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SCRUM Master Flashcards

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1
Q

List the 7 principles and a few goals of DevOps.

source: handout, p. 25

A

name: Development & Operations

Principles: plan (code) -> create (build) -> verify (test) -> package -> release -> configure -> monitor

Goals: include business people, automation, testable, high quality, blame-free culture

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2
Q

What’s CMM, list and explain the 5 stages.

source: handout, p.26

A

name: Capabilty Maturity Model Integration

It’s a scale for measuring the maturity of a company

  1. Initial (awareness they need change)
  2. Managed (some processes are in place)
  3. Defined (defined processes are in place)
  4. Quantitatively managed (they have KPIs to monitor)
  5. Optimizing (they are taking action)
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3
Q

Explain the acronym ADAPT and list examples of each.

source: handout, p.31

A

AWARENESS - use metrics to show status quo, start a pilot project
DESIRE - get business sponsorship, focus on and talk about fears
ABILITY - coaching & training, just do it
PROMOTE - pass around success stories
TRANSFER - transfer to other departments and get cross departmental processes in place

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4
Q

Explain ETC, IC and CoP.

source: handout, p.58

A

Enterprise Transition Community - not more than a dozen people, include C-level to be able to make decisions, use sprints

Improvement Community - uses the improvement backlog, concentrates at the tasks at hand

Community of Practise - something like test/developer/design community to transfer knowledge and motivate

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5
Q

Know and explain the 4 kinds of resisters as well as how to persuade them.

(source: handout, p.42)

A

DIEHARDS (actively for status quo)
listen to fears, give motivation (salary), make status qho unappealing

SABOTEURS (actively against scrum)
show success, make them committed

FOLLOWERS (passively for status quo)
make them participate, lead by example, change team dynamic (so they follow the right person)

SCEPTICS (passively against scrum)
focus on lead sceptic, give them time, training and get them to exchange with Agilists

25% conservs, 50% pragmatism, 25% originators

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6
Q

List the 5 principles and values of Lean.

source: handout, p. 23

A

value -> value stream -> flow -> pull -> perfection

maximize customer value while minimizing waste

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7
Q

What is specific about SAFe?

source: agile methodologies, p. 10

A

name: Scaled Agile Framework
- for whole companies

  • WIP limit like KanBan
  • lean principles

principles:

  1. take an economic view.
  2. Apply system thinking.
  3. Assume variability, preserve options.
  4. Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles.
  5. Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems.
  6. Visualize and limit WIP, reduce batch sizes and manage queue lengths.
  7. Apply cadence (timing), synchronize with cross-domain planning.
  8. Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
  9. Decentralize decision making

Configurations:

  • Essential (small teams)
  • Portfolio (extended)
  • Large solution
  • Full
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8
Q

What is specific about LeSS?

source: agile methodologies, p. 8

A

name: large scaled scrum
- for multiple teams

  • “barely sufficient” product (more with less)
  • relatively lightweight
  • customer centric

principles:

  1. LeSS is Scrum
  2. transparency
  3. more with LeSS
  4. whole product focus
  5. customer centric
  6. continuous improvement towards perfection
  7. lean thinking
  8. systems thinking
  9. empirical process control
  10. queuing theory
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9
Q

List the 6 elements (focus), 7 properties (principles) and 8 colors of Crystal. Name the active ones.

(source: agile methodologies, p. 2/Wikipedia)

A

elements:
people, interactions, community, skills, talents, communication

properties:

  1. frequent delivery
  2. reflective improvement
  3. osmotic or near communication
  4. personal safety
  5. focus
  6. easy access to expert users
  7. automated tests & frequent integration

colors:

  • Crystal clear (active) for < 6 people
  • Crystal yellow (active) for < 20 people
  • Crystal orange (active) for < 40 people
  • Crystal web orange
  • Crystal red (active) for < 80 people
  • Crystal maroon (active) for < 200 people
  • Crystal diamond
  • Crystal sapphire

clear is for lightweight projects up to sapphire for projects with potential risk to human life

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10
Q

List the 5 principles of XP.

source: scrum handbook, p. 82

A

name: extreme programming

  • pair programming
  • collective ownership
  • continuous integration
  • continuous refactoring
  • test driven development (TDD)
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11
Q

What is spiking?

source: scrum handbook, p. 86

A
  • type of research or prototyping
  • writing code without coding standards –> testing a new idea or technology
  • code is deleted afterwards
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12
Q

Explain the bus factor. Do you want the bus factor to be high or low?

