Whiteboard during Meetings…

  In Scrum meetings, participation of team members, and specifically participating together, is important. At times, however, participation is not balanced in a meeting. A few members actively speak, while others only listen. (Highlighting this point does not mean that listening is not good.)

 There are several reasons why some team members do not participate in meetings, but one of the main reasons for new Scrum team members is that they are shy to speak. This discussion pertains only to these situations.

 ScrumMasters use spreadsheets, electronic tools, or sometimes whiteboards for recording the ideas presented by members at meetings. I prefer the whiteboard because it is not only a good way to record the ideas but also everyone can see these ideas easily. This method of visualization also increases active speaking and participation of members, because when the ideas are visible on the whiteboard it spreads the message, "Your idea is valuable." When members see that their ideas are valued, not only do they feel valued but others also get motivated.

Second, we retain clear, visual ideas longer in our minds, and we avoid redundancy. You can use symbols, signs, or whatever else works.

Despite other means of capturing meeting notes and ideas, the significance of the whiteboard remains. However sometimes it becomes necessary to use other means apart of whiteboard for example, if team is distributed at different places use of electronic means becomes inevitable. Still for local discussions whiteboard may be used.

Here are some do’s and don’ts for the uses of whiteboard.

Do's:

Use block letters, as they accelerate reading speed.

Use alternate-colored markers.

Use black, green, blue, brown, or purple for easy-to-read text.

Use red, orange, or pink as highlighting colors.

Use only standard abbreviations.

Don'ts:

Avoid color coding, as in the flow of discussion it becomes difficult to manage.

Avoid small fonts that may be difficult to see by the members sitting farther away.

Finally:

When you need to erase the ideas/notes from the whiteboard, capture a snap on your   mobile phone so that you can refer it later. Encourage team members to do the same for their own future reference. This will give them freedom from taking notes during the meeting, so they can concentrate only on the discussion.