Leveraging the Daily Standup

The daily standup meeting is a major conduit of information. I have recently realized that it can be leveraged not only to provide project status, but also to convey useful tidbits, much like the "help tip" that applications provide on startup.

One idea is to pick a theme for a week and have one person, per day, expound on that theme.

Some example themes:

• A favourite shortcut in the Java IDE
• A 30-second explanation of a domain term (in my current domain, microbiology, this is highly alluring)
• A "wouldn't it be cool if?" brainstorm question about your current app

It must be brief, and one must be careful that the standup doesn't turn into a party. It can be fun, but not a long social event.

If a daily tidbit is too much, then pick a particular day (e.g. Friday) and work with that. The point is that, over time, your team can really piggyback some great information on top of the routine status.

Does your team leverage daily standups? Any daily or weekly rituals? I'd love to hear any themes/tricks that you do that are outside of the norm.