21. What is a Burnup and Burndown Chart?

• A burnup chart is a tool that’s used to track the amount of work that’s been completed and to represent the total amount of work that needs to be done for a sprint/project.

• A burndown chart represents how fast working through user stories is. It shows total effort against the amount of work for each iteration.

22. How is Estimation Done in a Scrum Project?

• The estimation of user stories is done based on their difficulty 

• A particular scale is used to assess the difficulty of the user stories. Some type of scales are: 

1. Numeric Sizing (1 - 10)

2. T-shirt Sizes (S, M, L, XL…)

3. Fibonacci Series (1, 2, 3, 5, 8…)

4. Dog breeds (Great Dane, Chihuahua…)

23. What are some risks in Scrum? How are they handled?

Scrum projects, like any others, come with inherent risks. Common risk areas include:

• Budget Overruns: Exceeding the planned cost due to unforeseen issues.

• Team Capability: Skill gaps or lack of experience among team members.

• Sprint Scope & Duration: Unplanned scope changes or delays in delivery.

• Poorly Defined Backlog Items: Vague or incomplete user stories and epics.

• Knowledge Gaps: Lack of domain knowledge or technical expertise.

How are risks managed in Scrum?

• Scrum promotes continuous risk management through:

• Early identification and analysis of risks during Sprint Planning and backlog refinement

• Iterative delivery that allows quick course correction

• Regular inspection and adaptation through Daily Scrums, Reviews, and Retrospectives

• Encouraging transparency, collaboration, and timely stakeholder feedback

• Prioritizing work based on value and risk impact

Risks are managed throughout the lifecycle from project initiation to completion, with an emphasis on minimizing impact through proactive planning and team accountability.

24. How does a Scrum Master track Sprint progress?

• Daily Scrum meetings

• Scrum retrospectives

• Sprint planning

• Escaped defects

• Defect density

• Sprint burndown

• Team velocity 

25. How to deal with Score Creep?

Score creep refers to a change that’s uncontrolled and added without checking its impact on scope, time, cost, etc. 

To handle it, here’s what needs to be done: 

• Close monitoring of work being done on a day-to-day basis.

• Understanding and communicating the vision to the team and ensuring they’re aligned.

• Capturing, reviewing the project requirements regularly (against what is delivered), to emphasize to the team & customer about the requirements signed off.

• Ensuring that any changes introduced go through change control & are implemented based on the approval for change request.

• Avoid gold plating.

26. What are MVP and MMP?

Minimum viable product (MVP) is a Lean Startup concept that stresses the impact of learning while performing product development. This allows one to test and understand the idea by getting exposed to the initial version for target customers & users. To accomplish this, one has to collect all the relevant data and learn from that collected data. The thought behind MVP is to produce the product, to provide access to the users, and to observe how the product is used, perceived, and understood. This will also provide more insight towards what the customers’ or users’ needs are.

The MMP (Minimal Marketable Product) refers to the description of the product, which will have a minimal number of features that address the requirement of the users. The MMP would help also help the organization reduce the time to market

27. What does DoD mean?

• Definition of Done (DoD) refers to the collection of deliverables, which includes written codes, comments on coding, unit tests, integration testing, design documents, release notes, etc. This adds verifiable and demonstrable values to project development. DoD is very helpful to scrum while identifying the deliverables to achieve the objective of the projects 

• It helps with: 

1. Defining the steps required to deliver the iteration

2. The usage of appropriate tools like burndown to make the process more effective

3. Ensuring on-time feedback throughout the project life cycle

4. Ensuring the walkthrough of the product backlog items are done and understood correctly

5. The creation of a checklist for the product backlog items

6. Ensuring the DoD is defined to become task-oriented

7. Involving the product owner for reviewing during the sprint and sprint retrospective

28. How can a Scrum Master be a Servant Leader?

A Servant Leader is someone who leads by putting the needs of the team first, helping individuals develop and perform at their best. In Scrum, the Scrum Master exemplifies this leadership style through:

• Facilitation: Guiding the team through Scrum events and processes without dictating decisions.

• Mentorship: Coaching team members to adopt Agile principles and continuously improve.

• Empowerment: Encouraging team ownership, accountability, and decision-making.

• Support: Actively removing impediments and shielding the team from external disruptions.

• Trust Building: Creating a safe, respectful environment for collaboration and innovation.

By focusing on service over authority, the Scrum Master fosters a culture of trust, transparency, and high performance key to successful Agile delivery.

29. How can you coordinate between multiple teams?

One of the most common approaches for this is the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) meeting, where members representing each scrum team discuss the progress, performance, issues, risks, etc. together.

The frequency of these meetings must be pre-defined. Generally, scrum masters would represent a particular scrum team, besides having the Chief Scrum Master (whose responsibility is coordination & collaboration among all the scrums) who facilitates these meetings.

