Top 20 Agile and Scrum Interview Questions and Answers for PM, Programmers and Testers

Hello guys, ,if you are preparing for Software Developer interview then it makes to prepare questions on Agile and Scrum methodology. Agile is the standard way to develop software and most of the companies, both big and small follows Agile to develop and deliver Software. Earlier, I have shared free Agile and Scrum online courses to learn these useful technologies for Software development and today, I am going to share 20 Agile and Scrum interview questions with answers. But, before we get to the all-important interview questions that will help you land your dream software job, let me tell you something about Agile and Scrum. 

Agile Scrum is actually one of the best technologies out there today that will help you to implement accurate projects. Almost all of the major companies in the world use Agile these days. What that means for job hunters like you is that once you master this exciting technology, you will be able to position yourself really well in today's market.

We have created this article for exactly that purpose. The interview questions in this article will easily help you to master Agile and expand your knowledge of Scrum. You will be able to prepare yourself for some of the most common and frequently asked Agile Scrum interview questions.

As I said earlier, there is a lot of demand in the market for people who are experts in Agile and Scrum. This article will help you to meet that demand. Agile is really vast and so what you can learn is only limited by your discipline and hard work.

20 Agile and Scrum Interview Questions with Answers

Here is a list of common Agile and Scrum Interview Questions with Answers for programmers, BA, and project managers. For your easy understanding, we have divided the interview questions in this article into 4 sections. The first section is pretty basic and is made up of some general Agile Scrum interview questions. 

The second section focuses on advanced Agile concepts and interview questions. The third section deals with some advanced Scrum interview questions. The fourth and final section is made up of Agile testing interview questions.

1. Basic Agile Scrum Interview Questions

Let's start with basic Agile and Scrum questions focuses on key concepts and theory part:

1. What is Velocity?

Velocity is basically the rate at which a team progresses sprint by sprint. One important feature of Velocity is the fact that you cannot compare the Velocity of two different Scrum teams.

2. What can you tell us about the duration of a Scrum sprint?

The duration of a Scrum sprint or a Scrum cycle depends on many factors. You have to take into consideration the size of the project as well as the size of the team working on it. Generally, a Scrum sprint can be completed in 3 or 4 weeks. The number of team members can vary from 3 to 9 members. 

3. What can you tell us about the differences and similarities between Agile and Scrum?

 The main point of difference between Agile and Scrum is the fact that while Agile is a broad spectrum of methodologies used for project management, Scrum is basically just a form of Agile. Scrum is actually used to describe the processes and the steps taken in a project. You can say that Agile is something like a practice whereas Scrum is the procedure that needs to be followed to establish this practice.

The process of Agile involves completing steps incrementally. Agile is also iterative in nature. Since Scrum is basically a form of Agile, it is also incremental and iterative. 

4. What do you mean by increment?

An increment can be seen as the total of all the project backlogs that have been completed during a Scrum sprint. It is cumulative, which means that an increment contains all the previous increment values of that sprint. 

5. What are some of the increments present in Scrum?

An impediment is something that is blocking the Scrum team from getting their work done while increment is what is Delivered. A Scrum team may face different obstacles or issues that may slow down the speed of their work. Common impediments include a sick team member, missing resources, technical or operational problems, business problems, external issues, or lack of skill and knowledge. 

More Agile and Scrum Interview Questions with Answers

Now, let's see more Scrum related questions for interviews:

1. What can you tell us about the build-breaker?

The build-breaker basically refers to a situation where there is a bug in the software. Because of this unexcepted bug, the compilation may stop, execution may fail, or a warning message may be generated. As a software tester, you then have to remove the bug and get the software back to the normal working stage. 

2. What do you know about Scrumban?

Scrum ban is actually a Kanban-based model for software development. It is really useful for projects that need continuous maintenance and have various programming errors. The model also allows for the completion of a project in the least amount of time as well as error-free programming. 

Here is a nice diagram which explains Scrumban in Agile:

2. Advanced Agile Interview Questions

Now is the time to look into advanced Agile interview questions which is often asked to experienced Software developers:

6. What can you tell us about the principles of the Agile Manifesto?

• Collaboration with Customers
• Interaction between individuals
• Self-organization and self-motivation
• Demonstration of working software
• Open-minded for welcoming change

7. What are some of the Agile quality strategies?

Some of the most common Agile quality strategies are:

• Dynamic Code Analysis
• Milestone reviews
• Iteration
• Short feedback cycles
• Re-factoring
• Standards and Guidelines

8. What can you tell us about some of the drawbacks of the Agile model?

In the Agile model, it is not always easy to make a prediction about the efforts that may be needed to complete a project. It is also not possible to focus on the design and documentation related to a project. The final project may also fail to meet the requirements of clients. This may result in customer dissatisfaction.

9. What do you mean by Zero Sprint and Spike?

Zero Sprint is the preparation steps that precede the first sprint in Agile. In this stage, there are some activities that need to be done before starting the project. Examples of these activities include the preparation of backlogs and setting up the environment for development.  Spike is basically the type of story that can be taken between sprints. It is commonly related to design or technical issues like research and prototyping. 

