Top 30 Scrum Interview Questions Answers PDF
Here we come with Scrum master framework interview questions answers, you can download pdf.
1). Explain what is Scrum?
Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing product development.
2). Who founded Scrum?
Ken Schwaber co-developed the Scrum process with Jeff Sutherland in the early 1990s to help organizations struggling with complex development projects. One of the signatories to the Agile Manifesto in 2001, he subsequently founded the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance.
3). Why is Scrum popular?
In fact there are several reasons. Let me list all of them:
The advantage of doing scrum is that while performing the test
There are many. To me the worst thing in waterfall is extremely slow feedback. Fast feedback is vital for project success, but with waterfall you have very long feedback cycles (sometimes years). With such long cycles everything may change. Business may change, requirements may change, etc. It is hard to cancel such a project, since it is often “90% done”. Business has close to zero visibility about the real progress.
It is extremely hard to provide meaningful estimates. So most projects are seriously late and over budget.
7). What are the three key participants in any Scrum Project?
Scrum cycle depends on the type of project the team is working on, usually, it ranges about 2-4 weeks to about a month. In scrum cycle, it includes a
Scrum master
Product owner
Team
9). Explain what is user stories in Scrum?
In scrum, user stories are short, one sentence definitions of a feature or functionality.
10). List out what are the artifacts of Scrum process?
Scrum process artifacts include
During scrum meeting
Team analyze how much time they got to complete task during the Sprint
From product backlog, team takes the first item and breaks into tasks
Team estimates how long a task will take
If there is any time left during the sprint, they will move on to the next item on the product backlog
Decide the features which have clarity and estimates how many to be scoped for sprint
12). Explain what does the burn down charts shows?
Burn down charts is used to track sprint status, they act as an early warning indicators; they can be useful in highlighting the “lack of progress”. Also, they will highlight the area where they see redundancy.
13). Mention what is the objective behind holding a Sprint retrospective meeting?
The objective behind Sprint retrospective meeting is to let team members know how things went during the sprint and discuss possible ways for further improvements for future sprints.
14). Explain what is Scrum Sprint?
Scrum project is developed in a series of “sprint”. It is a repeatable and regular work cycle in scrum methodology during which work is accomplished and kept ready for review.
15). What is a Product Backlog?
In the simplest definition the Scrum Product Backlog is simply a list of all things that needs to be done within the project. It replaces the traditional requirements specification artifacts. These items can have a technical nature or can be user-centric e.g. in the form of user stories.
16). Explain what the ideal duration is for Sprint, and how it affects the workflow?
Sprint in Scrum usually lasts for 30 days or two weeks. The two-week sprint is preferred for various reason, first it makes easier for the team to estimate, plan and complete the work in two weeks. Secondly, it gives enough time to the product owner to change the priorities more often and allows the team to adapt quickly to the market pressures.
17). Mention what is the difference between Sprint and Iteration in Scrum?
Iteration: It is a terminology used to define single development cycle in general agile methods. It is a common term used in the iterative and Incremental development process.
Sprint: It is used to define one development cycle or iterative step in a specialized agile method referred as Scrum. Sprint is scrum specific, and not all forms of iterations are Sprints.
18). Mention in brief, what is the role of scrum master in Scrum?
Removes any obstacles that the team faces during the pursuit of its sprint goals
Maximizing the productivity of the team
Making sure that the scripting language used for system testing and unit testing is written in the same language
Guides the team and product owner to improve the effectiveness of their practices
Makes sure that all standard scrum practices are followed
19). Explain what is a product backlog in Scrum?
Before the scrum sprint initiates, product owner review the list of all new features, change requests, enhancements and bug reports and determines which ones are of high priorities. If the project is new it includes new features that the new system must provide, this list of item is referred as Product Backlog. The items that are kept on sprint are referred as Sprint Backlog.
20). Explain what is “Sashimi” and “Impediments”?
Sashimi: This term is analogous to “done”, it is used to define the specific task when it is completed. The term used by different team to refer their completed task status may differ, but should remain same within one team.
Impediments: Any obstacle that prevent the team members from performing their work is referred as impediments
21). What does a scrum burn down chart should consist of?
A scrum burn down chart should consist of
X-axis that displays working days
Y-axis that displays remaining effort
Ideal effort as guideline
Real progress of effort
22). List out the dis-advantages of Scrum?
