RESOURCE AREA: Scrum & Agile Resources

2020 Scrum Guide - Download here 

LINKS: Podcasts

Scrum Master Toolbox
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Agile Uprising
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All Things Agile
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The Stand Up
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Listen on The StandUp Show here

Agile & Scrum Dictionary

Acceptance Criteria 

Acceptance Criteria are a set of conditions that a software must meet in order to be accepted by a customer or stakeholder.

Acceptance Testing

An acceptance test is a formal description of the behavior of a software product, generally expressed as an example or a usage scenario.

Anti-Pattern

Anti-Patterns in Agile are habits that are frequently exhibited but overall ineffective or maybe even harmful.

Agile Mindset

An Agile Mindset is about creating and responding to change in uncertain and turbulent environments. 

It is a set of attitudes that an individual should have. 

These attitudes are inspired by Agile values and principles, such as: Respect, Collaboration, Continuous improvement, Focus on delivering value.

Agile Release Train

An Agile Release Train is a SAFe term used for the combination of multiple Agile software development teams used to tackle large enterprise-scale projects. Think of it as a mega Scrum team!

Agile transformation

Agile transformation is the process of transitioning your entire organization to adapt to the Agile mindset. This involves creating a work environment that supports innovation and flexibility. 

Agilist 

An Agilist is a person that understands, applies, and is a proponent of agile principles to help build high performing teams that deliver valuable working software

Anti-pattern 

An Anti-pattern is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive.

Backlog Refinement

It’s a Scrum meeting where the Scrum team organizes the backlog to make sure it’s ready for the next sprint or iteration by understanding the user stories, adding information, breaking them down if need be, adding estimation.

Backend Developers

A backend developer is one who makes use of the technology required to develop the products for the backend of any website

Bottleneck

Bottlenecks are issues that can completely slow down the development process.

Bug

A Bug is a programming defect or glitch that creates errors within a system or software. Removing these bugs is a practice called debugging.

Burndown Chart

A burndown chart is an important chart that helps Agile leaders track the amount of work left in the sprint, the time remaining to complete the work. The x-axis represents the time left in a sprint, and the y-axis represents the number of tasks.

Burnup Chart

A burnup chart an important chart that helps Agile leaders visualize the work the Scrum team has completed in the sprint & the total amount of work in the project. The x-axis represents the time remaining in the sprint, and the y-axis represents the quantity of work (story points). 

Code Freeze

A code freeze is a development term that means that no code can be edited or modified during the freeze period. It's designed to prevent the addition of more bugs before code goes live.

Collaboration

Collaboration is the process of two or more people, entities working together to complete a task or achieve a goal.

COP - Community of Practice 

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals.

Context Switching

Context Switching is the process of stopping work in one project and picking it back up after performing a different task on a different project.

Continuous Integration (CI)

Continuous integration is an Agile practice where developers constantly add their code to the main system. 

Continuous Deployment (CD)

Continuous deployment aims to reduce the time elapsed between writing a line of code and making that code available to users in a production environment.

Daily Scrum

The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team.

Definition of Done

The definition of done is an agreed upon list of the activities deemed necessary to get a product increment, usually represented by a user story, to a done state by the end of a sprint.

Definition of Ready

Definition of Ready involves creating clear criteria that a user story must meet before being accepted into an upcoming iteration. This is typically based on the INVEST matrix.

Deployment 

Deployment in software includes all of the steps, processes and activities that are required to make a feature/functionality available to its intended users.

Developers

A software developer engages in identifying, designing, installing and testing a software system they have built for a company from the ground up.

Development Environment

A development environment also known as Dev Environment is a workspace for developers to make changes without breaking anything in a live environment. It is also the collection of processes and tools that are used to develop the source code for a program or software product.

Epics

An epic is a large body of work or a feature that can be broken down into smaller user stories. 

Estimation

In software development, an “estimate” is the evaluation of the effort necessary to carry out a given development task; this is most often expressed in terms of duration

Environment 

The SDLC environments are defined as controlled points where developers can carry out activities related to development, testing, installation, configuration, and deployment.

Extreme Programming

Extreme Programming (XP) is an agile software development framework that aims to produce higher quality software, and higher quality of life for the development team. XP is the most specific of the agile frameworks regarding appropriate engineering practices for software development.

Facilitator

A facilitator is a person who chooses or is given the explicit role of conducting a meeting.

