Standup
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
A standup is a short daily team meeting — meant to be done standing so it stays brief. Each person says what they did yesterday, what they're doing today, and if anything is blocking them. Timebox it to 15 minutes or it becomes a regular meeting in disguise.
Real Talk
A standup (daily scrum) is a 15-minute synchronous meeting where team members share progress, plans, and blockers. Designed to be short and focused, it facilitates coordination and surfaces impediments early. Remote teams often use async standups via bots.
When You'll Hear This
"Bring up the production issue in standup." / "Keep standup to 15 minutes — save the discussions for after."
Related Terms
Agile
Agile is a philosophy of building software in short cycles, learning from real feedback, and adapting quickly instead of following a massive upfront plan.
Backlog
The backlog is the master to-do list for a product — every feature, bug, and idea that hasn't been built yet, prioritised by importance.
Kanban
Kanban is a visual workflow system where tasks move through columns — To Do, In Progress, Done. Unlike Scrum with fixed sprints, Kanban is continuous flow.
Scrum
Scrum is a specific recipe for doing Agile.
Sprint
A sprint is a fixed time-box — usually 1-2 weeks — where a team commits to completing a specific set of tasks.