Scrum

Question 1

What are the three pillars of Scrum?

Answer 1

Transparency, Inspection and adaptation

Question 2

Iteration

Answer 2

A timeboxed cycle of development on a product or deliverable in which all of the work that is needed to deliver value is performed.

Question 3

Iteration Plan

Answer 3

A detailed plan for the current iteration

Question 4

Iteration Planning (Sprint Planning)

Answer 4

A meeting to clarify the details of the backlog items, acceptance criteria, and work effort required to meet an upcoming iteration commitment.

Question 5

Iteration (Sprint) Review

Answer 5

A meeting held at the end of an iteration to demonstrate the work that was accomplished during the iteration.

Question 6

Test-Driven Development

Answer 6

A technique where tests are defined before work is begun, so that work in progress is validated continuously, enabling work with zero defect mindset.

Question 7

Spike

Answer 7

A short time interval within a project, usually of fixed length, during which a team conducts research or prototypes an aspect of a solution to prove its viability.
Spikes are also described as time-boxed research or experiments and are useful for estimation.

Question 8

impediment

Answer 8

an obstacle that prevents the team from achieving its objectives. It is also known as a blocker.

Question 9

“Simplicity” in agile

Answer 9

Maximizing the work that is not done

Question 10

Continuous Integration

Answer 10

Continuous integration aims to merge code and have a working build once a day, then executes automated tests quickly to see if anything is broken. This frequent checking ensures less time passes before a problem is identified. It is designed to merge all changes made to the software and test them automatically, discovering any defects or issues on a daily basis.

Question 11

Fast Failure

Answer 11

Agile operates on the concept of delivering increments of value. Fast failure means that particular feature or proof-of-concept effort was not successful. By failing fast and in small increments, the project team is able to learn and adjust quickly and at a much lower cost.

Question 12

Technical Debt

Answer 12

Technical debt, where code may be rushed to production without being simplified or refactored. With each subsequent release it creates more work to build on and work around disorganized code.

Question 13

What are the 3 C’s on user story creation?

Answer 13

The three C’s on user story creation are: Card, Conversation and Confirmation. Once the user story card is created, have a conversation with developers and testers to ensure understanding, can for any gaps, and estimate the effort required. Finally, confirm the acceptance criteria. You then place it in the backlog for prioritisation in an upcoming sprint

Question 14

Push + Pull Communication

Answer 14

Push communication is used to send information to specific recipients who need to know. Push Communication is done using letters, faxes, memos, etc.
Pull communication is used for large volumes of information. The methods for this type of communication include internet sites and blogs. Example: Information to public on the website.

Question 15

Grade and Quality

Answer 15

Quality is the degree to which the product meets the customer’s requirements

Grade is the category assigned to products that have the same functional use but different technical characteristics.

Question 16

Cycle time

Lead time

Answer 16

Cycle time is from the time you start a task until you complete it. This is represented by the time an item enters the “develop and Unit Test” bin till the time it enters the “Done” bin. It is the time it takes to process an item

A lead time is the total time it takes to deliver an item, measured from the time it is added to the board to the moment it is delivered
Lead time = Response time + cycle time

Question 17

Root cause analysis

Answer 17

Root cause analysis includes

1. Problem identification
2. Discovery of underlying causes of a problem
3. Development of preventive actions.

Question 18

Run Rate

Answer 18

Simplified cost calculations

Question 19

Specifications by Example (SBE)

Answer 19

SBE is a collaborative approach to defining requirements and business-oriented functional tests for software products based on capturing and illustrating requirements using realistic examples instead of abstract statements.

Question 20

Value Stream Mapping

Answer 20

This is a lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze, and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer. It can also help to identify waste across the entire process.

Question 21

Organizational Structure and Organizational Culture

Answer 21

One cannot do without the other.

Question 22

Primary measure of progress

Answer 22

Working software

Question 23

Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD)

Answer 23

This involves a system design and validation practice that uses test-first principles and English-like scripts.

Question 24

Single loop learning

Answer 24

This is the practice of attempting to solve problems by just using specific predefined methods, without challenging the methods in light of experience

Question 25

Monte Carlo Analysis

Answer 25

A technique that computes or iterates the project cost or the project schedule many times, using input values selected at random from probability distributions of possible costs or durations.

This way, it is possible to calculate a distribution of possible total project costs or completion dates.

Monte Carlo analysis is a statistical modeling technique for evaluating the effects of various risk and other assumptions on the expected schedule or cost.

Question 26

Pareto Chart

Answer 26

It is a bar graph. The length of the bars represent frequency or cost (time or money) and are arranged with the longest at the left and the shortest on the right.

Question 27

Deming Cycle

Answer 27

The Deming Cycle, also known as the PDCA Cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act), was developed to link the creation of a product with consumer needs and focus the resources of all departments (research, design, production, and marketing) in a cooperative effort to meet those needs.

Question 28

Business Value (Increase or decrease)

Answer 28

An increase or decrease in BV that an action produce is measured in terms of Customer Satisfaction, Revenue growth, Profitability, Market Share, Wallet Share, Cross-Sell Ratio, Marketing Campaign Response Rate or Relationship Duration.

Question 29

Caves and Common

Answer 29

While companies are moving toward open, collaborative work environments, organizations also need to create quiet spaces for workers who need uninterrupted time to think and work. Companies are now designing their offices to balance common and social areas sometimes called “caves and common”.

Question 30

Flow-Based Agile

Answer 30

• Flow-based agile teams use different measurements: lead time (the total time it takes to deliver an item, measured from the time it is added to the board to the moment it is completed), cycle time (the time required to process an item), and response time (the time that an item waits until work starts). Teams measure cycle time to see bottlenecks and delays, not necessarily inside the team.
• In iteration-based agile, the team demonstrates all completed work items at the end of the iteration. In Flow-based agile, the team demonstrates completed work when it is time to do so, usually when enough features have accumulated into a set that is coherent. Teams, including the product owner, need feedback to decide how early to ask for product feedback.
• Flow-based agile has a different approach to standups, focusing on the team’s throughput. The team assesses the board from right to left. The questions are:
◦ What do we need to do to advance this piece of work?
◦ Is anyone working on anything that is not on the board?
◦ What do we need to finish as a team?
◦ Are there any bottlenecks or blockers to the flow of work?

A good way to evaluate a change is try it for an iteration or two first before adopting it permanently. Or, consider a Flow-based approach to try to deliver several features.

Question 31

Shu-Ha-Ri

Answer 31

This model of skills acquisition describes progression from obeying rules (Shu means to obey and protect), through consciously moving away from the rules (Ha means to change or digress), and finally through steady practice and improvement finding an individual path (Ri means to separate or leave).

Question 32

Smoke Testing

Answer 32

This is the practice of using a lightweight set of tests to ensure that the most important functions of the system under development work as intended.