An Irritable Programmer Calls 911

Operator: Please state the nature of your emergency.

Programmer: I need immediate assistance.

Operator: Are you injured?

Programmer: Look lady, I don’t want to turn this into a status meeting.

Status is Not Stupid

I’ve noticed people saying the word “status” with scorn: “Now, instead of getting work done we’re just reporting on status.”

In fact, I’ve heard people use the s-word to complain about stand-up meetings that had team mates reporting to each other on what they got done and what they were going to work on.

Teamwork: It’s Better Together

I’ve particularly noticed this sort of dislike on teams that are really more like bundles of developers: I work on my thing, you work on yours, and each has nothing to do with the other.

However you describe it, the daily stand-up (or scrum) meeting is for the team to understand where they are, see what needs working on, and make a plan for the next day of work.

I’ve found that a team really shines when teammates work on related things together rather than independent things apart.

If you find yourself dreading stand-up then maybe your team is in a rut. In late 2011 I felt like my team’s stand-up had lost their edge.

It seemed that people felt an obligation to talk for a certain amount of time just to justify what they did yesterday. I also felt like we were spending time in the meeting doing bookkeeping that could have been done before hand.

I was the scrum master at the time so I wrote up this guide to shake things up for a few days.

Stand-up For Today

Don’t Do This:

  1. What I did yesterday.
  2. What I’m doing today.
  3. How I am blocked

Do Do This

  1. What did I do or learn that will probably affect others?
  2. What will I do that affects others?
  3. What is impeding me?
  4. How can I help others today?

Assumptions That Make This OK

  • Everyone is working their hardest.
  • We’re all keeping the scrum board up to date.

Insist on Fast Paced Status

You can absolutely have a productive stand-up using the traditional questions (The ones I struck out above.) I just found we were in a rut. We were talking about ourselves individually in a group setting instead of focusing on the team aspect.

By Tyler Peterson

Web Developer and a hiring manager at an established technology company on Utah's Silicon Slopes in Lehi.