Agile Scrum is the best methodology to meet today’s demand for accurate projects. Agile is used in almost the majority of the organizations by now. Each member of the agile and scrum team is responsible to play an important role in the organization. For this, the interviewer seeks candidates with some good knowledge of Agile and Scrum concepts. So, it becomes essential to prepare yourself for some common and frequently asked Agile Scrum interview questions.

Currently, there are plenty of openings in the area of agile in the IT market and people are going through the interview process for the same. As the boundaries of agile are unlimited due to vast coverage and multiple flavors, it becomes difficult for aspirants to prepare for the interviews.

In this article, we shall focus on the different areas under which interview questions on Agile Scrum are asked and what are the commonly asked questions for agile scrum interviews.

Basic Agile Scrum Interview Questions

Here, we represent top 40 Agile Scrum interview questions with answers and hope that these questions will help you while preparing for the agile scrum interview.

Knowledge-based Agile Scrum Interview Questions

While you are preparing for the Agile Scrum interview, move to your final preparation with the below-mentioned basic agile scrum interview questions. These are quick questions you should go through before your agile scrum interview.

What is the duration of a scrum sprint?

Answer: Generally, the duration of a scrum sprint (scrum cycle) depends upon the size of project and team working on it. The team size may vary from 3-9 members. In general, a scrum script completes in 3-4 weeks. Thus, on an average, the duration of a scrum sprint (scrum cycle) is 4 weeks. This type of sprint-based Agile Scrum interview questions is very common in an agile or scrum master interview.

What is Velocity?

Answer: Velocity question is generally posed to understand if you have done some real work and are familiar with the term. Its definition “Velocity is the rate at which a team progresses through sprint” should be enough. You can also add the important feature of velocity that it can’t be compared to two different scrum teams.

What is Definition Of Done (DOD)

Answer: A DoD is a set of criteria that a product increment must meet for the team to consider it complete and ready for customers. Despite the fact that a product increment may be huge and comprise numerous components, team members generally agree on when it is ready for release. By clearly defining what “done” means to the project, an Agile team can focus on delivering value with every sprint and minimizing rework. 

The DoD provides a commitment for what the team must do to have a Done Increment.

What is Definition Of Ready (DOR)

Answer: While only DoD is part of Scrum, some teams may choose to use DoR to help with Product Backlog transparency. 

How do you understand the Spillover in Scrum and Best Practices for avoiding Spillover?

Answer: If you've ever wondered what a spillover is, it's a backlog item that doesn't meet the Definition of Done (DoD). Basically it's unfinished work, to put it in ordinary human language. If you are a Scrum Team member, product owner, or a stakeholder, spillovers might trouble you in sprint planning meetings.

Simply put, a spillover is a backlog item that has failed to meet the criteria defined in the Definition of Done (DoD) for the project team.

Best Practices:

• Don’t count partial points if a story is not done.
• Velocity is a “thumb in the wind” measurement. Stop trying to squeeze precision out of a system based on quick estimates and Fibonacci scales.
• LISTEN to the feedback
• Don't worry too much about the burn down chart.

How do you understand the Carryover in Scrum and Best Practices to deal with carryover work?

Answer:  “Carryover” simply means you have partially done Product Backlog items (PBIs) at the end of a Sprint. And I think it’s important to be very clear and direct about the situation, rather than giving it a name. Because everyone needs transparency to what’s actually happening, so we can effectively inspect and adapt.

The best way to deal with carryover work is;

• Expect carryover work and reserve capacity of one team who plays "utility" to assist others in getting something that's lagging across the finish line.
• Don't care too much about burndown charts.
• Consider using Sprint Goals if you aren't doing that already. (Refer to the Scrum Guide 2020)
• Use the Sprint Retrospectives to reflect on why the team is not able to deliver the work of the sprint. Some stories might be too large for a sprint. You need to break them down into smaller increments of work.  

What do you know about impediments in Scrum? 

