Constructive alternatives to standups (etc), maybe

[floer32]

First, thank you for this, this is spurring so many conversations that need to happen.

I am on the same page about ditching the conventional standup.

Wonder if there is a place for mentioning some alternatives to standups which are friendly to asynchronous and distributed teams. For example Range, https://www.range.co/ . (Note, I have no affiliation with Range.)

Another tool on this point is Twist (by Doist) (again, no affiliation). It's an attempt to obviate (as much as possible) both Slack and Email and the problems each have. It can support a pretty astounding change in a team's culture and daily habits. Some Slack->Twist glue with Zapier can even help a team move or rebel gradually.

I know you are skirting mentioning specific tools -- but where do you draw the line between 'standup' (a process facilitated by tools) and a thoughtfully designed tool (which can create/nurture a process that may not be feasible without it)? Also many people just don't know (yet) that there are really viable alternatives like Range and Twist.

It's not simply a matter of convenience of telling the tools up-front. It can be formative to team decisions.

I can't tell you how many times I've been in interviews, where there was discussion of views and intentions very similar to Agile Lite. Teams that would have been good fits. But then they think

The only way we can stay agile is face-to-face, using stickies!

They might be right to get rid of JIRA etc but we lose a lot of opportunity if the team winds up geo-constrained just because we don't know there are supportive tools.

Thoughts?

[floer32]

I'm guessing the answer is that you'll still want to keep it tool-agnostic, but is there some kind of third option?

What if I/someone had another doc, wiki, etc., which had a short list or table of relevant tools for Agile Lite? (Would you consider linking to, or incorporating, that doc?

Oh how about this — What if I fork and try adding breakout page, and submit a PR? Then if it doesn't fit I will split to a freestanding resource. Asking before starting because my approach will be different if it might wind up as part of this repo, vs. doing it from scratch.

[davebs]

On the point of Range: a friend I showed a draft of Agile Lite to said, "Maybe include something about identifying blockers" so it's interesting that Range seeks to address that problem. My problem with daily standups is they are usually not very useful for most people in attendance. It becomes just another name for a meeting and it ends up being this useless kind of meeting. All of that being said, at one company I ran daily standups over google hangouts with a geographically distributed team. While there were positive aspects to it, I don't think it was the best way to go. I could have accomplished the same thing via updates to the Issue Tracker and one-on-one or small-group skype meetings.

On the point of Twist, it seems very similar to Slack? I don't dislike Slack and think a system like that is a good thing. Honestly, github repos Issues is probably the issue tracker I use the most recently, but that's mostly because I do consulting work and set up a different repo for each client (so it makes sense to just put the issues there and add team members as necessary). But then I use slack or skype for basic communication.

But yeah, I like the idea of having a "suggested tools" type list, I often find it's confusing to find a good one. Like video conferencing, what's the best solution for that at this point? I really have no idea but hear about a ton of startups doing it. If you're up to it, please take a stab at a list and I'll merge it in.