Feature 

A feature is a large body of work similar to an Epic

Frequent Releases

An Agile team frequently releases its product into the hands of end users, listening to feedback, whether critical or appreciative.

Front end developer

Front-end web developer is an engineer who can handle the practice of producing HTML, CSS and JavaScript for a website or Web Application so that a user can see and interact with them directly.

Full Stack Developer

A full stack developer is an engineer who can handle all the work of databases, servers, systems engineering, and clients. Depending on the project, what customers need may be a mobile stack, a Web stack, or a native application stack.

​​Functionality 

This is a set of functions or capabilities associated with computer software or hardware or an electronic device data management functionalities such as data integrity, security, recoverability.

Given When Then (Gherkin Language)

The Given-When-Then formula is a template intended to guide the writing of acceptance tests for a User Story: (Given) some context, (When) some action is carried out, (Then) a particular set of observable consequences should obtain

Go-Live

The go-live of any product is the culmination of weeks, months and sometimes even years of groundwork, project planning, preparation, execution, monitoring and controls involving a company's internal and external stakeholders.

Go/no-go

Go/no-go decision making is a process of passing or failing a proposition.The outcome of the go/no-go decision making is to assess whether to go or not to go with a project.

Grooming

Backlog Grooming also known as refinement is the process of refining (breaking down) user stories or backlog items, breaking big items into smaller chunks. 

Hotfix

A hotfix or quick-fix is a single, cumulative package that includes information that is used to address a problem in a software product. Hotfixes can also solve many of the same issues as a patch, but it is applied to a “hot” system—a live system—to fix an issue: Immediately, without creating system downtimes or outages.

Impediment

It’s an obstacle that reduces an Agile team’s productivity or prevents them from meeting their goals & objectives.

Incremental Development

In an Agile context, Incremental Development is when each successive version of a product is usable, and each builds upon the previous version by adding user-visible functionality. 

Integration

“Integration” (or “integrating”) refers to any efforts still required for a project team to deliver a product suitable for release as a functional whole. 

INVEST

The acronym INVEST stands for a set of criteria used to assess the quality of a user story. If the story fails to meet one of these criteria, the team may want to reword it. 

Iteration

An iteration is a timebox during which development takes place. The  duration may vary from project to project and is usually fixed.

Iterative Development

Agile projects are iterative insofar as they intentionally allow for “repeating” software development activities, and for potentially “revisiting” the same work products (the phrase “planned rework” is sometimes used; refactoring is a good example).

Kanban

The Kanban Method is a means to design, manage and improve flow for knowledge work and allows teams to start where they are to drive evolutionary change. 

Kanban Board

A Kanban Board is a visual workflow tool consisting of multiple columns. Each column represents a different stage in the workflow process.

Lead Time

Lead Time is the time between a customer order and delivery. In software development, it can also be the time between a requirement made and its fulfillment

LOE - Level of Effort

In project management, level of effort is a support-type project activity that must be done to support other work activities or the entire project effort. It usually consists of short amounts of work that must be repeated periodically

Lower Environment

The idea is simple, you build out a smaller scale model of your production environment

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

A Minimum Viable Product is the “version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”

Pair Programming

Pair programming consists of two programmers sharing a single workstation (one screen, keyboard and mouse among the pair).

Patches

Patches are often temporary fixes between full releases of software packages. Patches are used to correct both large and small issues that may or may not require immediate attention, such as:Fixing a software bug, Installing new drivers

Product Backlog

It’s a wishlist of new product features, updates, bug fixes, etc. that are required by the user.At the start of every iteration, the product owner decides which backlog items the team needs to work on. After every iteration, the backlog is regularly updated with user suggestions and new features. 

Production Environment

Production environment is where the latest versions of software, products, or updates are pushed live to the intended users.This is the environment where the end user can see, experience, and interact with the new product.

Product Owner

The Product Owner (PO) is a member of the Scrum Team responsible for defining Stories and prioritizing the Team Backlog.

QA (Quality Analyst) Environment 

A QA environment is where you test your upgrade procedure against data, hardware, and software that closely simulate the Production Environment.

Refactoring

These are a systematic approach to improving the system without changing observable system behavior. Example: Improving maintainability, performance, or scalability

Release

A release is a deployable software package that is the culmination of a single or several iterations.

