<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> This page is part of The Toolbox by Danny Smith.
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The sole goal of a daily stand-up is alignment between team members. We're aiming to make sure that everyone in the team is aware of what everyone else is working on, as well as identifying any problems or blockers that need resolving.
In a traditional co-located team, the daily standup will usually happen by the physical task board. The whole team will gather by the board and each team member will answer the following questions in turn:
These three questions provide a brief update on what everyone is working on and current progress on tasks. The third question provides an opportunity to raise blockers with the whole team, so they can be dealt with quickly.
<aside> 💡 They're called "stand-ups" because (in a co-located environment) everyone stands up around the task board. This helps keep the meetings short and sharp.
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In a distributed team it's not possible to all gather around the task board for a daily stand-up, so we need to think about what standups are trying to achieve... how to we keep the team aligned and informed?
If you work with people in a similar timezone you can run synchronous standups via zoom. Just like physical standups, these should be very short (< 10 mins) meetings that happen at the same time every day. The format is simple... each person answers the three questions above.