Insight into how Microsoft do daily stand-ups (Scrum meetings)

It’s always interesting to see how other people do things. Which is why I really like this video of the Microsoft TFS Agile team doing a daily stand-up.

Adam Cogan was able to shoot a quick video with the team whilst visiting them recently. There’s a short version and a long version (embedded below) based on his rules about daily stand-ups. It’s worth watching the full 12 minute long version. The interesting stuff starts around 1:46 (skip the guff with Adam at the start – he won’t like me saying that, but hey, he’s a good friend so I can get away with).

It’ll be interesting to see how people respond to this. Inevitably there will be discussion about what they do right and wrong – but I’d suggest avoiding that – instead, just find 1 or 2 points that can add value to your own process. Unfortunately discussions can descend into critiques of what’s correct – that’s fine, but while the ‘purests’ (as Adam refers to them) are yabbering on about the minutiae of scrum rules, hopefully the rest of us are actually getting on with doing something valuable.

Personally, I like the way they use a busy hallway to meet, and how they implement the ‘parking lot’. I also found the ‘schedule’ interesting (7:40) – I’ve not personally worked with multiple teams at once so it hasn’t been needed in my situations – but having a schedule means that the current team is forced to meet at the appointed time and be out of there before the next team. Not saying this is new, just that it is interesting to see in practice.

Gotta feel sorry for Greg though (see around 7:33 and 10:25) as Adam calls him out for a special rebuke and then lectures him on what he should have done. Good Lord! The slow-motion use of video is genius (cue Today Tonight evil sound effects!)

Ideally I’d like to have seen a week’s worth of stand-ups to see whether they incorporate any further items on other days (eg a Friday meeting).