Stand-up

Advice on stand-ups

Why have a stand-up

Stand-ups create a time and place for teams to:

• mark the start of your working day as a team
• identify the priorities to work on that day
• share news and updates quickly with focus
• ask for help or talk through problems

Who is involved

All members of the team including anyone in the office or working remotely at home.

When to have a stand-up

Typically stand-ups happen at a time that suits the team for 15 minutes between 8:45 and 10am. You can use Retros to discuss whether the time slot for stand-ups is working.

Things you’ll need

You need to focus around the work you are doing. This could be:

• a white board using Kanban with post-its and marker pens
• a digital way of recording what you do, for example, Jira or Trello or Miro

Tips on running the session

• Agree a time for the stand-up that suits all of the team so that everyone can be there.
• If some members of the team are not turning up, find out if there is a reason, for example, it’s not at the right time for them.
• One person from the team should facilitate the stand-up but that person can rotate throughout the week.

Learn more

James Shore: AoAD2 Practice: Stand-Up Meetings

It's Not Just Standing Up: Patterns for Daily Standup Meetings

Glossary

Related terms: stand-up, retro, feedback culture, facilitator.

See definitions of these terms in our glossary.

How to run a stand-up

How to use the steps

This is one way of doing this activity based on our experience.

You might want to adapt it or only use part of it.

Teams often find their own way of doing an activity. This is a guide to get you started.

1. Welcome and introductions

   Say hello to everyone. Let people know the stand-up is starting.

2. Introduce the aims of the session

   Remind everyone that they are there to quickly:

   • agree the focus for work that day
   • ask questions or ask for help
   • identify anything that has come up and needs more discussion later

3. Discuss any blockers or limitations

   Remind everyone that it’s all of the team’s responsibility to make sure that you keep to time.

   You’re aiming for a short meeting to create a focus for the day. Stand-ups are also a great place to discover what needs more in-depth discussion, but it’s not the time to have the in-depth discussion itself.

   You can agree who will have the in-depth discussion and when, then move the stand-up on. You could decide to stay on the call or in the room after stand-up if that suits everyone.

4. Do the stand-up

   Focus on the work and your team priorities.

   Often this involves reviewing progress of tasks using:

   • a white board using Kanban with post-its and marker pens
   • a digital way of recording what you do, for example, Jira or Trello or Miro

5. Review stand-up

   Stand-ups are short so it does not work to review them every time.

   You can review stand-ups at Retros or other team feedback sessions.

6. Close the session

   Thank everyone for coming and close the session.

7. Post session tasks

   Remind everyone to update their progress according to how you are recording this, for example, Kanban, Trello or Miro.

To decide what you work on next, go to ways of working activities.