Is standing up required during the Daily Scrum?

It is a matter of preference, and is not a requirement per the Scrum Guide.

It is a common practice though, as it promotes a sense of focus and urgency around the Daily Scrum.

It doesn't matter, Daily Scrum focus on the output of it, the team can structure it in way they think its right. 

The answer is an emphatic No. Every time I hear "you gotta stand up", I hear 3 letters: ADA (for those not familiar with US idiosyncrasies, it stands for Americans with Disabilities Act, which pretty much might qualify any of these exercise borderline harassing and illegal).

FYI - You can thank the Extreme Programming XP folks (Kent Beck) for the Daily Standup, as that is where the term comes from.  Nowhere in the Scrum Guide says you have to stand at the Daily Scrum - but sometimes it is a good idea to keep the meeting focused and to 15 minutes, as mentioned.

I think Dave West once said that if you call it the Daily Standup at Scrum.org, you have to stand in the corner for four hours. :P

From experience no...

We do stand as a team but I know others that don't... The extreme I've seen was a team who all went to Starbucks for 30 minutes to basically chat... this isn't what it is for. The Developers should be talking synchronising and helping each other.

As others have said from memory XP was 'Stand Up' Scrum is Daily Scrum.. 

I find it keeps people focussed on task in hand if we walk board or look at Jira on TV.. but there is no 100% has to be this.

No, it is not required to stand-up during the daily since it is not stated in the Scrum Guide. However, we do our Daily Scrum standing up since most of the team members are already sitting down for the remainder of the work day. Sitting down for extended periods is not healthy so you should stand up once in awhile. Sitting down at your desk should have a time box!

As a Scrum master I would answer to a team that it is NOT mandatory. I would strongly want to digg a little bit to find out the real reason why they do not want to held a daily scrum each day. I would be curious of the answers, maybe it will lead to something completly different.

Daily scrum is a great opportunity for the Dev Team to inspect their last 24 hours and plan and adapt their next 24 hours in a collaborative way. It is a 15 minutes timebox to focus on realigning the work on the sprint goal. It is something important for a team. Maybe they just don't see the value behind this event. I would make sure they understand well before trying to cancel the daily scrum.

I hope this makes sense and help you with the original question.

Why not call it the 'sit down' or even the 'lie down'.  Lets not get too comfortable as the participants might fall asleep or prolong the meeting because its cosy. How about calling the 'Daily Standup'. the 'Daily 15'? The emphasis is then on the timebox rather than the posture.

I read my previous comment and I realized I was completly off the track to your original question. Sorry about that. I misunderstood the question and I thought the question pointed out the event itself instead of the HOW to do it.

That being said, I think the HOW is up to the Dev Team. It should not be mandatory to standup but the daily must occured in a suitable atmosphere to focus on planning the team collaboration for the next 24 hours toward the sprint goal.

Daily Scrum... http://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#events-daily

Already has a title from guide... I get nagged for saying it isn't a stand up... same people nag for Review being a review and not as they want a 'show & tell'.. 

Sitting is the new smoking.

Not necessarily. If a team member stands during the meeting he will be more attentive/involved in the process or at least during his turn and keep his part short due to the discomfort of standing. 

When you start asking yourself these types of question, i suggest that you ask first "what is the purpose of it?". The standup/daily scrum is just a way to get a quick and open update on the status of the sprint. The team decides how they want to get that quick and open update. If standing up helps...go for it, if it doesn't...don't do it.

The purpose of the Daily Scrum isn't a status or update on the Sprint, it is a daily event for and by the Development Team to focus and collaborate on a plan for the next 24 hours to meet the Sprint Goal.  The Development Team inspects the Sprint Goal and adapts the Sprint Backlog.

Development Team inspects the Sprint Goal and adapts the Sprint Backlog.

Chris Belknap, by any chance did you mean, inspect the increment and adapt the sprint backlog? The Sprint Goal is a fixed goal for the Sprint, thereby not needing inspection. Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.

Hi Steve - Perhaps I could have written that better.  Thank you for bringing it up.  I meant that the Development Team inspects progress towards the Sprint Goal.  You are correct the Sprint Goal is fixed.  The Increment gets inspected at the Sprint Review.

As the Development Team is the owner of the Daily Scrum it is up to them how to do it. The Scrum Master  ensures that the Development Team understands the purpose of the Daily Scrum. If the Development Team bring up improvements in the Retrospective the Scrum Master should encourage the Development Team to experiment of how doing the Daily Scrum.

I apologise, using the expression “status of sprint” can be misleading. The purpose is more than that. It’s an opportunity to see how we are progressing towards our sprint goal (inspection) and decide how we are going to move forward (adaptation). And i totally agree with Jörg Häcker’s last comment.

I did not experience this but My wife told me about this. She works in this project where all her team is located in a different location than her. She logs into the daily scrum through Video chat. The Scrum Master insists that my wife stand up in front of the computer when it's her time to give the team the update. Initially, I thought they were kidding. But It turned out, the Scrum Master was serious about it. 

But It turned out, the Scrum Master was serious about it. 

Are the Development Team serious about needing the SM at their Daily Scrum at all?

Agree with Ian.

The Scrum Master insists that my wife stand up in front of the computer when it's her time to give the team the update. 

I would identify this kind of behavior as a significant command-and-control red flag antithetical to Agile.

I strongly agree with Vinay Balaji.

Standing up is not must . But it itself have is significance and benefits.

If you are able to achieve them without standing up. U can do that.



Benefits according to me

1)Will help each one to be more focus.

2)Everyone will try to finish it sooner, due to discomfort of standing,(will not cross more than 15 min)

This is ridiculous. The scrum team is there to focus on the work not the ergonomics. 

I think Stand up meeting is a pre-agile term and should not be interpreted literally (Except etymology). Just they way we don't treat Bug in software as an insect anymore. 

So it's not mandated in scrum, in fact there is literally no such thing as a Daily Standup in Scrum. In Scrum, we have a Daily Scrum, not a daily standup. 

That said, I had a team in a former life where we did stand up and it was expected to do so. The expectation came AFTER the team decided it would be a good idea to do so; it was never mandated. Why did we do this? Well, the entire team was located in the same office and the same area; it was a dream. Secondly, we had a physical sprint backlog on the wall so we stood at the board so we could speak to the items we were working on. Thirdly, we made it fun. The team was chock full of comic book fans so as the Scrum Master I took advantage of this and purchased a foam Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer). Whomever was speaking, held Mjolnir because "only one who is worthy to hold the hammer is worthy to speak". Yes it was dorky but we made it fun and it worked incredibly well for our team. 

For my current teams, I'd never suggest or mandate standing up. First and foremost, I don't have that authority as a Scrum Master. Secondly, half my team is remote and it is utterly ridiculous to expect someone working from home to stand up on camera.