Answer: Impediments are the obstacles or issues faced by scrum teams which slow down their speed of work. If something is trying to block the scrum team from their getting work “Done” then it is an impediment. Impediments can come in any form. Some of the impediments are given as –

• Resource missing or sick team member
• Technical, operational, organizational problems
• Lack of management supportive system
• Business problems
• External issues such as weather, war etc
• Lack of skill or knowledge

While answering impediments related to Agile Scrum interview questions remember that you may be asked the way to remove any of the mentioned impediment.

What is the difference and similarity between Agile and Scrum?

Answer: Agile is a broad spectrum, it is a methodology used for project management while Scrum is just a form of the Agile that describes the process and its steps more concisely. Agile is a practice whereas scrum is a procedure to pursue this practice.

The similarity between Agile and Scrum: The Agile involves completing projects in steps or incrementally. The Agile methodology is considered to be iterative in nature. Being a form of Agile, Scrum is the same as that of the Agile. It is also incremental and iterative.

What is the increment?

Answer: This is one of the commonly asked agile scrum interview questions and a quick answer can be given this way. An increment is the total of all the product backlogs items completed during a sprint. Each increment includes all the previous sprint increment values as it is cumulative. It must be in the available mode in the subsequent release as it is a step to reach your goal.

What is the iterative process?

Answer: The iterative process is the practice of building, refining, and improving a project, product, or initiative. Teams that use the iterative development process create, test, and revise until they're satisfied with the end result.

What is the “build-breaker”?

Answer: The build-breaker is a situation that arises when there is a bug in the software. Due to this sudden unexpected bug, compilation process stops or execution fails or a warning is generated. The responsibility of the tester is then to get the software back to the normal working stage removing the bug.

What do you understand by Daily Stand-Up?

Answer: You may surely get an interview question about daily stand-up. So, what should be the answer to this question? The daily stand-up is an everyday meeting (most preferably held in the morning) in which the whole team meets for almost 15 minutes to find answer to the following three questions –

• What was done yesterday?
• What is your plan for today?
• Is there any impediment or block that restricts you from completing your task?

The daily stand-up is an effective way to motivate the team and make them set a goal for the day.

What do you understand by the agile term timeboxed?

Answer: A timebox is a previously agreed period for a particular task to be completed by an individual or team. The key aspect of the timebox approach is that stopping work when the time limit is reached and evaluating what was accomplished instead of  allowing the work to continue until the goal is reached, and evaluating the time taken.

Who can change the priority of items in the product backlog at any time?

Answer: The Product Owner(s);

What do you know about Scrumban?

Answer: Scrum-ban (or Scrumban) is a Scrum and Kanban-based model for software development. This model is specifically used for the projects that need continuous maintenance, have various programming errors or have some sudden changes. This model promotes the completion of a project in minimum time for a programming error or user story.

Agile Interview Questions

In this section, we are going to cover Agile interview questions. You should be prepared for the agile interview with the following agile interview questions.

What are some of the key features of agile development?

• Collective code ownership and freedom to change.
• Incremental approach (e.g. user stories are incrementally implemented)
• Automation (e.g. TDD -- Test Driven Development).
• Customer focused (for e.g. internal and external users and business analysts are your immediate customers)
• Design must be simple. Designing is an ongoing activity with constant re-factoring to achieve the rules of code simplicity like no duplication, verified by automated tests, separation of responsibilities, and minimum number of classes, methods, and lines.

State some of the Agile quality strategies?

Answer: Some of the Agile quality strategies are:

• Iteration
• Re-factoring
• Dynamic code analysis
• Short feedback cycles
• Reviews and inspection
• Standards and guidelines
• Milestone reviews

Do you know about Agile Manifesto & its principles? Explain in brief.

Answer: This is the theory that most agile/scrum roles aspirants should be on tips.. Four manifesto values and 12 principles should be explained as much as possible as part of this question. Even if it’s not explained in 100% accurate manner it should be fine but intentions of values and principles should come out e.g.