Release Plan

Release plan is the execution-level plan of how you'll deliver the work that you've decided to do and the timeframe when that work will be completed.

SAFe

The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) is a set of organization and workflow patterns for implementing agile practices at enterprise scale.

Sandbox 

A sandbox is an isolated testing environment that enables users to run programs or execute files without affecting the application, system or platform on which they run.

Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is part of the Scrum Team, responsible for ensuring the team lives Scrum values and principles and follows the processes and practices that the team agreed they would use. 

Scrum of Scrums

Scrum of Scrums is a scaled agile technique that offers a way to connect multiple teams who need to work together to deliver complex solutions.

Scrumban

Scrumban is an Agile development methodology that is a hybrid of Scrum and Kanban

Spikes

Spikes are research activities to reduce risk, understand a functional need, increase estimate reliability, or define a technical approach.

Technical spikes - Researching a technical approach or Functional spikes - Researching how a user might use or interact with the system

Sprint Planning 

Sprint planning is a timeboxed working session that lasts roughly 1 hour for every week of a sprint.

Staging 

A staging environment (stage) is a nearly exact replica of a production environment for software testing. It’s also called a pre-production environment.

System Integration Testing SIT

The SIT (System Integration Testing) is intended to test the functionality of a system as a whole after integrating all the system components.

Tech Debt

Tech Debt is a concept in software development that reflects the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy (limited) solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer.

Testers  

Testers/quality assurance testers of software development and deployment.

Timebox 

Timeboxing allocates a fixed time period, called a timebox, within which planned activity takes place.

User Acceptance Test

UAT (User Acceptance Testing) is responsible for testing the system from the user's perspective.

User Experience

User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. 

User Interface

The user interface (UI) is the point of human-computer interaction and communication in a device. This can include display screens, keyboards, a mouse and the appearance of a desktop. It is also the way through which a user interacts with an application or a website

WIP Limit

WIP stands for work in progress, and a WIP limit is a cap on the number of tasks your team is actively working on.

Wireframe

Wireframe is a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website. Wireframes are created for the purpose of arranging elements to best accomplish a particular purpose

Team Working Agreement Template

Team Agreement 

The following items have been approved by and agreed upon by the Team Name, which in part, at the time of creation, consisted of the following members: (List of team members)

• Member 1 - Developer
• Member 2 - Developer
• Member 3 - Developer
• Member 4 - Developer
• Member 5 - QA
• Member 6 - QA

Should a revision of the agreed upon items, herein, be necessary, a collective vote should take place with an ‘All’ inclusive majority of the team members involvement. 

EFFECTIVE DATE Day/Month, Year

We Commit to: 

• We commit to the Agile principles
• We commit to be on time, end on time
• Will communicate with the team if you cannot make the stand-up/any meeting or will be running late
• We will always assume positive intent of our team members
• Do not interrupt others while they are sharing
• Everyone should actively contribute
• Be transparent and honest
• No phones or PCs in any ceremonies, unless you are presenting or updating JIRA in Grooming/Planning
• Commit to using Agile to ensure successful delivery of sprint commitments
• Respect the opinion(s)/input of others
• Address personal conflicts in private. Reward and give KUDOS in public
• Document PTO on team confluence page
• Log work in Jira daily
• We commit to “figuring it out” as a team
• We commit to have fun as a team!
• JIRA/Rally/Azure DevOps is our Single Source of Truth and Technology Roadmap
• Knowledge sharing provides some type of documentation
• Take some initiative on learning something new from the Subject Matter Experts

Team Meetings

• Stand-up
• Daily at EST
• 15 minutes 
• 15 to work through additional issues (if needed- parking lot) 
• Sprint Planning – First day of the Sprint.
• Sprint Demo/Review - End of the sprint 
• Sprint Retrospective - End of the sprint

Team norms 

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help 

 

• Be on time for meetings, provides a heads up to the team if you are running late

 

