The Scrum Master supports and promotes Scrum by helping team members understand its values, rules, practices, and theory.
Assists people outside the Scrum team in understanding interactions with the team.
Helps the team agree on activities and timelines, coordinates daily Scrum meetings, and prevents distractions.
Key Interview Questions and Expected Answers
1. What is Scrum?
Sample Answer: Scrum is a process framework for developing projects incrementally and iteratively using Sprints, which are typically 2 weeks long and time-boxed.
2. Tracking Sprint Progress
Technique: Use burndown charts to track progress, showing remaining work on the vertical axis and number of Sprints on the horizontal.
3. Objective of User Stories
Purpose: User stories describe features from the end-user's perspective to facilitate communication and understanding among the development team.
4. Supporting the Product Owner
Method: Assist with managing the product backlog, promoting Scrum events, and helping the team adopt a shared vision.
5. Necessity of Agile Methodology
Benefits: Achieves customer satisfaction through swift delivery, accommodates changing requirements, and promotes simplicity and communication.
6. Estimation Techniques in Scrum Projects
Techniques: T-shirt estimation, planning poker, estimation by analogy, and disaggregation estimation techniques.
7. Preventing Scope Creep
Prevention: Clearly define requirements from the start, monitor progress, and groom the Sprint backlog effectively.
8. Change Management: Waterfall vs. Agile Scrum
Difference: Waterfall uses a change management plan, while Agile Scrum relies on a product backlog with no formal change management plan.
9. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Definition: Smallest product part to show main functionality, used for feedback, not necessarily functional.
10. Role During Daily Scrum
Role: Arrange and guide the meeting, ensuring it's within the time-box and includes only the development team.
11. Handling Broken Agile Principles
Action: Ensure regular Sprint schedules, well-organized product backlog, and attendance at workshops.
12. Artifacts in Scrum
Artifacts: Product backlog and Sprint backlog.
13. Role of a Product Owner
Function: Acts as a bridge between business and Scrum team, focuses on product success.
14. Tools Used in Scrum Projects
Tools: Jira, Rally, and Version One for tracking and planning.
15. Daily Routine of a Scrum Master
Duties: Resolve problems, report team performance, facilitate team, drive organizational change, and educate the organization.
16. Understanding Time Boxing
Concept: Assigning specific time to activities, with a maximum time box of 15 minutes in Scrum.
17. Sprint Review and Retrospective
Process: Demonstrating features to stakeholders (Review) and identifying improvements (Retrospective).
18. Disadvantages of Scrum
Observation: Issues arise when team members lack understanding or flexibility.
19. Applicability of Scrum
Opinion: Useful for complex projects, those with strict deadlines, and developing applications from scratch.
20. Understanding Velocity in Scrum
Definition: Measure of total work a team can handle in a Sprint, based on story points from previous Sprints.
Conclusion
These questions and answers help understand the Scrum Master role and assist in conducting successful hiring processes for qualified candidates.