• Working Software should be demonstrated at regular intervals
• Individuals & interaction – self-organization, self-motivating should be encouraged
• Customer collaboration
• Welcoming change at any point in time in the project

Is there any drawback of the Agile model? If yes, explain.

Answer: Yes, there are some drawbacks of the Agile model, some of them are as follows –

1. It is not easy to make a prediction about the effort required to complete a task. It becomes more problematic in case of large projects as it becomes difficult to get an idea of the total effort required.
2. At sometimes, it’s not possible to properly focus on the design and documentation of the project
3. In case the requirements of the client are not understood properly, the final project will not meet the customer requirements. Thus, it will lead to customer dissatisfaction.
4. Only the leader who has considerable experience in Agile methodologies is capable of taking important decisions. The team members with little or no experience are not involved in decision-making, thus they don’t get a chance to advance their knowledge.

It’s not always the case that you will be asked the questions about the characteristics and advantages of agile and scrum in an agile scrum interview. So, just prepare yourself for the drawbacks and disadvantages related to Agile Scrum interview questions.

What is the use of burn-up and burn-down charts?

Answer: The burn-up chart illustrates the amount of completed work in a project whereas the burn-down chart depicts the amount of work remaining to complete a project. Thus, the burn-up and burn-down charts are used to trace the progress of a project.

What is the throughput?

Answer: Throughput is the number of work items that a Scrum team completes in a given period of time, measured in units or count. It is based on the actual output of the team, regardless of the size or complexity of the work items.

Define Zero Sprint and Spike in Agile?

Answer: To answer this question, describe Zero Sprint and Agile in detail, as follows:

• Zero sprint – Zero Sprint can be defined as the preparation step of the first sprint in Agile. There are some activities that are required to be done before actually starting the project. These activities are considered as the Zero sprint; the examples of such activities are – setting the environment for development, preparation of backlogs etc.
• Spike – Spike is the type of story that can be taken between the sprints. Spikes are commonly used for the activities related to the design or technical issues such as research, design, prototyping, and exploration. There are two types of spikes – functional spikes and technical spikes.

Scrum Interview Questions

While going for a scrum job interview, prepare yourself for some good scrum interview questions. You may be asked questions related to scrum master, sprint, story point, sashimi, ceremonies etc. by the interviewer. So, prepare yourself for these scrum interview questions.

What is the role of the Scrum Master?

Answer: Here’s how you can answer Scrum Master interview questions like this –

The Scrum Master is the leader as well as coach of the Scrum team. The scrum master is responsible to serve and protect his team from any kind of distractions that could affect their performance. The main role of the scrum master is to motivate his team to achieve the sprint goal. He is focused on building a self-organized and motivated team where each member is familiar with the implementation of Agile and Scrum principles and applications. The scrum master keeps a proper check on the scrum team if they are executing committed tasks properly. He is also responsible for increasing the efficiency and productivity of the team so that they can achieve the sprint goal effectively.

What do you know about a story point in Scrum?

Answer: A story point in Scrum is the unit for the estimation of total efforts that are required to perform or complete a particular task. So, here is how you can answer such agile scrum interview questions on a single line.

What is the role of Sashimi in Scrum methodology?

Answer: Sashimi plays an important role in Scrum methodology. Sashimi is a technique used by Scrum to check the completion of all the functions created by the developers. Using this technique, all the requirements such as analysis, designing, coding, testing and documentation that are used in the constitution of a product are checked and only after that the product is displayed.

What are the different roles in Scrum?

The three scrum roles i.e. Scrum Master, Product Owner and Team should be explained with the details of a few primary responsibilities of each role. You can add more details as mentioned below for a particular depending on the role you are getting interviewed for.