• Convey any delays in the project as soon as you come to know. 
• Proactively provide updates if you can’t make stand-up 
• Sprints - 2 weeks, Releases (Planning intervals) - Deployments - when needed  
• Done is defined: 
• User Story = Developed, Tested, accepted without Defects / with agreed upon Defects (See Below) 
• Each member of the Team is individually responsible for keeping the Dev and QA environment in a working state. 
• User Stories must be delivered throughout the Sprint, targeting smaller Story Points first in the beginning of the Sprint; incrementally and smartly deliver stories throughout the Sprint 
• Commitments need to be made, if User Stories are estimated and then too big once reviewed the User Story is broken into smaller units. 
• If the smaller units are not possible to be tested, then there is a tech story drafted and dependencies are noted
• User Stories need to be testable 
• The Developer is responsible for moving User story from Development → In progress → Done
• Product feedback during sprint review will be evaluated and agreed upon by development and tester to be included in the current sprint. if it is not feasible, negotiations to be done with product on removing scope to add new scope
• Backlog Refinement occurs once or twice every week - specify the schedule
• User stories have to be groomed/refined and ready by sprint planning for teams to better plan the sprint 
• Delivery team (Dev/Test engineering) will start working on groomed/refined user stories only
• User stories should be the single source of truth for both dev and test engineering. Defects will be open if the application does not comply with the user story. All changes not specified in a user story should be handed as a new user story and not defects

Scrum Team Points of contact during Available Hours 

Name	Role	Mobile Number	Available Hours (in ET)	Email
	QA Lead
	Product Manager
	Product Owner
	Dev Lead
	Scrum Master

 

Capacity plan for Initial Sprint(s)

• To be developed by the team & Scrum Master using the Capacity Team template 

Story Point Normalization

• 1 story point = < half day
• 2 story points = ½ day
• 3 story points = 1 to 3 days
• 5 story points = 3 to 6 days
• 8 story points = 2 weeks
• 13 story points = Needs to be broken down

User Story Scheduled State status

New (N) - New when a user story is created

Development (D) - When all Tasks are defined under the User Story

In progress (P) - In Progress while tasks are in progress

Completed (C) - when all tasks in the user story are complete from development and test engineering team

Accepted (A) - when this user story is accepted by the Product Owner 

Release (R) - when the user story is released to Production

GENERAL NORMS:

1. Daily Standup @ 9 am EST
1. What was done yesterday to the progress of the sprint goals?
2. What will I do today to the progress of the sprint goals?
3. Any Impediments?

1. Backlog grooming will be scheduled @ 1 PM EST on every Thursday

 Notes

1. While current sprint going team can initiate plan for next sprint so we will have better understanding of all upcoming tasks and team can start POC (proof of concept) for scripts ahead of time 
2. User Stories are not committed to unless they meet Definition of Ready
3. Once a Sprint is committed, no switching around of stories - can pull from backlog if completed early. Exceptions are tolerated in unavoidable situations
4. Tasking and estimates are done independently after the sprint planning
5. Tasks estimates and work item states should be reviewed and updated every day by the team members assigned to the task
6. Team members should reduce WIP (Work In Progress)

Definition Of Ready Template

DEFINITION OF READY

1. All user stories have well defined acceptance criteria and are understood by the team.
2. User story requirements need to be defined and be present in the user story, possibly avoiding requirement specification on chats/ calls. If the requirements are provided on emails, they should be attached in the user story.
3. The user story is testable.
4. The user story has no known blocker or impediment.
5. The user story can be completed within a sprint, or the team agrees it cannot be sliced and must carry between sprints.
6. The user story has no unmet dependencies, or dependencies can be completed in the same sprint.
7. The user story has been understood and estimated in story points by the team.
8. Assumptions are captured (non-functional requirements, versions, devices whenever needed etc.)
9. Non-functional requirements could possibly have user stories for better deliveries and tracking. That could define the requirement, scope and timelines with more clarity.

Definition Of Done Template

Definition of Done

1. Development Complete
2. Unit tests done
3. Test cases are reviewed by the Q.A
4. Code Review Complete
5. Q.A (Testing) Complete
6. All tasks are marked Complete
7. All Acceptance Criteria are met
8. Product Owner accepts all user stories

Capacity Planning Templates  Download here

Scrum Master Interview Questions & Explanation Download Here

Scrum Master Interview Questions With Answers 

What is Agile?
It’s a combination of iterative and incremental process models with focus on Process Adaptability and customer satisfactions by rapid delivery of working software products.

