[brucehart]

Develop a process that adds more openness and accountability. Hold a 15 minute daily standup meeting where each developer shares what they accomplished the previous day and what they plan on accomplish that day. Spend some time creating very distinct tasks for each developer that are 2-4 hours long. Tell the developers which tasks you expect to get completed that day and not to get sidetracked. They are providing the engine power, but you are steering the boat.

Many developers get sidetracked because they are afraid to confront the fact that they don't know how to do something. Make it clear that it's okay not to know something but it's not okay to just avoid a task in front of them. Find roles for them where they can excel. Imagine being a coach of a basketball team. Some players are good shooters while others might be good at defense and rebounding. It's up to you to find these strengths and use them together. A fast developer may get excited about doing new development but hate doing things they consider grudge work. These slower developers might like doing work like testing and documentation (and actually be better at it).

[mattmanser]

Daily standups, especially with 2-4 hour long "tasks you expect to get completed that day" is simply thinly disguised micro-management. It is the antithesis of all the advice on how to make people more productive and excellent at their jobs, which is to make them autonomous. Sounds like a nightmare environment.

[brucehart]

Some people work better with daily accountability and need help breaking up tasks so they don't get overwhelmed. I worked for a boss that managed this way and no one felt micromanaged. Having clear objectives and giving a 1-2 minute daily verbal update didn't seem like a "nightmare environment" at all.

We had some members on our team that were similar to those the poster is describing. For those the team lead was more explicit about setting tasks and for others he gave more autonomy. The daily standups were a chance to discover what's holding people back from making the progress needed to complete larger team goals on time. I was also skeptical of the process when I started the job, but it actually works very well.

[mrj]

I have always naturally thought about what I'm going to complete during a day over the commute to work. I'm convinced that successful people tend to do this. Standups are nothing more than formalizing this process for small teams, which is especially useful for members who may not already be planning their days' work in advance.

[sukilot]

The autonomy comes because he decs choose their own 2-4 hour tasks