The Three-Minute Standup

We should all strive for the three-minute standup. If you stand up is different than this, you are doing it wrong:

Manager: Hey, all, let's start standup.

Manager: (looks at Dev 1) Kanban board says you moved Blah task to done yesterday and pulled in foo task today.
Dev 1: Yes.
Manager: Good work. Need anything from me or the team.
Dev 1: No

Manager: (looks at Dev 2) Kanban board says you moved Oober1 task to done yesterday and pulled in Gobblygook task today.
Dev 2: Yes.
Manager: Need anything from me or the team.
Dev 2: Yes, I need help from Dev 1 to do Gobblygook.
Manager: (looks at Dev 1) Dev 1, can you talk to Dev 2 about gobblygook after standup.
Dev 1: Yes

Manager: (looks at Dev 3) Kanban board says you moved Whatsit task to done yesterday and pulled in WrongWork task today.
Dev 3: Oops. Yes, I finished Whatsit yesteday, but I pulled in the wrong story. I am working on RightWork.
Manager: Fix the Kanban board mistake. Need anything from me or the team on RightWork.
Dev 3: Nope

Manager: (Looks at Tester) Kanban board says you finished tests for oober1 and you are working on testing Blah.
Tester: Yes, there was one bug, I verbally told Dev 2, he fixed it. I retested and all tests pass. I am testing Blah now.
Manager: Good work. Need anything from me or the team.
Tester: I'll maybe need to speek to Dev 1 about Blah sometime after lunch.

Manager: Great job team. Keep up the good work.

Stand up ends.

Notice the key to a successful standup is the Kanban board (or Scrum task board). You shouldn’t ever have to explain what you are working on, it is on the board.

If you don’t have a Kanban board or task board, get one immediately.

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