When would you use the Agile Methodology?
New changes to be implemented
Complex and bigger projects
Long-term goals and no bound-on requirements
Quick launch for the product to go-to-market
Frequent changes throughout the development cycle
No limit on time and budget

State some major principles of Agile?
Customer satisfaction
Face to face communication
Continuous feedback
Quick response to change
Sustainable development
Self-Organization
Collective work

What is Scrum and how is it different from Waterfall?
Scrum is a framework that implements the agile mindset, values and principles. It is different from Waterfall in the following ways:
Early Feedback
Minimal Risks
Increased ROI
Collaborative Development
Rollback changes

What is a Sprint? What is the ideal duration of a sprint?
A Sprint is a repeatable and regular work cycle in the Scrum methodology during which a releasable increment is accomplished and ready for review.

Ideal duration depends on the size of the project and the team working on the project. Average is about 1 to 4 weeks. *Typically 2 weeks*

This process of working on items from the product backlog into sprints makes it easy for the team to estimate, plan and complete the work within the 2 weeks.

It gives enough time for the Product Owner to change the priorities more often to allow the teams to adapt quickly to market pressure and user requirements.

This is not possible in the traditional Waterfall approach.

What are the different roles involved in Scrum?
Product Owner - Responsible for the work of the team. The main role of a Product Owner is to motivate the team to achieve the goal and the vision of the product. PO can take input from others but is responsible for making decisions.

Scrum Master - Coaches the Scrum team. Ensures all the team members follow Scrum Theory rules and practices. Makes sure the team has whatever it needs to complete its work and remove any impediments, roadblocks or bottlenecks.

Developers - Self organizing and Cross functional team that works together to deliver the product. The team is given freedom to organize themselves.

What is the Role of a Scrum Master?
A Scrum Master is a Facilitator for the team and the Product Owner. Rather than a manager of the team, the Scrum Master works to assist both the developers and Product owner.

The Scrum Master is the team facilitator responsible for helping all the team members follow Scrum values and practices.

What are the responsibilities of the Scrum Master?
The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner, Development team as well as the entire organization.

The Scrum Master is responsible for resolution of obstacles, conflicts, or impediments which could halt the team's progress and performance.

Responsible for tracking and monitoring the progress of the team
Maximizing the productivity of the team
Guiding the team and improving their effectiveness
Lead and organize the meetings and resolves issues (Lead daily Scrum, Retrospective and Sprint Planning)
Ensures everyone on the team follows Scrum rules, theories and practices
Communicates and reports results.

What is a Story Point? How do you calculate it?
Each product backlog item in Scrum can be written in a user story. format.

A Story is an arbitrary measure used by Scrum teams to determine the difficulty of implementing a given story.
Story Point = Development effort + Testing Effort + Resolving dependencies + Other factors
A measure which you use to calculate the difficulty of implementing a given story.

What is a Story Board in Scrum Framework?
A Story Board is a visual representation of a software project's progress. There are generally 4 columns: To-Do, In Progress, Test and Done.

Helps maintain transparency in Scrum work.

What is the Daily Standup?
Each day at the same time, same place the team meets to give updates on their respective tasks and the tickets resolved for that day. Maximum duration of 15 minutes.

Any topics that derail the time will be added to the parking lot list to be discussed later on.

The daily Scrum (sometimes called Stand Up or Daily Stand Up) is a 15 minute daily meeting where the team has a chance to get on the same page and put together a strategy for the next 24 hours.

What have you completed since the last meeting?

What do you plan on completing by the next meeting?

Are there any blocks or impediments that keep you from doing your work?

What are the three main artifacts of the Scrum process?
Product backlog - It’s a simple document that outlines the lists of tasks and every requirement that the product meets. It is constantly evolving and it's never complete. For every item on the Product backlog you have a description, acceptance criteria and an estimate

Sprint Backlog - This is a list of all items from the Product Backlog that need to be worked on during a Sprint.

Product Increment - This is the work completed during a Sprint.

What is a User Story in Scrum? How does a good User Story look?

A User Story is a method used in Agile development that captures the description of a feature from an end users perspective. It basically creates a simplified description of user requirements

A User Story is defined incrementally in 3 stages:
Who are we building it for
What are we building and what is the intention? Why are we building it? What value does it have for the user?

The User Story is written in this format: As a <User/Type of User> I want to <action/feature to implement> so that <Objective>.

What are the Burn Up and Burn down charts in Scrum?
These are used to track the progress of the project.

