PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
During a sprint retrospective, the team identifies that the daily standups are taking too long and are not productive. Several team members suggest canceling them to save time. As the scrum master, what is the best course of action?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Facilitate a discussion to identify the root cause of the unproductive standups and agree on improvements.
The scrum master should facilitate a discussion to improve the standup rather than cancel it. Option C is correct because it addresses the issue constructively.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Shorten the standup time to 5 minutes without discussion.
Why it's wrong here
Simply shortening the daily standup to five minutes without first understanding the underlying reasons for its unproductiveness is a superficial tactical adjustment. This approach fails to address the root causes, such as lack of focus, irrelevant discussions, or poor facilitation, which will likely persist and continue to diminish the meeting's value, even if it's shorter. A PMP perspective emphasizes problem-solving through analysis, not just symptom management.
- ✗
Cancel the daily standups as suggested and replace them with a weekly meeting.
Why it's wrong here
Cancelling the daily standup removes the primary mechanism for synchronising the team’s daily work and surfacing blockers in real time, which the retrospective’s goal of improving productivity requires. A weekly meeting cannot provide the same cadence for immediate impediment removal. This option is tempting because a weekly sync reduces meeting overhead, and it would be correct if the team’s work were independent enough that daily coordination was unnecessary.
- ✓
Facilitate a discussion to identify the root cause of the unproductive standups and agree on improvements.
Why this is correct
The Scrum Master's primary responsibility in a retrospective is to facilitate the team's self-organization and continuous improvement. By guiding a discussion to identify the root causes of unproductive standups, the Scrum Master empowers the team to collaboratively devise and commit to effective solutions, aligning with the inspect and adapt principle of Agile. This approach ensures that improvements are team-owned and sustainable, directly addressing the identified issues rather than imposing external fixes. This is a core aspect of servant leadership.
- ✗
Keep the standups as they are; the team will adapt over time.
Why it's wrong here
Ignoring the team's expressed feedback about unproductive standups and expecting them to 'adapt over time' directly contradicts the Agile principle of empiricism and continuous improvement. This stance can lead to decreased team morale, disengagement, and a perpetuation of inefficient processes, as the team's concerns are neither acknowledged nor addressed. A PMP-certified professional understands that proactive problem-solving and valuing team input are crucial for fostering a productive and adaptive environment.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Leading Teams and Empowering Team Members
Key term
Sprint Retrospective
A Sprint Retrospective is a time-boxed meeting at the end of a Scrum sprint where the team reflects on their process and identifies improvements for the next sprint.
Key term
Scrum Methodology
Scrum is a lightweight process framework that helps teams deliver complex projects in small, iterative chunks called sprints.
About these practice questions
One of 800 original PMP practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PMP practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PMP exam.