Stand-up! And Pay Attention!
Posted on November 23, 2008
Filed Under Rambling | 4 Comments
The value of the daily stand-up is often compromised by team members who stand, but are not paying attention, nor participating in a proactive fashion. This may be because of personal distractions, lack of sleep, self absorption, or simply because their coffee or tea has not kicked in. Stacia Broderick has called it: daily standup withdrawal (DSW). To break this withdrawal from our daily best practice, I often invite an additional team member, who ALWAYS PAYS ATTENTION! Since his participation, I’ve noticed an increase in members asking for help. 
The Stand-Up Patrol
(Agile Product Owner does enjoy humor, on occasion. Hope you do too!)
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4 Responses to “Stand-up! And Pay Attention!”
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Well, I would be surprised if I wouldn’t know how intelligent that dog is
Very big and very kind creature that now is also practicing daily stand-ups.
-Alex Yakima
I’ve always been curious about the more cynical side of standups; to expose those who are not making progress either through some form of isolation or capability issue. I also see this reflected in card management on the Kanban board. I guess what I’m asking is, how do you keep the stand-up from being punitive or abused? Or do you see this as a positive generative side-effect of the stand-up itself?
Yes, I’ve seen this too. I’d recommend going back to the basics of the scrum or kanban board, and that is getting the *team* to commit to accomplishing something within a sprint. I’ve seen individual contributors put tasks up on a board without asking for or getting the commitment for help (from the team) that they ultimately need to complete their task within the sprint.
In short, I’d try to move the plannings away from individual contributors putting their “silo-ed” tasks, and rather, allow the team to commit to the sprint as a whole: Review the tasks and ask the question: “what help do you need to accomplish this?” This helps encourage solo-cowboys or cowgirls to become more a part of the team, and it also allows the team visibility into the collaboration that is required to complete a task.
On the other hand, you can only knock your head on the wall for so long. If an individual contributor is not making progress because they are unwilling to ask for help, collaborate, be part of the team, or simply is a bad estimator, then the question must be asked: “is this the right member for this team?” and make the appropriate management decision to further their coaching, transfer to another department, or terminate employment. Teams will ultimately give you the feedback you need to make the right decision.
Nice use of a dog.