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> Standups shouldn't be disruptive at all. Just a couple of minutes to get some idea of what everybody is working on. That's disruptive! > Standups are in my

> Standups shouldn't be disruptive at all. Just a couple of minutes to get some idea of what everybody is working on. That's disruptive! > Standups are in my experience much more effective at signalling blocking issues than slack. If you are using Slack, you have already lost the battle for productivity. > If a couple of minutes per day kills your velocity, as the article claims, I wonder what else you're doing during the rest of the day. Literally any interruption destroys your focus. A pending appointment destroys your focus. If you use Slack or E-Mail notifications, people never even attain focus, so in that sense it's not a loss. > And even then I'd guess it's useful to have a quick refresher about what you're working on. To a first approximation, nobody cares what you're working on. Nobody should care what you're working on. If your developers need to constantly communicate with each other, something is likely very wrong with the way you split up your work. Daily standups pre-suppose that there's always stuff to communicate and that everyone is always involved, but only once a day and only briefly. This is complete nonsense. You need to be able to adapt to the situation. You need a meeting? Have a meeting with whoever is concerned. Have a follow-up meeting. Take your time and focus on the issue, then nobody will even feel like time is being wasted.

mcv 7y ago
This sounds like an argument for having a single stand-up meeting instead of communication through slack and email spread throughout the day. It keeps the disruptions concentrated in a single, predictable moment. > "To a first approximation, nobody cares what you're working on. Nobody should care what you're working on." I care quite a lot what the people in my team are working on. Otherwise why are we even a team? If you're not in a team, obviously things are different. > "If your developers need to constantly communicate with each other, something is likely very wrong with the way you split up your work." It's the opposite: if developers are not communicating, they're probably not cooperating with each other, which means something is very wrong.
- gridlockd 7y ago
  > This sounds like an argument for having a single stand-up meeting instead of communication through slack and email spread throughout the day. It's an argument for having meetings when you need them, with whoever you need them with, with no particular schedule or routine attached. > I care quite a lot what the people in my team are working on. Do you really? Or do you just want to signal that? > Otherwise why are we even a team? You are on a team because that's the unit of organization above the individual. > It's the opposite: if developers are not communicating, they're probably not cooperating with each other, which means something is very wrong. If developers need to cooperate, you have a problem that you should avoid at great cost. Of course, sometimes cooperation is unavoidable, but it's not a good thing in and of itself. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Aim to split up your work to require minimal cooperation. This may sound like unconventional advice, but anyone with enough experience managing developers will likely agree.
JoeAltmaier 7y ago
This seems overblown. Yes we all get interrupted - lunch, phone calls/texts, even the end of the workday are interruptions. To single out 'standup' as a particularly disruptive interruption may be exaggeration.
- gridlockd 7y ago
  Of course, some interruptions like lunch or the end of the day are unavoidable. Phone calls and texts? Don't let your developers do them. > To single out 'standup' as a particularly disruptive interruption may be exaggeration. It isn't an exaggeration, because a standup is also a pending appointment and a mini-presentation. A lot of developer types actually get stressed out about this, no matter how small. Similar thing with responding to an e-mail. It's insane how much time some people spend on just a one line reply. Just minimize these things, don't make them part of your routine for routine's sake.
  - somebodythere 7y ago
    If my options are a 15 minute standup vs. not being able to respond texts for the entire day, I prefer the standup.

mcv 7y ago

This sounds like an argument for having a single stand-up meeting instead of communication through slack and email spread throughout the day. It keeps the disruptions concentrated in a single, predictable moment. > "To a first approximation, nobody cares what you're working on. Nobody should care what you're working on." I care quite a lot what the people in my team are working on. Otherwise why are we even a team? If you're not in a team, obviously things are different. > "If your developers need to constantly communicate with each other, something is likely very wrong with the way you split up your work." It's the opposite: if developers are not communicating, they're probably not cooperating with each other, which means something is very wrong.

gridlockd 7y ago
> This sounds like an argument for having a single stand-up meeting instead of communication through slack and email spread throughout the day. It's an argument for having meetings when you need them, with whoever you need them with, with no particular schedule or routine attached. > I care quite a lot what the people in my team are working on. Do you really? Or do you just want to signal that? > Otherwise why are we even a team? You are on a team because that's the unit of organization above the individual. > It's the opposite: if developers are not communicating, they're probably not cooperating with each other, which means something is very wrong. If developers need to cooperate, you have a problem that you should avoid at great cost. Of course, sometimes cooperation is unavoidable, but it's not a good thing in and of itself. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Aim to split up your work to require minimal cooperation. This may sound like unconventional advice, but anyone with enough experience managing developers will likely agree.

JoeAltmaier 7y ago

This seems overblown. Yes we all get interrupted - lunch, phone calls/texts, even the end of the workday are interruptions. To single out 'standup' as a particularly disruptive interruption may be exaggeration.

gridlockd 7y ago
Of course, some interruptions like lunch or the end of the day are unavoidable. Phone calls and texts? Don't let your developers do them. > To single out 'standup' as a particularly disruptive interruption may be exaggeration. It isn't an exaggeration, because a standup is also a pending appointment and a mini-presentation. A lot of developer types actually get stressed out about this, no matter how small. Similar thing with responding to an e-mail. It's insane how much time some people spend on just a one line reply. Just minimize these things, don't make them part of your routine for routine's sake.
- somebodythere 7y ago
  If my options are a 15 minute standup vs. not being able to respond texts for the entire day, I prefer the standup.