Why are DailyScrum/Stand-up meeting and Status meeting not the same things? What’s the difference between them? You may find a comparison of a proper Daily/Stand-up and a typical abstract Status meeting below. Unfortunately, some Stand-ups look more like a Status meeting. Hence, try to avoid the flaws mentioned.
Daily Scrum or StandUp meeting |
Status meeting |
|
For whom |
For the Development Team. |
For the Manager. |
Goal |
|
Update the status, update the fact-part of the plan, collect information about who is behind schedule. |
Who is responsible to conduct |
The Development Team. |
The Manager. |
Information is… |
Shared with each other, everyone in the Team. |
Reported to the Manager, the host, or even to the Scrum Master. |
Start time is usually… |
Chosen by the whole team. |
Is defined by the host. |
Self-organization |
Helps to promote team’s shared accountability. The DevTeam defines how to achieve the Sprint goal — determines the plan. Team members inspect their progress and adapt the plan. |
No, just to update information to somebody else. The DevTeam don’t feel like they can decide. Manager may question their decisions and tell them what to do. |
Commitment |
To each other. |
To some far-away boss, customer or salesman. |
Transparency |
Maximises transparency — the DevTeam knows everything that is happening and adapts based on a new information. Empirical process helps to deal with complexity and unpredictability. |
If the information is reported to someone external the DevTeam is not fully open — people conceal their problems when feel unsafe. Therefore, the team loses transparency and cannot adapt. Usually, the owner of the plan intends not to update the future work but only the current state. |
Getting the work done |
Focuses on achieving tangible results by discussing the issues that may endanger the Sprint goal. The plan is updated whenever is needed to meet the Goal. |
Focuses on updating the current status, e.g. “the task is 80% complete”. Whether we can deliver business value by the end of the Sprint or we can’t is unclear. |
Gadgets are typically… |
Not allowed. |
Status meetings usually last longer than 30 minutes and some participants are not interested in what others are focused on, therefore, phones or laptops are allowed. This, in turn, decreases a level of collaboration. |
Collaboration |
Team knows what everyone is focused on. The team has a shared goal and accountability, therefore they are interested in collaboration. The whole team owns a plan. They help one another in removing impediments and making the work faster. |
Someone external owns a plan for the team and coordinates their work. |
Meeting minutes are… |
Not written down, because this is an opportunity for the Team to self-organise in achieving their shared Sprint goal. Otherwise, people feel micromanaged and demotivated, and shared accountability is being undermined. |
Taken to control the execution afterwards. Moreover, typing MMs down, emailing and reading them — unnecessary wastes. |
Wastes |
No or minimal wastes. “…is a 15-minute time-boxed event”. |
30-minutes or longer duration, Meeting minutes, email. |
I have compared a good proper Daily/Stand-up and not-in-a-good-sense “regular” Status meeting to make distinctive features more clear. In reality one has some characteristics of the other and vice versa. Analyse your current meetings, define elements that need to be deleted, changed or added, and gradually step by step improve those meetings and all your interactions and communications.
References
- Personal experience
- ScrumGuide
- “Scrum Myths: Daily Scrum Is a Status Meeting” by Stephanie Ockerman from Scrum.org
- “The Daily Scrum is a Planning Meeting… Not a Status Meeting” by Jeremy Jarrell
- “Daily Scrum Meeting” on MountainGoatSoftware.com
- (broken now: “7 Mistakes During the Daily Stand-up Meeting” by Rajeev Kumar Gupta from ScrumAlliance.org)