I have been in good standups and bad standups, sometimes at the same company.
A bad week-after-week standup was one that dragged on and on, and started at 8AM because that was evening time for our off-shore team which the US team knew was going to be canned in a few weeks. Each person would go on and on, on a bad connection in a thick accent about what they were working on. Between the connection, and accent, and knowledge they were all junior and working on minor tickets and flubbing them and all soon to be getting axed, I did not pay attention when that off-shore team was talking. It was all a waste of time for me.
On the other hand, I have had standups where the scrum master (or product manager in the scrum master's absence) would keep the standups to 15 minutes, and if anyone went on too long or some conversation went on too long he said they should continue what they were saying after the standup, and anyone who needed to hear it could stay. Standups were brief, and sometimes productive if I heard something I needed to know, or was blocked on something and was offered help. And if I or someone else was still just plugging away on something, we would say "I worked on X, still working on X, no blockers" and the meeting moved on.
Insofar as chat, some people get to the standup a minute or two early, and after the hour for the first minute people would still be joining the standup, and people would sometimes chat then.
> A bad week-after-week standup was one that dragged on and on ... our off-shore team which the US team knew was going to be canned in a few weeks...Between the connection, and accent, and knowledge they were all junior and working on minor tickets and flubbing them...
I hope I never have to work the managers who allowed this to go on. Treating this way the people who potentially didn't feel empowered to push back, is an indication of how they would treat others in a similar situation.
I have been in good standups and bad standups, sometimes at the same company.
A bad week-after-week standup was one that dragged on and on, and started at 8AM because that was evening time for our off-shore team which the US team knew was going to be canned in a few weeks. Each person would go on and on, on a bad connection in a thick accent about what they were working on. Between the connection, and accent, and knowledge they were all junior and working on minor tickets and flubbing them and all soon to be getting axed, I did not pay attention when that off-shore team was talking. It was all a waste of time for me.
On the other hand, I have had standups where the scrum master (or product manager in the scrum master's absence) would keep the standups to 15 minutes, and if anyone went on too long or some conversation went on too long he said they should continue what they were saying after the standup, and anyone who needed to hear it could stay. Standups were brief, and sometimes productive if I heard something I needed to know, or was blocked on something and was offered help. And if I or someone else was still just plugging away on something, we would say "I worked on X, still working on X, no blockers" and the meeting moved on.
Insofar as chat, some people get to the standup a minute or two early, and after the hour for the first minute people would still be joining the standup, and people would sometimes chat then.