Stop 07 · Agile, Execution & DeliveryTopics · 5/12

Standups & Ceremonies

In short

Agile meetings get a bad name when they drag. Each one has a clear job, and when it does only that job, it saves far more time than it takes.

Short recurring meetings (daily standup, sprint review, retrospective) designed to surface blockers and keep the team synced — valuable when kept tight, a time sink when they aren't.

The purple blob huddles on a cricket field with a bear, a fox and an owl teammate.

Think of it like this

The cricket team huddle

Before each session, the team huddles for a minute: who's bowling, any injury, what's the plan. No long speeches, no tactics debate. Then they play. A daily standup is that huddle, quick and focused on what's blocking the game.

Watch it happen

Meetings in one Scrum sprint

Planning

Standup

Refinement

Review

Retro

1/5Day 1, Planning: choose the sprint goal and the items to commit to.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Timebox everything

Scrum's daily standup is capped at 15 minutes. Longer discussions move to a follow-up.

Standups surface blockers

The point is to spot what's stuck, not to report status to the manager.

Reviews show real work

Demo the working feature, not slides about it.

Retros need follow-through

Pick one or two actions and check them next retro, or people stop caring.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Turning standup into a 40-minute problem-solving session.

Do this instead

Note the issue, then let the two people involved stay back and solve it.

Oops

Running retros where nothing ever changes.

Do this instead

End with one owner and one action, and start the next retro by checking it.

Your mission

Run a real standup

~20 min

Quick check

Two developers start debating a database design during standup. What should happen?

Go deeper

1Learn the standard 3 standup questions and why they focus on blockers, not status reports.
2Attend or watch a sprint retrospective and note what made it effective (or not).
3Practice keeping updates to 30 seconds per person as a facilitation habit.