Business Meetings Notes

Types of Business Meetings in IT Industries

• Scrum Development Methodology

  • Sprint planning

  • Daily standup meetings

  • Sprint review

  • Sprint retrospective

• Software Development

  • Feature kickoff

  • Code review

  • QA / testing planning

  • Stakeholder update

• Visual Arts

  • Brainstorming sessions

  • Art review

  • Design critique

Scrum Development Methodology

• Agile software development methodology focusing on developing products in sprints of around 1 to 4 weeks.

• Scrum Process

  • Scrum Master

  • Product Owner

  • Team

  • Sprints (1-4 Weeks)

  • Product Backlog

  • Sprint Planning Meeting

  • Daily Scrums

  • Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective

  • Finished Work

• Sprint Planning

  • Happens at the beginning of each sprint.

  • Sprint is an iteration of work that typically lasts between 1-4 weeks.

  • Defines what can be delivered in the increment and how the work will be achieved.

  • Product backlog is a prioritized list of tasks

  • Plan on how to accomplish the product backlog Plan key aspects such as:

    • Set achievable goals

    • Outline strategies

    • Identify potential challenges

    • Prioritize tasks

• Daily Standup Meetings (DSU)

  • Daily, short, time-boxed meeting

  • Developers report:

    • Tasks done during the day

    • Problems encountered

    • Tasks to be done for the next day

  • Used to:

    • Foster collaboration

    • Promote transparency

    • Understand what others are working on

    • Address roadblocks

• Sprint Review

  • Done at the end of each sprint

  • Attended by stakeholders and the development team

  • Used to:

    • Create a comprehensive overview of the product development cycle

    • Address critical questions about the product's progress

    • Forum for presenting and evaluating new ideas

• Sprint Retrospective

  • Done at the end of each sprint

  • Provides an opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next sprint

  • Done alongside the sprint review

Software Development

• Includes, but not limited to:

  • Development of emerging technologies

  • Game development

  • Mobile application development

  • Website development

• Common business meetings in software development:

  • Feature kickoff

  • Code review

  • QA / testing planning

  • Stakeholder update

• Feature Kickoff

  • Meeting where the product manager and stakeholders set ideas for the new feature

  • Includes:

    • Goals

    • Detailed plans

    • Responsibilities

  • Done at the very beginning of creating a new feature

• Code Review

  • A coding team analyzes the quality of the code before undergoing testing

  • Checks if the code:

    • Is working

    • Follows the conventions of the project

    • Adheres to the standards of the organization

  • Code review can be done by:

    • Other members of the team

    • Team lead

    • External entity

• Quality Assurance / Testing Planning

  • Meeting between the QA / testing team

  • Identifies:

    • Component / feature / sprint

    • Test case

    • Test stub

    • Test driver

    • Correction

  • Done at the beginning of the testing phase of identified component / feature / sprint

• Stakeholder Update

  • Meeting where stakeholders are updated on the current progress of the project

  • Common purposes include:

    • Timed updates to the stakeholders

    • Inform major changes to the project

    • Require major decision points based on the input of the stakeholders

  • May include a selected set of stakeholders, or all of them

Visual Arts

• Includes, but not limited to:

  • Asset creation and/or generation

  • Graphics design

  • Illustration

  • UI/UX development

• Common business meetings in visual arts:

  • Brainstorming sessions

  • Art review

  • Design critique

• Brainstorming Sessions

  • Identified stakeholders come together to identify ideas:

    • Solutions to an identified problem

    • New product / feature in an existing product / service

    • Improvement of existing services

    • Strategic planning

  • Done in most project-based / operations-based endeavors

  • Can include stakeholders:

    • Internal (persons inside of the organization)

    • External (consultants)

• Art Review

  • Critically analyzes the created part to be done before proceeding to other stages in pre-production

  • Common examples include:

    • Character concept art review

    • Location concept art review

    • Prop design review

  • Done to:

    • Ensure that the art is up to standard with the created idea

    • Can be realistically made

• Design Critique

  • Critically analyzes the design of a created product / service

  • Commonly used to review UI/UX and branding

  • Done to:

    • Ensure that the UI/UX is within the branding of the organization and idea

    • Product / service is easy-to-use and understandable

    • Design focuses on the key aspects of the product / service

Best Practices in Productive Business Meetings

• Preparation for business meetings

• Conduct of business meetings

• Aftermath of business meetings

Preparation for Business Meetings

• Identify the cause of a meeting

• Set appropriate time and date

• Detail meeting agenda

• Identify meeting priorities

• Notify participants

• Prepare materials

• Identify the Cause of a Meeting

  • Ask questions such as:

    • What is the meeting for? (general idea and main points)

    • What are the deliverables of the meeting?

