We currently do this. Team is compromised of folks across multiple time zones so it comes in handy.
However, I do feel like synchronous stand-ups are more productive
Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
21–30 of 42 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#22Yes, this is obviously more efficient. And hence contrary to the purpose of daily stand ups which is to waste everyone’s time to make the manager feel empowered and remind the slaves who owns them.
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#23Yes, this is obviously more efficient. And hence contrary to the purpose of daily stand ups which is to waste everyone’s time to make the manager feel empowered and remind the slaves who owns them.
Yikes. Who hurt you?
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#24In the age of the lockdown, I actually think it's beneficial to drag people's faces into a zoom meeting for 20-40 minutes (sometimes we get into debating stuff, hopefully not too much) - just so we have some human contact.
The rest of the day might be spent in solitude. If we're not in an office, let's at least leverage the scrums for some coffee talk.
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#25One of the side benefits of doing them live, especially in the new new, is promoting connectedness. You lose that when you go fully async. It’s 15-30 out of your day.
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#26At my small company with 4 developers we post YTB: yesterday, today, blockers. It goes into a special slack channel and we all try to take the time to read other’s updates to help with blockers and stuff. Just a small sentence for each section. It’s works nicely but we also are super small. I prefer it to spending a 15 or more minutes on a video call listening to two people talk while everyone else ignores them. If w…
What's the point? If you closed/updated a ticket the interested party will see it, or you can explicitly mention them in the ticket. If you're blocked, you usually know who's blocking you, so you can contact them directly. Let's say you're a FE dev waiting for a BE dev to finish a specific API request for you. You ask him how long it will take, and if it's possible to provide a dummy API in the meantime. Alternativel…
I don’t know I’m not a frigging manager or pm. I just code for money and don’t complain constantly.
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#27Yes. Both times there was zero value in them. People won't read them. Daily stand-ups provide zero value in my opinion, asynchronous or not. If one has a blocker then it should be raised to the team in slack/email as soon as you realize you need help from the team. Waiting until daily stand-up doesn't seem sensible to me. Paying attention to conversations the team is having in slack, the ticket tracker and pull reque…
> If one has a blocker then it should be raised to the team in slack/email as soon as you realize you need help from the team. Waiting until daily stand-up doesn't seem sensible to me.
The point of the daily stand-up is honestly more for identifying when people are struggling but not reaching out for help. A lot of people have a lone wolf attitude towards work even if they have a team so spotting when someone is avoiding asking for help is important.
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#28I have done that a few times and I feel the value drops to almost zero, or in some instances even negative, by doing this. Standups should be short hence do them standing with no digital screens around and team-size is optimally ~5. 30-60 secs per person probably. Writing a line on Slack spreads them out and takes away more focus IMHO. Many people will just ignore what is written in the Slack channel and you lose the…
Concur. You miss all context-sharing and exchange of q&a. And the team-ness plummets.
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#29I have done that a few times and I feel the value drops to almost zero, or in some instances even negative, by doing this. Standups should be short hence do them standing with no digital screens around and team-size is optimally ~5. 30-60 secs per person probably. Writing a line on Slack spreads them out and takes away more focus IMHO. Many people will just ignore what is written in the Slack channel and you lose the…
> 30-60 secs per person probably
In my experience with a handful of teams so far, this has never consistently happened. There are always a few people (if not most of the team) that seem to not be able to be succinct. And many times, the standup turns into a back and forth between 2 or 3 members on a topic that's unrelated to what the rest of the members are doing and therefore a waste of their time.
And most of the time, it's just mind numbingly mechanical and boring, something to get over with so I can get on with my work.
I feel like a team meeting at the beginning of the week to sync up and then ad hoc meetings during the week between relevant parties would be better.
Maybe I've just had bad luck with stand ups or maybe it's me. Not sure.
Re: Ask HN: Have you been in a team that did “daily standups” asynchronously?
#30Yes. Both times there was zero value in them. People won't read them. Daily stand-ups provide zero value in my opinion, asynchronous or not. If one has a blocker then it should be raised to the team in slack/email as soon as you realize you need help from the team. Waiting until daily stand-up doesn't seem sensible to me. Paying attention to conversations the team is having in slack, the ticket tracker and pull reque…
> If one has a blocker then it should be raised to the team in slack/email as soon as you realize you need help from the team. Waiting until daily stand-up doesn't seem sensible to me. The point of the daily stand-up is honestly more for identifying when people are struggling but not reaching out for help. A lot of people have a lone wolf attitude towards work even if they have a team so spotting when someone is avoi…
Ideally you wouldn't waste everyone on the team's time every day just to suss out individuals who potentially can't ask for help. A competent lead or manager should be able to identify those kinds of team members without a standup, and address the issue 1:1. If the lead or manager can't do that, why have a lead or manager at all?