It will be a tricky job for a scrum master to plan, organize and structure a project that lacks a clear goal
Daily scrum meeting requires frequent reviews and substantial resources
A successful project relies on the maturity and dedication of all the team members
Uncertainty regarding the product, frequent changes and frequent product delivery remains during the scrum cycle
It makes all dysfunction visible
It requires significant change
23). Explain what is scrum poker or planning poker?
Scrum poker or planning poker is a technique to estimate the relative size of development goals in software development. It is a way to determine sprint item durations by playing number cards face down the table, instead of speaking them aloud.
24). Explain what is “Velocity”?
“Velocity” is the total effort a team is capable of in a sprint. The number is obtained by adding all the story points from the last sprint’s stories. It is a guideline for the team to understand how many stories they can do in a sprint.
25). Explain what is a story point in Scrum?
Each feature in scrum is Story. Story point is an arbitrary measure used by Scrum teams, and it is a metric used by agile teams to determine the difficulty of implementing a given story.
12) Explain what is scrum of scrum?
Scrum of scrum is used to refer the meeting after the daily scrum. The responsible person from each team attends the meeting and discuss their work and answer the questions like
26). Since the last meeting, what is the progress of the team?
What your team is expected to do or should accomplish, before the next meeting?
What are the obstacles your team faced while completing the task?
Were you going to allot any of your work to the following team?
27). Explain what velocity in scrum is and how it is measured?
Velocity in a scrum is a measurement of how much the team gets work done in an iterations or sprint. It is measured by
V= Number of total story points / One iteration
28). Explain the term “Increment”?
The term “Increment” is used to refer the total number of the product backlog items completed during the sprint and all previous sprints. At the end of the sprint, increment should be in done status; also, it must be in re-useable condition regardless of whether the product owner is willing to actually release a product or not.
29)Explain when Scrum cannot be useful?
Ideally scrum is useful to monitor work with 5 to 10 people, who are committed to achieving the sprint goal. It does not go well with huge groups or team having more responsibilities. For larger team, scrum can be applied by splitting the team into small groups and practice scrum.
30). What is the difference between Scrum and Agile Development?
Scrum is just one of the many iterative and incremental agile software development method. You can find here a very detailed description of the process.
In the SCRUM methodology a sprint is the basic unit of development. Each sprint starts with a planning meeting, where the tasks for the sprint are identified and an estimated commitment for the sprint goal is made. A Sprint ends with a review or retrospective meeting where the progress is reviewed and lessons for the next sprint are identified. During each sprint, the team creates finished portions of a product.
In the Agile methods each iteration involves a team working through a full software development cycle, including planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing when a working product is demonstrated to stakeholders.
So if in a SCRUM sprint you perform all the software development phases (from requirement analysis to acceptance testing), and in my opinion you should, you can say SCRUM sprints correspond to AGILE iterations.
31). What are the principles of Scrum?
Here are the principles with their short-hand meanings:
1). Explain what is Scrum?
Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing product development.
2). Who founded Scrum?
Ken Schwaber co-developed the Scrum process with Jeff Sutherland in the early 1990s to help organizations struggling with complex development projects. One of the signatories to the Agile Manifesto in 2001, he subsequently founded the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance.
3). Why is Scrum popular?
In fact there are several reasons. Let me list all of them:- Scrum looks very simple. Indeed, the methodology is very lightweight with just 3 roles, some basic reports and rules. So you may have a feeling that you know how to apply Scrum after reading a single book. This feeling is definitely false, but still it looks simple and people like simplicity.
- Scrum works. Yes, it does. In many cases it works better than the traditional processes.
- Scrum is commercial. There are many trainers around, there is Scrum Alliance that runs many courses and does everything to make Scrum popular. The first agile methodology most people know is Scrum. Technically, Scrum is very similar to Extreme Programming, but historically it happens that XP is not so popular, while Scrum is.
The advantage of doing scrum is that while performing the test
- It minimizes the risk in response to changes made to the system
- It improves the process continuously
- It repeatedly and rapidly looks into actual working software
- Fast feedback. With short iterations you can show working software much earlier and receive a valuable feedback.
- Transparency. Again, short iterations provide good transparency.
- Good financial control. Business can cancel or stop a project after any sprint (in theory, in practice it is not that easy).
- Better quality. Most practices in agile processes help development teams to fix the root problems and create a better software.
- Faster time to market. Agile teams often have better morale and motivation to create something great. It definitely affects how they work and how they ship.
