Having real-world examples of how other teams have optimized their work is very valuable, especially for new teams. Here’s an example of how one remote team optimized their Standups to become more effective with “Parking Lot Meetings.”
Definitions:
Standup Ceremony: The “Daily Standup” (also known as the Daily Scrum) is a short, time-boxed meeting (usually 15 minutes) that Agile teams hold every working day. All team members are typically required to attend. In this meeting, each team member summarizes what they did the previous day, what they’re planning to do today, and whether they have any obstacles or impediments that could prevent them from accomplishing their tasks. This session is not for problem-solving, but rather, it’s a quick sync-up to promote transparency and identify potential blocks or concerns.
Self-Organizing Teams: A group of professionals who internally decide on the best way to accomplish their tasks and distribute work amongst themselves. Instead of being directed or micromanaged by leaders outside of the team, they are given the autonomy to use their skills and creativity to collaborate, plan, and execute tasks as they see fit, within the guidelines of their project. This concept is fundamental in Agile methodologies, as it encourages accountability, rapid decision-making, and a more direct sense of ownership among team members, thereby improving efficiency and adaptiveness to change.
Going from Suck to Awesome
Suck – Meandering, non-structured Standups that take much longer than 15 minutes, leaving team members unsatisfied with their ability to resolve outstanding obstacles.
Sucks a little less – Consistent and effective Standup ceremonies with a place and structure for in-depth conversations. In-depth conversations are attended by all team members even when they aren’t providing or receiving value.
Awesome – Consistent and effective Standup ceremonies with a place and structure for in-depth conversations. In-depth conversations include only those team members who are providing or receiving value.
Parking Lot Meetings to Optimize Standup Ceremonies
Common Pitfalls of the Standup
Many teams struggle to keep to the format of their Standups. One of the main justifications for having a daily meeting is that it’s the most efficient and effective way to communicate. That argument starts to vanish if the team can’t keep the parameters of the Standup.
Here are some common pitfalls that teams fall into during their Standups.
Overextending the Timebox: Standups should be short to ensure they’re focused and efficient. Dragging them out can lead to lost interest and diminished urgency.
Diving into Problem-Solving: Standups aren’t the place for detailed discussions or problem-solving. They’re for information sharing. Problems identified should be noted and discussed in detail after the meeting and only with relevant members.
Skipping the Standup: Inconsistently holding daily Standups defeats the purpose of the Standups. Regularly skipping meetings can cause team members to miss out on important updates and can disrupt team cohesion and rhythm.
Status Report to the Scrum Master: If team members only report to the Scrum Master or lead, it can undermine the collaborative aspect of the meeting. It’s a team event, not a reporting session.
Not Physically Standing: While it might seem trivial, standing up during the meeting helps keep it short and maintains energy levels. It’s a physical reminder that the meeting is meant to be brief.
Ignoring Impediments: Not addressing the obstacles team members face, or merely acknowledging them without any follow-up action, can lead to frustration and impede progress. If impediments can’t be resolved on the fly in the ceremony, schedule time later to follow up.
Lack of Engagement: When participants are disinterested, unprepared, or distracted (e.g., checking phones or multitasking), it can lead to ineffective meetings. Full engagement is crucial.
Allowing Interruptions: External interruptions or going off-topic can prolong the meeting and distract from its purpose.
Ignoring Non-Verbal Communication: Non-verbal cues can indicate confusion, disinterest, or disagreement. Ignoring these can allow you to miss the undercurrents of team dynamics. This is why I prefer to hold the ceremonies in person or via video conferencing.
If the team is truly self-organizing and the Standups aren’t effective, they will realize something needs to be done. This is exactly what one of my teams did. Now I use their pattern with any new team I’m working with.
The team figured out how to preserve the Standup and meet all of the remote team’s needs. Watching teams make these types of optimizations is what I really love about the job. The team created an official meeting called “The Parking Lot”—a phrase that aptly described where to put items that don’t belong in the current forum.
Optimization 1 – “The Transition”
The first optimization was to create an unmistakable translation between the Standup ceremony and the Parking Lot Meeting. This particular team used a corny joke as their transition, similar to the jokes my kids used to tell over the loudspeaker in preschool to kick off the school day. I like this because everyone gets to participate, and there is no misunderstanding when the transition is in progress.
