In which meetings the Key Stakeholders are allowed to participate? Aren't The Key Stakeholders allowed in the planning?

I have to say that in a later question is:

 

"Select the two meetings in which people outside the Scrum Team are allowed to participate."

and the two valid answers are:

"Sprint Review" 

"Sprint Planning", with this explanation:

• The Development Team may invite other people to attend the Sprint Planning in order to provide technical or domain advice.

So the Dev Team could invite the key stakeholders if needed to provide technical or domain advice.

So in conclusion:

key stakeholders are not allowed to join the planning except if the dev team thinks it's needed.

I'm right?

thanks :)

Development Teams and stakeholders can arrange to meet whenever they want during a Sprint. Scrum does not deny professionals their options. What the framework does do is to establish a minimal set of rules. For example it tells you who ought to attend particular Scrum events and for what purpose. A minimum degree of focus can thus be assured regarding certain essential concerns.

Hi David,

Welcome to the forum!

If your goal is to pass the PSM exams, it is worth being cautious of tests written by other people. They may help to challenge your understanding; but in my experience, they don't match the quality of the Scrum.org open assessments. 

Particularly, watch out for answers that are not supported by the Scrum Guide, and be aware that the author of this quiz does not always use the same terminology that you would find in the actual assessment.

"In which meetings the Key Stakeholders are allowed to participate?"

I can tell straight away that this is not a Scrum.org question, because Scrum.org would not refer to the Scrum events as meetings. Using the correct terminology is important, and so there are sometimes clues in the official assessments, where use of non-standard terminology helps you quickly rule out some of the incorrect answers.

Thanks Ian and Simon, to answer Simon question: I'm scrum master for nearly 4 years with CSM certificate, but I sometimes feel I need to hardening my knowledge, especially because from time to time there is something that popups out of my knowledge and I need to investigate and learn of, with a special thinking on side effects.

I also see some team cutting corner here and there. So basically without losing anything from my experience I want to act a bit more firmly and be a referring point for the team about agile and scrum.

I'm exercising with some free PSM tests with various degree, I can say yet now I get benefits from that. 

:)

Dears,

I had the same ambiguity, as i review the guide, in order to answer the mentioned questions:

1. Product Owner can invite Key stakeholders to attend the Sprint Review, so this is one of the answers.

2. In Sprint planning, Development team may also invite other people to attend to provide technical or domain advise. (for me, it means if its mentioned clearly that development team invited key stakeholder for sprint planning as technical or domain adviser, so yes its is also the answer, otherwise will assume sprint planning will run with scrum team)

I know this may only help to answer the tests, because generally the best description in what given by Mr.Ian.

It will be pleasure to have your comments. 

Great Discussion here!

After reading scrum guide and taking PSM I felt there are many things that just not practical and I don't agree with such as questions above.  other question I was thrown away by was who must attend daily stand?  according to scrum guide it's only development team but let's be honest without Product owner and Scrum Master is it really productive meeting?

want to hear more about it from you all!

Nayna

who must attend daily stand?  according to scrum guide it's only development team but let's be honest without Product owner and Scrum Master is it really productive meeting?

Nayna, the Scrum Guide is very clear that the Daily Scrum is a meeting strictly for the Development Team to:

• plan work for the next 24 hours
• inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal
• inspect how progress is trending toward completing the work in the Sprint Backlog
• understand how it intends to work together as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal
• understand how it intends to create the anticipated Increment by the end of the Sprint

Why do you believe this cannot be accomplished without the presence of the rest of the Scrum Team (Product Owner, Scrum Master)?

@Nayna,

In addition to everything that @Timothy said, let me point a couple of passages from the Scrum Guide.

Section on Daily Scrum

The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute time-boxed event for the Development Team. 

The Development Team uses the Daily Scrum to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and to inspect how progress is trending toward completing the work in the Sprint Backlog.

The Daily Scrum is an internal meeting for the Development Team. If others are present, the Scrum Master ensures that they do not disrupt the meeting.

