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Answer: The Agile process involves breaking down work into phases, which requires constant communication and collaboration, adaptation, and continuous improvement. It also involves attending to (and addressing) any issues, bugs and new requests that may arise during the development process. 

Answer: Traditionally, Agile is broken down into five stages. These are ideation, development, testing, deployment and operations. Many Agile frameworks also have different events, which include the planning of sprints, daily scrum meetings, sprint reviews (where the dev team tests the latest iterations of software) and sprint retrospectives to assess the success of completed sprints. 

Answer: Traditional software development includes a fixed plan with a linear approach towards the final outcome. Agile software development requires you to continuously review the development stages, making changes where necessary and sometimes going backward in order to move forward. 

Answer: The different Agile processes include Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, Extreme Programming, Lean software development, Crystal, the dynamic systems development method, adaptive software development and feature-driven development.

Answer: In most Agile frameworks, testing occurs frequently. For example, in test-driven development, testing happens early and often. Agile testing also includes obtaining continuous feedback, ensuring that you provide value to the end user, automating tests and responding well to change.

Answer: Agile is a great way to implement strong team collaboration and communication. It allows you to constantly check in on customer satisfaction and deliver a high-quality product that satisfies the end user. 

A drawback to Agile is that it can often put pressure on resources, both work-related and financial, which can lead to scope creep. It also requires everyone to communicate effectively, which sounds simple in theory but isn’t always achievable in practice. 

Answer: Incremental development involves breaking down a large piece of software into smaller segments, developing them and testing them accordingly. In Agile, iterative development is when tasks are repeated in specific cycles (sprints), and the software evolves after each iteration.

Answer: Refactoring is the process of editing code to make it easier to understand and digest without changing how the software functions.

Answer: Popular Agile and project management tools include Jira, SpiraPlan, monday.com and ClickUp. Most of the best project management software now offer tools for Agile processes. 

Answer: Waterfall tends to have a more linear approach to software development, where specific pieces of work must be completed before moving on to the next. On the contrary, Agile involves working on multiple user stories simultaneously, while often moving back and forth on tasks and fine tuning things throughout the process. 

Answer: The core roles in a scrum team are the Scrum Master, the product owner and the development team.  

Answer: To perform Agile, you’ll need to plan your project vision and produce a roadmap. Then you must make a product backlog, set deadlines, plan your sprints, have daily meetings with your team, review your sprints and attend to any bugs or fixes. Tasks are generally tracked on kanban boards. Agile also includes constant communication with the end user.

Answer: A product roadmap is a detailed plan (and path) for how the development team will build a new software product. It allows the team to identify what the product’s purpose is, how it will function and what they must do to meet the end user’s requests.

Answer: Story points allow the development team to understand the complexity of a user story (feature) and identify whether a task requires extreme or light effort. 

Answer: Popular Agile frameworks include Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, Lean, XP, FDD, Crystal and SAFe. 

Answer: The first step to measuring velocity is to plan a sprint and assign points to each user story. Next, create a list of all the completed user stories and add all the points together (for completed user stories only). 

Finally, after adding the values together to work out the average points for the sprint, you can use this number to determine the sprint’s velocity, which can help you measure velocity for future sprints as well. 

Answer: The best metrics to focus on in Agile are sprint burndown, epic and release burndown, velocity, cycle time and issues. It’s useful to use flow diagrams and control charts to measure key Agile metrics.

Answer: An Agile tester should bring a positive attitude, and be adaptable and responsive. They must be able to successfully implement testing automations, take ownership of the product and lead the team by example. 

Answer: A Scrum team includes a product owner, Scrum Master and development team. The product owner is responsible for interacting with internal and external stakeholders. They will design a vision and strategy for how the product will function and how it must be built. 

The Scrum Master is the middle person between the product owner and the development team. They host daily scrum meetings, identify issues preventing the product from developing, track daily progress, hold sprint retrospectives and evaluate completed work.

The development team is responsible for writing the code required for a software product to function. They’re tasked with making any changes to the code, improving front-end functionality as requested by the end user and demoing software during sprint reviews. 

