How should a junior developer handle standup meetings?

Question

We are starting to adopt agile in a project we are about to begin.

Although I am not actually involved in the development of this project, I am involved in the stand up meetings.

Is it acceptable to say how you are learning a new technology (eg C# 4.0) as one of your tasks, alongside the actual deliverables?

My task is constant everyday so it is embarassing to say how I am doing the same thing (which is not a fun task - more admin type) while the other team members are doing C#/ASP.NET - the fun stuff. This obviously dents my morale.

How should I approach these meetings? Thanks

Answer 1

Suggest that you are a "chicken" in the process, which is an agile term for being an observer to the meeting but not a participant. http://www.agilejedi.com/chickenandpig

Answer 2

Is it acceptable to say how you are learning a new technology (eg C# 4.0) as one of your tasks, alongside the actual deliverables?

Learning time is legitimate, and if the company sees it that way you can make it a task.

Full disclosure: although the company I work for sees learning as a part of the process of software development, I don't actually put individual learning tasks into my weekly reports; I just build it in as a part of the larger development task.

My task is constant everyday so it is embarassing to say how I am doing the same thing (which is not a fun task - more admin type) while the other team members are doing C#/ASP.NET - the fun stuff. This obviously dents my morale

Where I work the people that have ongoing "areas of achievement" list the individual tasks they achieved when we meet each week. Some of these tasks can be quite mundane, such as "I went to this meeting," or "I ran this script that took 2 hours," or even, "I read this chapter of that book because I needed to know how to do this." Our company understands that this is the nature of the work. You shouldn't be embarrassed about this.

Full disclosure: I break my "areas of achievement" into smaller goals that can be completed in roughly a week's time, so that each week I can say that I completed something.

Answer 3

As a junior, you're expected to learn. So, unless you feel admitting to learning would imply you're not doing your other tasks, I say go for it.

Answer 4

I'd try to embrace the three questions:

1. What did I do yesterday? (Did you learn about some of the dynamic new features of C#?)
2. What are you going to do today? (Do something with what you have learnt that challenges you)
3. What is impeding you? (If you lack a skill look to the senior guys to help teach you.)

Kindness,

Dan

Answer 5

You can still report what you learned yesterday, what you plan to learn / try out today, and if you have any blockers that are preventing you from learning.

Answer 6

Since you consider your present task 'embaressing', I am assuming that you want some more development responsibility.

In my opinion is the stand up is probably a good time to ask for this.

I suggest that you say something passive like: before the next standup I will try to put what I have learned thus far in C# 4.0 to good use within some area of the project.

You in short order, you will be given something to do... then instead of having nothing to say during the stand ups, you will be too tired to go to them.

be careful what you wish for... because some day, you might get it.

Answer 7

You will not spend the whole career as "Junior" (and everyone too). How do the team know that you can do higher responsibility? of course by showing that you're capable of. As it's Agile meeting, I believe everyone will have chance to show his idea.

Do your best to answer questions and show your "out of the box" idea to the team. One day once they think that you can handle higher responsibility, you will out from your current position to more challenging works.

Learning/knowing something doesn't show that you can use it. There are some way to let the team know about your C# 4.0, by talk about it at lunch, writing on your blog then let your team know, write some tool for your daily tasks, etc. Not only on the meeting :-)

Good luck!

Answer 8

Where I work, we do have people that will say in the stand up that their day will be spent on non-project work as the stand up is for a specific project that almost everyone speaking in the stand-up has a part.

If you repeat the same task a few days in a row in stand-up, you may be asked why you are taking so long on a card, if you have enough resources, etc. as there may be some thought that you are off on a tangent or spike.