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Comment by malfist

1 day ago

That's exactly how I run my standups.

Everyone answers 3 questions:

* Do I need something?

* What is my _top_ priority for the day?

* Am I blocked?

The answers for the first and third question should always be "No" because you should have raised them before standup, but it's a relief valve if you didn't.

What is your top priority should be short and focused. If you let people talk about what they did or didn't do yesterday it becomes a slog with people justifying their progress or non-progress. Ultimately it doesn't matter. Focusing on the top priority he's focus people on their main task for the day.

> What is my _top_ priority for the day?

How do you manage (if you have to) more research-heavy/blue-sky tasks that may take a few days or weeks without linear daily progress? Like, some days may just involve doing some sketches and playing around with code in order to internalise some data structure. Does that person just say "I'm continuing with task X" several days in a row?

  • Absolutely, you can be more specific about the specific aspect if you want, but it's mainly a forcing tool for focus and not an accountability tool. Although everyone thinks it's accountability

  • >Does that person just say "I'm continuing with task X" several days in a row?

    Absolutely. If other devs or even a manager or project lead or someone feel they've been doing the "same" task too long, they should be reaching out and checking in. "Hey, running into any problems? How are you doing?"