Agile Montage

In one of the previous posts ( http://bizvalu.blogspot.com/2007/03/stand-up-meetings-progress-of-team-vs.html ) I talked about Stand-up meetings and referred to a good paper written by a ThoughtWorker on it. I also discussed a few things I like about it and how they improve the quality of work I do. This post can be found here. Recently, I started observing a few smells in stand-ups that I haven't seen before. Yes, please don't tell me that 'observing a smell' is absurd. I know I know. Anyhow, two trends in specific:

1. I am a Chicken: A participant asks a lot of questions, in a manner that portrays him as a leader of some sort. But when it was his/her turn to contribute to the stand-up (s)he passed saying, "I am just a Chicken". So, you should not switch between a Chicken and a Pig in the same standup. Either you are a Chicken throughout a meeting or a Pig throughout a meeting.
2. Volleyball: In a stand-up the participants don't have to necessarily move in order. In other words, the group doesn't necessarily have to talk in a clockwise or counter clock wise direction. It can be random, which actually increases the attention level in the group because no participant know when (s)he can be thrown the token. However, this token throw is misused a lot, where two people keep throwing the token between each other getting in the question-answer mode. This is a smell. First, it clearly indicates that the issue being discussed is getting too much into details and second, it's just not about two people.

I am not saying that people should not seek clarification; they definitely should. Afterall, what's the point of the meeting if what is said is not understood by any. But a back and forth or a volley of questions is indicative of a broken stand-up. Also, a chicken asking too many questions makes it a one person show, which is not it is intended to be.