Knowledge Check Questions Agile Scrum Master

A team's average velocity is 10 with a maximum of 12 and a minimum of 8. The release backlog is sized at 72. How many sprints should the team commit to?

8. Considering the average velocity, the number of sprints needed is 72/10 = 7.2. If we round it up to the higher whole number, eight sprints would be needed to complete the release.

Which of the following is the most appropriate interpretation of the 80-20 rule used in DSDM or Atern?

80% of the value comes from 20% of the work. All of these statements may be close to reality; however, the DSDM interpretation of the 80-20 rule is that 80% of the value comes from just 20% of the work. The trick is to know what this 20% is so that we can prioritize work accordingly.

After the start of a sprint, the Product Owner wants to add one more story to the sprint backlog. How should the team respond to this situation?

Ask the PO to wait until the next sprint. After the completion of sprint planning, once the team has made the commitment, the sprint backlog cannot be changed. Since the sprint has a short time period, it is perfectly reasonable to ask the PO to wait until the start of the next sprint rather than dilute the team commitment.

What should the Scrum Master do when the team's estimates in a planning poker do not converge?

Ask the team to come to an agreement. In keeping with the Scrum Master's role and the principle of team having the final say, the decision should be left to the team. The team may choose to go with the average or the highest estimates or continue discussing. The Scrum Master needs to wait for the team members to come to an agreement.

How is the Nexus integration team typically formed?

By selecting team members from the teams which are part of the Nexus. The Nexus integration team contains representatives from multiple teams that are participating in the Nexus. They have a special responsibility to ensure that the Nexus deliverables come together as planned.

Which of these XP practices is enabled through pair programming?

Collective Code Ownership: Pair programming ensures that every line of code has been seen by at least two developers; therefore, it directly complements the practice of collective code ownership.'

Which of the following is a team transitioning to scrum most likely to lose? Flexibility and adaptability, productivity and quality, detailed up-front planning and architecture, ability to respond to business change.

Detailed up-front planning and architecture. A scrum team usually exhibits higher productivity and quality with the ability to respond to changes, flexibility, and adaptability. However, it might not perform detailed up-front planning and architecture per the traditional models of development.

A team is trying to decide between two design patterns to solve a problem and is debating which would work better. What is the best way to arrive at a decision.

Develop small pilots with both approaches and study the outcomes. Scrum relies on experimentation and adaptation. The best approach would be to try both approaches and learn from the experience rather than endless theoretical debates and discussions which are untested.

What should a part-time scrum master do when he or she is working on a critical development activity and another team member needs immediate assistance?

Explore the best way to help the team member. A scrum master must be fully committed to the role even if it is a part-time assignment. Therefore, the scrum master needs to first assist the team member who needs help and only then continue to work on their own tasks or look to delegate.

An organization wonders whether it should use Kanban or scrum for a particular team. In general, you could say that Kanban is a better approach if:

Focus is on speed of delivery: Kanban focuses on speed of delivery by increasing flow. Scrum, on the other hand, focuses on inspect and adapt through frequent feedback from timeboxed iterations.

Which of the following organizational factors is most detrimental to the adoption of Agile?

Geographical Spread: In the context of Agile adoption, the geographical spread is the most challenging.

A company adopted a strategy that each member of a successful agile team will be assigned to a new team that is adopting agile. What is this strategy called?

In a split-and-seed strategy, each member of a successful Agile team is assigned as an evangelist to another Agile team to quickly spread Agile across the organization.

What is wrong with this user story: As an accountant I would like the account screen to be simple so that I do not have to scroll up and down. What is wrong with this user story?

It does not clearly describe what the need is: the need is not very clear, as it just says the screen should be simple and that the teller wants to avoid scrolling. This could very well have been an acceptance criterion for the account screen.

Identify the criteria to select the right agile pilot project.

Medium Size, Medium Duration, Medium Criticality, and High Visibility. You want to pick a project that is not too small or big, not too long or short in duration, not too critical or insignificant, and preferably high in terms of visibility and business sponsorship. You want the results to be representative but don't need a long-drawn-out and risky pilot.

The Product Owner wants a feature urgently, and the team's estimate for this feature is three sprints. What is the best action for the scrum master to take in this case?

Organize a meeting to explore options of meeting the requirement in time. As a collaborator, the scrum master must facilitate a discussion to explore options. It may be possible to reduce the breadth or depth of the feature to achieve at least a portion of it within the expected timeline.

If a team wants to reduce the lead time to deliver the product and the throughput cannot be increased further, the only option is to:

Per Little's law, lead time = WIP/Throughput. If the throughput cannot be increased, the only option to reduce the lead time is to reduce the work-in-progress.

Which of the following should be the primary focus of testing on a large, complex Agile project?

Per the testing pyramid, the team's primary focus should be on the unit tests which should comprise (80-90)% of the total tests written in a system.

A project manager in an organization wants to try scrum in a pilot mode. Which of the following is the most important step to ensure success of the pilot?

Setting reasonable expectations is suitable for a big enterprise transformation to Agile. As the project manager is only interested in a pilot, setting reasonable expectations is perhaps more important.

Who should be the representative of your team for the scrum-of-scrums meeting?

The team decides: The decision of who should represent the team should be left to the team. They should decide based on who is most informed about interfaces with other teams and the other issues that are likely to be discussed at a particular meeting.

What should be done about the remaining two stories when a team completed eight out of ten stories planned in a sprint?

They should be moved back to the product backlog for reprioritization. The incomplete stories should be moved back to the backlog. Extending the sprint is not recommended, and there is no guarantee that the remaining stories will automatically get selected for the next sprint.

A team had started a release with a backlog of 550 points. During the first three sprints, they completed 120 points. Stories worth 30 points were added, and 10 points were removed from scope. Stories worth 30 points were 50% complete. What is the position of the burndown bar chart?

Top is at 430 points and bottom at -20. In a burndown bar chart, top moves down as much as the work completed (120 points). The bottom moves down when work is added (-30) and moves up when work is removed (+10). Therefore, the top is at 430 (550-120) and bottom is at -20 (0 - 30 + 10).

What should be considered the most valuable by an agile team? Following a plan, Processes and tools, comprehensive documentation or a working product

Working Product. According to the Agile Manifesto, a working product is valued the most. Ultimately, it all boils down to whether you have a working product to show or not.

How should the performance evaluation process change as the team embraces scrum?

You need to put a lot more emphasis on teamwork. Traditional performance evaluation process puts a lot of emphasis on individual achievement. This may prove to be counteractive to the idea of teamwork. Agile teams need to collaborate a lot more; therefore, the performance evaluation system should be geared to encourage teamwork.

A scrum team should share the progress reports and project updates with:

all relevant stakeholders.