Answer: A sprint retrospective is used to reflect on sprints that the team has completed. It’s an opportunity to highlight any issues and create strategies to avoid or overcome them in future sprints. The Scrum Master runs the retrospectives, and the dev team attends them.

Answer: The main artifacts are the product backlog, the sprint backlog and increments. The product backlog is a list of all the features a piece of software should have in order to perform. In simpler terms, it’s essentially a to-do list. The sprint backlog is a cluster of product backlog items that are used to plan upcoming work for the development team.

Lastly, increments are identifiable stepping stones toward the overall product goal. More than one increment can be added to a sprint, and to be considered as such, an increment must apply to a usable part of the software. 

Answer: Simply put, the product backlog is a full list of the work that must be done to build a product. The sprint backlog is a cluster of items from the product backlog that are brought together and focused on for the duration of the sprint.

Answer: The scrum team is responsible for delivering a functional product to the end user. This includes delivering different iterations and increments on schedule and without delay.  

Answer: It’s best to first hire someone who is familiar with Agile practices, as they’re more likely to get on board with the process. Failing that, meet resistance by highlighting the benefits of Agile practices and ensuring that they receive the appropriate support to be an effective member of the Agile team. If problems persist, a change manager can be brought in to help.

Answer: Delving into the principles of Agile, you can resolve conflict through honest and open communication. By keeping the product at the core of your priorities, you can focus on ways to move forward as a team and avoid anti-patterns.

Answer: The Scrum Master should create a safe space where team members feel they can be transparent in their reflections of completed sprints. They should also offer guidance while highlighting how the team can move forward and improve during future sprints. 

Answer: A Scrum Master can be a servant leader by protecting the development team from issues and roadblocks. It is their responsibility to teach their team about the core principles of Agile and Scrum so they can use that knowledge to do their best work. A servant leader doesn’t shame their team or give instructions through demands, but instead acts as a point of guidance. 

Answer: Velocity is the amount of work a team can complete during a single sprint. It’s measured in story points and sometimes other Agile estimation techniques. It helps determine how far forward a team can move with a section of the product and the full product. 

Answer: Tools such as burnup and burndown charts are useful when tracking sprint progress. They measure how much work is completed and how much work remains within the single sprint. Velocity and cycle time charts can also measure progress, especially regarding how fast and consistently the team can complete work within the sprint. 

Answer: The first step is to identify the risk and determine how it impacts the progress of the work. Daily meetings allow dev teams to discuss the risks and develop plans to address them. If there are multiple risks, the teams prioritize and address them accordingly. 

Answer: Sprint zero occurs before the project officially starts. It’s a way of laying down the foundations for future sprints. Sprint zero includes core responsibilities such as arranging stakeholder communication, gathering build requirements and creating the backlog. 

Answer: The best way to control scope creep is to start with a clear direction and hold honest conversations with your team and the end user. This helps you build the project’s foundations and keeps you informed on its health, allowing you to ensure that things stay as close to the original path as possible. 

Answer: MVP serves as a behind-the-scenes look at a product. It lets the team show off a bare-bones version of the product, allowing the end user to offer feedback and direction. MMP is a more developed version of the working software, which has value for the end user and is in a usable state. 

Answer: The daily stand-up meetings are important as they promote a culture of transparency and open communication. They’re the best way to stay up to speed on how each team is doing and to highlight any issues that teams must overcome.

Answer: The three pillars of the Scrum framework are transparency, inspection and adaptation.

Answer: You ensure this by keeping user stories concise and not overloading them with unnecessary details. For larger user stories (epics), it’s important to break them down and make them easily digestible for the dev team. However, user stories should always contain the definition of ready (DoR) and the definition of done (DoD) plans.

Answer: To streamline the work, you should create separate product backlogs for each team that you manage. Then divide your time equally between each team to ensure they get the appropriate support throughout the project. 

Answer: The Scrum of Scrums brings together the leaders of each team so they can discuss updates for the piece of work that they’re focusing on. It allows them to highlight issues and the progress that is being made. Overall, the point of the Scrum of Scrums is to ensure that each team can meet its sprint goals and to devise strategies to accomplish them.  

