[kylequest]

"better communication" and "cross training" are the biggest misconceptions about the stand-ups. A good/proper standup is short and there's no way to communicate and exchange enough detailed information and context to make it a meaningful communication and especially cross training tool. Standups are meant for peer-to-peer coordination on the dev team. This leads to another misconception... Standups are not status reports for managers. The manager's primary job is to support his/her team and to be aware of what's going on to facilitate the team needs and to resolve external blockers. Sitting in his/her ivory tower planning stuff is not it :-)

[sageikosa]

If the dev team isn't coordinating and communicating outside the meeting, then you have problems the meeting isn't going to solve.

I do agree with you that a manager's job is to support the team, and not the other way around.