10. What do you know about burn-up and burn-down charts?

The burn-up chart shows the amount of completed work in a project. Similarly, the burn-down chart will show you the amount of work that needs to be completed to finish the project. Here is a nice diagram which shows how a burn-up and burn-down charts look like:

3. Advanced Scrum Interview Questions

So far, we have seen advanced Agile interview question and now is the time to look for advanced Scrum interview questions and answers:

11. What can you tell us about a story point in Scrum?

A story point in Scrum is basically used for the estimation of the total efforts that are required to perform a particular task. It is actually a unit of estimation.

12. What do you know about the role of the Scrum Master?

The Scrum Master is someone who is the leader of the whole Scrum team. He is responsible for serving and protecting his team from external distractions that may affect the performance of the team. H has to motivate the whole team to reach the sprint goal.

13. What can you tell us about the different roles in Scrum?

The product owner is the overall stakeholder of the project. He lays down the project requirements before the whole team. The Scrum team is made up of a collection of individuals who all contribute to a common task. The Scrum Master is the leader of the Scrum team.

14. What is the role of Sashimi in Scrum?

Sashimi is basically a certain technique used by Scrum. It is used for checking the completion of all the functions that have been created by the developers. It can also be used for checking coding, analysis, designing, and testing.

15. What do you know about the different responsibilities of a Scrum Master?

A Scrum Master is responsible for:

• Understanding basic requirements
• Tracking
• Monitoring
• Protecting the team
• Leading all the meetings
• Resolving conflicts
• Improving the performance
• Communication and Reporting

Bonus Questions

1. What are some of the ceremonies in Scrum?

Scrum retrospective ceremonies should be clearly expresses along with the purposes of the scrum ceremonies. Scrum planning, Scrum Daily Stand up, and Scrum review are some of the ceremonies. You also have to remember that time-boxing of ceremonies for a standard 4 weeks of Sprint or according to your requirements. 

4. Agile Testing Interview Questions

16. What are some of the major principles related to Agile Testing?

Some of the major principles related to Agile Testing are:

• Sustainable Development
• Quickly responding to changes
• Successive Improvement
• Customer Satisfaction
• Collective Work
• Error-free code
• Continuous Feedback
• Face-to-face communication

17. What can you tell us about the term Agile Testing?

Agile testing is basically the technique of software testing that is based on the principles of Agile software development. It is a methodology that produces collaboration between all the team members as well as between the product owner and the team.

18. Can you name some Agile frameworks other than Scrum?

Some of the most common Agile frameworks are Kanban, Test Driven Development, and Feature-Driven Development.

19. What are some of the common metrics related to Agile?

Some of the most common metrics related to Agile are Velocity, Time Coverage, Work Category Allocation, Cumulative Flow Diagram, Defect Resolution Time, Business Value Delivered, Defect Removal Awareness, and Sprint Burn Down Metric.

20. What can you tell us about automated testing of projects in Scrum? Is it useful?

The process of automated testing is very useful as it makes the delivery of the project fast and easy. 

5. More Agile, Scrum and Sprint Questions

1. What are some of the qualities of a good Agile Tester?

A good agile tester needs to implement agile software development principles for software testing. He should b familiar with the principles and concepts of Agile. He should be able to set the correct priority for the tasks according to requirements. He should also have excellent communication skills for communicating with clients as well as team members. He should be able to correctly understand the requirements as well as all the risks associated with a project.

2. In which situation can you use waterfall over Scrum?

Waterfall can be preferred to Scrum when the requirements of the customer are simple, predictable, fully-understood, well-defined, and are not subject to change till the completion of the project. As a developer, you need to be flexible and you should be prepared to use waterfall over Scrum in such situations. 

3. What can you tell us about the Planning Poker technique?

The Planning Poker technique is also known as the Scrum Poker technique. It is basically a card-based agile technique that is useful for planning and estimation. A Planning Poker technique session can be started by the product owner reading the agile user story. 

In this technique, each estimator has a deck of poker cards. It has a discussion with the produc owner before privately selecting a card on the basis of their independent estimation. If all the estimators select cards with the same value, it is considered as an estimate. 

It this is not the case, then the estimators discuss the high and low values of their estimations. Each estimator then proceeds to privately select a card before revealing it. This process of Poker Planning is repeated until a general consensus is reached. 

4. Can you name some of the methodologies of the Agile model?

Some of the mythologies related to the Agile model are:

• Lean Software Development
• Dynamic Development
• Crystal Methodologies
• Feature-driven methodologies

5. What can you tell us about the differences between Sprint Planning Meeting and Sprint Retrospective Meeting?

In a Sprint Planning Meeting, all the Scrum roles have a discussion about the priority features of the team and product backlog items. This kind of meeting is held almost every week and can last for almost an hour.

In a Sprint Retrospective Meeting, all the Scrum roles have an honest discussion about the good parts of the sprint, the bad parts of the sprint, as well as all the necessary improvements. This is also known as the sprint review meeting and is held at the end of every sprint. A normal Sprint Retrospective Meeting can last for 2 or 3 hours. 

That's all about the top 20 Agile and Scrum Interview Questions and answers for Software developers and testers. As you have seen, this article contains some of the most important and frequently asked questions relating to Agile and Scrum. The questions in this article will easily help you land a job as a Scrum Master.

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P. S. - If you want to learn Agile and Scrum in depth and looking for resources then you an also checkout these Agile online courses to start with. The list contains best online courses to learn Agile and Scrum for Software developers.