• Product owner – A product owner is actually the stakeholder of the project. He represents the project requirements before the team. He is responsible for having a vision of what to build and convey his detailed vision to the team. He is the starting point of an agile scrum software development project.
• Scrum team – Scrum team is formed by the collective contribution of individuals who perform for the accomplishment of a particular project. The team is bound to work for the timely delivery of the requested product.
• Scrum master – Scrum master is the leader and the coach for the scrum team who checks whether the scrum team is executing committed tasks properly. He is also responsible for increasing the efficiency and productivity of the team so that they can achieve the sprint goal effectively.

What are the responsibilities of a Scrum Master?

Answer: Key responsibilities of a Scrum Master involves:

• Tracking and monitoring
• Understanding requirements properly
• Work to reach the project goal
• Process checking master and quality master
• Protect the team from detachments
• Improving the performance of the team
• Lead the meetings and resolve issues
• Resolution of conflicts and impediments
• Communication and reporting

What are different ceremonies and their importance in Scrum?

Agile Testing Interview Questions

Agile testing is the software development practice using practices of agile software development. In an interview for the Agile job, you may be asked agile testing questions, so have a look at the agile testing interview questions.

What do you understand by the term Agile testing?

Answer: Agile testing is a software testing practice that is fully based on the agile principles of software development. It is an iterative methodology where the requirements are the outcome of collaboration between the product owner and team. The agile principles and applications are applied to meet the customer requirements by successful completion of the project.

State some major principles of Agile testing?

Answer: Some major principles of Agile testing are –

• Customer satisfaction
• Face to face communication
• Sustainable development
• Quick respond to changes
• Continuous feedback
• Successive improvement
• Self-organized
• Focus on essence
• Error-free clean node
• Collective work

What are the skills of a good Agile Tester?

Answer: An agile tester is one who implements agile software development principles for software testing. Followings are the skills of a good agile tester –

• Required to be familiar with the concepts and principles of Agile
• Should have an excellent communication to communicate with the team and the clients
• Ability to set priority for the tasks according to the requirements
• Should be able to understand the requirements properly
• Understanding of the risks involved with a project due to changing requirements

Advanced Agile Scrum Interview Questions

The Agile Scrum is a vast field, so the interviewers seek candidates with advanced knowledge. Thus, the basic knowledge is not sufficient to crack the job interview. So, here we bring some frequently asked advanced agile scrum interview questions.

Insights-based Agile Scrum Interview Questions

What do you understand by the term “Scrum of Scrums”?

Answer: This is one of the commonly asked scrum master interview questions. Consider a case to understand the meaning of the term scrum of the scrums. Let us assume an active project on which seven teams are currently working. The number of members of each team is also seven. Each team is responsible to lead its own scrum meeting. But, in order to coordinate and communicate with different teams, it is required to organize a separate scrum meeting. The scrum meeting organized to hold coordination between scrum teams is known as the scrum of scrums. There is one team leader from every team, known as ambassador, who is responsible to represent his team in the scrum of scrums.

Scrum is an Agile framework, right? Name a few other Agile frameworks.

Answer: Yes, Scrum is an Agile framework. Few other Agile frameworks are:

• Feature Driven Development
• Test Driven Development
• Kanban

While answering this type of Agile Scrum interview questions please note the names of the frameworks you are familiar with or have followed.

Explain some common metrics for Agile?

Answer: You may definitely come across agile scrum interview questions regarding agile metrics. The question may be related to a particular agile matric or explaining all the metrics. So, the detailed description of some common metrics for Agile is as follows:

