Introduction
Scrum is a widely-used Agile framework that incorporates key Agile principles. It is adopted by numerous organisations globally for its effectiveness. In this article we will provide you essential knowledge of Scrum Master interview questions to ace your next Scrum interview.
Scrum Master Interview Questions for Freshers
1. What are Agile and Scrum?
Ans. Agile is a comprehensive concept with ideals and principles that guide its implementation. It's a collection of approaches and frameworks that adhere to the same values and principles as the values and principles themselves.
Scrum is a framework for dealing with challenges that are complicated and adaptive. Scrum is used when the nature of the requirements or the technology is unclear.
2. What are the five Scrum values?
Ans. The five Scrum values are as follows:
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Commitment: Scrum teams must be able to work together to achieve a common goal. This means trusting one another to finish their tasks and deliver to the best of their abilities.
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Focus: To get the most out of each sprint, each team member must remain focused on the task at hand and how it influences the sprint goal.
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Openness: For the Scrum team to make the most progress in the shortest time feasible, each team member must be completely honest about their personal development. The daily Scrum meeting aims to identify and address such problems.
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Respect: In a Scrum team, respect is accepting that no single individual or their contribution is more valuable than another. Respect also means trusting your teammates to fulfill their tasks, listening to and considering their ideas, and appreciating their success.
- Courage: Scrum teams must have the courage to be open, authentic, and honest with themselves and stakeholders about the project's progress and any bottlenecks they experience.
3. What is a Sprint?
Ans. The term "sprint" is used in Scrum to describe a time-boxed iteration. During a sprint, a specific product module or feature is developed. A sprint might last anywhere from a week to two weeks. Sprint planning, daily Scrums, development work, sprint review, and sprint retrospectives are part of a sprint.
4. How can you assure that the user stories meet the requirements?
Ans. A good user story should include both a description and acceptance criteria. It should be completed in a sprint with as few dependencies as feasible. The team should be able to build and test while still meeting the sprint's deadlines for estimations. In brief, good user stories follow the INVEST principle.
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I: Independent
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N: Negotiable
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V: Valuable
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E: Estimable
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S: Small
- T: Testable
5. Is Scrum only for an IT company?
Ans. No. Scrum is a methodological framework. It is used to tackle complicated issues, which are problems with unknown variables. In most cases, IT issues have unknown requirements. Non-IT issues have unsolved solutions.
6. Is Scrum suitable for all types of work?
Ans. Scrum is a problem-solving technique for complex adaptive situations. That means the nature of what and how is uncertain. Scrum is founded on the notion of Empirical Process Control. Empiricism implies that you must constantly inspect and change to meet the problems' unknown nature.
7. Define Velocity.
Ans. The team adds effort estimates connected with user stories that were finished during that iteration at the end of each iteration. This total is referred to as velocity.
Based on the estimations associated with remaining user stories and assuming that velocity over the remaining iterations would remain nearly the same, the team can compute (or change) an estimate of how long the project will take to finish.
8. What is a User Story?
Ans. A user story is a tool for agile software development and project management that offers teams simple and easy, natural language explanations of one or more project aspects written from the end user's perspective. The user story does not go into depth, instead focusing on how specific kinds of work will benefit the end-user.
9. What is Stakeholder in Scrum?
Ans. A stakeholder is a person who is not a member of the Scrum Team but has a specific interest in and knowledge of the product that is being incrementally discovered. The Product Owner was present at Sprint Review and actively engaged with the Scrum Team. In Scrum, the Development Team is not referred to as a stakeholder.
10. How do you make the stakeholders attend the daily Scrum?
Ans. The Daily Scrum's purpose is to determine whether or not they will meet the Sprint Goal. If stakeholders participate in the daily Scrum, they will have an updated picture of product development and can change their expectations accordingly. They learn about the actual problems that the team is dealing with, which benefits both parties.
Although stakeholder participation is not compulsory, it is beneficial to have them present as listeners since it can help in the resolution of any difficulties.
11. What is the main reason for the Scrum Master to be at the daily Scrum?
Ans. A Scrum Master is not required to be present; all that is required of them is that the Development Team has a Daily Scrum. Only Development Team members are allowed to participate in the Daily Scrum, according to the Scrum Master. Although the Scrum Master or Product Owner is welcome to attend this meeting to help with the Daily Scrum, Scrum does not necessitate it.
During the Daily Scrum, the Development Team members coordinate their work, track their progress toward the Sprint Goal, and, if necessary, adjust the Sprint Backlog and the plan for the following 24 hours.
12. What are the roles of a Scrum Master related to the Daily Scrum?
Ans. The facilitation is a notable portion of the Scrum Master's role. The SM leads the Daily Scrum for the development team, which allows them to address daily tasks and improve team collaboration. The Scrum Master also ensures that the team follows the Daily Scrum meeting guideline of keeping the meeting to a maximum of 15 minutes.
