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The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

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Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#11

Post by operatingthetan »

ipaddr wrote: post #7
CalChris wrote: post #3

Any blockers? If blockers have been resolved immediately then the short answer to the question will be no . Otherwise it will be yes . Sounds like a decent question to me.

I hate standup culture. If you have a blocker waiting until the next morning is so wasteful.

The process isn't to wait until the next standup. Asking for blockers is the manager's way of ensuring no-one is keeping a blocker from them. A functional team would have devs who float blockers when the arise and most of the time they would answer the question with "no blockers."

Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#12

Post by Palomides »

ng12 wrote: post #5

The primary point of standup is to make sure the team gets face-time together every day to talk about their shared workload. Humans are social creatures and getting everyone together for a few minutes is a pretty high ROI activity.

yeah, getting alignment across the team and doing a vibe check at the cost of ten minutes seems pretty reasonable to me, the questions are basically just variants on "how's it going?"

Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#13

Post by ipaddr »

ng12 wrote: post #5

The primary point of standup is to make sure the team gets face-time together every day to talk about their shared workload. Humans are social creatures and getting everyone together for a few minutes is a pretty high ROI activity.

The primary purpose is provide highlights that can be sold as stories for management.

If you are looking for a social event that's what happens at lunch over an hour while sitting not a 5 minute standup where everyone is trying to say just enough so they can get back to work.

It's sad the standups are considered a social event. Back in the good old days you finished your work chilled on a cheap startup couch while two others played ping pong and you chatted. Or you met up a bar after and threw darts. What have we sold ourselves lately?

Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#14

Post by ketchupdebugger »

ipaddr wrote: post #7
CalChris wrote: post #3

Any blockers? If blockers have been resolved immediately then the short answer to the question will be no . Otherwise it will be yes . Sounds like a decent question to me.

I hate standup culture. If you have a blocker waiting until the next morning is so wasteful.

I see you have not been blocked by another team/org.

Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#15

Post by _fat_santa »

The 3 questions help keep the meeting on track. I was once part of a team that didn't follow the "3 questions rule" and all standups were at least 1hr+ in length with a few going to 2-3 hours in length, basically a debugging session with a ton of people on the call that didn't need to be there.

Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#16

Post by throwaway9191aa »

These three questions are intended to keep standups short. I haven't, personally, been on a team that sticks to this format. It always ends up with individuals talking about their individual implementation thoughts on whatever they are working on. During this time, others zone out, missing anything that could be important. Nobody learns anything, and nobody is able to fully concentrate on their tasks.

I purposefully schedule meetings after our standup to make sure I cut it off after 30 minutes. Our team of 11 will go for almost an hour if nobody cuts people off.

Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#17

Post by ironmagma »

Palomides wrote: post #12
ng12 wrote: post #5

The primary point of standup is to make sure the team gets face-time together every day to talk about their shared workload. Humans are social creatures and getting everyone together for a few minutes is a pretty high ROI activity.

yeah, getting alignment across the team and doing a vibe check at the cost of ten minutes seems pretty reasonable to me, the questions are basically just variants on "how's it going?"

They are too specific, formulaic, and reek of management tactics. If you mean, "how's it going?", say, "how's it going?" As the wise Dr. Seuss said, "I meant what I said and I said what I meant."

Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#19

Post by JohnFen »

ng12 wrote: post #5

The primary point of standup is to make sure the team gets face-time together every day to talk about their shared workload. Humans are social creatures and getting everyone together for a few minutes is a pretty high ROI activity.

Standups could make sense in a team that isn't operating well, but in a well-functioning team, everyone is having these sorts of discussions with each other during the natural course of each workday anyway. Standups are unnecessary then.

My experience with standups is that they're almost entirely worthless. They're rote and performative and rarely, if ever, provide anything that was missing.

Re: The "3 standup questions" are terrible and need to die

#20

Post by throwaway9191aa »

CalChris wrote: post #3

Any blockers? If blockers have been resolved immediately then the short answer to the question will be no . Otherwise it will be yes . Sounds like a decent question to me.

I agree this is a great question. Maybe more for managers, but it let's people think "This is day 2 of that blocker, I need to step in". Sometimes junior devs will let external asks sit too long and write it off as "blocked on another team". Managers can manage this.
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