Agile Scrum Simulation Test
A list of questions and answers about Agile Scrum
Which of the following BEST explain the terms 'Lead time' and 'Cycle time' in Lean methodologies?
A. Lead time is the amount of time it takes for a unit of work to proceed from start to finish. Cycle time is the amount of time between two successive deliveries
B. Lead time is the waiting time between processes. Cycle time is the total time spent in processing.
C. Lead time is the amount of wait time before a process can start. Cycle time is the total time spent in processing.
D. Lead time and cycle time mean the same thing.
During a daily standup meeting, you would normally answer which three questions?
A. What did you do yesterday, What are you planning to do today, When will you finish your tasks for the Sprint?
B. What did you do yesterday, What are you planning to do today, What issues are blocking you?
C. What is the status of your tasks, When will you complete them, What are your risks and issues
D. For each task, report the status, percent complete and projected end date
If you are an Agile project manager, what is the BEST measure of success of your project?
A. The project delivered maximum value to the customer
B. The project was on time and on budget
C. The customer received all the promised features
D. All of the above
What happens during iteration planning meetings?
A. Team members brainstorm about the design for the iteration
B. Activities and tasks are assigned and estimated
C. The team is introduced to the iteration's stories for the first time
D. The Product owner gives the goal of the iteration and tells which need to be completed
If a team is looking for quick 'time to market', what would be the basis for prioritizing features?
A. Number of features
B. Completeness of features
C. Both the above
D. None of the above
A project's stakeholders have low confidence in the development team. Which of the following gives the MAXIMUM benefit in terms of building stakeholder confidence?
A. More meetings with the stakeholders to boost communication
B. By having a low bug count
C. By having a self-organized team
D. By delivering working software with additional features at the end of each iteration
If the burndown chart showed an upward trend for two days in a row in the middle of the iteration, what might be the reason?
A. The team is not completing the stories fast enough
B. Few team members are absent
C. Stories got added to the iteration backlog
D. The team is working overtime
A Scrum team wants the Scrum Master role to be re-defined so that it is more useful for the team. What should be done in this situation?
A. It should not be done
B. The topic should be discussed at the next Scrum meeting
C. Discuss the topic at the next Sprint retrospective
D. The Project Management Office should be consulted for guidance
A software company is building a new product to addresses an important function in the Healthcare industry. This is an example of:
A. Horizontal-Market Software
B. Concentric-Market Software
C. Vertical-Market Software
D. Software-as-a-service
Which of the following are valid considerations for prioritization of stories:
A. The business value of the functionality added
B. The effort needed to build the functionality added
C. The risk in adding the new functionality
D. All are valid considerations
Other things being constant, how does the time-to-market vary with the location of the team members?
A. Time-to-market will reduce if a team is dispersed
B. Time-to-market will increase if the team is dispersed
C. Time-to-market is not impacted by the geographical spread of the team
D. It may increase or decrease depending upon the level of communication between the locations
Agile techniques are based on the well-known principles of empirical process control, and incorporate many concepts from process control theory. What is the best representation of these principles?
A. Inspect and Adapt
B. Deliver frequently
C. Plan in detail and execute rapidly
D. Introspect and retrospect
Process tailoring and process instantiation are both very common in Agile methodologies which advocate being flexible about the process to be followed. Which of the following BEST explains the difference between the two?
A. Tailoring introduces new processes and instantiation is implementing a new process
B. Tailoring is adapting the processes, instantiation is implementing the adapted processes
C. They are the same
D. Tailoring scraps existing processes, instantiation maintains status quo
Which of the following is the BEST role for the Project Management Office to play in an organization had widely adopted Agile methodologies?
A. Collate data on the productivity of the teams and establishing organizational capability
B. Reporting on the progress of each Agile team and guiding them about how to move closer to goals
C. Provide guidelines for taking decisions in an uncertain environment
D. Provide an organization-wide standard Agile process for teams to follow
A team is trying to come up with a Charter for its Agile project. What is LEAST important for the team at this stage?
A. Visualizing the customer need to think of the best solution
B. Building a solid business case to justify the project
C. Maintain the integrity of the Agile process to be followed
D. Get maximum possible detail about the product backlog to add clarity to the vision
A Sprint Review is an important meeting in the Scrum methodology. What is the purpose of the Sprint review?
