Standups do provide a useful habit of synchronizing regularly. More mature teams can probably do this without a scheduled meeting.
In an Extreme Programming team provide a good opportunity to swap around pair-programming partners.
It's also a good opportunity to decide how many tasks the team has capacity to take on today, which isn't entirely straightforward. There may be someone off sick which means we can run fewer pairs. There might be an urgent production issue from overnight which requires a pair's attention. It might be that one of the next tasks needs some research and doesn't warrant a pair. It might be that one of the next tasks is a bit challenging/contentious and could benefit from mob-programming[0].
They are also useful to update team members who have been away or stuck in meetings, and for them to update the rest of the team. Not everyone can be in all conversations all the time.
As with most agile practices the mantra of "If it hurts, do it more often" applies well to standups. Synchronization is useful when working in this way but it shouldn't need to be long and painful. Having multiple focused sub-5 minute standups is better than one that drags on.
e.g. break along functional lines. Limit morning chat to what are we doing today, who is working with whom?. Have separate sessions for updates on progress, discussing impediments, or product planning updates.
Informal "huddles" work quite well too. Convene everyone ad-hoc when there's a decision to be made or as soon as an impediment arises.
When mob-programming most of the reasons for standups disappear. The whole team stays synchronized all the time.
In an Extreme Programming team provide a good opportunity to swap around pair-programming partners.
It's also a good opportunity to decide how many tasks the team has capacity to take on today, which isn't entirely straightforward. There may be someone off sick which means we can run fewer pairs. There might be an urgent production issue from overnight which requires a pair's attention. It might be that one of the next tasks needs some research and doesn't warrant a pair. It might be that one of the next tasks is a bit challenging/contentious and could benefit from mob-programming[0].
They are also useful to update team members who have been away or stuck in meetings, and for them to update the rest of the team. Not everyone can be in all conversations all the time.
As with most agile practices the mantra of "If it hurts, do it more often" applies well to standups. Synchronization is useful when working in this way but it shouldn't need to be long and painful. Having multiple focused sub-5 minute standups is better than one that drags on.
e.g. break along functional lines. Limit morning chat to what are we doing today, who is working with whom?. Have separate sessions for updates on progress, discussing impediments, or product planning updates.
Informal "huddles" work quite well too. Convene everyone ad-hoc when there's a decision to be made or as soon as an impediment arises.
When mob-programming most of the reasons for standups disappear. The whole team stays synchronized all the time.
[0] http://mobprogramming.org/