Lesson 4

Daily Rhythm

We meet Tuesday and Thursday, 3:00 to 5:00.

Time	What
3:00	Daily decompress, eat
3:10	Team Standups
3:25	Food cleanup
3:30	Benches open. Build, work, etc.
4:50	Clean up. Punch out.

Punch in, 3:00

You are on the clock when you punch in, not when you feel ready. Punching in is how your hours get counted, and your hours are part of your grade. Nobody will remind you.

Eat now. Food does not come to the bench, ever. Not a drink, not a snack, not “I’m almost done.” At 3:30 it is over. Electronics benches and pool gear are the two places in this room where a spill costs real money and creates a hazard.

Standup, 3:10

Three questions, one sentence each:

What moved since last session?
What am I doing today?
What is blocking me?

Blockers get named, not solved

This is the rule that keeps standup alive. Somebody says the thruster won’t spin up, four people start debugging, eleven people stand there watching, twenty minutes gone.

When a blocker comes up, try to brainstorm some help or a solution or repioritiation, etc.

Standup is not a report to me

You are telling your team. I will be at the back, and some days I will be listening to a different corner than yours.

A room where everyone reports to the teacher is a roll call. A room where people report to each other is a studio.

Who runs it

Rotating facilitator. Not the team lead, not permanently anybody.

Running a standup is mechanical: call the order, hold people to one sentence, park the blockers, carry one sentence to studio sync. It takes no authority and it is not a promotion. Everybody does it, and by spring everybody here has run a meeting.

Facilitating cleanly twice is Card 0.6.

Scrambled standup, second Thursday of each sprint

Mixed groups of four or five, drawn on the spot. Same three questions.

Nobody in your group knows your team’s issues, so you cannot say “I fixed the thing” and have everyone nod. You have to explain it. That is harder than it sounds and it is exactly what the engineering presentation judges are testing in May.

Tuesday is for students. Thursday’s is a bit of teaching.

Tuesday is the event day. Whatever the sprint needs happens Tuesday: retro and planning, the BOM deadline, water day.

Thursday is the reliable day. Nothing is externally scheduled, so Thursday is when there might be some teaching. On the first and second Thursday of every sprint I teach one card properly, to everybody, whether or not you picked it. Fifteen minutes.

Week 3 Thursday is the exception. No teaching, because I am running 1-on-1s.

If you miss Thursdays, this matters to you. Athletes especially. If your cohort was there for a card you missed, they teach you. That is not a favor, it is what a cohort is for, and it is why cards get picked in small groups instead of alone.

We will adjust as needed.

Benches open, 3:30

The build block. Biggest part of the day, and it belongs to you and your team.

This is also when you come find me to clear a card, or find a teammate to verify one. Cards clear continuously. Do not save them for the end of the sprint, because when eight people want to clear cards on the same afternoon, the last three are not getting cleared.

Clean up, 4:50

Everything goes back. Tools to the board, parts to their bins, benches wiped, floor clear.

Take a picture for your status report if appropriate. Consider updating your sprint’s status report. It will make it easier to turn in on week 3.

If you measured something today, write the number down before you leave. Not because I am collecting it. Because in three weeks somebody will ask what the number was, and “I think it was around eleven degrees” is not an answer an engineer gives.

Put designs, etc. into the team binder.

Then punch out.

Missing a Session

You will miss sessions. Sports, illness, life. I am not going to fight you about it.

Missing a Tuesday or Thursday is not a grade event. Nobody takes attendance points. But hours you did not work are hours you did not log.

Catching up is on you, and everything is in Drive. Retro and plan in 01 Company/Sprint Records/. Your team’s log and DDRs in 02 Teams/. Read it Tuesday night, not Thursday at 3:15.

If you missed a taught card, find your cohort.

Missing a 1-on-1 is a grade event. See Sprint Rhythm.

The Two Habits

TBD - it might be 3 or 4.