Introduction to Scrum

Question 1

Which of the following statements on the Scrum team is INCORRECT?
1. A Scrum team generally has 6-10 members.
2. A Scrum Team should be in place before the project is initiated.
3. A Scrum Team will create the deliverables of the project.
4. The length of the Sprint will be agreed upon between the Product Owner and the Scrum Team.

Answer 1

2. A Scrum Team should be in place before the project is initiated.
   Justification: It is not mandatory for a Scrum Team to be appointed prior to project initiation. The Scrum Team members are appointed during the Initiate phase

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, pages 50 & 51.

Question 2

As defined in the SBOK, which of the following is a Scrum Aspect?
1. Initiate
2. Organization
3. Scope
4. Plan

Answer 2

2. Organization
   Justification: The Scrum aspects must be addressed and managed throughout a Scrum project. The five Scrum aspects are Organization, Business Justification, Quality, Risk, and Change.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 10

Question 3

As defined in the SBOK, which of the following is a Scrum Process?
1. Release
2. Business Justification
3. Create Deliverables
4. Delegate Responsibilities

Answer 3

3. Create Deliverables
   Justification: Release is a project phase consisting of Ship Deliverables and Retrospect Project processes. Business Justification is one of the five Scrum aspects. Create Deliverables is one of the 19 fundamental processes.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 15.

Question 4

As defined in the SBOK, which of the following is a Scrum Principle?
1. Create Sprint Backlog
2. Business Justification
3. Review and Retrospect
4. Value-based Prioritization

Answer 4

4. Value-based Prioritization
   Justification: Scrum principles are the core guidelines for applying the Scrum framework and should mandatorily be used in all Scrum projects. The six Scrum principles are:
5. Empirical Process Control
6. Self-organization
7. Collaboration
8. Value-based Prioritization
9. Time-boxing
10. Iterative Development

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 8.

Question 5

Which of the following best defines a project?
1. A collaborative enterprise to either create new products or services or to deliver results as defined in the Project Vision Statement.
2. A group of related projects, with the objective to deliver business outcomes as defined in the Program Vision Statement.
3. A collaborative enterprise to sustain the improvements introduced in the operations of an organization.
4. A group of related programs, with the objective to deliver business outcomes as defined in the Portfolio Vision Statement.

Answer 5

1. A collaborative enterprise to either create new products or services or to deliver results as defined in the Project Vision Statement.

Justification: A Scrum project involves a collaborative effort to create a new product, service, or other result as defined in the Project Vision Statement. Projects are impacted by constraints of time, cost, scope, quality, resources, organizational capabilities, and other limitations that make them difficult to plan, execute, manage, and ultimately succeed.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 2.

Question 6

As defined in the SBOK, which of the following is a phase in Scrum projects?
1. Release
2. Starting up
3. Delivering
4. Monitoring

Answer 6

1. Release
   Justification: Scrum processes address the specific activities and flow of a Scrum project. In total, there are nineteen processes which are grouped into five phases.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, table 1-1, page 15.

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of using Scrum to deliver projects?
1. It makes projects adaptable and open to incorporating change.
2. It minimizes non-essential work and leads to higher efficiency levels.
3. It leads to greater levels of motivation among employees.
4. It ensures that all the benefits are delivered at the end of the project.

Answer 7

4. It ensures that all the benefits are delivered at the end of the project.

Justification: Scrum projects are completed in an iterative manner delivering value throughout the lifecycle of the project, not just at the end of the project.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, figure 2-9, page 35.

Question 8

Which of the following meetings is conducted at the beginning of a Project?
1. Retrospect Sprint Meeting
2. Daily Standup Meeting
3. Project Vision Meeting
4. Sprint Review Meeting

Answer 8

3. Project Vision Meeting
   Justification: A Project Vision Meeting is a meeting with the Program Stakeholder(s), Program Product Owner, and Program Scrum Master. It helps identify the business context, business requirements, and stakeholder expectations in order to develop an effective Project Vision Statement.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 143.