- Anyone can see real working software and continue to enhance for another iteration
- Agile Scrum is one of the leading causes of scope creep because unless there is a definite end date, the project management stakeholders will be tempted to keep demanding new functionality is delivered.
- If a task is not well defined, estimating project costs and time will not be accurate. In such a case, the task can be spread over several sprints.
- If the team members are not committed, the project will either never complete or fail.
- Quality is hard to implement till the team goes through aggressive testing process
- It is good for small, fast moving projects as it works well only with small team.
- This methodology needs experienced team members only. If the team consists of people who are novices, the project cannot be completed in time.
- Scrum works well when the Scrum Master trusts the team they are managing. If they practice too strict control over the team members, it can be extremely frustrating for them, leading to demoralisation and the failure of the project.
- If any of the team members leave during a development it can have a huge inverse effect on the project development
- Project quality management is hard to implement and quantify unless the test team are able to conduct regression testing after each sprint.
There are many. To me the worst thing in waterfall is extremely slow feedback. Fast feedback is vital for project success, but with waterfall you have very long feedback cycles (sometimes years). With such long cycles everything may change. Business may change, requirements may change, etc. It is hard to cancel such a project, since it is often “90% done”. Business has close to zero visibility about the real progress.
It is extremely hard to provide meaningful estimates. So most projects are seriously late and over budget.
7). What are the three key participants in any Scrum Project?
- The Scrum Team - This is a cross-functional, self-organized and high-performing team that works on the Project Deliverable.
- The Product Owner - The Product Owner in a Scrum Project is the liaison between the Project Team and the Business Stakeholders. He maintains a list of project features/requirements that are ordered based on priority. His key purpose is to make sure the project team understands the requirements properly and validates the finished product for its “Fitness for Use” once the cycle is complete. He or she is also responsible for articulating customer requirements and maintaining business justification for the project. The Product Owner represents the Voice of the Customer
- The Scrum Master - The Scrum Master is the equivalent of a Project Manager to a regular project. He ensures that the Scrum Team is provided with an environment conducive to complete the project successfully. The Scrum Master guides, facilitates, and teaches Scrum practices to everyone involved in the project and ensures that Scrum processes are being followed
Scrum cycle depends on the type of project the team is working on, usually, it ranges about 2-4 weeks to about a month. In scrum cycle, it includes a
Scrum master
Product owner
Team
9). Explain what is user stories in Scrum?
In scrum, user stories are short, one sentence definitions of a feature or functionality.
10). List out what are the artifacts of Scrum process?
Scrum process artifacts include
- Sprint backlog
- Product backlog
- Velocity chart
- Burn-down chart
During scrum meeting
Team analyze how much time they got to complete task during the Sprint
From product backlog, team takes the first item and breaks into tasks
Team estimates how long a task will take
If there is any time left during the sprint, they will move on to the next item on the product backlog
Decide the features which have clarity and estimates how many to be scoped for sprint
12). Explain what does the burn down charts shows?
Burn down charts is used to track sprint status, they act as an early warning indicators; they can be useful in highlighting the “lack of progress”. Also, they will highlight the area where they see redundancy.
13). Mention what is the objective behind holding a Sprint retrospective meeting?
The objective behind Sprint retrospective meeting is to let team members know how things went during the sprint and discuss possible ways for further improvements for future sprints.
14). Explain what is Scrum Sprint?
Scrum project is developed in a series of “sprint”. It is a repeatable and regular work cycle in scrum methodology during which work is accomplished and kept ready for review.
15). What is a Product Backlog?
In the simplest definition the Scrum Product Backlog is simply a list of all things that needs to be done within the project. It replaces the traditional requirements specification artifacts. These items can have a technical nature or can be user-centric e.g. in the form of user stories.
16). Explain what the ideal duration is for Sprint, and how it affects the workflow?
Sprint in Scrum usually lasts for 30 days or two weeks. The two-week sprint is preferred for various reason, first it makes easier for the team to estimate, plan and complete the work in two weeks. Secondly, it gives enough time to the product owner to change the priorities more often and allows the team to adapt quickly to the market pressures.
17). Mention what is the difference between Sprint and Iteration in Scrum?
Iteration: It is a terminology used to define single development cycle in general agile methods. It is a common term used in the iterative and Incremental development process.
Sprint: It is used to define one development cycle or iterative step in a specialized agile method referred as Scrum. Sprint is scrum specific, and not all forms of iterations are Sprints.
18). Mention in brief, what is the role of scrum master in Scrum?
