An Agile meeting, also known as an Agile standup or Scrum meeting, is a short, daily gathering designed to give members of a project team the opportunity to discuss progress, roadblocks, and next steps. Typically conducted in a stand-up format to aid brevity, team members provide updates on what they completed since the last meeting, what they plan to work on next, and any obstacles they are facing. The goal of an Agile meeting is to enhance collaboration, keep everyone on the same page, identify and address issues promptly, which thereby helps the team stay aligned and respond quickly to changes or challenges.
What is the purpose of a Agile Meeting?
The purpose of running an agile meeting as a leader is to foster collaboration, promote effective communication, and ensure progress towards project goals. By providing a platform for team members to discuss their work, share updates, address challenges, and make decisions together, the leader can facilitate a dynamic and adaptive work environment that leads to successful project outcomes.
How To Run An Agile Meeting: Step-By-Step
- Step 1: Pre-planning
- Step 2: Kick off
- Step 3: Progress Review
- Step4: Prioritization
- Step 5: Task Assignment
- Step 6: Discussion
- Step 7: Concrete plan creation
- Step 8: Meeting wrap-up
Step 1: Pre-planning
This represents the initial stage of an agile meeting, characterized by preparing a comprehensive list of significant topics for discussion. Team members are duly notified about the meeting, providing sufficient time to prepare any requisite contributions. Moreover, this stage encourages proactive participation and ensures an organised, clear and focused meeting.
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Step 2: Kick off
The scrum master or team leader takes charge and initiates the meeting by succinctly outlining its purpose and objectives. This ensures everyone is on the same page right from the start. Establishing the right tone from the onset sets the stage for a productive and focused meeting, cultivating an environment conducive to fruitful discussion and joint decision-making.
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Step 3: Progress Review
During this critical step, team members offer updates on tasks undertaken since the previous meeting. They share both accomplishments and challenges faced. This fosters an open conversation about progression and hiccups, enabling the team to address problems early and celebrate milestones, ultimately promoting transparency and collaboration.
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Step4: Prioritization
At this crucial stage, prioritize tasks based on their significance to the project. Key determining factors for prioritization encompass urgency of tasks, dependencies between them, available resources, impact generation and potential risks. This step decisively influences the direction and success of the project.
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Step 5: Task Assignment
Once tasks are prioritized, they are strategically assigned to team members, taking into account individuals’ capabilities, interests, and present workloads. It’s crucial that, by the end of the meeting, everyone possesses a clear understanding of their responsibilities and deliverables, ensuring a smooth, productive workflow post-meeting.
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Step 6: Discussion
This essential step encourages transparent, constructive dialogue among team members. It serves as a platform where any project-related issues, innovative thoughts or inquiries should be raised and addressed. It’s an important segment of the meeting intended to facilitate thorough discussion, collaboration and problem-solving in a conducive environment.
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Step 7: Concrete plan creation
In this step, a concrete, attainable plan rooted in the meeting discussions is established. It necessitates a detailed explanation of subsequent steps, firm deadlines, and expected deliverables. The plan should align with overall objectives, involve stakeholders, and promote accountability and clear communicator roles.
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Step 8: Meeting wrap-up
To wrap up a meeting, it’s essential to succinctly summarize the vital points that were addressed. This includes reiterating decisions made, discussing issues presented, and revisiting any action items assigned to individuals. By doing this, you facilitate clarity, ensure alignment among all attendees, and confirm everyone understands their responsibilities moving forward.
Questions to ask as the leader of the meeting
1. What progress did the team make towards their sprint goals? – This question helps the leader gauge the team’s overall progress and identify any potential roadblocks or areas that need attention.
2. Did the team face any obstacles or challenges during the sprint? – This question allows the leader to understand the difficulties the team encountered and provide any necessary support or assistance.
3. Are there any new risks or dependencies that the team has identified? – This question helps the leader stay informed about any new risks or dependencies that may impact the sprint progress or future sprints.
4. Are there any changes or updates to the project scope or requirements? – This question ensures that the leader is aware of any changes that may affect the team’s work and allows for adjustments or additional planning if necessary.
