[tomc1985]

I'm very much in agreement with the other posts that you can get most-if-not-all of this information by keeping your ears to the ground (listen to your team's chatter) and paying attention to activity notifications.

If you have to closely observe or repeatedly needle your team for information, something is wrong. Programmers are largely introverts doing high-focus activities; we need to be left alone.

We (as in my team) don't strictly follow formal practice, though we have standups and I try to follow LEAN. Our git server sends email notifications with each push and I find these are wonderful for peering into what other people on my team are up to.