5 ms·
The problem is simple. Whatever you do, don't blindly implement something just because it is written in a book or an article. Agile is about focusing on consta
by lmilcin 5y ago
The problem is simple. Whatever you do, don't blindly implement something just because it is written in a book or an article.
Agile is about focusing on constantly improving processes.
Ask yourself, "Are the standups paying for themselves? Are they improving my process? If they are not, can I do something to fix them? Is there something else I can do that would be less disruptive and more worthwhile?"
If there is no benefit, continuing to run inefficient process is anti-agile and, frankly, stupid.
Over the years I have participated in a lot of standups that are basically progress reports to the manager. Those teams usually already had a Jira, so this was just a stupid waste of time for something that did not provide any value.
The value of standups is in interactions between team members that would not normally happen without them. Like finding out somebody has a problem that I know an answer to. Or figuring out your task is no longer needed because of somebody else is doing something that makes it obsolete. Or noticing somebody is overworked and that I can spare some time to help them so that the team collectively delivers more on its promise.
I have learned that low trust between team members precludes exchange of useful information on a standup and basically negates any value you could get from it.
When people treat standup as progress report to the manager and have low trust towards their manager and peers, they tend to guard any information to not pass anything that could by accident backfire on them.
Another reason I have seen standups be a waste of time is when people don't really work as a team but rather as a collection of single person projects. When other people work on things that are completely unrelated to what I am doing and in fact understanding requires knowledge that I don't have, there is very little value coming from telling the progress of what I am working on.