Question 9

Which of the following is an output of the Project Vision Meeting?
1. Product Backlog
2. Acceptance criteria
3. Project Vision Statement
4. Roles and Responsibilities

Answer 9

3. Project Vision Statement
   Justification: A Project Vision Meeting is a meeting with the Program Stakeholder(s), Program Product Owner, and Program Scrum Master. It helps identify the business context, business requirements, and stakeholder expectations in order to develop an effective Project Vision Statement.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 143

Question 10

Who among the following creates the Prioritized Product Backlog?
1. Product Owner
2. Customer
3. Scrum Team
4. Scrum Master

Answer 10

1. Product Owner
   Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, Table 3-1, pages 44 & 45.

Question 11

Which of the following statements on the Scrum framework is TRUE?
1. Focuses on detailed upfront project planning.
2. Allows Scrum Teams to take ownership of tasks.
3. Enables delegation of authority from one level to another.
4. Emphasizes individual accountability rather than group accountability.

Answer 11

2. Allows Scrum Teams to take ownership of tasks.

Justification: Scrum believes that employees are self-motivated and seek to accept greater responsibility. So, they deliver much greater value when self-organized.

Self-organization as an essential principle in Scrum leads to the following:
- Team buy-in and shared ownership
- Motivation, which leads to an enhanced performance level of the team
- Innovative and creative environment conducive to growth

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 26.

Question 12

Which of the following meetings is conducted at the end of a Sprint to analyze improvement opportunities for future Sprints?
1. Sprint Review Meeting
2. Retrospect Sprint Meeting
3. Sprint Planning Meeting
4. Daily Standup Meeting

Answer 12

2. Retrospect Sprint Meeting
   Justification: The Retrospect Sprint Meeting is Time-boxed to 4 hours for a one-month Sprint and conducted as part of the Retrospect Sprint process. During this meeting, the Scrum Team gets together to review and reflect on the previous Sprint in terms of the processes followed, tools employed, collaboration and communication mechanisms, and other aspects relevant to the project. The team discusses what went well during the previous Sprint and what did not go well, the goal being to learn and make improvements in the Sprints to follow. Some improvement opportunities or best practices from this meeting could also be updated as part of the Scrum Guidance Body documents.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 34.

Question 13

What is sustainable pace?
1. The pace at which the Scrum Team can work and sustain comfortably for an indefinite period of time.
2. The pace at which the Scrum Team converts User Stories into deliverables in a Sprint.
3. The pace at which the Scrum Team releases project deliverables.
4. The pace at which the Scrum Team can work and sustain comfortably in a set of Sprints leading to a product release.

Answer 13

1. The pace at which the Scrum Team can work and sustain comfortably for an indefinite period of time.

Justification: Maintaining a sustainable pace is one of the most important tenets of Scrum. A sustainable pace translates to increased employee satisfaction, stability, and increased estimation accuracy, all of which ultimately lead to increased customer satisfaction. To develop a truly high-quality product and maintain a healthy work environment, it is important to carry out integration-type activities regularly, rather than delaying the integration work until the end in such circumstances.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 92.

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using Scrum?
1. Ensures that the highest value requirements of the customer are satisfied first as it works on the principle of value-based prioritization.
2. Leads to a high-trust work environment ensuring low friction among employees as it promotes transparency and collaboration.
3. Leads to an innovative and creative work environment as it creates an environment of introspection, learning, and adaptation.
4. Ensures that products are developed over an agreed period of time as it emphasizes detailed planning at the beginning of the project.

Answer 14

4. Ensures that products are developed over an agreed period of time as it emphasizes detailed planning at the beginning of the project.

Justification: Unlike the traditional waterfall approach which focuses on detailed upfront planning, the Scrum Framework is founded on the belief that the knowledge workers of today can offer much more than just their technical expertise, and that trying to fully map out and plan for an ever-changing environment is not efficient. Therefore, Scrum encourages data-based, iterative decision-making. In Scrum, the primary focus is on delivering products that satisfy customer requirements in small iterative shippable increments. To deliver the greatest amount of value in the shortest amount of time, Scrum promotes prioritization and time-boxing over fixing the scope, cost, and schedule of a project. An important feature of Scrum is self-organization, which allows the individuals who are actually doing the work to estimate and take ownership of tasks.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 37.

