> A team of even adequate--not great, just adequate--people working together will have these conversations independently.
Then the daily standup will be really damn fast. =)
On the other hand the daily is a place where you _know_ that the other person isn't busy and it's a good time to raise any concerns or ask for assistance.
If it's going to be "really damn fast" because nobody has anything (more) to say, it's pointless (and micromanagement, for the managers' benefit only).
And if the person is busy, they should indicate as much. People shouldn't have to have a carve-out on their calendar for concerns or requests for assistance: that's an indication of a dysfunctional team.
My fastest scrums have went like this (on $chat_application):
<scrum master> anyone have anything new for daily?
<dev1> nope, still working on $task
<dev2> nope
<tester1> nope, still finishing up testing $task2
<scrum master> let's skip it then
Then the daily standup will be really damn fast. =)
On the other hand the daily is a place where you _know_ that the other person isn't busy and it's a good time to raise any concerns or ask for assistance.