Daily scrum

A time-box cannot take more than a fixed amount of time. What that fixed amount of time is actually set to be may depend on the length of the Sprint. In the case of a Daily Scrum it does not depend on this, and it can never exceed 15 minutes.

However, like any time-box, there's nothing to stop people from finishing the event before the time-box expires. that's what is meant by "15 minutes, or less" in this case.

I am confused on what is the right answer now to this question, i thought its daily scrum otherwise. I think the rule is to conduct the daily scrum for 15 minutes but in reality nothing stops the team to finish this off early.

Which of the following events cannot be shortened?

•  Sprint
•  Daily Scrum
•  Sprint Planning
•  Sprint Retrospective
•  Sprint Review

They can all be shortened in the sense that a team can finish early, and not take up the entire time-box.

The time-box allowed varies for all events except for the Daily Scrum, which is set to a maximum of 15 minutes. In other words the 15 minute maximum never changes, but teams can still finish a Daily Scrum early.

Hi Manikanth,

The answer to the question is the sprint. If the development team complete the work in the sprint backlog before the end of the sprint time-box, the PO would select another item(s) from the top of the product backlog for the dev team to begin work on.

Yep, looking at the question it should be Sprint. Once a Sprint begins its duration is fixed and cannot be shortened and lengthened, this is from page# 7 in Scrum guide :-)

Rest all can be closed as soon as the purpose is fulfilled, before the timebox expires.

Once the sprint starts the timebox itself cannot be shortened or lengthened, but the team can still finish the planned work early. They don't *have* to do any further work during the remainder of the Sprint timebox once the Sprint Goal has been met.

The immediate line after what Sanjay has quoted answers this question

The remaining events may end whenever the purpose of the event is achieved.

It should be Sprint as per the Scrum Guide as it cannot be shortened or lengthened

@All - by any chance if this is the question from PSM I assessment, then please confirm the answer...

thx.

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I would say, that correct answer is 'none' unless we know more about Sprint. ( Is it running sprint or future sprint?)

It is not prohibited change duration of  Sprint if it is not running but it is advised to have consistent duration.

All events are time-boxed events, such that every event has a maximum duration. Once a Sprint begins, its duration is fixed and cannot be shortened or lengthened. The remaining events may end whenever the purpose of the event is achieved

If the correct answer is 'Sprint' than 'Once a Sprint begins' would be unnecessary and Sprint would have forever fixed length. So I think that 'none' is correct and if there should be some answer than question need adjustment.

The reason 'Once a Sprint begins' has been added because you don't have to follow a fixed duration of Sprints e.g. you can have all Even Sprints of 4 weeks and Odd Sprints of 3 Weeks :-)

Scrum doesn't force you on that but its more as a guideline/best to follow the consistent duration of Sprints during the development effort

In the (hopefully rare!) situation where your Sprint Goal becomes obsolete or otherwise untenable, the PO also has the option of cancelling a sprint early. I'm not sure if this would be considered "shortening" the event, but it is another scenario where a sprint could conclude prior to its originally-planned end date.

This is termed "abnormal" termination of a sprint. So should not be looked at as a shortening of the event as the other events by definition are allowed to be finished before the time limit.

v2020:

The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team.

Every other event has quote "...is usually shorter."

I've had that in so many example tests and I am really confused. 

In My understanding: since 2020 it's exactly 15min, not more AND not less.

Correct????

The Scrum Guide provides this statement to define the reason for the Daily Scrum.

The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work.

It also provides this statement

The Developers can select whatever structure and techniques they want, as long as their Daily Scrum focuses on progress toward the Sprint Goal and produces an actionable plan for the next day of work. This creates focus and improves self-management.

Approaching this logically, if the Developers can accomplish the purpose of the Daily Scrum in 8 minutes, what should they do for the next 7 minutes if they are required to meet for 15 minutes? 

Also, 15 minutes is plenty of time to accomplish those things if you do not adhere to the "3 questions" mantra and instead use the time as a discussion among the team.  If there are topics that require additional discussion, a plan can be made to have the necessary individuals get together after the Daily Scrum to discuss.  As such "an actionable plan for the next day of work" has been established.  The Daily Scrum isn't for solving all of the Developer's problems. It is to put together a plan of action for the day that will allow the Developers to move forward towards accomplishing the Sprint Goal. 

Hi Tim. The "is usually shorter" is missing on Daily Scrum definition as Daily Scrum is the only Event that does not change its duration based on Sprint length. The time-box factor still applies and it can be shorter than 15 minutes if the objective is achieved as @Daniel points out.

Example thread on this topic: https://www.scrum.org/forum/scrum-forum/44324/fiendishly-challenging-daily-scrum-quiz

Borrowing a quote from Eric Naiburg from this thread...

Hi all, I just chatted with Ken and got some clarity.  Here is what he told me:  “A time-box is just a maximum length for an event, so nothing has changed, it is still a 15 minute time-box and can of course end early. The Daily Scrum is the only event that doesn’t change based on Sprint length as it is always 15 minutes or less if you finish early.”

I bolded a few parts for emphasis.

Does this help?

Hi all,

Can we Skip Daily Scrum if Only 1 Developer is present and rest of the team is on leave?

I just googled it and someone has written that - If it's going to make the team more productive, skip it.

I don't think this statement is true because we lose the opportunity to discuss about the progress towards sprint goal and also, scrum mandates all events.

Please guide. Thanks!

Regards,

Pranav

From the Scrum Guide section that describes the Daily Scrum

The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work.

The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team. To reduce complexity, it is held at the same time and place every working day of the Sprint. If the Product Owner or Scrum Master are actively working on items in the Sprint Backlog, they participate as Developers.

Since the Daily Scrum is an event for the Developers to discuss their plan for the day and only the Developers should be participating in the event, what kind of discussion could possibly happen if there is only 1 developer?  Who is that individual going to talk to about their plan for the day?

Can we Skip Daily Scrum if Only 1 Developer is present and rest of the team is on leave?

Commitments have been made. I'd imagine that the lone Developer is busy doing all sorts of things. Is 15 minutes too much to ask for them to stand aside, refocus, and come up with a plan for the next working day?

Thank you so much for your response! It really helped.

I got this question due to below scenario, happened to me recently,

One of the available developers was taking the interviews during this time, and he skipped this event.

So as a Scrum Master, below was my answer which seems correct based on above explanation -

"We cannot skip daily scrum, it makes sense if there is only one developer and once in a while but we can discuss the plan and progress towards sprint goal not necessarily 15 mins. If we schedule any other meetings during this slot, there is a high chance we lose the opportunity and importance of this event, better we reschedule other meetings or adjust daily scrum timing according to everyone's availability"

So, as per explanation I can conclude that,

1. As a Scrum Master we can discuss about the progress and plan, trying to make the discussion more productive ; we should not skip Daily Scrum.

2. Doing what makes sense within timebox instead of skipping the event, not losing the objective of this event.

Thanks,

Pranav