What is this recipe?
A daily stand-up (also known as a ‘daily scrum’) is a short, daily team meeting, usually lasting no more than 15 minutes. The goal is for the team to quickly synchronise their work, align on the day’s plan, and identify any problems that are slowing them down.
It is not a status report for a manager. It’s a meeting for the team, by the team, to help them work together more effectively. To keep it brief, team members often stand up for the duration of the meeting.
Each person takes a turn to briefly answer three questions:
- What did I do yesterday to help the team achieve its goal?
- What will I do today to help the team achieve its goal?
- Are there any blockers (obstacles) in my way?
The stand-up improves communication, highlights issues as they arise, and fosters a sense of shared ownership and team commitment. It’s a simple pulse check that keeps projects and services moving forward every single day.
When is it good to use?:
This recipe is a cornerstone of agile working and is useful in many council contexts, for both project and business-as-usual (BAU) work.
- For any multi-disciplinary project team, such as one redesigning the council’s online library services or developing a new application for adult social care.
- For operational teams managing a live service, like a web team handling daily content requests and bug fixes for the main council website.
- When a team is working in a hybrid or fully remote way, as it provides a vital daily connection point and makes everyone’s work visible.
- At the beginning of any fast-paced piece of work to build a routine of daily communication and ensure the team stays aligned.
- When you need to quickly identify and remove problems before they grow into significant delays.
How does it work?:
An effective stand-up is a simple, repeatable routine.
- Pick a Time and Place: It must be at the same time and in the same place every day (either a physical spot or the same video call link). First thing in the morning, like 9:30 am, is often best as it sets the context for the day.
- Keep it Short: Strictly limit the meeting to 15 minutes. Use a timer. To help with this, everyone should remain standing.
- Answer the Three Questions: Go around the team and have each person answer the three questions. The focus should be on sharing information that is useful to the team, not just listing tasks.
- Focus on Blockers: The most important outcome is identifying blockers. The person facilitating the meeting (often a Delivery Manager or Scrum Master) must make a note of every blocker raised.
- Take it Offline: If any topic requires a longer discussion, the facilitator must step in and say, “Let’s take that conversation offline after the stand-up.” This is the most important rule for keeping the meeting short and focused. The detailed problem-solving happens immediately after the stand-up, but only with the people who need to be there.
An example:
A unitary authority’s digital team is working to improve the online process for applying for a dropped kerb. The team consists of a developer, a content designer, a user researcher, and the service owner from the highways department.
They hold their stand-up at 9:30 am every day.
- The developer says, “Yesterday, I finished the address look-up feature. Today, I’ll start building the document upload function. I’m blocked because I’m not sure what file types we are allowed to accept.”
- The content designer says, “Yesterday, I wrote the guidance text for the eligibility criteria. Today, I’ll add it to the prototype. No blockers.”
- The service owner says, “Yesterday, I was in planning meetings. Today, I will review the guidance text. No blockers.”
The better outcome: The Delivery Manager immediately hears the developer’s blocker. Right after the 15-minute stand-up, they get the developer and the service owner to have a quick 5-minute chat. The service owner confirms the approved file types are PDF, JPG, and PNG.
Without the stand-up, the developer might have wasted half the day waiting for an answer or started building the feature with the wrong assumptions. The daily stand-up identified the problem instantly and got it solved in minutes, keeping the project on track and preventing rework.
Further reading:
- The Daily Scrum: The official definition from the Scrum Guide, the primary source for this practice. https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#daily-scrum
- Running effective stand-ups: Simple, practical guidance from the UK’s Government Digital Service (GDS). https://services.blog.gov.uk/2016/10/25/running-effective-stand-ups/
- It’s Not Just Standing Up: Patterns for Daily Standup Meetings: A classic article by Martin Fowler on the purpose and common pitfalls of stand-ups. https://martinfowler.com/articles/itsNotJustStandingUp.html
- The Daily Stand-up Meeting: A guide from Atlassian, who make popular agile software tools. https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/stand-ups
- How delivery managers run a stand-up in DfE: A real-world example of how a UK government department runs its daily stand-ups. https://dfe.blog.gov.uk/2021/10/26/how-delivery-managers-run-a-stand-up-in-dfe/