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I don't see any reason that a standup is superior to sending an update email in the morning and many reasons why it's inferior. Mainly, it's a tool for managers

by joesmo 11y ago

I don't see any reason that a standup is superior to sending an update email in the morning and many reasons why it's inferior. Mainly, it's a tool for managers to feel important. That's it. There's no need to optimize that except to make it go away, for which there is a great need in this industry. If it was a tool for managers to get updates, they'd use email, chat or something saner. Standups put developers under pressure unnecessarily and offer nothing to the development process in return. It's sad that they even exist and they're a perfect example of managers who don't know how to manage and can't figure out a proper way to stay updated. They make developers angry and less productive because now the developers are stressing over what they're going to say in the standup rather than developing. Yet another terrible idea from the agile camp that seems to have no shortage of such terrible ideas. EDIT: Note that all the information available in standups is also available on a board or ticketing system for a manager's perusal anytime. That to me proves the uselessness of the standup and its only purpose being to make managers feel in control.

eropple 11y ago
This doesn't reflect my experience at all. I'm not at all a fan of Agile as a practice, but I am a fan of well-run standups. Update emails can tell a manager what they want to know, but incentives virtually never align to get the rest of your team to read them and be up to speed on what everybody else is doing. And that's why standups work: you get a little face-time with your entire team, away from the desk, and it's a chance to have everybody's undivided attention for a minute or so and to get them rummaging around the attics of their brains for things that might be relevant to you. You say what you did and what you're planning on doing. If you are worried about the optics or politics of saying what you did, I would reflect on whether or not that's an issue, either with the team, its management, or you personally, separate from the process of a standup meeting itself.
- MCRed 11y ago
  It should be obvious, on an hour by hour basis, what is bing down, what is on deck and what is a blocker due to where issues are in the workflow. This is much more detailed and it's already being updated. You don't need to interrupt your developers and take out 2 hours of productivity with a daily meeting. I've never seen that undivided attention used for anything worth a damn- even the manager ends up giving filler. It's like 24/7 news channels. There simply isn't enough content to fill a 15 minute (half hour) meeting every day. But they feel like they need to.

by joesmo 11y ago

eropple 11y ago

This doesn't reflect my experience at all. I'm not at all a fan of Agile as a practice, but I am a fan of well-run standups. Update emails can tell a manager what they want to know, but incentives virtually never align to get the rest of your team to read them and be up to speed on what everybody else is doing. And that's why standups work: you get a little face-time with your entire team, away from the desk, and it's a chance to have everybody's undivided attention for a minute or so and to get them rummaging around the attics of their brains for things that might be relevant to you. You say what you did and what you're planning on doing. If you are worried about the optics or politics of saying what you did, I would reflect on whether or not that's an issue, either with the team, its management, or you personally, separate from the process of a standup meeting itself.

MCRed 11y ago
It should be obvious, on an hour by hour basis, what is bing down, what is on deck and what is a blocker due to where issues are in the workflow. This is much more detailed and it's already being updated. You don't need to interrupt your developers and take out 2 hours of productivity with a daily meeting. I've never seen that undivided attention used for anything worth a damn- even the manager ends up giving filler. It's like 24/7 news channels. There simply isn't enough content to fill a 15 minute (half hour) meeting every day. But they feel like they need to.