Daily Standup Reminder in Google Chat

Introduction

In this article, you will learn how to send daily standup reminder in Google Chat using xFanatical Foresight tool. In the world of Agile development, daily standup meetings are the cornerstone of an efficient and productive sprint. 

Daily standup meetings for the Engineering team, often lasting no more than five minutes, are quick huddles where team members share their progress, discuss any roadblocks, and outline their tasks for the day. Ensuring that everyone remembers to join the Daily standup meetings can sometimes be a challenge. This practice is vital for maintaining transparency and fostering collaboration within the team. However, Google Chat lacks the capability to customize an automated message daily to remind the team of the required daily updates.

But how do you ensure that these meetings happen consistently without falling into the trap of forgetfulness? Here xFanatical Foresight Automation tool comes with a solution, which integrates seamlessly with Google Chat to send daily standup reminders.

Set up reminder message automation on xFanatical Foresight

xFanatical Foresight automation tool is a versatile tool that allows you to automate various tasks and reminders. Integrating this tool with Google Chat is a game-changer for engineering teams. Here’s how you can set it up:

Prerequisites

Creating a Google Chat Webhook

First of all, in your Google Chat space, where the reminder message is sent, create a Webhook. To put it simply, a webhook is a robotic user in the Chat space. To create a webhook, 

1. Navigate to your Google Chat space.
2. On the top of the Chat space, select Apps & integrations.
3. In Webhooks, click Add webhooks. 
4. In the Incoming webhooks dialog,
   • In Name, enter "Daily Standup Bot"
   • In the Avatar URL, leave it empty.
   • Click Save.
5.  Click  and select the Copy link. This link will be used by xFanatical Foresight to send the daily reminder messages.Create a Webhook for a Google Chat Space

Set up calendar event for daily standup time

The next step is to create a calendar event for the daily standup time. In this article, we have a setting of working from Monday to Friday, and our goal is to send daily standup reminder messages at 9AM in the local time from Monday to Friday. Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your Google Calendar.
2. Click the desired date of the first reminder to create a new event.
3. Enter the Event title,  "Daily Foresight Standup".
4. Set the first event instance's start time (e.g., 9:00 AM) and the event duration (e.g., 15 minutes).
5. Click on the recurrence option, and select Custom.
6. Set the event to repeat Monday to Friday. That is, Repeat every 1 week, Repeat on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and Never ends.
7. Change the event status from Busy to Free, to avoid blocking your time. This ensures teammates can still book time with you during this period.
8. Click Save to create the event.

Automation Rule Creation

1. Log in to your xFanatical Foresight account with your Google Admin account. 
2. Go to the Rules page and click the New Rule button.
3. Select the Calendar event started trigger from the select a trigger screen.
4. Ensure xFanatical Foresight obtains access permission from your Google Workspace Account. You’ll see the Access granted status.
5. In the Calendars field, select Primary Calendar [or you can select any calendar of your choice], type the Event title field and it must be the same in the Google calendar. 
6. Click Next.
7. On the Select an action screen, choose the If action.
8. Rename Branch 1 to Tue-Fri.
9. Set the condition of Branch Tue-Fri to Current day of week, is between 2 and 5.
10. Click the Add next action in Branch Tue-Fri.
11. In Select an action screen, select Send message to chat action.
12. Paste your webhook link (from Creating a Google Chat Webhook above)  in the Webhook field.
13. Craft a message that will be sent to your team every day. This message can include prompts like, What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? and What are the blockers to your progress if any? Add a Current date variable using icon.
14. Again navigate the If action and click Add Branch.
15. Rename branch to Mon, Set the condition to, Current day of week, is equal to, 1.
16. Then, Add next action, again select Send message to chat action.
17. Again paste your webhook link in the Webhook field.
18. Enter a customized message in the Message field and add a variable for Current date using icon. In this Monday's message, the message says last Friday instead of yesterday because yesterday is Sunday, when the team does not work.
19. Click Review.
20. Enter the Rule name, and click Create.
    xFanatical Foresight rule graph for Daily standup reminder in Google Chat

Automation Verification

1. Wait for the first daily standup reminder message.
2. When the automation is triggered, you will receive a notification in the top right hand corner, typically shortly after the event's start time. 
3. Click on the notification, then select View log to check the details of the automation.
4. Additionally, access the Logs page from the left sidebar to discover logs of successful rule triggers.
5. Check the Google Chat space for the daily standup reminder to verify that the automation is working correctly.

Notes

• If you need 2 daily standup reminder messages, e.g. 5:00PM, create another recurring calendar event at 5pm and repeat from Monday-Friday. Create another automation rule in xFanatical Foresight with different message templates. 
• For holidays, when all of your team members are away, simply delete the calendar event for the holiday. xFanatical Foresight will skip the standup message.
• If you work with offshore team members in a different timezone, adjust the calendar event start time and message templates according to your local timezone and your team's timezone(s), to avoid date / time confusions. 

Benefits of Automated Daily Standup Reminders

Automating your daily standup reminders offers several benefits:

• Consistency: Ensures that your standup meetings happen at the same time every day.
• Accountability: Team members are more likely to stay on track and attend the meetings.
• Efficiency: Saves time that would otherwise be spent manually reminding team members.
• Focus: Keeps the team focused on their goals and aware of each other’s progress.

Conclusion

Daily standup meetings are an integral part of the Agile process, and ensuring their consistent execution can significantly boost your team’s productivity. By integrating  xFanatical Foresight automation tool with Google Chat, you can automate daily  standup reminders, making sure no one misses these important meetings. Embrace this automation and watch your engineering team thrive.

If you have yet to install Foresight, check out this quick start.

Please visit the  xFanatical Foresight Automation tool to learn more and sign up for a free trial.