Details included a single person preparing a joke for the week. Once everyone had spoken during the Standup, the designated person presented their joke. Each Friday, the person who gave the joke during the week selected a new person for the following week.
When the team ran out of jokes a year later, they switched to a quick trivia quiz. It is hard to run out of trivia, so I thought that was a nice improvement. The team’s video conferencing tool had an easy quiz tool built into it, so it took only a couple of minutes to set up the quiz.
Optimization 2 – “Raise Your Hand”
The second optimization was to first ask people to raise their hand at the start of the Standup meeting to let everyone know they had an issue to discuss. The team uses the video chat tool vs. physically raising their hand. The person then briefly states their issue without discussing it. We would then return to the Standup. Initially, the team would drift into a conversation about the issue, but over time, the team learned to self-regulate and hold off on any in-depth discussions.
Once everyone had stated their issue and who they needed, those who didn’t need the information dropped off the call and returned to their projects. This really saved a lot of time because the conversations around the issues were typically much longer than the traditional Standup (i.e., what you did, what you were going to do, any impediments) portion of the meeting.
Optimization 3 – “Order the Parking Lot Conversations”
The third optimization was to have the least complicated, least time-consuming topics go first, so most people can drop off the call as fast as possible. Sometimes it’s more efficient to have the largest group go first to get the most people off the call as quickly as possible—you get the idea.
When I think about this optimization, it really speaks to continuous improvement. The team could have just let the pattern of the traditional Standup and the Parking Lot Meeting continue without any future optimizations, but instead, they kept optimizing and saved even more time.
Optimization 4 – “Use the Technology”
The fourth optimization was to do away with raising your hand and simply add the names of the people they wanted to stay for the Parking Lot discussion with a very brief description in the chat window of the video conferencing tool. This optimization had the added advantage of helping people think about what topics should be covered in their update and what topics should be taken to the Parking Lot. This approach reduced the time it took to figure out who was needed and in what order people would discuss their items.
Again, I was impressed that the team continued to optimize the process.
Optimization 5 – “ScrumMaster Exit”
The ScrumMaster would typically stay on until the last group finished their discussion. But the final optimization was that the Scrum Master also dropped off if they weren’t needed.
Given that many of these conversations had to do with some low-level technical detail that didn’t require the ScrumMaster, no real value was being added.
If the ScrumMaster was needed, the group would indicate they needed the ScrumMaster, so there was no confusion.
A Note to Agile Coaches
When working with a team, I would initially stay in the Parking Lot Meeting until all topics were sorted out, but as the team got the hang of how to efficiently move through Parking Lot topics, I dropped off if nobody needed me. Leading by example is important, so it’s better to start dropping off the calls a little before the team has mastered the cadence of the Parking Lot Meeting. If the team sees the coach sticking around, they may conclude they also have to stick around. This will, of course, completely defeat the purpose if everyone sticks around.
Conclusion
Parking Lot Meetings keep the Standup Ceremony efficient by offloading any discussions that could derail the focused nature of Standups. Standups, or Daily Scrums, are brief, daily meetings where team members share updates and identify impediments but don’t delve into problem-solving.
The Parking Lot Meeting supports efficient Standups with several techniques, including:
A clear transition to indicate the Standup is over and the Parking Lot Meeting is starting. Standups are distinctly concluded with a standard known transition, such as a joke, a trivia question, or an announcement. This signals that the Standup is complete, and it’s time to start the Parking Lot Meeting for deeper discussions.
Non-interrupting techniques for members to be heard. Members indicate via a hand raise (or virtual hand raise for remote teams) if they have additional issues to discuss, mentioning them briefly for later discussion, keeping the main meeting focused and brief.
Limiting who is in the conversation. Parking Lot Meetings may go into detail, so limiting who is involved to only those who can add value or receive value will mitigate wasted meeting time for those who don’t need to be involved.
Agile Coaches should nudge teams but not dictate their optimizations. Teams should be allowed to work through the process to find what works best for them. Teams need a place to discuss and resolve issues, so creating and optimizing a Parking Lot Meeting will help keep other ceremonies, especially the Standup, intact.
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