How To Do Effective Daily Stand Up Meetings

Daily stand up meetings were introduced to me together with Scrum. From my point of view having a daily stand up meeting is a very good idea for coordinating and planning the day. Since it makes a difference whether your daily stand up meeting is effective or not, I want to share some thoughts on that subject.

What is a daily stand up meeting?

Basically daily stand ups are a time-boxed meetings that shouldn’t last much more than 15 minutes. People working together meet to talk about what they are doing and if there are synergies, impediments or open questions. Daily stand ups are not meant for detailed discussions, clarifications nor should they replace other meetings. Basically it’s a meeting that should help teams to better organize and work efficiently. It is ideal for creating a plan and a goal for the day, identifying collaboration needs and raise obstacles.

The daily stand up should be time-boxed since it occurs daily and involves all team members. With that it is a cost driver and it’s in everyones interest that the meeting is beneficial rather than a boring status call.

Who are the participants?

The daily stand up meeting should be open to everyone from my point of view. Of course all team members must join, otherwise it becomes a coffee break without value. Depending on the group of participants you need to moderate your daily stand up in order to keep structure and focus.

There are other people in the organization or even clients that might be interested in what’s going on in your team. Invite them to listen, maybe they even have something useful to add. Still try to keep a clear structure and focus within the daily stand up meeting and ensure that it meets it’s goal, planning and coordinating the work day. Pay high attention that people outside the team don’t turn your daily stand up into something like a status call or reporting meeting. If this happens, cancel it or ask the people none team members to listen / participate passively.

Possible structures

There is space to try out what is the best way to do daily stand up meetings in your team. However, in my eyes there are only two alternative structures to choose from: participant focused or work item based. 

My preference is clearly on work item based structures. Here, one discusses anything related to work items in a prioritized order. This keeps focus on work items and is one hurdle less to falling into reporting style. For work item focused structures you need trust and self-organization in your team, otherwise individual participants could hide and not contribute.

With participant focused structures on the other hand, you have the risk that people report their work to each other or someone who is listening instead of planning and coordinating work. It usually ends up going from person to person and everyone talks about what has been done and what the next tasks are. Boring!

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So, my clear preference is to hold work item based daily stand ups.  Everyone should contribute and briefly mention what is worked on, if help is needed, what obstacles are in the way. Try to avoid detailed conversation and stay focused. Remember the cost factor! …and the ultimate tip is to : go with the flow. Let daily stand ups run smoothly.