A. The Scrum master reviews progress and gives guidance about corrective actions
B. The team provides a working demonstration of the software and solicits feedback
C. The customer and other stakeholders carry out a thorough review of the performance of the team members and provide the feedback to the manager of the team
D. The team members introspect on the Sprint that went by and decide on corrective actions
A team that has newly transitioned to Scrum. The Product Owner wants to know the level of detail he needs to put in the stories so that the team can work with them. What guidance would you give in this regard?
A. Stories should be as detailed as possible, so that there is no room for ambiguity
B. It can be no more than 1 index card in length and the details given in a separate document C. The level of detail should be worked out between the team and the product owner
D. Stories can contain less detail, because Agile relies on working software over comprehensive documentation
What are the three main components of an Agile project that determine the success rate of the team?
A. Product, Process, People
B. Team, Management, Customers
C. Planning, Execution, Control
D. Value, Risk, Cost
Which is the correct formula for calculating the Net Present Value for an Agile project?
_A. NPV = ? (I = 0 to N) Net Cash Flow _ (1 + r) -I*
B. NPV = ? (I = 0 to N) Net Cash Flow * (1 + r) I
C. NPV = ? (I = 0 to N) Net Cash Flow * (1 - r) I
D. NPV = ? (I = 0 to N) Net Cash Flow * (1 - r) -I
In the KANO model of prioritization, what are the priorities that you can assign to stories?
A. Must ,Should, Could, Would
B. High, Medium, Low
C. Threshold, Linear, Exciter
D. See if the stated quality level is really needed
In the MoSCoW model of prioritization, what does M stand for?
A. Most
B. Minimum
C. Maximum
D. Must
The Project Management Office in an organization that has adopted Agile regularly issues best practices and records performance data. They have just published a comparison of velocity data (story points completed per iteration) from different teams. As a Scrum Master for one of the teams, what would be your next steps?
A. Share this data with the team and discuss with them how to improve its numbers in relation to the rest of the organization
B. Write back to the PMO saying we should not be comparing velocities across teams
C. Write to the management giving justification for the difference between the organizational benchmark and the figures for your team
D. As the team is self-organizing, simply share the data with them and let them figure out what to do
You are starting a new project with a new Agile team. Which would NOT be a good approach to develop an initial estimation of the team's velocity?
A. Take a GUESS
B. Run a couple of initial iterations and extrapolate the data
C. Use the management's desired velocity as a starting point and go from there
D. Use historical data
Teams following Feature driven development often use a Parking Lot chart. What does a Project Parking Lot chart indicate?
A. The features that you have decided to PARK for now for want of prioritization
B. The overall backlog of features in the project
C. The amount of time a feature is allowed to stay in the backlog before it is automatically removed
D. The progress made against each feature being worked on by the team
Many organizations already have a Product manager role. What would it take for a Product manager to become a Product Owner?
A. A Product Owner needs to spend a lot more time explaining requirements and priorities to the team apart from working with the customers and stakeholders to define requirements
B. The roles are identical, there is no difference
C. A Product owner needs to develop more of an outward focus to understand stakeholder needs
D. A Product owner has more authority over the roadmap than the product manager
A company is trying to transition to Agile and is looking for a suitable project to pilot the transition. Which one would be the MOST suitable for the pilot?
A. Project A: Estimated duration: 1 year; Team size: 10
B. Project B: Estimated duration: 1 month; Team size: 10
C. Project C: Estimated duration: 6 months; Team size: 50
D. Project D: Estimated duration: 9 months; Team size: 7
Although Agile methodologies give a lot of flexibility to the team members to tailor their processes, teams are also required to comply with standards or regulations at the same time. Which of the following may be reasons for bringing the compliance angle into Agile projects?
A. Federal government mandate
B. Quality frameworks like ISO, CMMi
C. Customer-dictated process
D. All of the above
The primary output of a Sprint Planning session is:
A. Product Backlog
B. Release backlog
C. Sprint backlog
D. All of the above
Who were the authors of the Agile manifesto?
A. A group of leaders in the software industry forming the Agile Alliance
B. A group of Scrum practitioners forming the Scrum Alliance
C. A group of believers in the Crystal methodology led by Alistair Cockburn
D. A consortium of software companies led by IBM Rational
For making a portfolio decision, senior management wants to know the approximate cost of a project. At what stage can we estimate the cost of an Agile project?