    • Do we need a meeting?

    • How long will the meeting be?

    • Who will be participating?

    • What is the platform to be used? (in-person / virtual)

• Set Appropriate Time and Date

  • Is it urgent?

    • If yes, then must be set immediately using virtual means

    • If not, then identify other factors

  • Who will be participating?

    • Take note of the schedules of the bosses / higher-ranking attendants of the meeting

    • Check meeting schedules of other relevant team members

  • Set date, time, and location of the meeting

• Detail Meeting Agenda *Agenda – items that need to be considered or done *Questions to be asked: * What are the things that need to be talked about? * What should the team decide during this meeting? * What are the specific deliverables? * What are the deadlines included in the meeting?

  • Create a short list of events that will happen during the meeting

• Identify Meeting Priorities

  • Identify the order of the agenda based on:

    • Level of importance

    • Connection of agenda to other items of the meeting

    • Need for agenda items for specific higher-ranking members

      • These need to be prioritized first

      • This is so that the higher-ranking member can exit the meeting first

• Notify Participants

  • Best to use email for notifying participants

  • Let them know a few days (if not urgent) before

  • Include the following:

    • Time and date

    • Location (in-person) or meeting link (virtual)

    • General agenda

  • Reminders before and during the meeting (if needed)

  • Allow participants to either confirm or decline an offer

• Prepare Materials

  • Create materials needed for the meeting

    • Slideshow presentation (status updates)

    • Video presentation (status updates)

    • Note cards (informal presentations)

    • Shareable file (virtual collaboration)

  • Materials depend on the nature of the meeting

  • Assign someone to either record or create the minutes of the meeting

Conduct of Business Meetings

• Greetings and introductions

• Review of agenda

• Present necessary presentations

• Field participant questions and answers

• Greetings and Introductions

  • Check if everyone is on the meeting

  • Assign a note taker other than yourself

  • Set the feel of the meeting:

    • Start with a prayer and / or national / company anthems

    • Establish rapport (if possible)

    • Introduce rules (if needed)

  • Introduction of yourself and specific people to other members in the meeting

• Review of Agenda

  • If the meeting is done periodically (e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.)

    • Go over the things discussed during the last meeting

    • Ask everyone if they want to quickly go over previous topics

  • Go over the projected structure of the business meetings

  • Ask the team if they want to add more related topics (if possible)

• Present Necessary Presentations

  • Provide context to everyone about the meeting

  • Showcase presentations:

    • Presentations for status updates are longer

    • Presentations for every other type of meeting must be short

  • Be concise in providing information

  • Create a call to action if applicable

• Field Participant Questions and Answers

  • Be open to answer any questions after every presentation

  • Provide a neutral or positive tone in answering questions

  • If possible, go back to the presentation related to the answer

  • For activities during the meeting:

    • Be open for any questions

    • Provide context and assistance as much as possible

    • Present outputs if possible

Aftermath of Business Meetings

• Thank participants for coming and engaging

• End with a call to action

• Remind deadline

• For periodic meetings, remind the next schedule

• Ask note taker to summarize, type, and send minutes

• Follow up

  • Allow participants to ask questions after the meeting

  • Use email to document questions

  • Possible to bring up these questions the next meeting

Recording the Minutes of the Meeting

• What is a minutes of a meeting?

• Parts of the minutes

• Best practices for the minutes of the meeting

What is a Minutes of the Meeting?

