Daily standup: how to run one in 15 minutes

One thing: helping the team finish what it started. In scrum the meeting is called the daily scrum, and the Scrum Guide gives it 15 minutes, every day, at the same time and place, for the people doing the work. The team checks progress towards the sprint goal and adjusts the plan for the next day.

Teams that don't use scrum keep the same idea. A few minutes, every day, to make sure nobody is stuck and nothing is quietly slipping.

A standup is not a status report, a planning meeting or a place to solve problems. Those all need more time and fewer people.

Round the room

Each person answers 3 questions:

1. What did I finish since yesterday?
2. What will I work on today?
3. Is anything in my way?

These are the classic standup questions. The current Scrum Guide no longer requires them, but they remain the most common format because they're easy to follow. Their weakness: people tend to list everything they did, and the meeting becomes a report.

Walk the board

Go through the board from the column nearest done back to the start, card by card. For each card in progress, ask what it needs to move on. Cards that haven't moved since yesterday get the most attention.

This keeps the focus on the work instead of on proving everyone was busy, and it surfaces stuck cards that nobody mentioned. It works best when the board is up to date before the meeting starts.

1. Start on time, every day. Same time, same place or call. Don't wait for latecomers.
2. Go through the work. Round the room or walk the board, about 1 minute per person or per card in progress.
3. Name what's blocked. Say who will help, not how. "Ama and Ben, after standup" is enough.
4. Stop at 15 minutes. Anything left becomes a follow-up for the people who need it.

The follow-up is where problems get solved. Everyone else goes back to work.

• Take discussions offline. When 2 people start solving something, note it and move on. They can carry on afterwards.
• Update the board first. If everyone moves their cards before the meeting, nobody has to describe what the board already shows.
• Keep it to the team doing the work. Others are welcome to read the board.
• Say "nothing new" when it's true. A short answer is a good answer.
• Stand up, if you're in a room. It's where the name comes from, and it works.

Teams across time zones often write their standup instead. Each person posts their update in a shared place by an agreed time, and others read and reply when they're online.

Async standups save the meeting but lose the conversation, so blockers can sit unread for hours. 2 rules help: post at a fixed time each day, and when someone is blocked, mention the person who can unblock them directly rather than hoping they'll read the thread.

A board that's kept up to date does much of the work of an async standup on its own: anyone can see what moved, what's stuck and who has what.

• It regularly runs past 15 minutes.
• People talk to the manager instead of to each other.
• Blockers come up, but nobody ends up helping.
• The same card is "nearly done" every day for a week.
• People don't come, or come and don't listen.

Most of these have the same fix: make the standup about the board, not about the people. Ask what each card needs, and the reporting falls away.

In craaft, press U on any board for standup mode. It lists everyone on the board in alphabetical order, with an Unassigned slot when there are cards without an owner. Pick a name and the board shows only that person's cards, with a count in every column, so each person's turn is their own board.

• Use a Waiting column, like the one in the task tracker template, so blocked work is visible without anyone having to say so.
• Check Focus before the meeting. It lists overdue and due cards across every board, plus undated cards that haven't moved in a week.
• Comment on a blocked card with an @mention of the person who can help. They get a notification, and the card keeps a record of when you asked.

An agent connected over MCP can prepare the standup for you: what moved yesterday, what's overdue, and which cards haven't moved.