Daily Ping Pong: A Pattern

Many Agile teams use the Daily Stand-Up Meeting or Daily Scrum to organize their activities. These meetings take place daily and last for up to 15 minutes. However, teams still struggle to organize during these meetings. Some of the difficulties teams face when doing a Stand-Up are: a lack of focus, difficulty in starting quickly, loss of time, constant pauses, more time than necessary spent on the Stand-Up.

Doing a 'Daily Ping Pong' can help to alleviate the pressures in organizing the daily meeting, as well as promote better self-organization and increased team performance.

To run the Daily Ping Pong, you must follow a few simple rules and steps that can be used on distributed or in-house teams alike. The rules of Ping Pong Daily are:

• The first member of the talking team cannot be the same as the previous day.

• The next member of the talking team cannot be the same called the day before.

• The next member of the talking team cannot be a member who has already spoken.

• Answering the three basic questions:

  • What have I done since the last meeting?

  • What will I do before the next?

  • Am I having any problems?

For Distributed Teams

Execution

The first member of the talking team informs us that it will start, so we know who will be the first to speak. The member answers the three basic questions of the daily meeting. After answering all the questions, the member chooses the next "player," calling the next to speak by name. The next player answers the three basic questions from the daily meeting. After answering all the questions, the member chooses a new "player" successively until everyone plays and answers the three basic questions.

For In-House Teams

Pre-Requisite

• A sheet of paper (any sketch) crumpled into a ball.

Execution

The first member of the team to speak must have a paper ball, so we know who will be the first to speak. The member with the paper ball answers the three basic questions of the daily meeting. After answering all the questions, the member chooses the next "player" who will receive the paper ball and then throws the paper ball to the next player. The next player receives the paper ball and answers the three basic questions of the daily meeting. After answering all the questions, the member chooses a new "player" successively until everyone plays and answers the three basic questions. If the team does not want to use a paper ball, you can use the name of the team member who will be next.

Benefits

• Self-organization of the team.

• Reduction of daily meeting time.

• Increased team focus.