The Scrum Board

Correct Answer: Remove the task from the Scrum Board and suggest the Product Owner to add it to the Product Backlog.

As a ScrumMaster, the most suitable response to an external stakeholder suggesting an unrelated task during a review meeting would be to remove the task from the Scrum Board and suggest the Product Owner add it to the Product Backlog. The Scrum Board should represent only what the team committed to accomplish during the current sprint which directly contributes to the sprint goal. Any new work, even if it is suggested by a stakeholder, should be added to the Product Backlog. From there, the Product Owner can decide its priority and when it could be incorporated into a future sprint. The other answers suggest either leaving the task on the Scrum Board, pushing the team to work on it during the current sprint, or dismissing the suggestion outright, all of which can have negative consequences. Leaving the task on the Scrum Board can cause confusion and distract the team from their committed work. Incorporating the task into the current sprint would disrupt the team's focus and potentially lead to them failing their commitment. Dismissing the suggestion outright might alienate the stakeholder and close the door on potentially valuable feedback.

Correct Answer: Reiterate the importance of the Scrum Board at the daily standup meeting and encourage everyone to regularly update their tasks.

The best response to the issue of a team member failing to update their tasks on the Scrum Board would be to reiterate its importance during the daily Scrum meeting. This approach reinforces the understanding of Scrum principles and equitably includes all team members in the process. Adding an extra step to the definition of done (second answer) adds unnecessary bureaucracy to the process. It doesn't directly solve the problem, which could be due to forgetfulness or misunderstood importance of updating the board. Assigning a team member (third answer) to update the board instead is not ideal either because it goes against the self-managing nature of Scrum teams. Each team member is responsible for updating their own work. Lastly, you updating the Scrum Board yourself every time a team member forgets (fourth answer) is not sustainable or effective as it deviates from the principle of collective team accountability in Scrum and it fosters dependency rather than individual responsibility.

Correct Answer: Work with the team to identify the discrepancies and update the board to reflect the actual state of the sprint.

The most appropriate action for the ScrumMaster would be to work with the team to identify the discrepancies between the actual work completed and what is reflected on the Scrum Board, and then update the board to accurately represent the state of the sprint. The Scrum Board is an important artifact for transparency and should provide a clear picture of the team's progress. Postponing the Sprint Review to update the board would unnecessarily delay the feedback loop and goes against the timeboxed nature of Scrum events. Dismissing the importance of the Scrum Board or using this as an opportunity to criticize the team's commitment would be counterproductive and against the ScrumMaster's role of supporting the team and fostering continuous improvement.