• Velocity – Velocity is the average number of points from the last 3-4 sprints. It is measured by the summation of the all approved estimates of the stories. It gives an idea of the capacity, progress etc.
• Cumulative Flow Diagram – With the help of a cumulative flow diagram, an inspection is done over the uniform workflow. In this diagram/graph, the x-axis represents time whereas the y-axis represents the number of efforts.
• Work Category Allocation – Work category allocation is an important factor that gives a quick information of the time investment i.e. where the time is being invested and which task should be given priority as a factor of time.
• Time Coverage – It is the time that is given to a code during testing. It is calculated in percentage as a factor of the number of lines of code called by the test suite and the total number of relative lines of code.
• Business Value Delivered – It is a term which denotes the working efficiency of the team. The business objectives are assigned numerical values 1,2,3.. and so on, as per the level of priority, complexity, and ROI.
• Defect Removal Awareness – It is the factor that helps the team to deliver a quality product. The identification of an active number of defects, their awareness, and removal plays an important role in delivering a high-quality product.
• Defect Resolution Time – It is a procedure through which the team members detect the defects (bugs) and set a priority for the defect resolution. The procedure of fixing errors/bugs or defect resolution comprises multiple processes such as clearing the picture of defect, schedule defect fixation, completing defect fixation, generation, and handling of resolution report.
• Sprint BurnDown Metric – The sprint burndown chart is a graph to represent the number of non-implemented or implemented sprints during as Scrum cycle. This matric helps to track the work completed with the sprint.

Is it ever suggested to use Waterfall over Scrum? If yes, explain when.

Answer: Sometimes it is suggested to use a Waterfall model over Scrum. It is done when the customer requirements are simple, well-defined, fully understood, predictable, and are not subjected to change until the completion of the project. It may be the case that you would haven’t ever used waterfall over Scrum but you need to prepare for such Agile Scrum interview questions.

Why does Scrum encourage the use of automated testing for projects?

Answer: Scrum encourages the use of automated (automated performance or automated regression) testing to make the fastest possible delivery of the project. While answering this question, you may explain some tools that you have used for automated testing.

What do you know about the “Planning Poker” technique?

Answer: Planning poker, also known as Scrum Poker, is a card-based agile technique that is used for planning and estimation. To start a session of planning poker technique, the agile user story is read by the product owner. The steps performed in the poker planning technique are –

1. Each estimator has a deck of poker cards with the values such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, and so on, to denote story points, ideal days or something else that the team uses for estimation.
2. Each estimator has a discussion with the product owner and then privately selects a card on the basis of their independent estimation.
3. If the cards with the same value are selected by all estimators, it is considered as an estimate. If not, the estimator discusses the high and low value of their estimates.
4. Then again, each estimator privately selects a card and reveals. This process of poker planning is repeated to reach a general agreement.

What do you understand by the term "Collective Ownership"?

What is autonomy in a team?

What is Self-managing teams?

Experience-based Agile Scrum Interview Questions

In this section, the questions will be related to the experience you have in agile or scrum. You should be prepared with the data of a few of your old projects when answering these experience-based agile scrum interview questions.

Name some methodologies and development where you have used the Agile model?

Answer: While answering this type of agile scrum interview questions, keep in mind to mention those methodologies that are familiar with. Some of the methodologies and development where the Agile model can be used are –

• Crystal methodologies
• Lean software development
• Dynamic development
• Feature-driven development

Share your experience as a Scrum Master/Product Owner/Agile team member and what were your primary responsibilities?

Answer: Here you have to explain your project details where you worked in the Scrum team and defining your role with the responsibilities you held. The trick in this question is whether while explaining you are showing a self-organizing and self-motivational team. Also, the interviewer will try to judge how in depth you have worked in the agile/scrum environment based on your explanation.

What was the length of sprints/iterations in your project?

Answer: This is probably the most common question asked in agile interviews. The idea here is to judge in which kind of environment you have worked. There will definitely be follow up questions like was this length fixed in the beginning and never changed? Have you tried with more than this length or less than that?

How have you done User Story mapping & estimation of stories in your projects?

Answer: This question is to under how you have done story writing, mapping, and estimation. Have you used any estimation technique like planning poker, t-shirt, sizing etc? Whatever technique you used in your project just mention it very clearly.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your project while handling the Scrum team members?