(source: scrum handbook, p. 82/Wikipedia)

A
  • measurement of risk
  • “The bus factor is the minimum number of team members that have to suddenly disappear from a project before the project stalls due to lack of knowledge or competent personell.”
  • -> you want the bus factor to be high
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13
Q

What’s the MoSCoW method? Which framework does is belong to?

source: scrum handbook, p. 91

A
  • from DSDM
  • focussing on real needs instead of fancy features
  • Must (max. 60%), Should, Could (min. 20%), Won’t
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14
Q

Explain what DSDM is.

source: scrum handbook, p. 89

A

name: dynamic systems development method

  • escalation outside of the team if must have items are not delivered til end of the project (or you can foresee that this will happen)
  • MoSCoW method
  • supports multiple teams/a larger project
  • time, cost and quality are fix, scope is dynamic
  • -> deliver on time! (timeboxing)
  • only high level upfront plan
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15
Q

Explain what Kanban is.

source: scrum handbook, p. 96

A
  • work should be visualized
  • WIP should be limited
  • work should be pulled instead of pushed
  • to do, doing and done (minimum) as categories
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16
Q

Explain ScrumBan and ScrumBut.

source: scrum handbook, p. 103

A
  • ScrumBan is Scrum and Kanban methods combined
  • Scrum without Sprints
  • good for maintaining or fixing minor issues that don’t need planning
  • no sprint planning (obviously), but the other meetings
  • ScrumBut is when you do Scrum BUT you leave out certain parts
  • if you follow 95% of scrum rules, you will only get 10% or 20% of benefits
  • not recommended
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17
Q

Explain the acronym INVEST and what must be INVEST.

source: scrum handbook, p. 82

A

the product backlog (upper items at least)

Independent
Negotiable
Valuable
Estimable
Small
Testable
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18
Q

Explain the acronym DEEP and what must be DEEP.

source: scrum handbook, p. 82

A

the product backlog

Detailed
Estimated
Emergent (dynamic)
Prioritized

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19
Q

What’s the cone of uncertainty?

source: Agile Estimating and Planning, p. 4

A
  • project schedule estimate
  • in the beginning the estimate is between 60% and 160% (of your initial estimation)
  • narrows down as the project progresses
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20
Q

What should a planning process do, what’s the goal? (5)

source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 1

A
  • reduce risk
  • reduce uncertainty
  • support reliable decision making
  • establish trust
  • convey information
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21
Q

Why does conventional planning fail? (8)

source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 2

A
  • planning is by activity rather than feature
  • activities don’t finish early
  • lateness is passed down the schedule
  • activities are not independent
  • multitasking causes delays
  • features are not developed by priority
  • we ignore uncertainty
  • estimates become commitments
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22
Q

Explain the layers of the planning onion. (6)

source: Agile Estimating and Planning, p. 28

A 
strategy
portfolio
product
release
iteration
day
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23
Q

Explain the 3 levels of Agile planning.

source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 3 summary

A

release planning
iteration planning
daily planning

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24
Q

What are Story Points?

