The Parking Lot in Agile

Get work done in the parking lot.

A common experience growing up in America is spending time with your teenage friends doing absolutely nothing.  We called the activity “hanging out.”  We would hang out in abandoned buildings, remote locations in the wilderness, and the basements of friends.  The only requirement was the absence of adults and plenty of free time.  For many American adolescents, the destination of choice was the parking lot of a local shopping center or strip mall.  Today, I want to discuss one of the more misunderstood places in agile - the parking lot.  

The term “parking lot” is not mentioned in the Scrum guide.  It is a practice that popped up over the last twenty years to prevent discussion in the Daily Scrum from diverting attention from the sprint goal.  In my discussion on the daily scrum, I said it was up to the scrum master to facilitate the discussion and divert the more detailed conversations into the parking lot.  

As the name parking lot implies, it is a place to host temporary discussions about topics over a finite period of time.  When you run down to the shopping center, you plan to leave your car in the lot for a short time, so you can leave quickly when you finish your shopping.  The metaphor should apply to conversations.

A parking lot discussion should be: ad-hoc, limited, and purposeful.  Parking lot discussions often pop up when there is a lack of knowledge or context.  Team members are asking how to do something, what is happening and why it is happening.  These questions can often be answered in a few minutes and by another member of the team.  Thus, questions can be answered outside the context of a formal meeting.  Parking lot conversations can be answered outside the context of a formal meeting.  

The parking lot often has a limited goal, so it should be focused on just enough information to keep work moving forward.  For instance, “where is the contract for the API, and is it strongly typed?” is a perfect parking lot discussion item.  “How are we going to make this web application sticky enough to gather all of the customer's personal information,” could drag on for days and should include more than just a brief discussion.  Finally, parking lot discussions should have a purpose.  Parking lot discussions should provide education, information, and meaning for team members; otherwise, they are wasteful.  

A parking lot, by its nature, is a transitory place.  You park, share information, and move on.  The parking lot is not a place where you should gossip, loiter, or create a general nuisance.  The business has plenty of opportunities for that kind of mischief.  So use the “parking lot” discussion to help your agile practice.  You will be glad you did.  

Until next time.