Answer: This question is purely to judge your experience. The better you articulate your challenges working in agile, the better it will be. Challenges generally faced in the initial stages of scrum is stabilizing the velocity, team members conflicts, sticking to time-boxing etc..

Have you ever performed the removal of impediments as a scrum master on behalf of the scrum team?

Answer: As the scrum master acts as a coach for his team, he should motivate his team to perform every task. Although he can remove impediments on behalf of the scrum team, he should not do this. It is recommended for a scrum master not to over pamper nor overrule the team. There may be something when the team can face failure, at that time the scrum master should help them. He should guide them with an appropriate method to get out of the problem. Scrum master should prompt his team members to become independent enough to face problems and take a decision by themselves. This is one of the frequently asked scrum master interview questions, so prepare now and get ready to answer.

Comparative Agile Scrum Interview Questions

Whatever the field of job, interviewers prefer to ask one or more comparative or difference-based questions. The questions may be from the currently used or previously used technologies. So, here we represent some comparative agile scrum interview questions.

What is the difference between the Agile & traditional way of working?

Answer: This question is to judge whether one is aware of the environment of the agile way of working. Here the answer is expected to cover few or all of below:

• The traditional way is sequential where Design => Development =>Testing etc. happens one after another whereas in Agile all of this is done in every iteration/sprint
• Changes are welcomed in Agile as scope is flexible whereas in traditional manner scope is fixed in the beginning due to which changes have to follow change request path
• Progress is measured with % completion traditionally whereas working software is the measure of progress in agile
• Project Manager as a central controlling authority is traditionally driving the project whereas self-motivated and self-organizing teams drive the projects in Agile

What is the difference between Sprint Planning Meeting and Sprint Retrospective Meeting?

Answer: The difference between Sprint Planning Meeting and Sprint Retrospective Meeting is as follows:

Sprint Planning Meeting – A meeting in which all the Scrum roles (product owner, scrum team, and scrum master) have a discussion about the team’s priority features and product backlog items is known as sprint planning meeting. This meeting is held every week and lasts for almost 1 hour.

Sprint Retrospective Meeting – A meeting in which all the Scrum roles (product owner, scrum team, and scrum master) have a discussion about the good part of the sprint, the bad part of the sprint, and the sprint improvements is known as sprint retrospective meeting. This meeting is held at the sprint review meeting or at the end of the sprint; it lasts for 2-3 hours.

This is one of the frequently asked Agile Scrum interview questions. You may be asked to define the above terms separately or the difference between these two.

How is an Agile testing methodology different from other testing methodologies?

Answer: Agile scrum interview questions may include a number of questions from agile testing. Let’s understand how you can answer such questions.

The agile testing methodology involves the division of the whole testing process into multiple small segments of codes. In every step, these segments of codes undergo testing. There are a number of additional processes involved in agile testing methodologies such as team communication, strategic modifications for optimal results and many others.

What is the difference between Agile & Scrum?

Answer: This question will test whether you are aware of a broader picture of agile and its different frameworks or flavors. Below image will help you explain this answer where you can say agile is an umbrella of values and principles and under it, one of the lightweight frameworks is called Scrum.

What is the difference between product backlog & sprint backlog?

Answer: The product backlog is dynamic and subject to continuous refinement and reprioritization based on evolving project needs and stakeholder feedback. In contrast, the sprint backlog remains fixed for the sprint to allow the team to focus on completing the committed work without disruptions.

What’s the Difference between DoR, DoD and Acceptance Criteria?

Answer: To ensure the definition and verification of quality goals it is critical to define when a specific work item is complete and can thus be considered to be in a respective state. For two very important states of a user story – “ready” and “done” the Definition of Ready (DoR) and the Definition of Done (DoD) have to be defined and agreed upon between the relevant stakeholders.

Both definitions (DoR and DoD) are usually created as checklists of the work that must be completed and applied to all user stories!

 By TIGO Developer Team

 

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