In my post SCRUM-tastic Tuesday - Your time is up, I talked a bit about meeting rules. In that article, I covered most of the stated rules, although one rule in particular was left un-addressed.
Attendance is enforced
- Me.
We all know those people who; for some reason; just can't arrive to any meeting on schedule. There are always "reasons", but at the end of the day it causes a ripple effect that inevitably prevents many meetings from being as effective as they often need to be. Think about it... We have all seen it time and time again.
- The start of the meeting gets delayed
- Agenda's have to be sped up or items removed to make up the lost time
- Details have to be repeated for the benefit of those who were late
- Questions asked by late comers that were already answered
- Etc...
At some level this can be considered disrespectful, especially when you are dealing with someone who clearly does not believe in the meeting ever taking place. Scrum addresses this by limiting the number of prescribed meetings, balancing meeting time with the need to be productive outside a meeting environment. With that said, the process also requires the correct stakeholders be present, prepared, and engaged for those few meetings that are prescribed.
- Sprint Planning (one every Sprint cycle)
- Daily Scrum (daily 15 minute Stand-up Meeting)
- Sprint Review/Demo (one every Sprint cycle)
- Sprint Retrospective (one every Sprint cycle)
No more is this true than the Daily Scrum meeting. As it stands (pun intended), this meeting is only 15 minutes long and has a very lean 3 question Agenda. When people are late for this meeting it can really be disruptive and prevent the meeting from ever being successful. When dealing with the chronically late personalty all you can try and do is retrain or re-motivate them to arrive on time. There are lots of carrot and stick approaches, but only one has really proven to do the trick in my option... Fine them!.. Wait, wait, hear me out...
Without getting too Freudian on you, people need to have an indelible image of consequence left on their minds. People tend to pay attention when you threaten their pocket book. It doesn't take much, just one dollar [$] (or one Euro [€] for you Europeans) and they will definitely remember. There is something about that moment when you have to reach for your wallet or purse and hand over even a small amount of money. For some people this is an absolutely painful experience. Here is how you might structure this practice.
- Make sure your daily stand-up is set for a time that is reasonable for everyone. Some people are early risers, while others are not
- Pick a god clock... This clock is considered to be the "correct" time. (For example, we use the phone system time)
- Get buy-in from the management team. Having their support will make the transition easier
- Make the Fine small. 1 dollar for example
- Make them pay publicly during the Stand-up... If they are going to cause a disruption by being late, make it a memorable one
- The Scrum Master collects all fines and enforces the practice
- At the end of the Sprint give the collected funds to a charity of the teams choosing or buy something fun for the team
- Even the Scrum Master and chickens pay if he (or she) is late
- Don't compromise... late is late, even if the moon fell on the motorway, or Klingon's stole their car battery
In the beginning, you will absolutely get resistance from someone. This will usually take care of itself and that person will often become a champion for the rules ensuring everyone else follows the rules to. Did you catch that? Read that sentence again. It is peer pressure.
Is all this too harsh? I don't think so. After all, time is money. Seems only fair you pay when you waste it. By the way, I have paid my fair share too 
.
Tags: processes