Question 15

Which of the following is a benefit of using Scrum?
1. It enables detailed planning at the beginning of the project hence ensuring that all the risks are identified and mitigated.
2. It provides complete control over the project to the Product Owner as he is responsible for all the product development activities in a Sprint.
3. It is based on the principle of value-based prioritization thus ensuring that the highest value is provided in the shortest period possible.
4. It is based on the principle of managing by stages thus ensuring that all the expected benefits are realized at the end of the project.

Answer 15

3. It is based on the principle of value-based prioritization thus ensuring that the highest value is provided in the shortest period possible.

Justification: The Scrum framework is driven by the goal of delivering maximum business value in a minimum time span. One of the most effective tools for delivering the greatest value in the shortest amount of time is prioritization. Prioritization can be defined as the determination of the order and separation of what must be done now, from what needs to be done later. The concept of prioritization is not new to project management. The traditional Waterfall model of project management proposes using multiple task prioritization tools. From the Project Manager’s point of view, prioritization is integral because certain tasks must be accomplished first to expedite the development process and achieve the project goals. Some of the traditional techniques of task prioritization include setting deadlines for delegated tasks and using prioritization matrices.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 31.

Question 16

Which of the following processes facilitates coordination among Scrum Teams in a Scrum project?
1. Create a Project Vision process
2. Develop Epics process
3. Retrospect Sprint process
4. Conduct and Coordinate Sprints

Answer 16

4. Conduct and Coordinate Sprints

Justification: In the Conduct and Coordinate Sprints process, the tool Scrum of Scrum Meetings is used to focus on areas of coordination and integration between the different Scrum Teams. These are preferably short meetings where a representative from each Scrum Team meets to share the status of the respective teams. This is relevant only for large projects where multiple Scrum Teams are involved.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, pages 274 and 278.

Question 17

Scrum framework is best suited for which of the following projects?
1. Projects with fixed scope and timelines.
2. Projects with changing requirements.
3. Projects with stable requirements.
4. Projects with defined roles and responsibilities.

Answer 17

2. Projects with changing requirements.

Justification: Being adaptive to change is a key advantage of the Scrum framework. Although Scrum works well for all projects in all industries, it can be very effective when the product or other project requirements are not fully understood or cannot be well defined up front, when the product’s market is volatile, and/or when the focus is on making the team flexible enough to incorporate changing requirements. Scrum is especially useful for complex projects with a lot of uncertainty. Long-term planning and forecasting are typically ineffective for such projects and they involve high quantities of risk. Scrum guides the team through transparency, inspection, and adaptation to the most valuable business outcomes.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 98.

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of delivering projects using Scrum?
1. Scrum ensures an open work environment through information radiators such as Scrum board.
2. Scrum ensures faster resolution to issues through collaboration and colocation of development teams.
3. Scrum ensures a customer-oriented framework through a collaborative approach and emphasis on business value.
4. Scrum ensures better coordination among teams through a hierarchical organizational structure that delegates authority for all the project aspects from the highest level to the lowest.

Answer 18

4. Scrum ensures better coordination among teams through a hierarchical organizational structure that delegates authority for all the project aspects from the highest level to the lowest.

Justification: The emphasis in Scrum is on self-organization and self-motivation where the team assumes greater responsibility in making a project successful. This also ensures that there is team buy-in and shared ownership. This, in turn, results in team motivation leading to an optimization of team efficiencies. The Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Scrum Team work very closely with relevant Stakeholders (s) to refine requirements as they go through the Develop Epic(s), Create Prioritized Product Backlog, and Create User Stories processes. This ensures that there is no scope for isolated planning in Scrum. Team experience and expertise in product development are used to assess the inputs needed to plan, estimate, and execute project work. Collaboration among Scrum Core Team members ensures that the project is carried out in an innovative and creative environment that is conducive to growth and team harmony.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 56

Question 19

Constraint(s) that affect(s) projects is/are:
i. Time
ii. Cost
1. Only i
2. Only ii
3. Neither i nor ii
4. Both i and ii

Answer 19

4. Both i and ii
   Justification: Projects are usually impacted by constraints of time, cost, scope, quality, people, and organizational capabilities. The objective of the project team is to create Deliverables as defined in Prioritized Product Backlog.

Reference: A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge, SBOK Guide, page 52.