[icedchai]

Were you playing planning poker? The 3 or 5 story points is something I've definitely experienced.

Standups are okay, but they have to really be focused. Too often I see people dragging the standup into a side discussion instead of handling it off line. I also don't think they need to be daily. Twice a week is enough.

The real problem is micro management. Breaking everything down into bite sized ("2 or 3 point" chunks) is incredibly tedious. In the old days, estimates were less granular. "Joe, we need you to build X. Can you do that in 3 weeks? It also needs to handle blah."