Reporting for Accountability - Article by Geoffrey Slinker

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Reporting for Accountability is a nice brief summary of project communications that can be classified as "reporting", done in an agile environment. Although this article presumes software development projects, many of the basic ideas can be abstracted to Agile Work in general. From the article:

Abstract Reporting and accountability are essential for business processes. Without those budgets can not be calculated, resources can not be utilized efficiently, as well as many other issues. Reporting has come to a level where one can truly do "more with less." Daily stand-ups, end of cycle reporting, damage charts, dashboards, and burn charts accurately and concisely disseminate information.

Major topics covered: "Ten Minute Stand-Up", "Project Planning", "Release Planning", "Iteration Planning", "End of Cycle Reports / End of Iteration Reflections", "End of Release Reflection", "End of Project Reflection", and "Information Radiators".

One practice in particular is quite different: the "Ten Minute Stand-Up" simply addresses a short series of yes/no questions regarding project status.

While this meeting bears some superficial similarities to the Self-Steering Team practice, it is in reality quite different. One major difference is the lack of a mechanism for team empowerment. In the "Ten Minute Stand-Up", members of the team are focused on answering a set of questions related to project status and risks, but there is no indication that there is any formal communication from each team member to the rest of what that team member has been doing, plans to do, etc.