If the items @Timothy expressed and the 3 above statements are satisfied, I fail to see how it couldn't be a productive gathering without anyone else involved.  Yes, it says the Scrum Master ensures no disruption. But that does not mean you participate and in reality you would be a disruption if you did participate.

I will also call out this part of the same section of the Scrum Guide.

The structure of the meeting is set by the Development Team and can be conducted in different ways if it focuses on progress toward the Sprint Goal.

The Development Team sets the structure. If they choose to invite the Product Owner and Scrum Master it is their decision. But it also up to the Development Team to decide how those individuals are involved. The keys are that "it focuses on the progress toward the Sprint Goal" and is used to plan their work until the next Daily Scrum. I have worked with some Scrum Teams that actually encourage an audience of anyone interested in the work they are doing. But they also make it clear to everyone in the audience that they are not there to provide any input. It is not audience participation. The audience is there for viewing much like an audience for a news program.

@Timothy,

The Scrum Guide is very clear that the Daily Scrum attended not only by DT members:  "If others are present, the Scrum Master ensures that they do not disrupt the meeting". So "others" are allowed  and the DS.

There are many scenarios  when PO attendance at DS is beneficial as  "Daily Scrums improve communications, eliminate other meetings, identify impediments to development for removal, highlight and promote quick decision-making, and improve the Development Team’s level of knowledge." See examples below.

So there should not be a rule banning PO  from attending DS.

Do exam questions trying to differentiate "attendance" from "participation" ? Such linguistic difference is outside of the Scrum Guide/Framework scope.

Is there a oversight of Open PSPO exam questions?

Examples:

1. DT discovered "the work turns out to be different than the Development Team expected, they collaborate with the Product Owner to negotiate the scope of Sprint Backlog within the Sprint". So if PO in attendance they could quickly check and schedule post DS meeting.

2. DT reports Sprint BI done, asks PO to confirm and checks PO availability for the demo and his feedback on inviting stakeholders

3. DT is looking for pulling in PBI-s and asks for PO feedback "Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed"

4. DT does the work  delegated by PO  on "Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs " and asks for PO feedback

5. PO learns that DT identified impediments and provides immediate feedback (as domain expert) as another PO's ST had similar impediment resolved just before DS.

@Yakov

You may have misread my post.   It was in response to Nayna's post questioning whether the Daily Scrum had any value if it were only attended by the Development Team.   It certainly does, as it is actually their meeting.

I do feel there is value in having the PO available for consultation during the Daily Scrum, around many of the reasons you listed.   Many of the teams I've served have had their PO in attendance during the Daily Scrum.

Ultimately however, it must be the decision of the Development Team regarding outside attendance during their Daily Scrum.   It's their meeting - it's their call.   Also, opportunities for additional communication and collaboration between the DT and the PO should be identified and provided outside of the Daily Scrum as needed.   The Scrum Master should be ready to assist if the rest of the Scrum Team needs help to support these additional touch points.

If the PO or others feel a need to attend the Daily Scrum, find out why. There are another 23 hours and 45 minutes available for them to collaborate with the team. The Daily Scrum is 15 minutes out of what should be a busy day for the Development Team to stand aside and refocus on meeting the Sprint Goal.

I found it valuable to attend the Daily Scrum as a Product Owner and I believe the team I worked with at the time did as well.

It gave them an opportunity to not only plan for the day but address any impediments or questions I could assist with. We also set time to negotiate scope when things weren't going as planned. If they ran into an issue and we were able to resolve it by negotiating a simpler solution this ultimately changed their plan for the next 24 hours. 

That being said, it's important for the Scrum Master and Development Team to work with the Product Owner (or other stakeholders) to understand how they can add value to the Daily Scrum. If you have someone who is constantly changing things or dominating the conversation this event could become quite dysfunctional. 

Hello David,

Welcome to the forum! 

As everyone suggested please be cautious about the third party mock tests. Make sure you refer back to Scrum Guide every now and then and focus on eliminating wrong answers and emphasizing on why they are incorrect.  It will help you better understand the Scrum framework and prepare you for handling tricky situations. Good Luck!