30. What are the Scrum values?

The Five Scrum Values

• Openness

 For a Scrum team to progress effectively, all members must be transparent about their work, challenges, and growth. The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to surface and solve problems, which only happens when team members openly share issues and blockers. Team members should collaborate willingly and value each other’s contributions.

 Scrum Masters can foster openness by being honest themselves and encouraging open communication, offering direct yet constructive feedback inspires the same in others.

• Courage

 Scrum teams need the courage to speak up about blockers, be truthful about progress, ask for help, try new techniques, and engage in respectful debate. Scrum Masters should lead by example - demonstrating courage in tough situations, such as standing firm against mid-sprint changes or scope creep from stakeholders, while promoting a culture of psychological safety.

• Focus

 Achieving sprint goals requires each team member to stay focused on priority tasks and avoid distractions. Scrum Masters can help by managing work in progress, minimizing task overload, and ensuring daily Scrums stay on track. When the team is aligned and engaged, productivity and quality both improve.

• Respect

 In Scrum, respect means recognizing the value each person brings and treating everyone’s contributions as equally important. It involves trusting teammates, appreciating diverse ideas, and actively listening. Scrum Masters play a key role in modeling respect toward developers, Product Owners, and stakeholders, thereby setting the tone for the entire team.

• Commitment

 Scrum teams succeed when every member is fully dedicated to the team’s goals. Commitment means taking ownership of your responsibilities, trusting your peers to do the same, and striving for the best possible outcome. It’s this shared sense of purpose that drives continuous improvement and collective success.

31. How would you handle conflict within the team?

Giving individual coaching to team members is one of the most effective strategies to resolve a problem. It is imperative for a Scrum Master to maintain positive relationships with team members and provide guidance when they face challenges.

For a Scrum Master, paying attention to the source of the problem and listening and acting accordingly would go a long way. Any disagreements should be shared with other team members in a manner that they would be open to suggestions for resolving the issue. When a conflict arises, the Scrum Master must intervene so that the process runs smoothly and without hiccups.

The following steps help in handling conflicts within the team:

Step 1 - Scene setting

First, we must determine the source of the team's quarrel. Before taking any action, it is necessary to understand the discrepancy between two groups or two persons. In times of dispute, Scrum Masters typically react aggressively against team members in the hopes of resolving the conflict on their own. However, while this may temporarily cure the problem, it does not address any underlying concerns. The Scrum Master must lead the team and teach them that disagreement is a regular occurrence in the workplace and it can be resolved with assertiveness. It is the leader's responsibility to guarantee that team members' concerns are acknowledged and addressed.

Step 2 - Gathering Information

Gathering facts about the conflict is usually crucial before coming to a conclusion about a certain individual or suppressing the topic. This could be accomplished by listening to each party separately and comprehending the situation from their point of view. The Scrum Master should also consider other team members' perspectives and also respect every team member’s decisions. As a result, the Scrum Master must elicit everyone's assistance in order to gain a picture of the workplace conflict.

Step 3 - Brainstorming to find a solution

It is often impossible for the leader to resolve problems on his or her own. Furthermore, several members of the Scrum Team would have better answers that would quickly remedy the problem. Organizing spontaneous group talks and sharing opinions on various activities would stimulate good discourse between the two people or groups in these situations. This would urge both sides to see things from the other's perspective. This also provides opportunities for superior ideas to be pushed and for the disparity to be bridged.

Step 4 - Solution conferring

Listing all of the possible answers to an issue would only be useful if those solutions were put into action. Scrum Master removes the team's roadblocks by implementing the solution in this step. Throughout the conflict resolution process, remembering to stay calm and respectful will aid in a speedier and more efficient resolution.

32. How would you deal with a difficult stakeholder?

Dealing with difficult stakeholders requires empathy, strategic thinking, and proactive communication. Here are four effective strategies:

• Listen Actively

Start by genuinely listening to their concerns without interruption or defensiveness. Try to understand their perspective and whether their expectations align with the project’s goals. Even if their feedback is critical, find common ground and make them feel heard. Often, stakeholders just want acknowledgment and validation.

• Understand Their Motivation

Dig deeper to identify the reasons behind their resistance. Are they worried about budget, timelines, or outcomes? Are they under pressure from higher management or external stakeholders? Understanding their motivation allows you to propose balanced, win-win solutions that address their concerns while keeping the project on track.

• Engage in One-on-One Conversations

Meeting stakeholders individually, rather than in a group, can help reduce tension and create a safer space for honest dialogue. These private discussions help uncover genuine concerns and promote open communication. Use open-ended questions to explore their thoughts about the project rather than directly confronting their opposition.

• Identify and Monitor Stakeholders Early

Begin by clearly identifying all stakeholders and assessing their level of influence, interest, and expectations. Understanding who they are and what drives them helps in building tailored communication and engagement strategies from the start. Proactively managing relationships reduces the chance of resistance later in the project.

33. What are the three pillars of Scrum?

The three pillars of Scrum are Transparency, Inspection, and Adaptation. These pillars support Scrum's empirical process control and help teams deliver value effectively.