• AKA “minutes”

• Official business document that summarizes salient points that have transpired in the meeting

• Includes:

  • Key issues that are discussed

  • Motions proposed and/or voted on

  • Activities that need to be undertaken

• Used to document actions that has transpired in the meeting, in order to:

  • Refer to decisions made during the meeting

  • Refer to during periodical meeting

  • Check progress of team members

  • Validate tasks being done by team members

• Taken by a designated member of the group

  • The person presiding the meeting is not the same person taking note of the meeting

  • Usually of the same position / of lower rank than the presider

Parts of the Minutes

• Template and content of the minutes are dependent on the following:

  • Organizational / company format

  • Nature of the meeting

  • Amount of points / information in the minutes

• Parts of the minutes of a meeting (UC format):

  • Meeting information

  • Attendees

  • Agenda

  • Topic

  • Discussions

  • Call to action

• Meeting Information

  • Provides all of the main information regarding the meeting

  • Includes the following:

    • Name of the meeting

    • Date and time

    • Location / video conferencing tool

    • Agenda / objectives

    • Time of adjournment

• Attendees

  • Lists all attendees who were part of the meeting

  • Small number of attendees: part of the minutes

  • Bigger number of attendees: separate attendance sheet

  • Includes the following:

    • Presider

    • Minutes taker

    • Guests

    • Attendees

    • Non-attendees

      • Non-attendees must provide a reason before the meeting starts (unless it’s an emergency)

• Agenda

  • Summary of the topics provided for the minutes of the meeting

  • Should be at least one (1) per meeting

  • Lists down the main topics that is tackled in the meeting

  • Usually provided by the presider beforehand

  • If not, then it is written down after summarizing the minutes

  • Agenda can be modified during the meeting

• Minutes – Topic

  • Sort the minutes according to the key points / topics /agenda

  • Usually based on the agenda provided

  • Can be summarized further after the meeting has been conducted

• Minutes – Descriptions

  • Give context to what the topic / agenda is

  • Can include:

    • Presentation of topics

    • Status reports of members of the team

    • Contextualizing the team building, innovation, or planning meetings

  • Include who was saying the descriptions

  • Must be short at around 1-3 sentences

• Types of meeting descriptions:

  • Planning / Innovation / Decision Making / Problem Solving - Presider - The presider states that the management wants the team to draft a proposal for a competition for the 80th founding celebration.

  • Information Sharing - University President (ex. President Nancy M. Flores) - PNMF presents the new Strategic Planning of the University for AY 2025- 2030.

  • Status Report - Team member (ex. Jhunfel S. Dela Cruz) - Mr. Dela Cruz shares the partnership with Company A is ongoing; with the MOA sent to their HR director.

• Tips on constructing the descriptions:

  • It should only contextualize the agenda

  • Using acronyms is okay to make it shorter, but ensure that the attendees are aware of them

  • Do not add too many acronyms, especially if the term is not commonly used / seen throughout the minutes

• Minutes – Call to Action

  • Includes the items that needs to be addressed / done during the meeting

  • Can include:

    • Voting results

    • Assigned persons / offices

    • Deadline

    • Required deliverables

  • Not included in information-sharing meetings

Best Practices for the Minutes of the Meeting

• Recording the minutes

• Creating the minutes

• Disseminating the minutes

• Recording the Minutes

  • Acquire initial agenda and information from the presider if necessary

  • Take notes of the meeting in different ways

    • Use a written medium (notebook / laptop) when taking down salient points

  • For video / audio recordings, always ask for permission before recording

  • Using an AI companion for writing minutes is NOT recommended if:

    • Multiple people are talking at the same time

    • Speaking in multiple languages

• Finalizing the Minutes

  • Recommended duration for finalizing the minutes: at most one working day after the meeting

  • Utilize an organizational template for the minutes

    • If not existing, make sure that the document created:

      • Is easy to read

      • Has the salient points highlighted

  • Go over the notes created:

    • Listen through the video / audio recordings (if applicable)

    • Double-check the important information to be included

    • Collect any slides / visuals that the presenters used during the meeting (if applicable)

  • Identify the key topics / agenda of the minutes

  • Focus only the salient points on the minutes

    • For information sharing / presentations:

      • Summarize their talk in 1-2 sentences only

      • If there is a document used in the meeting, attach it to the minutes of the meeting

    • For meeting points with deadlines:

      • Specify the date, time, and submission format

      • Explicitly mention an individual who will be responsible

  • Make sure that the content is brief yet clear

• Disseminating the Minutes

  • Send in minutes to presider FIRST for approval

  • Provide members of the meeting a copy of the minutes

    • Best to submit as an email

  • Include attachments that are available to the public (e.g., presentations) in the minutes

  • Do not include sensitive / unnecessary information (e.g., attendance) in the attachments