Every day, the whole team participates in a quick check in meeting.

This meeting is most often called a standup meeting, or simply a standup.

This is because teams often hold the meeting while literally standing up.

Standing for this meeting encourages teams to be brief and

stick to the time box, which is typically 15 minutes or less.

Development team members are required at the daily standups, and

the scrum master and product owner usually attend as well.

The group should be small enough to comfortably stand in a circle.

The check-in involves reporting the answers to three questions, what did you

do yesterday, what do you plan to do today and what obstacles are slowing you down.

To keep meetings quick and efficient, team members take shared responsibility for

the standup.

The meetings start on time with whomever is present and proceed without waiting for

a facilitator.

An important mechanism for keeping stand ups brief is the side bar.

Frequently, something comes up that requires two or

more of the team members to have a conversation.

This is normal and expected.

It's one of the reasons teams make the effort to check in like this,

to keep everyone on the same page and to allow for collaboration.

In order to keep standup meetings moving quickly and

efficiently, longer conversations should be moved to the sidebar.

The sidebar is a place to hold topics that require follow-up conversation.

When a topic comes up during standup that requires two or more team members'

attention, it helps to make a note on a whiteboard or to post a sticky note

on a wall so it's not forgotten and people can follow up after the standup meeting.

There's usually space reserved by the team for just this purpose.

The sidebar also allows smaller groups or

one on one conversation, to break out and not occupy the time of every team member.

Many teams come up with a recognized signal for

the sidebar, a way that any team member can politely interrupt, and

suggest that a conversation should be deferred, to the sidebar.

This can be as simple as raising a hand.

Personally, I like the sidebar high-five.

When a team member recognizes the need to sidebar an item,

they can point it out in a friendly way by offering up a high-five.

The sidebar high-five is a great way to express support for

the conversation while redirecting it to the sidebar.