The Daily Stand-Up is an opportunity in an Agile/Scrum project to inspect and adapt. It gives the team a chance to look at what happened yesterday, what’s the plan for today, and voice any impediments in the way. It’s a time-boxed event, not to exceed 15 minutes but it can definitely end shorter. The typical stand-up is a round-table discussion where everyone on the team hits on those three points: yesterday, today, impediments. While this may seem like a great flow, and it is, it gets monotonous and often fails to address other concerns on the team if bad habits form. So, here’s a twist that you can try with your teams today.
WALK THE BOARD
If you’re half-way, or more, through a sprint, try the Walk the Board technique. The Walk the Board technique involves bringing up the Sprint Task Board and walking the PBI’s on the board. This will call out what tasks are in progress, how anyone can help contribute to them, and when they plan on having them done. It may also allow the team to discuss which tasks they plan on picking up next. After you finish walking the board, still ask the question if anyone has any other comments or impediments.
