Scrum & Kanban

Question 1

Scrum

Answer 1

1. The scrum is a means of restarting play after a stoppage which has been caused by type of rule violation or error
2. Scrum framework for software development
   - the team operates as cohesive unit working
   - frequent communication
   - realistic goal setting
3. Provides a means for teams to establish a hypothesis of how they think something works
4. Allows teams to incorporate practices from other frameworks
5. Does not define techniques and technologies
6. Is light weight and easy to learn but hard to apply

Question 2

Scrum - Events: Sprint Planning

Answer 2

• Negotiation between product owner and team about the set of features to be realized in the next sprint
• Effort is estimated by the team

Question 3

Scrum - Events: Daily Scrum

Answer 3

15 min meeting:
- What did you do since last daily scrum
- Are there any problems, blockers?
- What will you do until next daily scrum

Question 4

Scrum - Events: Sprint Review

Answer 4

• Presentation of the realized features to the product owner
• Acceptance / rejection decision for each feature of the initial sprint backlog

Question 5

Scrum - Events: Sprint Retrospective

Answer 5

Are there improvement potentials for forthcoming sprints?

Question 6

Scrum - Roles: Product Owner

Answer 6

• represents all stakeholders
• knows requirements (business and technical)
• maintains product backlog
• decides what to develop next (during the next sprint)
• accepts or denies realized features

Question 7

Scrum - Roles: Sprint Master

Answer 7

• ensures that scrum process is performed as intended
• supports the team and the product owner
• supports the team in improving its process and competencies

Question 8

Scrum - Roles: Development Team

Answer 8

• self-organized interdisciplinary team
• estimates development effort for each feature
• there is not team leader

Question 9

Scrum - Artifacts: Product Backlog

Answer 9

1. contains all product features and changes
   - technical and non technical ones
2. estimated by e. g. story points or person hours / days

Question 10

Scrum - Artifacts: Sprint Backlog

Answer 10

• contains features to be developed in one sprint
• determined in sprint planning meeting
• more detailed than product backlog

Question 11

Scrum - Artifacts: Product Burndown & Sprint Burndown

Answer 11

serves to monitor sprint progress and the projectʼs progress

Question 12

Scrum - Artifacts: Release Plan

Answer 12

defines number of sprints and delivered working releases

Question 13

Scrum - Typical Errors

Answer 13

1. Scrum master acts as a project manager
   - is planning and controlling
   - makes decisions for team
2. Scrum masters act as mediator
3. Team member dominates
4. Product owner
   - identifies activities
   - is not available
5. Stories are too vague or too big

Question 14

Nexus Framework

Answer 14

• All teams (the Nexus) work on the entries from a common product backlog in their sprints
• The goal is to produce a common integrated product increment at the end of each sprint
• Nexus extends the elements of Scrum so that they can be used at the level of all teams

Question 15

Nexus Elements - Nexus Sprint Backlog

Answer 15

Contains all entries taken from the product backlog that the teams will implement together

Question 16

Nexus Elements - Nexus Integration Team

Answer 16

• Product owner, scrum master, and members of the teams
• Other people can temporarily participate in the NIT
• Is not responsible for integration
• Supports the teams in delivering a common integrated product increment
• Is responsible for identifying dependencies between entries in the product backlog and reducing them as much as possible
• All required competencies must be present in this team: Members should perform their tasks in the NIT full-time

Question 17

Nexus Elements - Refinement

Answer 17

• Members of all teams and the product owner take part in this process
• Product backlog entries are processed, refined and, if necessary, divided in smaller ones
• Care must be taken to ensure that the backlog entries can be implemented by the individual teams as independently as possible and without excessive coordination effort
• Takes place as often as necessary
• Entries considered for the next sprint should be elaborated in sufficient detail to be distributed among teams

Question 18

Nexus Elements - Nexus Sprint Planning

Answer 18

• The collaborative goal, the Nexus Goal, of the next sprint is defined
• Product backlog entries for the next sprint are selected and included in the Nexus Sprint Backlog
• Entries are divided among the teams and each team creates its team- specific sprint plan
• If dependencies exist between the teamsʼ entries, then the teams consider them together as part of their sprint planning

Question 19

Kanban Method

Answer 19

1. A means to design, manage, and improve flow systems for knowledge work
2. Allows organizations to start with their existing workflow and drive evolutionary change
   - visualizing the flow of work
   - limit work in progress
   - stop starting and start finishing
3. Can be used in any knowledge work setting, particularly
   - where work arrives unexpected
   - when you want to deploy as soon as it is ready

Question 20

Kanban Practices - Visual Workflow

Answer 20

• Split the work into pieces, write each item on a card and put on the wall
• Use name columns to illustrate where each item is in the workflow
• Shows the commitment and the delivery point

Question 21

Kanban Practices - Limit Work in Progress

Answer 21

• Assign explicit limits to how many items may be in progress at each workflow state
• Large item can be decomposed into smaller

Question 22

Kanban Practices - Measured the Lead Time

Answer 22

• Average time of item completion i. e. start queuing until delivery
• Make it as small and predictable as possible for optimization

Question 23

Kanban Practices - Manage the Flow

Answer 23

• maximize value delivery, minimize lead times
• identify bottlenecks and blockers

Question 24

Scrum and Kanban Similarities

Answer 24

• lean and agile
• based on self-organizing teams
• breaking work into pieces
• limit work in progress
• focus on delivering software early and often
• optimize the process based on empirical data