Standup Smells

Badly run standup’s are painful to watch, and even more painful to participate in.  Gordon amongst others, offers a few bad standup smells.

Unfortunately, its often the case that not everyone in the team is aware of the reason and benefit of a standup;  Standup’s are run with the aim of the team collectively being aware of what each team member is doing, and how they are progressing towards the goal – being DONE on all stories for the sprint.

Memory problem/ramble/turn up-talk-loose-interest show a lack of respect for the team, and a lack of commitment to the sprint.

Here are a few additional bad smells:

• No Wall – Standup’s without a wall of sprint cards are the first bad smell in my view.
• Late – Where people don’t turn up on time for the standup – lack of commitment, and respect to other team members.
• What Story? – Speaker fails to recall what story they are working on, but does recall what area of the code they are working in.  Classic sign of code scope-creep.  The smell in itself will often lead to a failed sprint.
• Where’s the burndown? – During a scrum I would expect the team to be clear on where they are for the overall sprint.

~ by mdavey on September 23, 2013.