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> Do a daily stand-up I absolutely disagree with this one. Both the best and worst teams I worked on as a developer both had daily stand ups and the frequency,

> Do a daily stand-up I absolutely disagree with this one. Both the best and worst teams I worked on as a developer both had daily stand ups and the frequency, length, and process was nearly identical. If daily stand ups are a problem for your team, it's usually a symptom of a bigger problem, not a cause. I'm a manager now and I have multiple teams who report up to me. Personally, I hate daily stand ups so when I took over a new team last year, I floated the idea of switching them from 5 stand ups a week to 3 a week and they unanimously vetoed it. Of all the teams who report to me, they're actually the one that does the best work and are the most independent. If you feel like your manager or PM is micromanaging, removing your daily stand up isn't going to fix that. They're just going to micromanage you though a different medium.

go_discover 3y ago
A stand up is fine if the team wants to do it. Once it's dictated from above and run by a manager it's lost all worth
neilv 3y ago
> If daily stand ups are a problem for your team, it's usually a symptom of a bigger problem, not a cause. I'm sure that's true for some teams, but daily standups can also be a problem for teams that are functioning well. What if the daily standup routine isn't highlighting problems (nor otherwise helping), but it's just wasting time, throwing off flow, or frontloading a bunch of distractions into people's brains first thing in the morning? What if people have to contort their schedules to do it (either starting before they're woken up or done their morning exercise, or interrupting the flow of early-risers who'd already dug into their work)? What if the team members are good at async collaboration, and have a good sense when on-demand real-time is worthwhile, so daily synchronous standups seem like someone else needs help/nudge to learn the skills of the other team members, to avoid sabotaging a high-performing team's effectiveness and morale?
- superfrank 3y ago
  > What if the daily standup routine isn't highlighting problems (nor otherwise helping), but it's just wasting time, throwing off flow, or frontloading a bunch of distractions into people's brains first thing in the morning? Why don't you change the format of the meeting in a way to make it helpful? > What if people have to contort their schedules to do it (either starting before they're woken up or done their morning exercise, or interrupting the flow of early-risers who'd already dug into their work)? Why don't you talk to your team to move the stand up to a time that's convenient to everyone? > What if the team members are good at async collaboration, and have a good sense when on-demand real-time is worthwhile, so daily synchronous standups seem like someone else needs help/nudge to learn the skills of the other team members, to avoid sabotaging a high-performing team's effectiveness and morale? Then why are you having stand ups at all? ========== (I don't know if you are the one who has those issues, but I'm going to use "you" in my response just because it's easier) None of the things you listed are problems with a daily stand up. Almost all of them seem to be communication issues within your team where you can't or won't communicate your needs to the rest of the team. You're an adult (I assume). If something isn't working for you, speak up, take some ownership of the problem, and work with your team or your manager to find a solution that works for everyone. Maybe everyone else on the team is getting a ton of value out of the meeting and you are not. If that's the case then it seems like the problem isn't stand up, it's you. Remember, not every meeting you attend is there to give you value. Some meetings exist for other people to get value from you. Just because you're not getting something from it doesn't mean it's a bad meeting. On the other end of the spectrum, if you talk to your team and no one is getting any value out of the meeting, then the problem isn't the meeting, it's that your team leadership sucks and they're making everyone go to meetings that no one is getting value out of. Daily stand ups are just a tool. Saying daily stand ups suck would be like saying hammers suck. Your may not need a daily stand up, but that doesn't mean they're bad.
CSMastermind 3y ago
Daily stand-ups are a problem when people don't understand the purpose of the meeting. Social bonds are built through repeated casual social interactions. Standups are a mechanism for building social bonds within the team by creating an environment where they take place. If you think that standups are about status updates or resolving blockers than you're being led astray.

go_discover 3y ago

A stand up is fine if the team wants to do it. Once it's dictated from above and run by a manager it's lost all worth

neilv 3y ago

> If daily stand ups are a problem for your team, it's usually a symptom of a bigger problem, not a cause. I'm sure that's true for some teams, but daily standups can also be a problem for teams that are functioning well. What if the daily standup routine isn't highlighting problems (nor otherwise helping), but it's just wasting time, throwing off flow, or frontloading a bunch of distractions into people's brains first thing in the morning? What if people have to contort their schedules to do it (either starting before they're woken up or done their morning exercise, or interrupting the flow of early-risers who'd already dug into their work)? What if the team members are good at async collaboration, and have a good sense when on-demand real-time is worthwhile, so daily synchronous standups seem like someone else needs help/nudge to learn the skills of the other team members, to avoid sabotaging a high-performing team's effectiveness and morale?

superfrank 3y ago
> What if the daily standup routine isn't highlighting problems (nor otherwise helping), but it's just wasting time, throwing off flow, or frontloading a bunch of distractions into people's brains first thing in the morning? Why don't you change the format of the meeting in a way to make it helpful? > What if people have to contort their schedules to do it (either starting before they're woken up or done their morning exercise, or interrupting the flow of early-risers who'd already dug into their work)? Why don't you talk to your team to move the stand up to a time that's convenient to everyone? > What if the team members are good at async collaboration, and have a good sense when on-demand real-time is worthwhile, so daily synchronous standups seem like someone else needs help/nudge to learn the skills of the other team members, to avoid sabotaging a high-performing team's effectiveness and morale? Then why are you having stand ups at all? ========== (I don't know if you are the one who has those issues, but I'm going to use "you" in my response just because it's easier) None of the things you listed are problems with a daily stand up. Almost all of them seem to be communication issues within your team where you can't or won't communicate your needs to the rest of the team. You're an adult (I assume). If something isn't working for you, speak up, take some ownership of the problem, and work with your team or your manager to find a solution that works for everyone. Maybe everyone else on the team is getting a ton of value out of the meeting and you are not. If that's the case then it seems like the problem isn't stand up, it's you. Remember, not every meeting you attend is there to give you value. Some meetings exist for other people to get value from you. Just because you're not getting something from it doesn't mean it's a bad meeting. On the other end of the spectrum, if you talk to your team and no one is getting any value out of the meeting, then the problem isn't the meeting, it's that your team leadership sucks and they're making everyone go to meetings that no one is getting value out of. Daily stand ups are just a tool. Saying daily stand ups suck would be like saying hammers suck. Your may not need a daily stand up, but that doesn't mean they're bad.

CSMastermind 3y ago

Daily stand-ups are a problem when people don't understand the purpose of the meeting. Social bonds are built through repeated casual social interactions. Standups are a mechanism for building social bonds within the team by creating an environment where they take place. If you think that standups are about status updates or resolving blockers than you're being led astray.