Scrum Events
What event ends the Sprint?
The Retrospective
True or False: The Scrum Master is responsible for facilitating the Daily Scrum
False.
The Daily Scrum is a meeting for the Developers. Sometimes it's best for the Scrum Master to take a break from facilitating so it doesn't start looking like a progress reporting meeting.
True or False: The term Events is preferred to Ceremonies when referring to Scrum activities
True.
The fact that we see Scrum Events referred to as "Ceremonies" suggests that some feel they are ceremonies - rituals performed out of convention and not for their inherent value
What does the acronym WIP stand for?
Work in Progress (or Process).
Controlling WIP is key method for optimizing the flow of your development process
According to the Agile Manifesto, how long should a team be able maintain the pace of development?
Indefinitely.
This is the Agile Principle of Sustainable Development.
Who has to attend the Daily Scrum?
The Developers.
Attendance by the Scrum Master and Product Owner is helpful but optional
Who is allowed to cancel a Sprint?
The Product Owner. A Sprint could be cancelled if the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete.
What Scrum activity is NOT an event, yet is scheduled by most teams?
Refinement.
Although the activity is mentioned in the Scrum Guide, it is not an event, and can happen ad-hoc
True or False: It's best practice to have a column for blocked items
False.
By moving an item to a "blocked" column you lose the context of which state was blocked and reset the cycle time metrics
What type of Story Splitting is almost always recommended for Agile Software Development?
Vertical.
This is where each "slice" contains each "layer" of the system, such as front-end, API, and database
True or False: For a 2-week Sprint, the Retrospective should be about 1 1/2 hours.
True.
The time-box for a one-month Sprint is 3 hours.
Who decides how to assign work in a Scrum Team?
The Developers.
For each selected Product Backlog item, the Developers plan the work necessary
True or False: you should never block an item when you have to pause work to switch to a new high-priority item.
False.
Generally you should block an item any time you are prevented from making progress on the item. The team should clarify their rules in their Definition of Workflow
What are the four standard Schedule States in Rally?
Defined, In-Progress, Completed, Accepted
Which Scrum Event should do the most to help uncover new requirements?
The Sprint Review.
Sprint Reviews are intended to be dynamic discussions about what was produced in the Sprint. The outcome should be ideas for upcoming Sprints
True of False: The Product Owner is NOT invited to the Sprint Retrospective.
False.
The entire Scrum Team attends the Retrospective. The Scrum Team includes the Product Owner.
Bonus: Which Agile Manifesto value suggests the PO should be included?
True or False: Story Point estimation is required by Scrum to calculate Velocity
False. Neither story points, estimation, nor velocity are mentioned in the Scrum Guide
True or False: Kanban is not recommended for delivery teams, because there is no way to estimate or plan for critical delivery dates.
False.
Kanban teams can often plan more accurately than Scrum teams by using Cycle Time metrics and Monte Carlo simulations, which are more realistic than plans based on average velocity
True or False: According to the Agile Manifesto, the best architectures the result of careful planning from a dedicated architecture team.
False
"The best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing teams"
Why do you think teams sometimes skip Retrospectives?
(any answer accepted!)
Which Scrum Event is the Scrum Master not required to attend?
The Daily Scrum.
It's an "event for the Developers...If the Product Owner or Scrum Master are working on items...they participate as Developers"
What are the three components of the Sprint Plan?
The Sprint Goal, the Backlog Items, and the Plan for delivery
As commonly defined, which is longer: Cycle Time or Lead Time?
Lead Time.
Lead Time is a superset of Cycle Time and includes the time from "request in backlog" to "request is delivered". Cycle time only includes time from "work started" to "work accepted".
What Scrum Artifact supports the Agile Principle of "Welcoming changing requirements" by giving flexibility to the Sprint?
The Sprint Goal.
The Sprint Goal "communicates why the Sprint is valuable to stakeholders", but does not specify the "what". The Sprint Backlog Items do not need to be finished in a Sprint; only the Sprint Goal is expected to be met.