Don’t Take Daily Stand-ups for Granted

For the uninitiated, gathering every day for 15 minutes to discuss the goings-on of current work might seem a little redundant and useless.  All the same people say many of the same things over and over again.  But to the experienced, there’s a lot more to it than that.

As I've previously blogged, at my current engagement my team is limited to only two stand-ups per week.  These stand-ups are open to everyone on the team, yet only the same three or four people show up each time.  As a result, communication seems to flow like molasses rather than a swiftly moving mountain stream.   Still, what we have now is far better than the black hole that existed before.  We are still light years from where we COULD be, however.  That old adage “You don’t know what you've got until it’s gone” made me reflect on why daily stand ups are so important. 

Daily stand-ups bring the team together.

This is not just in the physical sense, but in a social sense as well.  It forces the team to connect rather than just code or test away at their desks.  When you’re at a stand-up, you LOOK at your peers.  You interact with them.  You acknowledge them as PEOPLE rather than just the titles they hold.  Of all the purposes of a stand-up, I think this is the most vital because it physically embodies teamwork at its most basic level by forcing us to accept that we work with other people.  This may seem very rudimentary, but you can throw a bunch of people together in a group, and they won’t start becoming a team until they can at first acknowledge one another.  Think on that for a moment.

Daily stand-ups foster communication.

This is a no-brainer since we share what we’re doing with the rest of the team.  Beyond this, however, is the discussion that can spark from the simple phrase “This is what I’m doing today…”  Often, what you’re doing affects the person standing next to you.  I don’t know about you, but I’m not one of those scrum masters who make us adhere to a strict script in our stand-ups.  I give the guidelines and let the team’s discussion blossom.  The stand-ups that diverge from the traditional what-I’m-doing scripts are usually the most productive.  The team sees dependencies.  They strategically plan their work.  They start troubleshooting impediments.  They plan extra meetings for topics needing more in-depth discussion.  These kinds of communications are hard to get started via an email chain or by one-off conversations between isolated teammates.  Face-to-face contact on a regular basis somehow gives the team permission to meet whenever they have a need.   

Daily stand-ups reveal impediments early and often.

When we talk about our impediments in our stand-ups, we are in a sense asking the team for help.  Of course, we’re keeping them aware of issues, but chances are likely that one of our teammates may have dealt with the same problem and can offer a solution.  If they can’t, then perhaps they know who can.

 In my experience, it is also incredibly difficult for the PM/Scrum Master to run down solutions for impediments if they have to do it one person at a time.  This takes too long and can be detrimental to the success of a project.  Letting everyone know at once cuts out the middle man – the PM/Scrum Master – and gives the team a better chance of solving problems as they arise.     

Daily stand-ups create accountability.

If we daily stand together as a team stating our goals and asking for help, then we become accountable to one another.  In those stand-ups we tell each other what we intend to accomplish.  We make a commitment to our teammates in that regard.  Pretty soon teammates learn they can trust one another if everyone meets their commitments.  If you don’t accomplish one day’s goals, then invariably someone at the team level will want to know why.  This sparks discussion and perhaps solutions are born from the temporary setback.  It is better for this to happen at the team level than at the executive level.  If you can’t meet your commitments at the team level, then what makes you think you can meet commitments beyond that?  Your team is depending on you, and you depend on your team.   When we meet our commitments to one another, we make our team stronger.  We establish trust. 

There are no guarantees that you’ll have open, trusting, communicating, or accountable teams just by having a daily stand-up.  However, you have a much better chance of getting there by meeting regularly. 

What are your experiences with daily stand-ups?  Do you find that the more frequent they are, the better?  

Traditional Project Management vs. Agile Project Management: Week 4

So in my current role of PM, I'm experiencing the NEED to babysit EVERYONE on this project far more than I have in the past as a Scrum Master.  Here are some examples:

• No one is sharing information even after I've requested it.  I have to pull it from them.  For instance, I had no idea that two of my "testers" were even available for my team.  I find myself digging for documents after I've asked people to share them, too.  
• Expectations are completely unclear.  For instance, I just learned that I - as in ME - need to put together a test plan.  For you traditional PMs out there this probably isn't new for you, but I've never done this before.  Why?  Because I had self-organizing, cross-functional teams that took it upon themselves to take care of this crucial tidbit.  Now I get the unsavory task of asking everyone to document what they're doing so far.  
• Communication seems incredibly stifled since we don't yet have daily stand-ups.  For instance, dates (such as whether or not we'll have to work over the 4th of July weekend) have been up the air for at least two weeks. AND dare I mention the tester availability thing again?    

What are some differences you've noticed and how did you manage them?  I'm feeling like a fish out of water in this more waterfall type of environment (yes. pun intended.)

Managers CAN Help Self-Managed Teams!

One of the tenets of agile is forming self-organizing teams.  This brings autonomy and ownership to the teams that helps promote the agile value that favors individuals and interactions over processes and tools.  If the very definition of a self-managing team is a self-organized, semi-autonomous small group of employees whose members determine, plan, and manage their own day-to-day activities and duties, then what is the role of the manager?  Many have argued that if we have self-managed teams, then we do not need managers.  However, there always needs to be management or else teams can decline into chaos.  

So how much value does a manager bring in a self-organizing environment?   Plenty.  This “external leader” walks the line and can manage the boundary between the team and the rest of the organization, for starters.  She can build relationships, gather and share information, empower the team, and facilitate group processes as well.  She can coach the team in agile best practices while also facilitate meetings and coordinate schedules.  In short, a good leader of self-managed teams tends to do all these things and more.

Managing the boundary between the team and the larger organization can be a very delicate dance for the leader of a self-managed team.  While managing that boundary, the leader needs to give direction to the team from higher levels in the organization and also report team progress/ status back to the higher levels.  The leader basically represents the team’s interests in this flow of communication.  This also means that the leader must manage accountability; she holds the team accountable to the goals it sets for itself and also takes responsibility when those goals are not met.  The buck stops with the leader, and a good leader will lead her team by example.  

Managing that boundary also requires you to build strong relationships both inside the team and out of it.  Again, this is an agile value and can only help the leader of a self-managed team.  Outside the team the leader needs to be both socially and politically aware of the organization she works for.   Knowing how to navigate corporate politics will make her an asset to team so she can gain traction for their project needs.  The leader will need to know how to gain external support for her team, and that means knowing the right people to contact when the need arises.  Within the self-managed team, the successful leader will have also built team trust.  Empowering the team by encouraging the make their own decisions and then delegating the authority to follow through on these decisions helps tremendously with trust. 

Another way a leader can provide value and help to a self-managed team is by gathering and sharing information.  In agile projects, we want collaboration and transparency.  By seeking information from managers, peers, and specialists, a good leader can use this information to help diagnose and remove impediments for the team.  This keeps the team’s momentum going forward rather than being interrupted.  It also keeps the rest of the organization informed, as noted earlier. 

That momentum can be kept going in a myriad of ways, and the leader of a self-managed team is the right person for the job!  Having knowledge of the team’s work practices definitely helps in this area, but the leader can help facilitate the ceremonies of an agile project (planning, retrospectives, schedules, etc.).  Getting the project started and keeping it going is something the team doesn't necessarily have the bandwidth to handle, so having a leader to keep things going and help the team respond to change benefits everyone.

Overall, having a leader on a self-managing team is not as oxymoronic as it sounds.  Whether it’s managing the boundary between the team and the organization or simply keeping things moving forward, the successful leader can help behind the scenes to keep the cogs of the well-oiled, self-organized team on track for success.