an excellent template to use:

Start time:

Set a launch date depending on the specific time of the office from which your standup originates.

30 seconds of physical activity:

Of course, this is optional, but it can get people’s blood flowing before they begin their assigned job. Some companies have embraced this, and it can make meetings run more smoothly and efficiently. Try some jumping jacks or a yoga position.

Begin:

Form a huddle and choose the first person. The individual might be the last to enter the meeting room or the closest to the remote technology/videoconference.

Answer the following three questions:

Every team member should respond to the following questions within 30-60 seconds: 

• What did you do the day before? 
• What are your plans for today? 
• What roadblocks do you face?

End:

Finish with a team clap, shout, or a reminder of your company’s objective.

What to say in stand up meeting examples?

It is essential to address the following questions during an effective stand up meeting:

• What should our primary focus be?
• What are the individual projects of each team member?
• Are we sure about our destination?
• Is everyone heading the same way?
• What is the overall strategy, and how does it manifest in task execution?