The daily stand-up is an essential Scrum ceremony that is (luckily) often applied without any further official formalization, especially in small companies where cooperation is still based on conversation.

Suddenly these meetings turn down in intensity after several months. During our coaching, many people argue it is waste of time. Why is it so?

To answer such a question, we have prepared a short series of articles about the typical mistakes that hamper the team’s agility.

What’s the purpose of your stand-up?

The most common problem is a misunderstanding of the meetings’ purpose. It can be understood by the team members and Scrum Masters as a report meeting analyzing the status of the project by answering three questions:

  • What did you do yesterday?
  • What are your plans for today?
  • Any problems?

Yes, it’s familiar that these issues are recommended. Actually, their greatest asset does not lie in reporting.

The goal of stand-up is to recognize what keeps the team down from achieving goals agreed upon in the planning phase.  It’s meant to be a meeting about the near future, not about the past. It’s about the team, not individuals.

The teams should focus on the way the work is being completed, not on how the implementation is being elaborated. Thus, Agile is based on the support delivery of functional results, which are not utilizable until they are not completed. Moreover, the market is unpredictable and changes come constantly.

That is the reason why you, as a team, should always be prepared to deliver completed user stories, perhaps even corrected errors, during the sprint. Anytime.

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