Purpose of Daily Standups

You should leave a daily standup:

1. More energized than you entered it.
2. Aligned to be in contact after the daily with anyone if your or their main task needs discussion.
3. Remembering everyone’s update.

Things outside of Daily Standups that can ruin Daily Standups

1. If team communicates 1-to-1 a lot and not on shared channels.
2. If people are tackling too many things at the same time.
3. All basic management deficiencies.

How to prepare for a Daily Standup

Half an hour before the Daily Standup, stop for 5 minutes and:

1. Decide what is the one initiative you will mention.
2. Write it down in your own words.
3. Edit that down to 280 characters.
4. Include expected time to finish task at the end.
5. Say it aloud.
6. Improve the wording or delivery until you have a clear and memorable update.

How to decide what to mention in a Daily Standup

By decreasing order:

1. Task you are doing that is most problematic.
2. Task you are doing that you know someone can help you with.
3. Task that is going well.

How to listen well in Daily Standups

1. Keep a log of Daily Standups and make notes of every update.
2. Come back to that log half an hour after the daily and read it again.
   
   

Trusting the Scrum Master in Daily Standups

If each team member delivers their update clearly, nicely and concisely, the Scrum Master will have time to:

1. Ask about important items that were not selected by the team.
2. Raise questions.
3. Ask about extraordinary additions to people’s update.
4. Align people for pairing on issues raised.
5. Use the extra time for having a bit of fun and enjoying the team before it gets back to work.