
Ask HN: Are daily standups any useful? - softwareman
I will make a blanket statement:<p>I believe existence of daily standups in any organization shows lack of trust. If the timelines are clear and everyone knows what to deliver why have that distraction at all? Even if its just 15 mins.<p>What do you guys think?
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savethefuture
From my own team experience, I believe they are benefitial for several
reasons. Each person speaks about what their plans and goals are for the day,
giving them some sort of responsibility to complete those tasks, it also gives
us time to ask for help or advice with problems we are struggling to solve.

The time is also spent just talking, about our personal lives, company
politics, current events, funny stories, anything.. it allows the team to
connect on a deeper level than just our daily work. Compared to other teams in
the company I do not see the same connection between team members as ours
which I see as a result of not doing a stand up.

A standup should not be about trusting your coworkers or not, it should be
about connecting with the team and understanding the team.

~~~
softwareman
Here is the catch in your statement:

"giving them some sort of responsibility to complete those tasks"

1) Why do you have to give this on a daily basis? Assuming everyone in your
team is dedicated and responsible, then why.

2) asking for help and advice should not wait for the next standup. If someone
is stuck, they should reach out for help right away than waiting for next
standup.

~~~
savethefuture
We assign the tasks to ourselves. I meant it more as "this is what I'm going
to get done today". If I don't get it done then I'll have to bring it up
tomorrow and give an explanation of why, maybe I'm having problems that
someone else might have solved but I do not know that, maybe its a large
project and I just need more time, I'll still have to mention it. But it gives
the other members insight into what, why, and how the task I am working on is
going or if someone needs additional help.

And to your next point, we certainly do NOT wait till tomorrow, we reach out
in our team chat if we need something and then can discuss further in person.

The stand up is not some strict rigid meeting where its the only time we talk.
It is simply an additional small amount of time for the team to discuss
whatever, along with what we're working on.

Another key point I did not mention above is the standup helps with those that
struggling to speak publicly or just are not familiar with doing so, I have
seen noticeable differences from members when we first started to now.

I'm not saying that the stand up is totally relevant and required, I'm sure we
would work continue to work just the same without it, but it serves as a small
interpersonal connection between members. For my team and I, the stand up
works great, for other teams it doesn't.

If you really want to know, try it, or ask your team how they feel about it.

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risto1
It's not a blanket statement, that's exactly what daily standups are for. It's
a micromanagement tool because they don't trust their employees.

If you're stuck or blocked on something, you should talk to whoever you need
to immediately. If you need to talk to someone, that's what the chat's for. If
it's supposed to be a way for the team to bond, then it shouldn't have
anything to do with status updates, talk about the weather instead.

It's so obviously a micromanagement tool, but sometimes you can piss on
someone and they'll believe you when you say it's raining

~~~
ethiclub
>It's so obviously a micromanagement tool

Here's devil's advocate against that statement (although appreciate that in
practice / 'on the ground' where you it might have been manipulated by
management).

Let's imagine your daily standup, but without any management roles involved in
the meeting (or any meeting debrief).

Is it valuable? A group of people getting together to:

\- State their resolutions for the day. This provides accountability to the
group and to the self (some people might value this opportunity to retain
motivation). Further, if the goals are not aligned with the group, it is an
opportunity for everyone to align.

\- State where they are stuck. Perhaps this should have been caught before,
but at least it's getting caught. And if no-one is stuck, no time is spent on
it, and it's no skin off anyone's nose. But everyone goes away with peace of
mind that everything is being 'pushed forward'.

If the tool is not misused or tainted by an authoritative culture, it could be
valuable.

