Daily Standup Meetings

After an Agile team has been successfully operating for many months, a nice cadence is established, where the team may be solving many of its problems internally and fewer blocks appear day to day.  In this case, some team members may begin to question the necessity of the daily standup, while others may still see significant value.  When reevaluating Agile practices, it’s good to remember the ‘ol Agile Manifesto, which favors ‘Individuals and interactions over processes and tools’.  So, after many months (or years) of successful Agile projects, does the daily standup fallen into the “process” side of the equation instead providing real meaning to the individuals?  I would argue no to this.

First, the soft skills aspect of the meeting continues to retain its value.  This is the continued bond between a group of people struggling to accomplish a similar goal.  Gathering everyone together once a day, even if via conference call, provides a continual reminder of each person’s commitment to the project.

Second (and my personal favorite), transparency is forced to the top.  Conducting these meetings daily prevents any passive-aggressive behavior from creeping back into the process.  In other words, individuals and groups can no longer sit on a problem for weeks, only to surprise the overall group at the tail end of a release, when it’s too late to make adjustments.  The opportunity to discuss issues and delays is presented every day, and the privilege to divulge blocking issues should be used to its fullest.

Third, the ability to reprioritize is one of the key strengths to a fully functioning Agile process, and having this opportunity every 24 hours is a significant benefit.  This is especially important when there are multiple Agile teams, and the team lead is gathering additional information from the other teams.