What are the most common mistakes during daily stand-ups and retrospectives?

In my experience stand ups should be crisp and short . It should not last more than 10 minutes depending on the size of the team .. it should be focusing on whether there are any blockers, and a crisp status of what had been done . No long stories that explains what you have done the whole day .. it should reflect in the progress we make .. i have seen teams run stand-ups for hours long .. which is not how it should be .

Not having a clear purpose is by far the biggest mistake during Daily standups. In my experience, Daily Standups turn into a catch-all meeting. It becomes a meeting with elaborate status updates, troubleshooting problems, strategizing ideas, etc. Having a clear purpose and putting it in the meeting invite or scrum dashboard where it is visible helps course correction quicker.

In my experience, having the team prepared for the stand-up makes a significant difference. The ceremony flows more smoothly when team members take a moment to think about what they'll share beforehand, resulting in increased focus and efficiency.

Over the past four years, I've observed a common pattern in teams. They typically have a well-defined purpose for their tasks but often struggle to communicate openly about the required timeline and resources necessary to accomplish their planned workload. Frequently, teams encounter unexpected ad hoc tasks that consume a significant portion of their efforts originally allocated for planned work. This situation often leads to difficulties in adhering to predefined timeframes.

Most common Mistakes as part of Daily Scrum (Daily Standup or Daily) 1) Hijacking Meeting 2) Team Members Discussing Everything as part of the Meeting 3) Daily Scrum becoming mix of all meeting 4) Status Meeting - Standup become more like a Status Meeting and as a way to Track and Assign stories and items 5) SM or PM or PO Taking opportunity and dictating and doing micro management and command & control 6) Bombarding of Generic updates as part of Daily, rather than focusing on Sprint Goal 7) Problem Solving as part of Daily Standup (Daily Scrum or Daily) 8) Stories Refinement happen as part of Daily Standup 10) more in terms of managing & focusing Jira Board update and Managements or Ado 11) Meeting completing in 30 mins or 45 mins

I agree with some part of this section, however, when it comes to the retrospective timebox, it's not always limited to just 1 hour. We can have a longer timebox for longer sprints, as long as it doesn't go beyond 3 hours.

Another aspect often overlooked concerning ceremonies' time-boxing is people showing up well after the scheduled start time. While everyone has busy schedules, chronic tardiness can disrupt the flow and create unnecessary tension within the team.

Keeping a 15-minute timebox for a daily meeting might be a piece of cake in many cultures, but there are others where punctuality for starting times is more of a suggestion, and folks love to chat—a lot, especially about topics that have nothing to do with the meeting agenda. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable in Latin American countries. So, it can be a challenge!

Whatever the time limit is, it can be agreed upon ahead of time within a team. Retrospectives are usually longer than 1 hour in my experience and it is ok as long as the goals and purpose of the meetings are clear. But please respect the timebox once it is set. If more things come up and need discussion, set up another time with the right people. It appears as if you are productive by extending the meeting but it derails the entire day of the team and overall they are less productive. I have been burned out by extended daily standups.

If you find that your daily stand-up consistently extends beyond 15 minutes, it may be helpful to revisit the structure of the meeting and encourage team members to stick to the core questions: "What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? Are there any blockers?" This time limit encourages brevity and helps maintain the meeting's effectiveness. If deeper discussions are necessary, those can be taken offline after the stand-up to avoid derailing the meeting's purpose. You can use the 16th minute rule for the Stand-up to be more effective. For example - If a team member wants to discuss something they you can inform the team member "Let's park this Question for the 16th minute."

The most common mistakes during daily stand-ups and retrospectives include:- - Multitasking instead of focusing on the speaker, leading to missed information. - Preparing to speak next rather than listening, which can result in irrelevant or repetitive contributions. - Not engaging with the team's updates, reducing the opportunity for collaborative problem-solving. - Overlooking the importance of feedback during retrospectives, which can stifle continuous improvement. - Allowing dominant voices to overshadow quieter team members, potentially missing valuable insights.

