PMP lesson · Agile Metrics & Events · Agile events · lesson 1 of 3 · about 5 minutes
The daily stand-up
Agile and hybridFree preview
Goal: After this lesson you can describe the purpose of the daily stand-up and fix its most common problems.
1The situation
The 45-minute stand-up
The MES team's “15-minute” daily meeting now takes 45 minutes. Developers discuss technical problems in depth while others wait. Several people have started skipping it.
A stand-up that wastes everyone's time is worse than no stand-up. Fortunately, the fix is simple.
2Purpose
The daily stand-up (daily scrum) is a short event for the team to coordinate toward the sprint goal and surface impediments. It is timeboxed to 15 minutes.
For the team
Coordination
Members talk to each other, not to a manager.
15 minutes
Timeboxed
Same time, same place; short.
Parking lot
Details after
Problems are solved afterwards with only the people involved.
Long discussion in the stand-up → keep the timebox and move it to the parking lot. Impediments → the servant leader helps remove them.
3What the stand-up is and isn't
Purpose
The team coordinates toward the sprint goal and spots impediments. 15 minutes, same time and place.
Typical focus
What moved us toward the goal? What's next? What's blocking us? (or walk the board right to left)
Not for
Status reports to a manager · long technical discussions · problem-solving with the whole team waiting
Short, focused, owned by the team.
4How it looks on the exam
Exam-style question 1. The daily stand-up has grown to 45 minutes because members discuss technical problems in depth while others wait. Some members now skip it. What should the project manager suggest?
A. Replace it with a weekly meeting
B. Keep it to 15 minutes focused on the sprint goal and impediments, and move detailed problem-solving to follow-up discussions with only the people involved
C. Allow it to continue
D. Let the PM run it and decide who speaks
Show the answer and the decode
Answer: B.
In simple English
The stand-up lost its purpose.
What is the question really asking?
The fix.
Key words / trigger
“grown to 45 minutes”
PMP logic
Timebox it and use a parking lot for details.
Why the wrong answer looks attractive
Technical discussion is valuable, but not with everyone waiting.
5Remember this
Your memory card
Stand-up = team coordination toward the sprint goal, 15 minutes
Not a status report; not a problem-solving session
Parking lot for details, with only the people involved
Repeated blockers → the servant leader removes them