Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on participating in a scrum stand-up meeting.

Most people I know would agree that the best meetings are those that are short and focused. And that’s exactly how a daily scrum meeting is designed. Scrum is an approach to project management, especially in software development. Every day the scrum team has a short meeting where everyone gives an update.

In a good scrum meeting, those updates should only take 15 minutes. The scrum master keeps everyone focused. That may mean he or she sidebars any discussion that doesn’t relate to the three questions everyone should answer. And what are those three questions that you should answer in a scrum stand-up meeting?

Firstly, you should report what you have been working on. That normally means telling everyone what you accomplished the day before. Next, you’ll let everyone know what you’re going to work on next, or on the day of the meeting. Already you can notice that the meeting focuses on a limited time period.

The third question you’ll answer is whether you face any impediments. An impediment is an obstacle or challenge. Removing those impediments is the job of the scrum master, but your fellow team members may also be able to help. For that reason, you might ask for assistance during the meeting. When everyone’s finished their updates, the scrum master will close the meeting. But not before outlining sidebar topics for discussion after the meeting.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin a scrum meeting at a software company. The team is working on a new piece of software for a logistics company. We’ll hear Jill, the scrum master, and Katherine, who’s giving her daily updates. We’ll also hear from Sam, who you might have heard give his own updates in our last lesson.

Listening Questions

1. What does Katherine say she will be working on today?
2. What is the first impediment Katherine reports?
3. What does Katherine want help with?

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Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on conducting a scrum stand-up meeting in English.

Not everyone likes meetings, and for good reason. Many meetings are poorly organized and poorly run. But meetings are a necessary part of work and business, especially in project management. For this reason, it’s important that we find ways to have good meetings.

If you’ve worked in software development, especially agile environments, you’ll know about one excellent kind of meeting called a scrum or stand-up meeting. Scrum is an approach to software development that uses cross-functional teams. Each day, the team has a short stand-up meeting where people update others on progress, plans, and challenges.

Whether or not you work in software development, leading a scrum style meeting is a useful experience. You’ll have to do many things that apply to all good meetings. For example, you’ll need to open the meeting and ask for updates. You may also find the chance to suggest collaboration between team members. And the person running the meeting is also responsible for putting aside, or sidebarring, issues that can be discussed after the meeting. These are all techniques that can help you in any kind of meeting, whether you work with scrum or not.

In today’s dialog, we’ll hear Jill, a project manager and scrum master, leading a daily scrum meeting. We’ll also hear two team members, Katherine and Sam. Sam will be first to provide his updates. And, as you’ll hear, Jill will help keep the team focused.

Listening Questions

1. When she opens the meeting, what does Jill suggest they do to stay focused?
2. When Sam says what he is going to do today, what does Jill suggest?
3. What issue does Jill want to “sidebar,” or leave for after the meeting?

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Download: Podcast MP3