Rethinking Standups: Are They Disruptive at Best?

For years, standups have been a staple practice in software engineering, intended to keep teams aligned, aware of progress, and able to address any roadblocks. However, as software development has evolved, it’s time to question whether standups are more disruptive than they are helpful.

At their core, standups can be a valuable tool for keeping teams aligned. However, in practice, they can disrupt the flow of work and become a crutch for developers to avoid coding. Standups can also be redundant in today’s modern chat tools, which allow teams to stay connected and communicate in real-time.

But perhaps most importantly, standups can add cognitive complexity to software development teams. Trying to remember what was discussed yesterday, and what needs to be addressed today, can be a burden for developers. This can lead to additional stress and detract from the actual coding work, ultimately delaying project timelines and causing frustration among team members.

As software engineering evolves, it’s essential to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional practices and determine whether they’re truly adding value. While standups have been a long-standing practice, it’s worth questioning whether they’re still necessary. Perhaps it’s time to explore alternative approaches, such as asynchronous check-ins, that allow developers to stay aligned without disrupting their flow of work.

In conclusion, as software development continues to evolve, it’s time to question whether standups are more disruptive than they are helpful. While they may have been a valuable tool in the past, they can now be redundant and add cognitive complexity to software development teams. It’s time to rethink standups and explore new approaches that can keep teams aligned without disrupting their productivity.

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