Do you want to test yourself in scrum? So let’s do a little corrected exercise together? It’s really important to know if you have understood the subtleties of scrum [Scrum exercise corrected].
Indeed, scrum is not so easy to really understand. Some people don’t really understand each role and the real repartition between them. It’s the moment to learn all the subtleties of this agile framework.
Scrum exercise corrected
In this corrected exercise, I will offer you the questions and the choices of answers. Feel free to write down your answers on a piece of paper and see the answers after all the questions.
Do not be afraid, the questions are not necessarily easy and some play on widely held widely held beliefs.
It is possible to have several correct answers on a question! The scrum guide is taken as a reference to answer questions. Try to do this exercise without having it in front of you.
1/ Question 1
In scrum, who validates the user stories so that they go from “test” to “done”?
[ ] the scrum master
[ ] the product owner
[ ] the development team
[ ] the whole team
2/ Question 2
The development team may include:
[ ] the front and back developers
[ ] the developers, a business analyst and a tester
[ ] a tester and developers
[ ] the developers, a PMO and a tester
3/ Question 3
The product backlog refinement is:
[ ] the new name for grooming backlog
[ ] a scrum ceremony
[ ] a practice of refining the user stories and the estimating in poker planning
[ ] it is not official in scrum
4/ Question 4
What artifacts exist in scrum?
[ ] the definition of done
[ ] the definition of ready
[ ] sprint backlog
[ ] backlog increment
5/ Question 5
The product owner is responsible:
[ ] to confirm that the items are indeed “done”
[ ] of product backlog management
[ ] that the development team understands the items
[ ] to make the sprint backlog transparent
6/ Question 6
The scrum master must:
[ ] have advanced knowledge on managing a product backlog
[ ] facilitate scrum ceremonies
[ ] work with other company scrum masters
[ ] coach the development team if necessary
7/ Question 7
Which sentences are true around the sprint review:
[ ] the product owner invites the scrum team and the main stakeholders
[ ] the team discusses the problems encountered and how they were resolved
[ ] the team demonstrates the “finished” work
[ ] review of deadlines and budgets must be done
8/ Question 8
The scrum:
[ ] is a framework
[ ] is an agile method
[ ] does not take care of application maintenance
[ ] is a light frame
9/ Question 9
The scrum allows in exceptional cases to cancel a sprint. Which sentences are true?
[ ] the development team can ask the product owner to cancel the sprint
[ ] only the product owner is authorized to cancel a sprint
[ ] a sprint starts again the following week so as not to disturb the dates of the ceremonies
[ ] only the scrum master is authorized to cancel a sprint
10/ Question 10
What statement (s) are true about sprint planning?
[ ] all the items chosen in sprint planning are not necessarily finalized.
[ ] only the development team validates its ability to do (the number of items in the sprint)
[ ] a sprint planning can last up to 8 hours
[ ] the development team must define how it will carry out the items
Scrum exercise corrected: the answers
Before going to the answers, here is how to locate yourself:
8/10 to 10/10 -> you are an expert who has thoroughly dissected the guide scrum.
5/10 to 8/10 -> very good result because this Scrum corrected exercise was extremely hard.
3/10 to 5/10 -> I advise you to review the guide scrum because you still lack some knowledge
0/10 to 3/10 -> take a good look at the answers to understand the subtleties that make scrum a very complicated framework to set up
Now let’s go to the answers and see if you have the right answers. If not, you will have links to articles to explain yourself.
1/ Question 1
In scrum, who validates the user stories so that they go from “test” to “done”?
[ ] the scrum master
[ ] the product owner
[X] the development team
[ ] the whole team
Although this idea really spreads a lot because it seems more logical for those who come from traditional methods, it is not the product owner who tests (in the sense of verifying the work of the development team) the user-stories before declaring them “Done”. The development team is 100% responsible for providing potentially deliverable “done” user stories.
2/ Question 2
The development team may include:
[X] the front and back developers
[X] the developers, a business analyst and a tester
[X] a tester and developers
[X] the developers, a PMO and a tester
All the answers are good. The development team does not mean “developer” teams but the implementation team. All those who are not “product owners” or “scrum masters” and who participate in the realization of the product are part of the development team. So even if this surprises, the Business Analyst or the PMO if necessary are part of the development team.
We can accept another answer: “no box checked”. Indeed, the development team does not recognize any individual title. So the correct answers would be:
[X] the front developer skills and back developer skills
[X] the developer skills, business analyst skills and testing skills
[X] developer skills and tester skills
[X] the developer skills, PMO skills and test skills
Yes, it’s subtle.
