Software Build and Release Specialist

Another Agile concept we’ve adopted within our group is the daily stand-up meetings.   At first glance, this may seem like an evil way of micro-managing but that thought quickly dissolves once the values of such meetings started to add up.

These daily stand-ups should be conducted just as the title implies; everyone must be standing.  Each meeting should last no longer than 15mins; less than 10mins is optimal.  This should be conducted on a round-table polling of each of the team members.  Three questions should be addressed by each of these individuals.  These questions are:

1. What did I do yesterday?
2. What am I planning on doing today?
3. What are the current roadblocks?

The most important of them all is question #3.   In my opinion, the whole Agile daily stand-up meetings evolved to solve this one particular pain point.   Oftentimes, roadblocks can set development schedule aback due to various lags within groups/departments/organizations/companies.  Lags such as phone and Email tagging, or request time stall due lack of authority to make a judgment call.  During the stand-up meeting, #3 can be quickly addressed with the help of the entire team and/or team manager/lead.  Afterall, one of the purposes of a lead or manager’s existence in any company is to provide the needed resources for their team members to function at peak productivity level.

What not to do with daily stand up meetings:

1. Too big of a group (10+)
2. Lasts longer than 15mins
3. Bicker and arguing between two members (should be taken offline)
4. Presentations
5. Treating this like a regular meeting

How does your team deal with daily roadblocks?