source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 4 summary

A

a relative measure of the size of a story

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25
What is velocity? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 4 summary
a measure of a teams rate of progress per iteration SCRUM: story points/sprint
26
What are ideal days and ideal hours? What is this used for? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 5 summary
- a story can be measured in ideal days - this is suboptimal, because everyone's ideal day can have a different amount of work - ideal hours are used for tasks, even if the story was estimated in story points
27
Name and explain the 3 techniques for estimating user stories. (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 6)
PLANNING POKER - everyone picks a card, results are discussed in the group, then follows a new round of drawing cards TRIANGULATION - pick 2 reference stories and base story points on relative effort in relation to those AFFINITY ESTIMATION - order stories by effort and then split them into groups by story points
28
Why use a non-linear scale (f.e. Fibonacci) for Story Points? (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 6)
to show a higher amount of uncertainty the bigger the estimate is
29
Name the 4 scenarios of re-estimating stories. Which one is the preferred option in agile estimating? (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 7)
1. no re-estimating (just estimate better next time) 2. re-estimating the finished story (and only this one) 3. re-estimating when relative size changes (re-estimating all similar stories) --> this one is the preferred option 4. re-estimating partially completed stories (partially completed stories can count into velocity to show accurate effort or story can be split into more stories)
30
Features are prioritized by risk and value. Which combinations are possible and what should be done first? (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 9)
1. High risk, high value - do first 2. Low risk, high value - do second 3. Low risk, low value - do last 4. High risk, low value - avoid
31
What are the primary factors when prioritizing? (4) | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 9
1. financial VALUE of the feature 2. COST of developing (and maintenance) 3. significance of newly aquired KNOWLEDGE 4. RISK removed by feature
32
Why and how should you split user stories? (It has an acronym.) (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 12)
Why? - if it's too big to fit into one iteration - to get a more accurate estimate How? CRUD - Create, Read, Update, Delete --> especially if parts are of different priority
33
Explain the Kano analysis and relative weighting. | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 11
KANO: - customer questioning - How would you feel with the presence of the feature? / How would you feel with the absence of the feature? - split into exciters & delighters, performance/linear and must-have/mandatory WEIGHTING: assessed by experts (lead by PO)
34
Name the 6 agile basic principles. | source: Handout, p. 14
1. iterative 2. incrementell 3. self-organized teams 4. cross-functional teams 5. user inspection (and feedback) 6. maximize value
35
What is the NPV? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 10
Net Present Value sum of the present values of each item in a stream of future values
36
What is the IRR? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 10
Internal Rate of Return measure of how quickly the money invested will increase in value
37
What is the ROI? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 10
Return On Investment percentage in-/decrease in an investment over a set period of time
38
What is the (discounted) payback period? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 10
amount of time required to earn back the initial investment | discounted: it's taken into account that money loses value
39
What is the TCO? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 10
Total Cost of Ownership this includes maintenance costs
40
Explain the terms velocity-driven and commitment-driven. | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 14
Velocity-driven means you plan the sprint by knowing your velocity from the previous sprints and plan accordingly. (This is especially good for long-term planning. But it "anchors" to past velocity.) Commitment-driven means the teams picks it's items every sprint, depending on how much they feel they can do. (This is good, because team can adjust for current capacity. But hard to use for long term.)
41
What's the ideal iteration length? How long is a sprint in Scrum? (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 15)
Usually iterations are something between 2 and 4 weeks, but the right length depends on various factors, such as - length of the release - amount of uncertainty - ease of feedback and willingness to go without feedback - how long priorities can stay unchanged - the overhead of iterating - feeling of urgency In Scrum a sprint should be a maximum of a month.
42
Explain the 3 ways of approaching estimating velocity in a new team. Name the preferred method. (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 16)
1. use historical values (if possible, try to account for changes in the team or technology) 2. run an iteration (or a few until you have data) PREFERRED 3. make a forecast (like iteration planning) Give velocity as a range in the beginning to reflect uncertainty.
43
Explain what a feature buffer and a schedule buffer are. Also explain how buffers can be calculated. (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 17)
FEATURE BUFFER - like in DSDM with MoSCoW. You buffer for less important features not to be delivered. SCHEDULE BUFFER - you buffer more time for the project to finish. You can do it via square root approach or the 50% approach.
44
What is a (rolling) lookahead plan? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 18
A lookahead plan looks ahead a small number of iterations (it's a bit like part of a release plan). This helps other teams to coordinate work.
45
What is a feeding buffer? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 18
It's a schedule buffer when one team feeds into the work of another team to avoid delay.
46
Describe the 4 techniques useful when working in multiple agile teams. (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 18)
1. common basis for estimates (and DoD) 2. add detail to user stories sooner (with help of DoD) 3. rolling lookahead plan 4. feeding buffer
47
Explain what a burn-up chart, burn-down chart and a burn-down bar chart are. (source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 19)
BURN-UP - shows work done BURN-DOWN - shows remaining work (can show a burn up in one iteration when work is added) BURN-DOWN BAR - shows added or removed work as bar and the line only shows the teams actual work
48
What is a parking lot chart? | source: Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 19
high level chart of the completed work it includes - theme name - number of stories - number of story points - percentage finished
49
How can you develop AWARENESS that Scrum is the better way? (4) (source: succeeding with agile, p. 25f)
- use metrics - provide exposure to new people and experiences - run a pilot project - focus attention on the most important reasons to change
50
How can you increase DESIRE for using Scrum? (9) | source: succeeding with agile, p. 27ff
- communicate there's a better way - create a sense of urgency - build momentum - get the team to take scrum for a test drive - align incentives (or at least remove disincentives) - focus on addressing fear - help people let go - don't discredit the past - engage employees in the effort
51
How can you increase ABILITY for using Scrum? (5) | source: succeeding with agile, p. 32f
- provide coaching and training - hold individuals accountable - share information - set reasonable targets - just do it
52
How can you increase PROMOTION for Scrum? (3) | source: succeeding with agile, p. 35f
- publicize the success stories - host an agile safari - attract attention and interest
53
Where to can you TRANSFER Scrum in your company? (4) | source: succeeding with agile, p. 38f
- HR - Facilities - Marketing - Finance
54
Start small or go all in? Why? | source: succeeding with agile, Chapter 3
Start small. Low risk & high likelihood of success are good reasons for it.
55
Public display of agility or stealth? Why? | source: succeeding with agile, Chapter 3
Public display. More likely to be successful because of commitment.
56
Explain the three patterns for spreading scrum and name the preferred one. (source: succeeding with agile, p. 50ff)
- split and seed (split as soon as possible and then grow new teams) - grow and split (grow team to or slightly above maximum capacity and then split) - internal coaching The best approach depends on the organisation, but grow and split is the most "natural" one.
57
What are 6 attributes of a good scrum master? | source: succeeding with agile, p. 119f
- responsible - humble - collaborative - committed - influential - knowledgeable
58
What are 3 problems that could occur when choosing a Scrum Master? (source: succeeding with agile, p. 123f)
- someone inappropriate takes the role - the scrum master is also developer on the team - the scrum master is making decisions for the team
59
What are 5 attributes of a good product owner? | source: succeeding with agile, p. 130f
- available - business-savvy - communicative - decisive - empowered
60
What are 4 problems that could occur when choosing a Product Owner? (source: succeeding with agile, p. 132ff)
- the product owner delegates decision making but then overrules the decision maker - the product owner pushes the team too hard - the product owner wants to cut quality - the product owner is in a different city than the development team
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