Burn Up Chart: Illustrates amount of work completed

Burn Down Chart: Illustrates amount of work remained to compete a project

What does a Burn down Chart comprise of?
It is used to track Sprint status. Also highlights the lack of progress that’s happening with the team.
X Axis displays working days
Y Axis displays remaining work effort
Ideal effort used as a guideline
Real progress of effort

What is the objective behind holding a Sprint Retrospective meeting?
Reflect on the previous Sprint activities.

Decide on further improvements for future Sprints.

Identifies what went well, what could have been better and action items to show improvement.

List some popular Agile Frameworks? Do you know any other Agile Methodology apart from Scrum?
Kanban
Test Driven Development
Feature Driven Development
Extreme Programming (XP)
Crystal
Lean

Explain velocity in Agile? How is it measured?
Velocity is the measure in story points how much work a team can complete product backlog items in a sprint.
It predicts how much work an Agile team can complete in a Sprint
The velocity is obtained by summing all the Story Points from the prior sprint’s stories.
Velocity = Sum of Story points completed in 1 iteration (sprint)

What is a release candidate in Scrum?
It is a build or version of the software that can be released to production. Further testing such as UAT may be performed on this version of the product.

Explain what is Scrum of Scrums?
The representative from each Scrum team attends the meeting and answers questions related to their respective teams.

The responsible person from each team attends the meeting and discusses their work and answers different questions.

List some of the Project Tracking tools that you heard of?
Rally Software
Version One
Jira
Azure DevOps

Do you know about the Agile Manifesto and its principles?
Is a proclamation that articulates 4 key values and 12 principles that its authors believe software developers should use to guide their work.
Philosophy delivers high quality products and working software after every iteration
Agile is a mindset described by 4 values and 12 principles manifested through numerous frameworks and practices like: Scrum, Kanban, XP etc.

What is Empirical Process Control?
We don’t have to fix the scope of the project nor do we have to process how to build it. We create small shippable products in short cycles.
Inspect how we create it and adapt the process in the way we build it.
Is a core Scrum principle and distinguishes it from other Agile frameworks.
It relies on the 3 main ideas of Transparency, Inspection, and Adaptation

What do you know about Impediments in Scrum?
They are obstacles or issues faced by the Scrum team which slow down their speed of work. Examples:

Business problems
Lack of skills of Knowledge
Team issues
Technical and Operations issues
Organizational problems
Sick team members
Missing resources

Do you have any Agile Certifications?
ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner)
SSM (SAFe Scrum Master)
CSM (Certified Scrum Master)
PSM ( Professional Scrum Master)

Is it ever suggested to use Waterfall over Scrum? If yes, explain?
Yes if your requirements are simple, well defined, fully understood, predictable and are not subject to change until the completion of the project you could probably go for the Waterfall model.

What is the drawback of using Scrum?
It is tricky for a Scrum Master to Plan, organize, and structure a project that lacks a clear goal.
Standup meetings need frequent reviews and substantial resources.
Involves lots of uncertainty regarding product, frequent changes and delivery.
Highly depends on the maturity and dedication of all the team members.

How is Agile different from the Waterfall Methodology?
In Waterfall;
Work is done sequentially
Feedback is obtained later in the project
Once the requirements are locked down you cannot make any changes
Progress is usually measured by percent complete
Decision making is in the project managers hands
In Agile;
All of the project steps are done in Sprints
Feedback is provided continuously throughout the lifecycle
Changes are welcome at all stages
Progress is measured by working software after every iteration or Sprint
Self-motivated and self-organizing teams drive the project

Is Agile and Scrum the same?
Agile refers to a set of methods and practices based on values and principles expressed. (mindset)
Scrum is a framework that is used to implement Agile development while a team can be Agile and not practice Scrum it cannot practice Scrum and not be Agile.

What is the difference between Epics, User Stories and Tasks?
An Epic is a group of related User Stories
User Stories define the real business prerequisite. Generally it is shaped by the business owners.
Tasks: Development teams create tasks to accomplish the business requirements. They can also be created because a User Story needs additional research.