• Transparency

 All aspects of the Scrum process must be visible to those responsible for the outcome. A common understanding and shared language are essential for example, everyone must agree on what "Done" means. Transparency ensures that all stakeholders see the same reality, allowing for informed decisions.

• Inspection

 Scrum teams must frequently inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and the use of Scrum artifacts to identify deviations. Inspections should be regular but not so frequent that they disrupt work. Effective inspections are performed by skilled individuals who carefully assess the work and outcomes.

• Adaptation

 If an inspection reveals that aspects of the process deviate beyond acceptable limits, the process must be adjusted as soon as possible. Timely adaptation ensures that the product and progress remain aligned with goals and expectations.

34. Explain user story structure with an example.

The User Story Structure is defined below -

As a <role of user>,

I want <To achieve a goal / perform a task>,

So that <I may achieve some value/goal>.

Example:

User Story of a person’s online course purchase -

As a Customer,

I want to purchase educational courses online from ed-tech websites,

So that I do not have to visit a training center.

35. How can you assure that the user stories meet the requirements?

A good user narrative includes both a description and acceptance criteria. It should be completed in a sprint with the fewest possible dependencies. The team should be able to develop and test while still delivering estimations within the sprint's constraints. In short, good user stories adhere to the INVEST concept.

I → Independent: The user story should be written in such a way that team members are less dependent on one another.

N → Negotiable: it should define the functionality of the user story and is subject to the Product Owner and the Team’s approval.

V → Valuable: It should offer value to the customer's experience.

E → Estimable: This lets us be able to roughly approximate in terms of time.

S → Small: The user story should be tiny enough for the team to finish in a sprint.

T → Testable: Good acceptance criteria after testing is required.

36. What are the five steps of Risk Management?

The five steps of Risk Management are given below -

Risk Identification: To identify the risks that your company is exposed to in its current operating environment. There are several types of risks, such as market risks, legal risks, regulatory risks, environmental risks, etc. It's crucial to be aware of as many risk factors as possible.

Risk Analysis: Once a risk has been identified, it must be investigated. The scope of the danger must be determined. It's also important to understand the connection between other internal factors and risk. It's critical to determine the risk's severity and importance by examining how it affects the business operations.

Ranking the risk: Risks must be ranked and prioritized. Most risk management solutions include numerous risk categories based on the severity of the danger. Risks that may cause minor discomfort are prioritized the least, but risks that can result in significant loss are prioritized the highest.

Treating the risk: As much as possible, all risks should be avoided or reduced by contacting experts in the field in question. In a manual environment, this would include contacting each and every stakeholder and setting up meetings for everyone to discuss the issues.

Risk review: To ensure that it has been entirely eradicated, the risk evaluation is done.

37. What do you mean by timeboxing in Scrum? When can a Sprint be canceled, and by whom?

Timeboxing is the practice of devoting a set amount of time to a single activity. A timebox is a unit of time measurement. A timebox should not exceed 15 minutes in length. A Sprint can be canceled before the Sprint timebox limit ends. Only a Product Owner can cancel the sprint.

38. What do you understand about Scope Creep? How can Scope Creep be managed?

Scope creep is used to describe how a project's requirements tend to grow over time, like - a single deliverable product becomes five when a product with three essential features becomes ten, or when the customer's needs change midway through a project, requiring a reassessment of the project requirements. Changes in project needs from internal miscommunication and disagreements, and key stakeholders are some of the common causes of scope creep.

To manage scope creep, we need to use the change control mechanism to keep it under control. This includes the following -

• Maintaining a baseline scope and keeping track of the project's progress.

• To evaluate actual work performance metrics to the baseline scope, i.e., "How different is the current project from the original plan?", we need to perform Variance analysis.

• Identifying the severity and source of the observed alterations.

• Selecting whether to take preventive or corrective action in response to requests regarding changes.

• To recommend actions and manage all change requests by using the Perform Integrated Change Control method (whether preventive or corrective).

39. When should a Scrum Master not act as a facilitator? 

A workshop facilitator must be objective when it comes to the topics being discussed and should avoid contributing facts or opinions to the conversation. Even though a Scrum Master's job is to assist the team in achieving the best possible results, workshop facilitation can be challenging at times. Most of the general product development workshops can be facilitated by the Scrum Master if someone has the required knowledge. The Scrum Master should not facilitate a workshop about modifying the Scrum process.

40. How do you make different stakeholders attend daily scrum meetings?

The coordination of business people and developers defines the success of a project. The scrum master should conduct the daily standup meetings and encourage all stakeholders to be a part of the call by explaining the impact it will have on the project. The motive of the daily scrum is to know whether or not they will reach the sprint goal. If all stakeholders are present on the call, they can see a clear picture of the product development and change their priorities to meet the set expectations. Problems faced by different parties are also discussed here to bring everyone together.