Organizing Stand-Up Meetings
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I have chosen to write about what is most likely my most significant task, properly structuring and planning our meetings. While I am not entirely sure that I have managed to properly structure each meeting, the Sprint Planning ones in particular, I am very satisfied with how I have now scheduled the meetings. To give some very clear, concise context: The group should have a stand-up meeting within the same timeslot every day of the sprint, face-to-face. This was some headache to deal with. It is not easy to convince four people (five if you count me) that there is significant value in meeting every day, even less so if they have to be at a specific location. It is also not easy to try and find a suitable timeframe for meetings when course schedules can be sporadic, next to non-existent or sometimes just wrong. The best imaginable timeframe is at 12:00, since that is when all courses supposedly have lunch. For this reason I initially decided that our stand-up meetings should be held at 12:05 every day. After a week filled with constant rescheduling and cancelations of meetings, I had to change those plans. Meetings had to be rescheduled because lunchtimes changed, and meetings were cancelled because of difficulties communicating new meeting times, or because there were no lectures that day and it generally seemed like a waste of time to invest fifty minutes of downtime into a ten minute meeting. This week however, I managed to step it up and properly structure our meetings in a way which suited every member. First of all, every member of the group provided me with their schedule, and I was able to find appropriate timeslots where each member was available. Secondly, properly informing members of when the meetings would take place ahead of time made sure that everyone was aware of it. This was of course something I did before, but when the timeslots were not properly adapted to each member, one would have needed 4 days of notice to accommodate for the following rescheduling. Thirdly, I realised that if a member couldn’t make it due to unforeseen circumstances, it was not worth delaying the stand-up meeting from 12 to 19 just to make sure everyone could make it. Fourthly, reserving rooms for our meetings, sprint planning and review in particular, is extremely helpful for better atmospheres, though I also believe it enforces the determined timeframe when something is officially reserved for that timeslot. Lastly, what I think has been really helpful this last week, is reserving rooms for group work on days where we have no lectures. I think a common problem among the project managers in this course is convincing both their team members and themselves of the value face-to-face communication provides. Walking 20 minutes back and forth through Swedish winter for the sake of a ten-minute meeting is less than enticing, but I think that reserving a room for a three-hour work shift alleviates that problem. I think adding additional value and importance to that 20-minute walk can be a sure-fire way to get people to show up at the meeting. I also think this can be generally effective for group communication and work efficiency, it gives the members a chance to immediately handle disagreements or explain design decision without relying on phone notifications. Of course, not all people favour this sort of work environment, however for my group these opportunities have been very useful and I am very relieved that we were able to go a full week without a missed meeting.  |