A. Not until the last iteration, because the backlog is changeable
B. It can never be known for sure, because Agile projects are flexible by design
C. During release planning, as estimated by the team
D. During the business case, created by the Product owner
You are the manager of an Agile project. You find that a particular stakeholder is proving to be a major distraction to the team. He frequently calls the team to ask for status, get information, provide suggestions and sometimes to request changes. What should you do about this?
A. Escalate the issue and keep the stakeholder off-limits
B. Invite the stakeholder to the appropriate planning or review meetings and request him to bring up his views at those meetings
C. Listen to the stakeholder, but ignore his suggestions
D. Tell the stakeholder directly not to disturb the team during the iteration
Which statement best describes the term 'Self-Organized' in Agile?
A. A team that has no external dependencies
B. A team that can prioritize the backlog independently
C. A team that is responsible for making and delivering on its commitments
D.A team that does not need a manager to get along
How does pair-programming work in Extreme programming?
A. A developer and tester team up to work on a story
B. A customer representative and developer jointly work on a requirement
C. Tester writes the test as developer writes the code
D. Two developers work together on a task
During estimation process, a team first ordered the stories from smallest to largest and then slotted them in the appropriate buckets of estimates (Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large). Which technique might be getting used here?
A. Story pointing
B. Affinity estimating
C. Parametric estimation
D. Expert estimation
A team is experiencing a lot of conflicts breaking out. What is the best statement you can make about conflict management in Agile?
A. Conflicts are dangerous in Agile and must be prevented at source
B. You must try your best to evolve consensus in all circumstances
C. Conflicts may be healthy as long as they are resolved in a way that enhances trust and collaboration
D. The Manager must act as the arbitrator in such conflicts to ensure satisfactory resolution
What is the primary role of a Product Owner on an Agile team?
A. To staff up the team and ensure that the morale of the team is good
B. To manage the delivery of the software to the customer in a timely manner
C. To estimate the size of the requirements
D. To coordinate with the team to ensure they are working on items that are valuable to the customer
A team is finding it difficult to comprehend Story points and continues to use Ideal days to estimate. Which of the following statements would you make to convince the team about the value of Story points as a measure of size?
- I- Story points drive cross-functionality in the team
- II- Story point estimates do not decay with time
- III- Estimating in story points can be faster
- IV- Story points is a pure measure
A. I and II only.
B. I and III only
C. I, II and IV only
D. I, II, III and IV
The objective of a Lean methodology with respect to work-in-progress is to?
A. Maximize WIP
B. Minimize WIP
C. High WIP for larger teams, otherwise Low WIP
D. Neutral to WIP considerations
What is a risk-burndown-chart?
A. It plots the risk exposure against time for the duration of the project
B. It explains how to address the riskiest requirements first
C. It indicates whether all the risks have been successfully identified or not
D. It helps prioritize which risks to ignore and which to plan for
Your organization has out-sourced work to a different organization which follows Agile methodologies. As the leader of the customer organization, which of the following is NOT your responsibility?
A. Ensuring that the right requirements are given
B. Ensuring that the requirements are drawn from a wide spectrum of users
C. Ensuring that clarifications about requirements are given in a timely manner
D. Ensuring that the vendor follows the Agile methodology correctly
What is the best way to facilitate communication between a pair of developers who are pair programming?
A. Put them in the same office
B. Put them in adjacent cubicles
C. Buy video cameras to facilitate video chats
D. Send them for communication skills training
While reading a business case for a project to release a new version of a software product, you find that one of the figures mentioned in the document is 'Incremental Revenue'. What is incremental revenue?
A. Additional revenue from expansion in Sales
B. Getting additional revenue by up-selling to existing customers
C. Revenue from annual maintenance contracts
D. A concept that emphasizes constantly growing revenues
Which of the following is NOT a feature of teams practicing Extreme Programming?
A. Onsite Customer
B. 40 hour work weeks
C. Test-driven development
D. Ability to scale to large teams
At the end of the iteration, a team which committed to delivering 68 Story Points ended up not delivering anything. What could be the MOST LIKELY cause of this?
