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Having just finished a 5 week agile project with daily stand-ups I found: 1. I'm already aware of what everyone is doing which is relevant to my own work outsi

Having just finished a 5 week agile project with daily stand-ups I found: 1. I'm already aware of what everyone is doing which is relevant to my own work outside the daily meeting. Everything else is just noise. 2. I don't want to know what someone else did since the last meeting unless it was relevant to my stream of work, in which case I already know about it. 3. See above. Needless to say I found the daily stand-ups a complete waste of time.

aembleton 9y ago
- Other works streams might not affect yours, but don't you find that it helps you to understand aspects of the project that will affect future workstreams? - How do you or they know that it will have no affect on your area without the daily stand up? - If someone is experiencing a blocker, you might have come across the same issue earlier in your career or even last week. Then you can help them.
- martijn_himself 9y ago
  These are all very valid points but I don't feel the need for a daily stand up to achieve them! Effective communication and meetings already achieve these things.
  - aembleton 9y ago
    If your team has effective enough communications to not require them, then I guess they're not for you. For me, that has never been the case in any team that I've worked in.
- sheepmullet 9y ago
  > but don't you find that it helps you to understand aspects of the project that will affect future workstreams? I can't understand what other people are actually doing when it's provided in 1-2min snippets each day. Even after a few months of this I will be clueless.
wastedhours 9y ago
I'm intrigued by 2 - granted, it doesn't have to be part of a daily meeting, but surely learning about other workstreams is still a net positive? In theory it's still about the direction of the same organisation which is important, no?
- martijn_himself 9y ago
  I absolutely agree- I should have clarified I don't want to know about it as part of a daily ritual that is the stand-up. I'd challenge anyone to summarize what other people talked about during the stand-up right after the stand-up. I bet they don't know- because they were thinking about their own work they wanted to get on with after the stand-up. The only thing I remember from the 5 weeks stand up is when the client summarized what she had been doing the previous day with 'I was just faffing about' :).
  - wastedhours 9y ago
    I'll agree with that as well, most update meetings I've been in are mainly spent with being half-present whilst listening, and then mentally updating my own list based on how granular other people are being.

aembleton 9y ago

- Other works streams might not affect yours, but don't you find that it helps you to understand aspects of the project that will affect future workstreams? - How do you or they know that it will have no affect on your area without the daily stand up? - If someone is experiencing a blocker, you might have come across the same issue earlier in your career or even last week. Then you can help them.

martijn_himself 9y ago
These are all very valid points but I don't feel the need for a daily stand up to achieve them! Effective communication and meetings already achieve these things.
- aembleton 9y ago
  If your team has effective enough communications to not require them, then I guess they're not for you. For me, that has never been the case in any team that I've worked in.
sheepmullet 9y ago
> but don't you find that it helps you to understand aspects of the project that will affect future workstreams? I can't understand what other people are actually doing when it's provided in 1-2min snippets each day. Even after a few months of this I will be clueless.

wastedhours 9y ago

I'm intrigued by 2 - granted, it doesn't have to be part of a daily meeting, but surely learning about other workstreams is still a net positive? In theory it's still about the direction of the same organisation which is important, no?

martijn_himself 9y ago
I absolutely agree- I should have clarified I don't want to know about it as part of a daily ritual that is the stand-up. I'd challenge anyone to summarize what other people talked about during the stand-up right after the stand-up. I bet they don't know- because they were thinking about their own work they wanted to get on with after the stand-up. The only thing I remember from the 5 weeks stand up is when the client summarized what she had been doing the previous day with 'I was just faffing about' :).
- wastedhours 9y ago
  I'll agree with that as well, most update meetings I've been in are mainly spent with being half-present whilst listening, and then mentally updating my own list based on how granular other people are being.