Daily Standups - not as useless as you think
They can be quite pointless though, unless you use them right
I read this article called " We Need to Talk… About Your Daily Standup " by Jad Santos over at Medium, and I figured it would make a good first post here on Hashnode.
I think most developers and programmers have endured the daily stand-ups at one time or the other in their career. It is often a painful experience that steal time and more often than not is pointless for most participants. Jad is absolutely right in that. His reasoning on how to improve that situation is one I do not fully agree with however.
So, let us break down what the stand-up is and why we have it
So the standup have two main purposes in my opinion:
- Provide a common forum to ask for help without disrupting.
- Provide a common forum to provide information without disrupting.
Yes, I know that claiming that a standup is not disruptive is a bit of a stretch, but I will explain it further down.
Jad have broken down the problems he see with Dailies into 3 parts, so let us go over those and comment.
Fallacy 1: We need a daily meeting.
Jad don't think this is necessary, and he thinks we should change that to every other day instead. While this may seem logical, it means that we severely dilute the speed in which we address concerns, ask for help and get information.
What yet forget is that there are plenty of people that do not feel comfortable asking for help, or speaking in general. He also is stuck in the pointless regurgitating of issue numbers that he takes up in the next fallacy.
The idea that the stand-up is disruptive is actually dependent on when you have it, not the content or frequency. If you place it directly in the morning, or right after lunch, then no one have started working yet, and the disruption is almost none. Place it at 10 and you are right between the start of the day and lunch, which is a terrible time to have it.
This is also the same time when you would be doing code reviews, so it is win-win.
Fallacy 2: We need to ask the three questions.
I am 100% with Jad on this one!
The three questions is in most teams nothing more than a pointless exercise of looking good by claiming you have done work and will do work. No one cares about that because we see the work you do and we trust that you will do your work.
The exception to this rule is if someone is waiting on something, then the person that are doing the work can give an update.
Team leads also can ask question on work that is expected to help to remind the team of dependencies.
The best use of this is to identify need that the team have. For example, a simple question or request for help on an issue could lead to a larger meeting to discuss code standards or solution design. Just make sure you push those to AFTER the daily so you don't waste time for those that don't need to be in the meeting.
Fallacy 3: Everyone needs to give an update.
There is a very big difference between providing an update and to give pointless updates no one cares about.
Everyone in the team should be given the opportunity to speak, even if they have nothing to update. This is important because, again, not everyone feels comfortable speaking into a crowd. Even if it is a familiar crowd.
This also go hand in hand with ensuring that the team operates on an "ok to fail" culture as well as "no questions are stupid" to ensure that the members of the team feel as safe as possible to speak and ask questions.
The five suggestions.
Jad brings up five suggestions to improve the dailies, so let us take a look:
- Change the frequency
- Change the questions
- Stop going “around the table.”
- Pick representatives to attend
- Use an asynchronous stand-up agenda
#1 I do not agree with. It will only make the team slower and spend more time trying to solve problems on their own instead of collaborating. It also means that if you miss a stand-up you basically will not get any information that week, or have the opportunity to ask for help. Keep it Daily, but put it in the right time slot.
#2 I totally agree with. The format and the type of information you use the daily for should make sense for your team. Just make sure you know what everyone in the team needs, though...
#3 Again I disagree. This can cause the silent people in the team to feel they are not heard or given the opportunity to voice their thoughts and concerns.
#4 The idea is right, but the place is wrong. Always ensure the product owner or requirement Analyst is present. This so you can request times for clarifications AFTER the Daily. Same thing with architects and others that you need to discuss things with frequently.
Other stakeholders you request time from based on the daily as the need arise.
#5 This is what the blocked status or color marking in your work board is for. If you think daily meetings are disruptive, then you have no idea how bad ad-hoc meetings are, especially for introvert developers.
Never, ever, do ad-hoc for anything. Period.
So yes, the daily stand-up can be an invaluable tool for some teams and less so for others. Use it in the most positive way for your team and you will be fine.
Just remember that everyone in your team will not be outspoken go-getters that love ad-hoc meetings and high-fives. This is why we have rituals that look out for their need as well.
So just make sure everyone in your team get a voice and the structure they need to feel safe and comfortable.