Active listening while participating in the daily stand-up or a retrospective is key. A lot is packed into this statement. It's a 2-way street, active listening takes significant effort; therefore I believe it's worthwhile if the speaker shares something in an objective sense (and plays the ball, not the individual). When you have personal feedback, don't wait till a group session to share that. Reach out, ask for help when reaching out and address personal concerns outside of these meetings. Daily stand-ups and retrospective invite you to listen actively, should make sure the signal to noise ratio is in balance of signal :)

Active listening is a great opportunity to dive into the reasons of “why”. Why we need to… fix the bug, create the feature, move this to the next sprint, delay this feature, etc. It helps you join the dots. It helps you plan, organize, and coordinate better. It makes you & your team more efficient. And makes for more team collaboration. And collaboration & teamwork are what Agile is all about ??

Not listening actively during retrospectives hinders the effectiveness of a team. Active listening is crucial for identifying improvement opportunities, building trust, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Inactive listening leads to: 1. Missed Insights: one may miss valuable insights and ideas for process improvement. 2. Frustration: One may become frustrated if they feel their input is not valued, leading to disengagement and reduced motivation. 3. Lack of Accountability: Without active listening, accountability for action items and improvements may diminish. 4. Communication Breakdown: Poor listening leads to miscommunications, making it difficult to resolve issues or implement changes effectively.

In remote and hybrid environments, one way to encourage active listening is through face-to-face interaction. When leading a meeting, asking participants to be on camera can make things more engaging for everyone involved. Communication is integral and a large part of interaction is non-verbal communication.

Fostering an honest work culture is important for many reasons. It builds trust among team members, which is the foundation of effective collaboration. When people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns openly, it leads to better problem-solving and more innovative solutions. A honest work culture can prevent issues from festering, and we all know what happens when we do not express ourselves in a healthy manner.

Common mistakes during daily stand-ups and retrospectives include – Not speaking honestly due to discomfort or fear of conflict, leading to unresolved issues Holding back concerns about impediments or progress, which can delay problem-solving Giving misleadingly positive updates to avoid admitting setbacks or failures Failing to voice new ideas or feedback, resulting in missed opportunities for improvement Not addressing the root causes of issues, causing repetitive problems in the workflow

This is easier than done, unfortunately. In order to have this kind of environment we need to build trust and that it’s only possible with the right attitude and a decent amount of time. It’s hard to get but when you do, you appreciate the honesty and trust. A team being able to speak up and talk things through will be a high performing team.

This comes down to the topic of Psychological Safety. Team members should feel safe to express their opinions and concerns during these ceremonies. If there is a lack of psychological safety, important issues may go unaddressed.

Retrospectives should ideally include at least one action item that can be addressed in the upcoming sprint. Based on my experience, including this action item in the sprint has proven effective for enhancing accountability and promoting discussions during stand ups.

Not taking action in response to issues or items raised during a daily stand-up meeting can be a significant problem for agile teams. One of the core principles of agile methodology is to prioritize responding to change over following a plan, which means that teams should be responsive and proactive.

To add to the topic, other common mistakes include: The monopolization of team conversations by certain individuals and/or treating it like an old-fashioned status report is a common issue that many have witnessed or will encounter. This dynamic can lead to team discord and foster an anti-collaborative environment.

Not being honest, active and precise are the main problems in stand-ups. - Honest updates will make sure we have real picture of progress. - Active members will be attentive and listen to all updates as well participate. - Each update from members will be meaningful and questions will make sure dependencies are resolved.

In a retro, spotting issues/problems is just one piece of the puzzle. It's equally important for the team to define action items and outline steps to tackle the issues. Neglecting this can result in the same problems resurfacing.

Not varying the format for Retrospective: Using the same retrospective format every time can lead to stagnation (Especially boring and people not participating). A mistake is not experimenting with different retrospective formats (e.g., "Start-Stop-Continue," "Glad-Sad-Mad," "Sailboat") to keep the process fresh and engaging. Mostly sticking to same tool such as EasyRetro. You can make use of other tools such as MIRO to keep things fresh as it has various templates.

In retrospectives, three common issues to address are: Excessive Negativity: Focusing solely on problems creates stress and discomfort, hindering the meeting's effectiveness. Blame Games: Avoiding blame games by emphasizing process over individual fault cultivates a more collaborative atmosphere. Neglecting Action Items: Identifying improvement actions is insufficient; active implementation is crucial for meaningful change. Addressing these issues leads to more productive retrospectives and ongoing process improvement.