Answer: A tool like Jira that is specifically built for Agile workflows is useful because it comes with a scrum board. It also has places for creating a backlog and epics, and for logging issues. More advanced Agile tools like SpiraPlan suit those with longstanding experience in Agile project management.

You can learn more about Jira in our full Jira review. If you need more advanced software, then check out our SpiraPlan review. 

Answer: The Scrum Master is responsible for preparing a list of priorities for the specific sprint that the team is working on. They will use the meeting to allow the development team to share their thoughts about the upcoming work and to delegate work to other team members. The overall goal of the meeting is to keep the team focused and on track.

Answer: These skills include having a deep knowledge of the Scrum framework, ideally gained through long-standing experience spearheading scrum teams. Softer skills include the ability to communicate, be approachable and adapt when things change or don’t go exactly as planned. A good Scrum Master leads by example rather than through commands.

Answer: The best way to handle impediments is to bring different teams (and external stakeholders) together and hold open conversations regarding the impediment that’s preventing the team from moving forward. Acting quickly and confidently is the best way to resolve the impediment and allow the development team to move forward with the work. 

Answer: The sprint retrospective is an opportunity for the team to discuss what went well and what they can improve. It’s the best opportunity to highlight key metric data and come up with an action plan for improving output or keeping it consistent.

Answer: The management of the burndown chart begins by first estimating the effort required to complete the work. Once the work is active, monitoring the burndown chart daily allows the Scrum Master to see how much effort is required to complete the work. They can then present the true dataset in the daily meetings and highlight how they can improve team productivity. 

Answer: The Scrum Master supports the product owner by helping to define the product needs, communicating the required work to the development team and determining the best way to ensure its completion.

Answer: It’s important because it allows the team to share important updates and progress details, ensuring that everyone is constantly informed on how development is going. It also gives each team member a voice, which helps them to feel valued and supported. As a result, it encourages them to do the best work possible. 

Answer: Continuous improvement is achieved through open communication within a team. Creating an environment that encourages people to raise issues and concerns makes it easier to find solutions. Also, monitoring the complexity and the time spent completing the work helps the team find ways to be more productive and efficient as the project progresses. 

Answer: As a Scrum Master, it is your role to promote a culture of transparency. If a problem exists within the team, it’s important to create an environment where team members can express their issues so you can find a route forward. 

Also, you should remind team members that delivering a workable product to the end user is the priority and highlight the importance of putting differences aside to focus on the overall goal.

Answer: Here, the Scrum Master’s role is to present any relevant metric data that highlights performance. They should also allow team members to express their feelings about the sprint and gauge what they can do in future sprints. The point of the retrospective is not to dictate, but to allow the development team to identify areas of improvement.  

Answer: The first step is to create a priority list for all the action items. Then, create a plan for how best to complete each action item. Once the work has begun, monitoring its progress daily and removing issues will help ensure the team completes its action items on time.

Answer: Timeboxing is the process of having defined time periods to complete work. It is useful because it brings structure to a person’s workflow and allows them to focus on deep work without distraction for a defined time period. Beyond tasks, Timeboxing is also useful for team meetings and sprints as it ensures that everything stays on schedule.  

Answer: Typically, burndown charts are divided into two types: sprint burndown charts and product burndown charts. The former tracks specific sprints, and the latter tracks all the work within a project.  

Answer: The confidence vote takes place at the end of the PI planning. It’s an opportunity for the team to express how confident they are that they can deliver the increment of the product within the intended timescale. Each team member gives a vote of confidence, often using a scale of one to five (one being the least confident, five being the most).

Answer: The first step is to listen to the issues the stakeholder is expressing. By not entering into conflict, it gives the stakeholder confidence that you take their issues seriously. Then, it’s your job to present realistic solutions and manage the stakeholder’s expectations, while also reassuring them that building the best product is at the top of your priority list. 

Answer: A Scrum Master must make sure that each team feels supported and doesn’t feel isolated in comparison to other teams. They must also establish strong communication between each team and be available to resolve any conflicts that may restrict the development of the product.