Lecture Notes: Career Stock Interview Series

Introduction

• Speaker: Host from Career Stock
• Guest: Apoorva, an experienced Scrum Master
• Context: Despite recession, Apoorva received five job offers with a 100% salary increase
• Purpose: Discuss interview questions faced by Apoorva, suitable for Scrum Masters or aspiring Scrum Masters

Background on Apoorva

• Experience: 11 years in IT, five years as a Scrum Master at TCS
• Motivation: Left TCS to explore new opportunities outside her comfort zone

Role of Career Stock

• Apoorva credits Career Stock for aiding her preparation
• Strategy: Focused on videos with multiple offers, tricky questions, and scenario-based queries
• Created extensive notes from the videos

Key Interview Questions Discussed

User Stories in Agile

• Definition: Written from the end-user's perspective
• Components:
  • INVEST Criteria:
    • I: Independent
    • N: Negotiable
    • V: Valuable
    • E: Estimatable
    • S: Small
    • T: Testable
• DOR and DOD: Definition of Ready and Done, checklist for developers

Estimation Techniques

• For New Teams: Start with hours, move to t-shirt sizing
• For Experienced Teams: Use story points, planning poker, analogy estimation

Fibonacci Series in Story Pointing

• Used to avoid focusing on minor details in large stories
• Encourages breaking down stories larger than 8 story points

Scrum Events

• Favorite Event: Sprint Review
  • Showcase completion, receive feedback
• Challenging Event: Sprint Planning
  • Difficult when product backlog is not healthy

Conflict Resolution

• Nature of Conflicts:
  • Within team members
  • With product owner
  • With external teams
• Resolution Strategies:
  • Standardize peer review processes
  • Build rapport and communicate openly
  • Engage onsite counterparts for support

Application of Certifications

• Shifted from Kanban to Scrum for better alignment with team needs
• Introduced DevOps practices to manage operations and development effectively

Gaining Team Respect

• Building personal connections, empathy, and trust
• Assisting with impediment resolution and career growth

Overcoming Impediments

• Personal: Addressing communication barriers
• Organizational: Managing expectations with external teams and customers

Conclusion

• Closing Remarks: Encouragement to viewers to engage with content
• Future sessions promised with more insights from Apoorva

Call to Action

• Like, comment, and subscribe to Career Stock for more valuable content