Dictionary of Developer Standup Speak: A Field Guide to What We Actually Mean

So, last week, at the standup of 9:30 AM as usual, I saw my colleague doing what I’ve done a hundred times-do say “no blockers” and “almost done” while drowning in bugs and issues. It got me thinking about all the things we say versus what we actually mean on these daily rituals.

The Daily Dance

We’ve all been there. You’re third in the rotation to present, mentally practicing your update while pretending to listen to others. Your Slack is blowing up, your coffee’s gone cold, and you’re trying to debate whether to bring up that production bug you’ve been quietly wrestling with since Tuesday.

The Greatest Hits of Standup Theater

”No blockers”

Probably the biggest lie in software development since “it’ll just take two weeks.” I’ve said it while literally staring at a screen full of red error messages. We all have. The real translation: “I’m stuck, but I’m not ready to admit defeat yet. Give me another day with Stack Overflow and three more espresso shots."

"Making good progress”

Typically translates to “I finally opened the Jira ticket and actually read it.” Bonus points if you’ve made a branch, even if all you’ve done is update the README.

”Just needs testing”

Here’s a recent classic from our team: “Just needs testing.” Sure, if by “testing” you mean “works on my machine exactly once under perfect conditions and I’m terrified to push to dev.” We’ve all been that developer.

”Small technical debt”

Remember that comment from 2021 that says ‘TODO: Fix this properly’? Yeah, that’s what we mean by “small technical debt.” We all know that TODO is going to outlive most of our careers here.

”Let’s discuss offline”

Classic developer code for “I have no idea what anyone’s talking about and I need time to frantically Google all these terms before anyone notices.” Usual follow through is that offline discussion that never actually happens.

”Should be a quick fix

The most dangerous phrase in any standup? “Should be a quick fix.” The second those words leave your lips, you’ve jinxed yourself. What should have been a 30-minute job will now devour your entire sprint, involve three different services, and somehow require a a complete refactoring.

”Almost done”

Look, we’ve all been there. You say “just wrapping up the final details” in standup, while silently praying no one asks about edge cases. Because sure, it works perfectly. as long as users follow that exact sequence of steps you tested. Click those buttons in any other order? Well, that’s a problem for future you.

”Working on documentation”

Which will typically mean one of two things: you’re actually stuck, and you need a little break from the code or else you’ve finally added that comment explaining why that function’s named ‘temporaryFix2Final_v3_REAL’.
Pro tip: If you have to explain within comments why something is titled “FINAL”, it likely is not. We all know this one. You’ve been fighting a bug for three days straight and you’re pretty sure it’s winning. But instead of ceding defeat in front of everyone, you go with the classic “quick question after this.” Really means “Please don’t make me admit in front of everyone that I spent six hours yesterday trying to fix a missing semicolon.”

The Three Stages of Developer Updates

Stage 1: Optimism “I’ll knock this out by lunch!”

Stage 2: Reality “The legacy code has… opinions about my approach.”

State 3: Acceptance “So apparently this ‘simple’ feature touches 47 different components.”

The PM Perspective

I was surprised to find out that our PM has already decoded the standup language. She once said: “I know what you mean when you say ‘no blockers’, It means you just started working on it.”

Making Standups Actually Work

Let us take a step back, and the stand-ups are about project status communication. But all too often, instead of that, we see this sort of thing happen over and over again: overselling and underselling developers, team members being shy with their struggles or roadblocks, and the chronically disengaged who are very easy to spot-their update, three words: “Still working on it”.

Do we really need standups? The quick answer: yes, not in the shape they exist in most places. Let us build some thoughts around how to make standups more useful (not silver bullet solutions but some ideas).

Instead of “No Blockers”

Say: “I’m not sure about the best approach for this caching layer. Could use a second pair of eyes.”

Instead of “Making Good Progress”

Say: “I underestimated the complexity here, I havent though of it enough. Might need to adjust our timeline.”

Instead of “Almost Done”

Say: “I’ve completed the core functionality but discovered edge cases we didn’t account for. Also, I need to cover this new discovered edge case with proper tests.”

The Core Principles

The real question is not whether we need stand-ups, but how to transform it from a daily ritual of vague updates into meaningful team synchronization. Effective stand-ups will create value by:

1. Be brief but honest. Respect the time of the other team members.
2. Focus on progress and obstacles.
3. Ask for help when needed. You will get help instantly.
4. Listen actively. Don’t just wait for your turn to speak and you switch off, because their “minor update” might affect your whole feature branch.
5. Follow up on meaningful discussions offline.

Closing Remarks

A good standup is not about sounding productive, but being productive. Sometimes that’s saying your estimate was totally off. Sometimes it’s telling people you spent four hours debugging, only to discover it was a typo. It’s not a failure-it’s just software development. Remember: The goal isn’t to look good for 15 minutes each morning. The goal is to build great software together. And that happens a lot faster when we’re honest about where we are and what we need.

P.S. If your team makes you feel like you can’t be honest in standups, that’s the real problem that needs fixing – not the standup itself.