Be Alert at Standup

Opening story

At every morning during my team's standup, the first couple of members of the team seems to start well with the 3 questions. However, as the duty to report moves around the team the closer to “the end” the less interested or alert the members are. To solve this we tried that the team member who just reported has to nominate/name the next person in a random pattern, and especially not be the person next to them, unless they’re the next to last person to report. This helps the team focus on the actual accomplishments of the team and not disconnect and think of other things not relevant to the standup. An additional benefit from this is if the team is new, they have an additional opportunity to learn all the team members names.

Summary

When you, or your team are in a standup, a change in reporting order guarantees that all members will be alert and listen as they don’t know if they’ll be the next one on the roster

Context

You are a Scrum Master or a member of a Scrum team. Your standups are not productive as the people at the end of the circle are not listening to what is being reported by those preceding them.

 Problem

You need to refocus your team and have the stand-up be an event where everybody knows what everybody else has been up to.

 Forces

A major problem in many standups are that people just wait for their turn to report and in between don’t listen and very often just space out so when it actually are their turn they have to be verbally prodded to report. By taking this different approach it forces people to listen to what everybody is saying as they don’t know the order in which reporting will happen. This increases the opportunities for the team to learn more about what their team mates are up to as well as minimizes the possibility for them to just passively stand and wait for their turn.

Therefore

Essence of the solution

By having the team focus on the speaker and refocus for each new team member reporting, as they don’t know who will go next, you are enabling the team to learn more from their peers about the sprint’s tasks and stories, as well as any impediments that the team may have. Additionally, this method teaches the team what their colleagues names are if the team is new and have never worked together before.

More about the solution

By establishing a pattern of unpredictability it forces the team members to be prepared at once when it's their turn