13. What is Coaching?
Ans. Coaching is a method of maximizing a coachee's potential. The coach in a coaching model keeps in mind that the coachees may already know the answers. Coach avoids giving direct answers and instead assists the coachees in finding the solutions. Asking powerful questions is one of the most effective tools a coach has.
14. Can you use Kanban Board in Scrum?
Ans. Yes. A Kanban Board is a multi-column visual workflow management tool. Each column corresponds to a separate stage of the workflow. The Sprint Backlog is publicly portrayed by development teams, as Scrum believes in transparency. The Kanban Board is a great approach to visualize the Sprint Backlog.
15. What is Scrum of Scrums?
Ans. A Scrum of Scrums is a gathering of many Scrum teams to coordinate their efforts. In most cases, the Scrum team sends one of its members to the Scrum of Scrums. This meeting's primary topic is to discuss technical dependencies.
16. As a Scrum Master, when should I not act as a facilitator?
Ans. Although a Scrum Master is supposed to help the team get the best results, workshop facilitation can sometimes be tricky. A workshop facilitator must be impartial to the topics being addressed and should avoid contributing facts or opinions to the discussion.
If the Scrum Master has the necessary expertise, they can facilitate most general product development workshops.
However, if the workshop is about changing the Scrum process, the Scrum Master has valuable contributions to make and should not facilitate that session.
17. Is Sprint Goal necessary in Scrum?
Ans. Yes. A Sprint Goal is a short expression of the Sprint's purpose, which is usually a business problem. In order to fulfill the Sprint Goal, the functionality may be changed during the Sprint. Scrum's Sprint Goal is a critical component.
18. What is timeboxing in Scrum?
Ans. The technique of committing a specific amount of time to a single activity is known as timeboxing. A timebox is a time measuring unit. A timebox should not be longer than 15 minutes. Before the Sprint timebox limit expires, a Sprint can be canceled. The Product Owner can only cancel the sprint
19. What is Empiricism?
Ans. Only the past is considered particular in process control, and decisions are made based on observation, experience, and experimentation. So you experiment to see if what you've attempted is correct or not. Transparency, inspection, and adaptability are the three pillars of empiricism.
20. What is MOSCOW Principle?
Ans. A technique for categorizing the importance of various attributes in a product from the customer's perspective, allowing the development team to prioritize the delivery of each demand. This lesson can help you define a product's 'Acceptance Criteria,' which includes 'Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won't Have' needs.
21. What is the purpose of a Sprint Retrospective?
The Sprint Retrospective is a meeting at the end of each sprint where the Scrum team discusses what went well, what didn’t, and how processes could be improved. It is an opportunity for continuous improvement and to make the next sprint more productive.
22. What are the responsibilities of a Scrum Master during a sprint?
A Scrum Master facilitates the daily stand-ups, resolves any impediments, ensures that the team follows Agile practices, and protects the team from outside interruptions. They also help the team maintain focus on the sprint goals.
23. How do you handle a team member who is not contributing effectively?
A Scrum Master should approach the team member privately to understand any issues they might be facing. They can offer support, provide coaching, or adjust the workload if necessary to ensure the team member can contribute effectively.
24. What is the difference between Scrum and Kanban?
Scrum is an Agile framework with defined roles, ceremonies, and sprints, while Kanban is a visual process management tool that focuses on continuous delivery without defined timeframes. Scrum emphasizes iteration, while Kanban focuses on flow.
25. How does a Scrum Master handle conflict within the team?
A Scrum Master facilitates open communication and encourages the team to resolve conflicts themselves. If necessary, they mediate the situation, helping the team members to come to a mutual understanding and agreement.
26. What is the significance of the Scrum artifacts?
Scrum artifacts like the Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment provide transparency over the work and help the team and stakeholders understand the progress and plan the next steps. These artifacts are essential for ensuring alignment and clarity.
27. How do you measure the success of a sprint?
Success in a sprint can be measured by evaluating if the sprint goal was achieved, whether all planned user stories were completed, and by reviewing team velocity, quality of the delivered product, and the feedback during the sprint review.
28. What is the role of a Product Owner in Scrum?
The Product Owner is responsible for defining and prioritizing the Product Backlog, ensuring the team works on the highest value features, and clearly communicating the vision and goals of the product to the team.
29. What is meant by Definition of Ready (DoR)?
The Definition of Ready is a set of criteria that a user story must meet before the team can start working on it. It ensures that the story is well understood, properly sized, and ready for development.
30. Can a Scrum Master also be a developer?
While a Scrum Master can have technical skills, their primary focus should be on facilitating the Scrum process, not on contributing directly to the development work. Combining the two roles might lead to conflicts of interest and reduced effectiveness.
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