I’ve seen standups with 20 people where 2 or 3 talked for more than 10 minutes. That’s not what it’s meant to be.

While I would also like to do the daily status email, I see value in doing a synchronized standup. It helps planning for the day.

Not all people are great communicators and I’ve seen lots of developers spend days on tasks which should take 1 or 2 hours max. Standups highlight these issues, but you need to listen and go to these people in private to understand their problems. And you should absolutely take up people if they offer to help you.

I tend to bring pen and paper to remember what I wanted to say and to note when I here something that’s relevant to me.