IM/Chat Standup

My goals for standup are:

• actually communicate
• get remote folks more familiar with each other (make Chicago and Berlin friends ;))
• provide a forum so that I can act less as a clearinghouse/sole gate for communicating with remote folks (though I realize this is much of my job and will continue to be a big part)

We’ve moved to IM/chat standup as a test to solve the fact that remote folks have a very hard time hearing us quiet folks at HQ.

So far, the two standup addicts (me and talltom) are very chatty and slow, and the two IM pros are quick and to the point. I like the quickness, and to that end will try to type up a quick summary first and paste it in, but I miss something from the less efficient exchange of additional info and personality, so I think I’m going to continue to prattle a bit and encourage others to be a little less efficient if they are so moved.

Essentially, I think standup is a bit more than a task list–it is some kind of weird vehicle for team. Not only do we get a sense of what the larger group is doing on a task level, but at its best we get a glimmer for how individuals are doing at it. I miss some of the additional information exchange that happens when people go off topic or make a joke. But, I’ve been one of the people “in the room” for the conference call standups, so perhaps IM standup is actually a higher-bandwidth channel for the remote folks….

At a minimum, at least we’ve coined some new web acronyms: lbcot (let’s be careful out there-thanks to Stephen).

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