What qualities should a good Scrum Master have?
Influential, Motivates teams and stakeholders at all levels
Collaborative, empowers team members to make decisions
Observant, Be a good listener and pay attention to the challenges
Leadership, Possess strong leadership skills
Knowledgeable, prevents potential problems

What does servant leadership mean and give examples?
Servant leader focuses on collaboration, trust, empathy
Responsible for setting up Scrum as servant process and not as a commanding process
Guiding the development team to a self-organization
Helping with team visibility
Removes and Prevents impediments
Leading the team through healthy conflict debates

You are in the middle of a Sprint and Suddenly the Product Owner comes with a new requirement. What will you do?
Add the new requirement to the Product backlog and consider it in the next Sprint based on priority.
If it's a high priority, include it in the current sprint after negotiating with the product owner on removing lower priority items of equal size from the sprint backlog.

A member of the Scrum team doesn’t want to attend the Sprint planning meetings and considers it a waste of time. How do you deal with that kind of attitude?
Have a conversation with the respective team member by asking open-ended questions to find out why they feel the way they do.
Try to explain the reason why such meeting is valuable in Scrum.
Escalation should be the last resort.

What is the main reason for the Scrum Master to be at the daily Scrum?
Scrum Master does not need to attend daily Scrum. He/she should just make sure that developers attend without fail.

Your team is picking reasonable action items but is later not delivering on them. How do you handle this?
You need to follow up as a Scrum Master to solve the issue.
Find out the root cause for the issue. If it’s an external factor or internal factor.
If external you need to address the issue and eliminate the cause.
If the internal, motivate the team to do the right thing and overcome the problem.

As a Scrum Master how do you ensure that the Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation Scrum pillars are being implemented by the team?
Sprint Planning - Inspect selected items from the prioritized Product backlog
Daily Scrum - Inspect progress towards the sprint goal.
Sprint Review - Inspect Product increment
Retrospective - Inspect the process followed and make future plans

How would you measure if Agile or Scrum is working in your team and organization?
High quality products
Increased participation
Frequent deliveries

In case you received a Story at the last day of the Sprint to test and you find there are defects. What will you do? Will you mark the Story Done?
A Story is regarded as Done only when its development is complete and QA is complete, including Acceptance Criteria is met & it's eligible to be released to production.
If your Story meets this requirement mark it done or else consider it in the next Sprint.

More Scrum Master Interview Questions

1. What is your Scrum Master total experience?

2. Tell me your daily routine and what you are currently doing as SM

3. What kind of Scrum Methodology have you worked on?

4. What factors to consider before choosing a particular Agile methodology?

5. Walk me through your role in your Sprint planning

6. How do you convince management to use Scrum(Agile) or Waterfall?

7. How do you demonstrate your Servant Leadership role to your team?

8. Explain the different ceremonies that you have attended or facilitated?

9. What is the SM relationship with the PO?

10. How have you resolved conflicts with the PO and Development team? 

11. How you manage a situation were a development team member is not cooperating with his team?

12. What strategies do you use to remove impediment?

13. Do you have a BA in your team?

14. Who gathers Business Requirements in your team?

15. What aspects do you consider important in your Retrospective meeting?

16. Have you been part of PI planning?

17. How do you estimate a story and what kind of method do you use?

18. Do you have or use Scrum board in your office?

19. How do you measure Velocity for a team?

20. What is average Velocity that you have done in your current team?

21. Have you been part of a release train?

22. What percentage of your Velocity do you allocate to refactoring?

23. How do you deal with Scope Creep ?

24. Tell me the differences between Agile and waterfall?

25. How do you demonstrate Servant Leadership?

26. How do you manage dealing with Stakeholders?

27. What don’t you like about Agile or what do you think could be better improved on?

28. What does the Definition of Ready mean to you ?

29. How do you conduct your Retrospective?

30. What is your role in a Sprint Demo?

31. Why do you think it is important for stakeholders to be part of the Daily Scrum?

32. How do you conduct your Daily Scrum?

33. What is something that you'd hope to accomplish in your first 90 days as a Scrum Master on your team(s)? How would you evaluate if you were successful after 90 days?

34. Convince us why you'd be good in this role?

35. Much of our work at our Company happens through team collaboration; what role do you typically play and what unique skills do you bring to a team?

36. What are some of the challenges you have faced as a Scrum Master?

Resume Templates Corner

Sample Scrum Master Resume (Business Analyst Transitioning to Scrum) Download Here

Sample Scrum Master Resume (Project Manager Transitioning to Scrum) Download Here

Sample Scrum Master Resume (Quality Assurance Tester Transitioning to Scrum) Download Here

Tell Me About Yourself 

Sample 1 Download Here

Sample 2 Download Here