Tandem 2.0

# Daily Standups

The single most important thing we do on the agency side of Tandem is consistently delivering value to our clients both on time and under budget. Doing this is easier said than done and requires excellent communication, clear expectations and very often necessitates mid-week changes of goals, priorities and resourcing. In many ways it's more an art than a science.

One of the chief ways to make sure we are meeting and exceeding client expectations while also not dropping the ball is with daily standups. Generally we start with a catch all Tandem standup followed by project specific standups when and if we have projects that require their own standups.

To reiterate, the objective of the standup is to ensure projects do not fail to meet objectives.

# Tandem Standup

The Tandem standup iterates through our list of projects from "largest" to "smallest". Each iteration starts with the project leader expressing concerns and/or objectives for the project and then communicating a plan to either achieve the objectives or remediate concerns.

Developers should also always express any concerns they have especially if said concerns are not being expressed by the project leader. In the pursuit of maximizing flow, developers should feel comfortable leaving the standup after their projects are discussed.

PRO TIP

If a single project is taking more than 5ish minutes it's probably most efficient to schedule a breakout with relevant parties for directly after the standup.

Here is a list of a few helpful things that are definitely worth bringing up in the standup:

  1. Tasks that are unclear or require more information
  2. Any concerns (eg a ticket, poor client feedback, etc) that are bottlenecking or blocking development
  3. A change of priorities or goals
  4. A feature or task that was underestimated and may require a change order

# Project Standups

Project specific standups can be used for many reasons but most often they are called when projects reach a certain team size, budget, strategic importance or are falling behind / entering crunch time.

Generally they look to accomplish the same thing as the Tandem standup but for a single project that can be discussed in greater depth and at greater length eg 15-30 minutes per project instead of 5.

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