Removes any obstacles that the team faces during the pursuit of its sprint goals
Maximizing the productivity of the team
Making sure that the scripting language used for system testing and unit testing is written in the same language
Guides the team and product owner to improve the effectiveness of their practices
Makes sure that all standard scrum practices are followed
19). Explain what is a product backlog in Scrum?
Before the scrum sprint initiates, product owner review the list of all new features, change requests, enhancements and bug reports and determines which ones are of high priorities. If the project is new it includes new features that the new system must provide, this list of item is referred as Product Backlog. The items that are kept on sprint are referred as Sprint Backlog.
20). Explain what is “Sashimi” and “Impediments”?
Sashimi: This term is analogous to “done”, it is used to define the specific task when it is completed. The term used by different team to refer their completed task status may differ, but should remain same within one team.
Impediments: Any obstacle that prevent the team members from performing their work is referred as impediments
21). What does a scrum burn down chart should consist of?
A scrum burn down chart should consist of
X-axis that displays working days
Y-axis that displays remaining effort
Ideal effort as guideline
Real progress of effort
22). List out the dis-advantages of Scrum?
It will be a tricky job for a scrum master to plan, organize and structure a project that lacks a clear goal
Daily scrum meeting requires frequent reviews and substantial resources
A successful project relies on the maturity and dedication of all the team members
Uncertainty regarding the product, frequent changes and frequent product delivery remains during the scrum cycle
It makes all dysfunction visible
It requires significant change
23). Explain what is scrum poker or planning poker?
Scrum poker or planning poker is a technique to estimate the relative size of development goals in software development. It is a way to determine sprint item durations by playing number cards face down the table, instead of speaking them aloud.
24). Explain what is “Velocity”?
“Velocity” is the total effort a team is capable of in a sprint. The number is obtained by adding all the story points from the last sprint’s stories. It is a guideline for the team to understand how many stories they can do in a sprint.
25). Explain what is a story point in Scrum?
Each feature in scrum is Story. Story point is an arbitrary measure used by Scrum teams, and it is a metric used by agile teams to determine the difficulty of implementing a given story.
12) Explain what is scrum of scrum?
Scrum of scrum is used to refer the meeting after the daily scrum. The responsible person from each team attends the meeting and discuss their work and answer the questions like
26). Since the last meeting, what is the progress of the team?
What your team is expected to do or should accomplish, before the next meeting?
What are the obstacles your team faced while completing the task?
Were you going to allot any of your work to the following team?
27). Explain what velocity in scrum is and how it is measured?
Velocity in a scrum is a measurement of how much the team gets work done in an iterations or sprint. It is measured by
V= Number of total story points / One iteration
28). Explain the term “Increment”?
The term “Increment” is used to refer the total number of the product backlog items completed during the sprint and all previous sprints. At the end of the sprint, increment should be in done status; also, it must be in re-useable condition regardless of whether the product owner is willing to actually release a product or not.
29)Explain when Scrum cannot be useful?
Ideally scrum is useful to monitor work with 5 to 10 people, who are committed to achieving the sprint goal. It does not go well with huge groups or team having more responsibilities. For larger team, scrum can be applied by splitting the team into small groups and practice scrum.
30). What is the difference between Scrum and Agile Development?
Scrum is just one of the many iterative and incremental agile software development method. You can find here a very detailed description of the process.
In the SCRUM methodology a sprint is the basic unit of development. Each sprint starts with a planning meeting, where the tasks for the sprint are identified and an estimated commitment for the sprint goal is made. A Sprint ends with a review or retrospective meeting where the progress is reviewed and lessons for the next sprint are identified. During each sprint, the team creates finished portions of a product.
In the Agile methods each iteration involves a team working through a full software development cycle, including planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing when a working product is demonstrated to stakeholders.
So if in a SCRUM sprint you perform all the software development phases (from requirement analysis to acceptance testing), and in my opinion you should, you can say SCRUM sprints correspond to AGILE iterations.
31). What are the principles of Scrum?
Here are the principles with their short-hand meanings:
- Deliver value to satisfy: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
- Accept changes willingly: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
- Prioritize, Breakdown, Deliver frequently: Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
- Close collaboration, daily: Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
- Trust & cultivate talent: Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
- Face-to-face works best: The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
- Delivery is Boolean: Working software is the primary measure of progress.
- Maintain delivery velocity: Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
- Focus, Design, Excel: Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
- Do less, do better: Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.
- Pick over assign: The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
- Reflect, Tune, Improvise: At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
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