Agile Basics

Question 1

Features of an Agile Team

Answer 1

Cross-functional, Collaboration, Fast feedback

Question 2

Explain traditional waterfall

Answer 2

Requirement, design, implementation, verification, final system. Value isn’t realized until the very end.

Question 3

Explain agile

Answer 3

Minimize Waste, Deliver Value early and often. Build small parts of the system and deliver value and receive feedback quicker. As time goes on you continue to add value.

Question 4

Four adjectives that describe agile

Answer 4

Adaptive, collaborative, iterative, incremental

Question 5

How many people are in an Agile team

Answer 5

5-11 (size and structure are optimized for communication, interaction and the ability to deliver value.

Question 6

What is a user story?

Answer 6

Description of a small piece of desired functionality that can be completed in a sprint (approx 2 weeks) - written from perspective of the customer.

Question 7

What format should a user story be in?

Answer 7

As a (user role), I want to (activity), so that (business value)

Question 8

Name some agile methodologies

Answer 8

XP, Scrum, and Kanban

Question 9

What is XP and what are the Benefits

Answer 9

Extreme Programming: two programmers working side by side. Take advantage of methods available today, do not over engineer for the future. Benefits: Technical Practices, Customer Collaboration, Simplicity

Question 10

What is Scrum

Answer 10

Framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products. A small team meets and plans for the iteration (normally two weeks). The work is prioritized in a team backlog. The PO represents the customer and prioritizes the work. Entire team and PO meet daily and at the end a demo is given to PO and other stakeholder for feedback, after that they have an iteration retrospective.

Question 11

Who owns the Backlog

Answer 11

The Product Owner. They prioritizes the work and protects the team from the influences of multiple stakeholders, each with potentially divergent views of what’s important.

Question 12

What is done at the daily stand-ups (DSU)?

Answer 12

Report what was done yesterday, what will be done today, and state anything that is preventing us from completing the goal.

Question 13

What is the purpose of the DSU?

Answer 13

The DSU is key to team synchronization and self-organization. It’s timeboxed to 15 minutes and is not a problem-solving or status meeting for management. Its purpose is to coordinate the team’s activities and raise blocking issues and dependencies, many of which will need to be resolved after this meeting

Question 14

What is done at the Iteration Retrospective?

Answer 14

At the end of each iteration, Agile Teams gather for an Iteration Retrospective, facilitated by the Scrum Master. Each retrospective seeks to uncover what’s working well, what isn’t, and what the team can do better next time. The retrospective yields quantitative insights, qualitative insights, and improvement stories to be completed in the next iteration.

Question 15

What does the Product Owner do?

Answer 15

The Product Owner (PO) is ultimately responsible for maximizing the delivered value of the team’s work.

The Product Owner:

Prioritizes the team’s work
Ensures the team’s work is well expressed and sequenced to best achieve customer value
Ensures that current and potential future work is visible and clear
Serves as the customer proxy for the team
Ensures the team understands how their work addresses the needs of their users

Question 16

What does the Scrum Master do?

Answer 16

The Scrum Master is a servant leader and coach for an Agile Team. The Scrum Master:

Models an Agile Mindset and educates the team on Agile behaviors
Removes impediments, things blocking the team from achieving their goals
Fosters an environment for high-performing team dynamics, continuous flow, and relentless improvement
Improves team performance by facilitating and challenging norms in areas of quality, communication, predictability, flow, and velocity
Facilitates meetings and events

Question 17

Main Benefits of Scrum

Answer 17

1)Repetition: harnesses power of feedback loops 2)Embedded coaching by the scrum master 3)Bounded Autonomy: structured commitment for each iteration and give the teams autonomy to achieve goals and provides customers, stakeholders, and POs visibility into what the team is doing and delivering.

Question 18

What is Kanban?

Answer 18

It’s Japanese for signboard - visual way to represent work and there is a WIP limit normally set. Helps identify bottlenecks. The more stories is WIP signifies the teams aren’t working together and work isn’t getting done as quickly. To Do, Doing, Done

Question 19

What are the main benefits of Kanban

Answer 19

Boards, Shared View, Focus on Flow, Increased Visibility

Question 20

What does SAFe stand for?

Answer 20

Scaled Agile Framework

Question 21

What is the Agile Manifesto?

Answer 21

Individuals and Interaction over processes and tools; Working software over comprehensive documentation; Customer collaboration over contract negotiation; Responding to change over following a plan