Hi, I need some advice on the best way to run the daily status meetings. I am required to keep a track on all the activities progressing in multiple work streams of a project- there's hiring, sales, training, quality, compliance, infrastructures being built .Given the scenario, I decided to get the focals from each of these workstreams to join a 15 min call to gather their updates. This also helped the diff depts to understand the dependencies they have on each other. All of the actions and progress is documented on an online Kanban tool which is accessible to all. Few questions I have -
1. Is it an overkill to have both- a 15 min call and a Kanban tool? Should I be using just one of these?
2. Who updates the Kanban board and when? A few task owners update their cards, prior to the call and also it during the call. Then there are others who talk to their cards but do not document/move the cards. For the latter, I tend to document their cards as and when they speak (during the call itself). Is that a good practice?
3. A set of people love the approach as they get to see the holistic view on the project and helps them sort out dependencies early-on . Then there are the rest, who are interested only in their workstream. Such individuals attend the meeting if and only when they have an update. How do I bring a balance here ?
4. Any recommendations on other ways or best practices to handle the situation better? Saving Changes...
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Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
My own experience is that a Kanban board can make your status meetings easier and quicker. Anybody involved should be allowed to update their workstream on the board, preferably during the meeting.
Your workstream status meetings should be like a Scrum of Scrums. Only one person from each workstream should attend. Avoid multiple people from one workstream. Saving Changes...
If the work board (I won't call it a Kanban board as I don't know if you have WIP limits, entry/exit criteria and other Kanban-specific attributes) is being used by other stakeholders to understand status - i.e. it is a true information radiator, then it needs to always reflect current status which means that every team member pulling work items needs the discipline to keep it updated. It shouldn't be your job to do that - self-managing means self-disciplined.
Stand ups when folks are working on different work streams can be challenging, so it might be better to let the work board (once it starts to be updated correctly) reflect status and use the stand ups for discussing dependencies between the work streams and key impediments or blockers.
My advice would be to focus on staying results oriented, rather than process oriented. I have never found daily status meetings to be productive. The perception is that the leader is driving performance by hovering over people like they are children under the assumption that it will drive productivity.
I have have however found daily planning meetings to be extremely useful. These are not simply asking everyone "Are you done yet?" The purpose is to determine where to shift priorities, what needs to be done today so we are all working to the same plan, where help is needed, etc. In my humble opinion, if the meetings don't regularly result in refinements to the overall plan, you are wasting everyone's time. That doesn't mean you don't need status from the team, but the focus is on what you do based on that information.
Because that daily planning meeting promotes our ability to be agile and quickly adapt the plan to the situation, I also believe in being agile with the process. There are many different versions similar processes because a team decided that adapting the process would benefit their team. Otherwise I would call what you're doing "rigid agile". People start going through the motions and following the process rather than focusing on the intended results.
If that means you have to make some updates yourself, then so be it. If you send the message of "How can I help you be productive.", it tends to have better results than, "That's not my job." You can coach people over time how to do it themselves so you don't have to. I have always found that people are far more willing to help a leader who is visibly trying to help the team, than one who is acting as a dictator. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
The problem is in your statement itself: "to join a 15 min call to gather their updates". Is not about updates. Is about what people need to move forward. Daily updates is wasted. Is the same if your intention is to lose weight and you get on the scale every day to control your weight. To have 15 minutes daily meeting is overkilled if people feel you are getting update instead of feel you are helping them to make they life easy. Who update the Kanban? People itself must update it but it will depend on the state you get using Kanban system (Kanban is a whole system, not software system, not a set of cards with colours). It is impossible to be a "project manager" or the name your method/framework assign to it in this type of environments if people do not believe that you are helping them to eliminate costs, where costs is not monetary only. Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Divya
Interesting your question
Thanks for sharing
A while ago I had the opportunity to read various opinions on the topic.
