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I hate standups with a fucking passion. All a standup to me is an interruption 30-45 minutes into the day which causes me to lose an hour or more of time every

I hate standups with a fucking passion. All a standup to me is an interruption 30-45 minutes into the day which causes me to lose an hour or more of time every single day. I basically just fart around with things that don't need much focus until the standup happens. The worst part is that I suggested instead of standups we just send what we we would have said in the standup via slack. That lasted 3 days. The reason no one liked it? "I don't read what other people put into slack". Yeah, ex-fucking-actly. It's literally not helpful because you don't actually need to know what someone is working on that day, and if you do it's because you're also working on it and you can communicate that privately.

szatkus 7y ago
If it takes 30-45 minutes something is wrong. I hated standups as well until I worked with right people.
- celticmusic 7y ago
  you misunderstood, the standup happens 30-45 minutes into the workday.
  - pmiller2 7y ago
    Show up 5 minutes before standup, or 5 minutes into it, then. Problem solved. ;) On a more serious note, read email, get a drink, and plan your day. You’ll be talking about the plan in less than an hour, anyway.
peterbell_nyc 7y ago
Sounds like your team might be doing standups wrong. Firstly they should be 3-8 mins tops. Secondly, I consistently find that when someone mentions what they're working on, more days than not, someone shares something useful (hey, we did something similar last year . . .) and when someone is blocked, someone agrees to get them going again. It's also just nice to have a sense what the whole team is working on. [EDIT] I also misread length of standup. And agreed, it's tough to have an interruption 30-45 mins is as you lose that time. Wonder if you'd be better with middle or day standups or something so at least it was between worthwhile chunks of time?
mattlondon 7y ago
if your standup is taking 30-45 minutes you are doing it wrong. All you need is: What you did yesterday, what you are doing today, and what you are stuck on/need someone else's time with. Some clarifying questions/interruptions from others in the stand-up are fine ("yesterday I got stuck on foo and I-" "Was it foo-bar, or foo-quux?" "Quux" "Oh did you try the flibble button?" "Why would I need to do that?" "Well since last month's release if you dont use the flibble button..." etc), but if they go on for more than 30 seconds they need to be shut down and done outside of the standup. My team has up to 20-25 people in a standup and we're usualy done well inside of 15 minutes. Other tips are scheduling them before a set time (e.g. before the canteen opens so if you over-run you are late to lunch), or doing them early in the day so they don't interrupt the daily grind too much -> get in at 8:30, get your coffee, 20 minutes email triage -> 10 min standup, and its 9am and you've got the whole rest of the day to do

szatkus 7y ago

If it takes 30-45 minutes something is wrong. I hated standups as well until I worked with right people.

celticmusic 7y ago
you misunderstood, the standup happens 30-45 minutes into the workday.
- pmiller2 7y ago
  Show up 5 minutes before standup, or 5 minutes into it, then. Problem solved. ;) On a more serious note, read email, get a drink, and plan your day. You’ll be talking about the plan in less than an hour, anyway.

peterbell_nyc 7y ago

Sounds like your team might be doing standups wrong. Firstly they should be 3-8 mins tops. Secondly, I consistently find that when someone mentions what they're working on, more days than not, someone shares something useful (hey, we did something similar last year . . .) and when someone is blocked, someone agrees to get them going again. It's also just nice to have a sense what the whole team is working on. [EDIT] I also misread length of standup. And agreed, it's tough to have an interruption 30-45 mins is as you lose that time. Wonder if you'd be better with middle or day standups or something so at least it was between worthwhile chunks of time?

mattlondon 7y ago

if your standup is taking 30-45 minutes you are doing it wrong. All you need is: What you did yesterday, what you are doing today, and what you are stuck on/need someone else's time with. Some clarifying questions/interruptions from others in the stand-up are fine ("yesterday I got stuck on foo and I-" "Was it foo-bar, or foo-quux?" "Quux" "Oh did you try the flibble button?" "Why would I need to do that?" "Well since last month's release if you dont use the flibble button..." etc), but if they go on for more than 30 seconds they need to be shut down and done outside of the standup. My team has up to 20-25 people in a standup and we're usualy done well inside of 15 minutes. Other tips are scheduling them before a set time (e.g. before the canteen opens so if you over-run you are late to lunch), or doing them early in the day so they don't interrupt the daily grind too much -> get in at 8:30, get your coffee, 20 minutes email triage -> 10 min standup, and its 9am and you've got the whole rest of the day to do