5. How well is the team collaborating and communicating with each other? – This question helps the leader assess the team dynamics and identify any communication or collaboration issues that need to be addressed.
6. Are there any lessons learned or best practices that the team can share? – This question encourages knowledge sharing within the team and provides an opportunity for continuous improvement.
7. Is the team’s velocity consistent and within the expected range? – This question helps the leader assess the team’s productivity and identify any potential variations or factors that may affect the team’s velocity.
8. Are there any improvements or suggestions the team has for the agile process? – This question gives the team members a chance to provide feedback on the process and suggest any improvements or adjustments that can enhance their productivity and effectiveness.
9. Is the team experiencing any burnout or capacity issues? – This question allows the leader to address any concerns related to team workload or potential burnout and take necessary actions to manage the team’s capacity.
10. Are there any celebrations or achievements the team would like to share? – This question provides a moment for the team to appreciate their accomplishments, boost morale, and foster a positive team atmosphere.
Learn how to prepare a Agile Meeting
As a leader, preparing an agile meeting agenda requires careful consideration. Start by setting clear goals and objectives for the meeting. Identify the key topics to discuss and prioritize them accordingly. Ensure that all relevant team members are included and invite them to contribute agenda items. Keep the agenda concise and focused to maintain the efficiency of the meeting.
How To Prepare For A Agile Meeting
Exemplary Agenda Template For: Agile Meeting
During an agile meeting, it is important to discuss topics such as project progress, task updates, impediments or bottlenecks, upcoming deliverables, team coordination and collaboration, and any new ideas or suggestions. These discussions help keep everyone aligned and informed, ensuring effective workflow and successful project outcomes.
See Our Agile Meeting TemplateSoftware tools to facilitate a Agile Meeting
Software tools help leaders in running agile meetings effectively. These tools enable remote collaboration, facilitate real-time communication, and provide features like task tracking and progress monitoring. By utilizing software, leaders can streamline the meeting process, ensure everyone has access to necessary information, and track the team’s progress more efficiently, ultimately enhancing productivity and agility in their organization.
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Conclusion
Running Agile meetings effectively is crucial for streamlining team collaboration, optimizing productivity, and fostering a culture of transparency in an organization. Adhering to the principles of Agile and its meeting formats – daily stand ups, sprint planning, sprint review, and retrospective – allows for better visibility of tasks, promotes rapid decision-making, and accelerates delivery timescales. While each team might need to adapt these guidelines to their unique requirements, the core elements remain constant: communication, iteration, interaction, and improvement. So remember, the aim of any Agile meeting should not just be to update statuses, but to solve problems, celebrate victories, and continuously seek opportunities for growth and improvement. Implementing these key strategies will surely lead your team to high performance in your Agile journey.
Jannik Lindner
I'm Jannik and I write on MeetingFever about the experiences from my career as a founder and team lead.
If you have any questions, please contact me via LinkedIn.
Popular Questions
What is the purpose of an Agile meeting?Who should attend an Agile meeting?How often should Agile meetings take place?What is the structure of an Agile meeting?What are the benefits of conducting Agile meetings?
The purpose of an Agile meeting, also known as a scrum, is to set the day’s work, discuss progress, identify any obstacles, and keep the entire team updated and aligned on project goals.
An Agile meeting should include core project team members. This typically includes the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the development team. Stakeholders or other individuals outside the core team may be invited based on the specific meeting or requirements of the project.
Agile meetings or daily stand-ups usually occur every day at a set time. However, the frequency can vary based on the nature of the project or the team’s needs. Other Agile ceremonies like Sprint Planning, Review, and Retrospective take place at the beginning or end of each sprint, which typically lasts two to four weeks.
Agile meetings typically follow a specific structure. Each team member answers three questions 1. What did I work on yesterday? 2. What will I work on today? 3. Are there any impediments blocking my work? The meeting is time-boxed, typically lasting no longer than 15 minutes, to promote efficiency and focus on key tasks.
Agile meetings promote transparency, foster communication, help in identifying and resolving roadblocks quickly, and ensure everyone in the team is aligned with the project goals and tasks. It keeps the team members connected, focused and, engaged which ultimately leads to successful project execution.