Referring to Nayna's post, in my opinion, I have a feeling and an experience that many organizations are using the Scrum framework as another 'system' of managing projects and teams. Rather than focusing on the Scrum values of commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect (which are frequently brushed aside) and delivery using transparency, inspection, and adaptation are seriously being neglected for the sake of short-term gains.

Perhaps the dev team and the scrum master both need serious training in Scrum Values if there is a sentiment that Dev Team cannot be productive in the events they own on their own.

Even though we all come from different cultural backgrounds, it is important that we emphasize that "respect is a two-way street" is a universal value. 

Hi Guys, Can you answer me for this questions?

In scrum, a chicken is:

select one:-

a. Product Owner

b. Scrum Master

c. Apart from team, Scrum Master and the Product Owner

d. Team

e. All of the listed Options

In scrum, a chicken is:

On a farm, it's usually either a Developer or the Increment.

But jokes aside, I assume you're referring to the pigs and chickens metaphor, and there's a good explanation about why those terms no longer appear in the Scrum Guide: https://www.scrum.org/resources/chickens-and-pigs

@Simon, OMG Good riddance. Being read scrum guide twice, it would be horrific to see such question popup :D

I believe we should always remember the Agile Manifesto, which clearly mentions "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools". So I think as per PSM if we have to select multiple options we can go for Sprint Planning along with Sprint Review, But if we have to select the best option then it is just "Sprint Review".

Hello all,

Following the discussions above I get a little confused. I am preparing for the scrum product manager after two attempts without pass.

As fas as I know scrum.org only provides the 30 questions which are less difficult then the real examn.

Following the discussion about the scrum events, what are the original thoughts regarding providing advice and participation? in other words: is providing advice also participation?

I am also following test exams on: https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-real-mode/ which has sometimes different views then the scrum guide and the professional product owner book.

I hope someone can give my support with this question?

My first piece of advice is to stop using the test exams on mlapshim.com.  That site has come up in many discussions and it usually has misleading questions or answers.  Stick to the resources that are provided or recommended by scrum.org.

If you want to be able to pass the exam, stop trying to find correct answers to questions and start to understand the reason an answer is correct.  Learn the theory instead of trying to memorize the facts. 

Each Scrum event has specific reasons for existing.  In each one there are specific outcomes sought.  To understand the difference between participation and providing advice, look at the outcome.  For example, Sprint Planning's outcome is the Sprint Backlog.  The Sprint Backlog is owned by the Developers.  So the only participants are the Developers.  However the Product Owner provides advice and information related to the Product Backlog Items so that the Developers can make educated decisions on which ones to pull in.  A stakeholder may be invited to provide some advice and information but they are not participating in the outcome of the Event. 

Study the Scrum Guide and understand the reasons/theory behind each thing that is described.  That will not only help you pass the certification exams but it will also make you a much better Scrum practitioner.

Hi Everyone!

I've noticed that the following part was removed from Scrum Guide 2020: "The Daily Scrum is an internal meeting for the Development Team. If others are present, the Scrum Master ensures that they do not disrupt the meeting."

Does it mean that Stakeholders aren't allowed to attend the Daily Scrum now?

Thank you for your replies.

If you read back through the responses to this question and read the Scrum Guide, you should notice that the only required attendees for the Daily Scrum are the Developers.  That is because the Daily Scrum is an event for the Developers to plan the work for the day based upon what has been done and learned in the past.  The Developers are the only participants. 

The statement you mentioned from previous versions was to help enforce the idea that the only active participants are the Developers.  As I mentioned previously that some teams will have audiences but they should not interrupt or participate in the Daily Scrum. I advocate to have a period of time after the Daily Scrum where larger discussions can occur if there is a feeling among the Scrum Team that it is needed.  And let's be honest, why is it so hard to let a group of people have 15 minutes on their own to discuss and plan their day?