A. Most of the team members went on vacation
B. The team was not self-organized
C. The Scrum Master did not manage the team well
D. The definition of done defined by the team was too stringent
DSDM uses a variant of the Pareto principle to guide the development process. Which of the following BEST expresses how the principle might be used in this context?
A. 20% of the features can deliver 80% of the value
B. 20% of the value comes from 80% of the features
C. 20% of the team delivers 80% of the work
D. 20% causes result in 80% of project failures
A Product Owner along with the team has categorized the items in the product backlog in terms of Value and Risk. They decide to work on High Value and High risk items first, High Value and Low Risk next, followed by Low Value and Low risk. What should be done about the Low Value and High risk?
A. Do them last
B. Find ways to increase the value or reduce the risk
C. Do not work on them
D. Run some pilots to validate the assumptions about value and risk
A team is wondering whether they should use off-the-shelf components, share-ware or free-ware components instead of developing them from scratch. What technique in Agile project management will be useful to make that determination?
A. De-Bono's 6 thinking hats
B. Planning Poker
C. Make-or-buy-analysis
D. Wide-band Delphi technique
Which of the following BEST represents the expected outcome of a release planning meeting?
A. A detailed plan with identified deliverables and dependencies, budget reconciled with timelines, constitution of a change-control board to manage scope changes.
B. Detailed Cost, Time, Quality plan, along with exhaustive set of risks identified
C. An aggressive plan that sets tough internal goals and sufficient buffer for external goals
D. A set of stories and epics planned to be delivered during the release, allocated to iterations and a high-level design or approach
The customer of an Agile project requires detailed and frequent reports about the progress of the team. What means would you use to achieve this?
A. Information radiators
B. Formal documentation
C. Informal information, delivered via email or telephone
D. All of the above
Which of the following is a characteristic of meetings in Agile projects as opposed to conventional projects?
A. Transitioning to Agile leads to a lot of meetings. While planning such a project, one must make sure to allocate sufficient time for such meetings
B. Agile meetings are time-boxed and have a fixed agenda
C. Side discussions are not allowed in any Agile meeting
D. Agile recommends notes from each meeting are collected and diligently followed up
Which of the following is MOST true about Agile methodologies:
A. It is the same as Lean principles; focusing on eliminating waste
B. They include an incremental and iterative life-cycle for software development
C. They rely on pull-based systems to deliver the product sooner
D. It requires people to be co-located
The ideal size of a Scrum team is:
A. 5 to 9
B. 3 to 21
C. 10 to 12
D. 9 to 11
The 'Scrum Team' consists of:
A. Team, Scrum Master and Customer
B. Team, Manager and Customer
C. Team, Leads and Architect
D. Team, Scrum Master and Product Owner
During iteration planning, a team committed to implement 10 stories. Coding has been completed and basic regression tests are passing. There are 12 bugs pending. Some of them are blocking few tests that execute some of the paths in the story. The fixes for these bugs were checked in on the last day of the iteration, but they have not been tested. In such a scenario, the iteration is:
A. Successful, because the basic functionality is implemented and is working
B. Unsuccessful, because the tests have not all passed and few tests are still blocked
C. Successful or unsuccessful depending upon the 'done criterion' decided by the team
D. Successful if the customer accepts it
The manager of a Scrum team is also playing the role of a Scrum Master. Which of the following things should he stop doing?
A. Protect the team from disturbances
B. Do performance appraisals for the team
C. Make sure that all t he required tasks are assigned and being worked on
D. Think about growing the company's business
The three pillars of Scrum theory are:
A. Customer value, Architectural purity, Management ownership
B. Transparency, Inspection, Adaptation
C. Design, Development, Testing
D. Standup, Retrospective, Backlog grooming
In which of the following meetings can design be discussed?
A. Daily standup meeting
B. Review meeting
C. Retrospective meeting
D. Iteration Planning meeting
Which of the following is NOT an essential attribute of an Agile Team?
A. Self-Managing
B. Cross-functional
C. Co-located
D. Capable of delivering a potentially shippable product
Who in an Agile team can provide inputs for creating a backlog?
A. Product owner
B. Team
C. Customer
D. All of the above
Who can give directions to the team in terms of list of items to work on?
A. Product Owner
B. Scrum Master
C. Customer
D. None of the above