> Also, how can standups be designed to make the team work more effectively?
Tips:
* NO MANAGERS. The standup is for the scrum team to organise and help itself. It is not there give a status update for the manager. The manager isn't in the team, and people have trouble talking freely when the manager is around.
* Do an issue based standup. Discuss the status of each issue on the board from the right to left. The primary question is "What can we do to keep these issues moving along through the process?".
* At the end you can ask "Does anyone have anything else important to add?". Maybe people have to leave early today etc etc.
That's it.
Also, how can standups be designed to make the team work more effectively? They essentially steal some of the best development time in the day by insisting on being the first thing done in the morning, when most people are fresh and ready to go. There's no way in hell this was designed to be anything but a manager's control tool designed to slow down the team in bureaucracy and bullshit. And it does a great job at that.