Are there too many meetings in Agile?

One of the biggest complaints from teams working in Agile is having too many meetings.

Teams believe they waste a lot of time on discussions instead on focusing on the real work.


So is that true that Agile is all about meetings?

I don’t believe so and here is why...

The more people you have, the more communication has to happen. It stays the same no matter if it's an Agile or not. People still have to plan, execute and get the feedback. For instance, irrespective of whether we work in Waterfall or Agile, lots of communication is required either way. The only difference is that in Waterfall most communication happens at the beginning and the end; while in Agile it happens on a regular basis and is structured into several ceremonies.

Therefore, communication will need to happen no matter what. 

Because of that, I believe the problem with having too many meetings exists ONLY when teams don't see VALUE  in meetings. Let's discuss how we can change that.

Advice

#1 Meetings should have a defined goal

A clear goal should be set for each meeting. If the meeting repeats on a regular basis, the goal should be repeated until you are convinced that everyone is on the same page. The success of each meeting depends on whether the goal was met. 

Let’s take a daily scrum as an example. This ceremony is not just about answering three questions and showing others that you were busy with work. The goal is to discuss the progress made towards the sprint goal and identify any blockers which prevent from it. If that goal is not achieved by the end of the scrum, the team just wasted 15 min of their time.

#2 Targeted audience

It's essential to have only targeted audience, especially when you have a big team (7+ members) or more than one team working on the same product backlog.

The best way to understand who to invite for any kind of discussion is to observe the audience. Anyone who is not engaged in the conversation during the particular meeting now most likely will behave the same next time. When people are not listening, it can simply mean that they don't need to be here and can be focusing on something else. 

Never invite people who are needed just in case or for a 5 min question when the meeting lasts 1 hour. You will end up with having people who don’t pay any attention at all. Why? Because most of the content is not to their interest. In this case, it's naive to expect everyone in a meeting to hear and understand everything that's been said.

#3 Keep meetings focused

People tend to lose focus and start discussing something else. The more team members you have, the more opinions or questions the team will face. 

Any time you see the conversation is going in a different direction, remind everyone what the goal of the meeting is. Anything not related to the goal should be discussed offline. For example, when the team has Grooming, it's not the best idea to start finding reasons why velocity went down. You can do it on Retrospective instead.

#4 All discussions should be time-boxed

Encourage your team to time box all the discussions, even if it involves just 2 people. It's a good practice to have a time limit not only for the Scrum defined ceremonies but for all the discussions in general. It will definitely help to keep everyone focused and value each other's time.


#6 Video is always preferred

If you work with distributed team members, encourage them to turn on a camera.  According to the statistics, the tone of the voice communicates only 38%. The rest of the information is perceived through body language. For that reason, it's always better to use video. It allows not only to assure a better understanding of the meeting purpose and overall conversation but helps the team to connect on a more personal level.


#5 Look for another cause

Your meetings may meet all the criteria above and the team still complains. In such a case, the team may complain about having the number of meetings just because they keep them from delivering their commitments. 

During Planning make sure the team always takes time spent on meetings into account. Otherwise, your team will be under pressure, and complaints about meetings will never stop.

Also, any time when the team tries something new, such as a different approach in writing stories, new technology, TDD, etc the impact on the team commitments should be discussed during Planning. If that discussion doesn't happen, the team may not want to explore other things. Team members may think they need to work more.

Meetings should NEVER be viewed as a waste or a blocker but rather as a means to achieve better results.