5 exercises — Practice the language of Scrum facilitation: timeboxing, voting techniques, retrospective formats, and collaborative structures used in agile ceremonies.
Outcomes: action items, accountability, retrospective prime directive
Key phrase: "Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could." (prime directive)
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1 / 5
The Scrum Master opens the retrospective: "Before we start discussing, I'd like everyone to write their thoughts on sticky notes — no talking yet. We'll share them one at a time using round robin. Any topics that come up but aren't on today's agenda go into the parking lot."
What is the purpose of a parking lot in a facilitated meeting?
Parking lot: a facilitation technique for capturing valuable but off-topic items so the group can stay focused without losing the idea. Items in the parking lot are reviewed at the end of the session or scheduled for a future meeting.
Related facilitation vocabulary: Round robin — a structured turn-taking format where each person speaks in sequence, ensuring equal participation. Silent brainstorm — participants write ideas independently before sharing aloud, reducing groupthink and giving quieter voices equal weight. Ice-breaker — a short activity at the start of a meeting to warm up the group and lower social barriers. Facilitation — the act of guiding a group through a process to achieve a shared goal, without directing the outcome. In conversation: "Let's park that — it's important but out of scope for today's retro."
2 / 5
At the end of sprint planning, the Scrum Master says: "We've been in this room for 90 minutes. Remember, we have a two-hour timebox for planning. That gives us 30 minutes to finish the sprint backlog and confirm the sprint goal — then we're done, whether we feel fully ready or not."
Which statement best describes the concept of a timebox?
Timebox: a strict, fixed time limit for an activity. When the timebox expires, the activity ends — even if the work is not complete. Timeboxing prevents ceremonies from overrunning and forces prioritisation within the available time.
Scrum ceremony timeboxes (for a one-month sprint): Sprint Planning ≤ 8 hours; Daily Scrum ≤ 15 minutes; Sprint Review ≤ 4 hours; Sprint Retrospective ≤ 3 hours. For two-week sprints, these are proportionally shorter. Key phrase: "We're timeboxed to 30 minutes — let's focus on the most important questions." Diverge-converge is a facilitation pattern that pairs this with time: first diverge (generate ideas freely), then converge (narrow down, decide) — each phase is typically timeboxed separately.
3 / 5
The Scrum Master explains two techniques to a new team member: "For choosing which topics to discuss, I'll use dot voting — everyone gets three dots and sticks them on their preferred items. For checking team consensus on a decision, I'll use fist-to-five. Show zero fingers — a fist — if you completely oppose. Show five fingers if you fully support. Anything below three means we need more discussion."
In a fist-to-five vote, what does showing two fingers typically signal?
Fist-to-five scale: 0 (fist) = block/veto; 1 = serious concerns, not ready to proceed; 2 = significant concerns, needs discussion; 3 = can live with it, will support; 4 = good idea, minor reservations; 5 = fully support. Decisions proceed when everyone shows 3 or above. If anyone shows 0–2, the facilitator surfaces concerns before moving on.
Dot voting: each participant receives a fixed number of dots (typically 3–5) to allocate across options. They can concentrate all dots on one item or spread them. The item with the most dots is prioritised. Useful for selecting retrospective topics, prioritising improvement ideas, or choosing between options. Both techniques support facilitation by making preferences visible, reducing dominance by louder voices, and generating quick, transparent decisions.
4 / 5
Complete the Scrum Master's sentence: "We're going to run a ___________ retro today. I'll put three columns on the board: one for things we want to start doing, one for things we should stop doing, and one for things that are working well and we should keep doing."
Which retrospective format is being described?
Start/Stop/Continue: one of the most widely used retrospective formats. Three columns map directly to actionable categories — Start (new practices to adopt), Stop (habits or processes to drop), Continue (what is already working). It is action-oriented by design.
4Ls (Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For): encourages reflection on both positive experiences and gaps. "Lacked" surfaces missing resources or support; "Longed For" captures aspirational improvements. Mad-Sad-Glad: an emotion-first format that surfaces team morale and psychological safety issues. The facilitator clusters emotional responses before deriving action items. Liberating Structures: a collection of 33 facilitation microstructures (e.g. 1-2-4-All, TRIZ, Troika Consulting) designed to include every voice and avoid conventional meeting traps. All three are valid retrospective formats — the facilitator chooses based on team context and goals.
5 / 5
The Scrum Master reads out the prime directive at the start of the retrospective: "Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand."
The team then identifies three improvement actions and assigns an owner and a due date to each.
What is the primary purpose of the retrospective prime directive?
Retrospective prime directive (Norm Kerth): creates psychological safety by framing the retrospective as an inquiry into systemic issues rather than individual blame. Without this, team members self-censor, and the retrospective loses its value.
Action items: specific, concrete improvements the team commits to implementing before the next retrospective. Effective action items follow the SMART format and each has a single named owner. Accountability: the expectation that the owner will follow through and report progress. The Scrum Master often opens the next retrospective by reviewing the previous sprint's action items. Without accountability, retrospectives become "complaining sessions" with no lasting change. Key phrase: "Every action item needs an owner and a date — otherwise it's just a wish."