3/ Question 3
The product backlog refinement is:
[X] the new name for grooming backlog
[ ] a scrum ceremony
[ ] a practice of refining the user stories and the estimating in poker planning
[ ] it is not official in scrum
Only the first answer is true. The term grooming has a connotation “pedophile” and has therefore been replaced by “product backlog refinement”.
Article: Backlog Grooming
Product backlog refinement is not a ceremony although it is often done in this way. It is up to the team to define how the refinement of the product backlog “items”; it is not necessarily in the form of ceremonies
If the product backlog refinement is a refining moment, it concerns “items”. Although user story is an ultra popular practice, the scrum only talks about items. The team decides what is an “item”. In addition, the estimation in poker planning is a practice that does not come from the scrum.
4/ Question 4
What artifacts exist in scrum?
[X] the definition of done
[ ] the definition of ready
[X] sprint backlog
[ ] backlog increment
The definition of ready is a widespread practice but not recognized by the scrum guide. I do not know the reasons for this absence but this practice often leads to making the scrum “no agile”.
Article: Definition of Ready (dor)
The backlog increment doesn’t exist; this should not be confused with the “increment” artifact. The increment is the set of “done” elements of the sprint added to the increment of the previous sprint. There is no notion of backlog in this artifact.
5/ Question 5
The product owner is responsible:
[ ] to confirm that the items are indeed “done”
[X] of product backlog management
[X] that the development team understands the items
[ ] to make the sprint backlog transparent
The product owner is responsible for the product backlog and its understanding. However, he has no responsibility for the backlog sprint; the latter is 100% the responsibility of the development team.
Article: Sprint backlog
The product owner is not responsible for developments. Only the development team must set up quality requirements and verify by themselves that these criteria are met 100% before putting the item in “done”.
6/ Question 6
The scrum master must:
[ ] have advanced knowledge on managing a product backlog
[ ] facilitate scrum ceremonies
[X] work with other company scrum masters
[X] coach the development team if necessary
If you checked the first box as well, it is true that it is biased (but it is not). The scrum guide says:
“Make sure the Product Owner knows how to organize the Product Backlog to maximize value; ”
He says he has to make sure the product owner knows how to organize the backlog, but doesn’t say that he has to teach him. So, nothing prevents the scrum master from using another product owner or an agile coach to help about this part.
Urban legend, the scrum master does not facilitate ceremonies. He does this only if the team calls upon him or when it is necessary.
7/ Question 7
Which sentences are true around the sprint review:
[X] the product owner invites the scrum team and the main stakeholders
[X] the team discusses the problems encountered and how they were resolved
[X] the team demonstrates the “finished” work
[X] review of deadlines and budgets must be done
All the answers are good, they are part of the sprint review list proposed by the scrum guide.
8/ Question 8
The scrum:
[X] is a framework
[ ] is an agile method
[ ] does not take care of application maintenance
[X] is a light frame
Scrum is a light work environment for the development, delivery and maintenance of complex products. It is not a method although it is often called like that.
9/ Question 9
The scrum allows in exceptional cases to cancel a sprint. Which sentences are true?
[X] the development team can ask the product owner to cancel the sprint
[X] only the product owner is authorized to cancel a sprint
[ ] a sprint starts again the following week so as not to disturb the dates of the ceremonies
[ ] only the scrum master is authorized to cancel a sprint
In scrum, only the product owner is authorized to make the decision to cancel a sprint (or to end it). However, the development team can perfectly influence to go towards this cancellation. However the team have to work for the closing of this sprint canceled then the team immediately starts a new sprint.
10/ Question 10
What statement (s) are true about sprint planning?
[X] all the items chosen in sprint planning are not necessarily finalized.
[X] only the development team validates its ability to do (the number of items in the sprint)
[X] a sprint planning can last up to 8 hours
[X] the development team must define how it will carry out the items
All the answers are good. Warning ! In any case, the items must be 100% ready to be in the “todo”. The development team can request new items necessary to reach the sprint goal or accept unfinished items that they are sure they can do if these items are finalized during the sprint by the product owner. The fact of saying that all the “items” are “ready” to be taken in a sprint makes your scrum not agile.
If a very important feedback comes out of the sprint review, the product owner can put this item in the next sprint. He probably won’t have time to finalize it. It would be very sad to have to wait for an additional sprint to make an improvement with many values when it is a high expectation of the client.
conclusion Scrum exercise corrected
I hope you enjoyed this “Scrum Exercise Corrected” test; if so, please tell me and I will do new one very soon.
Note that it is very complicated and that only 20% of you will have more than 5/10. However, the score is not really important; I especially hope that it has allowed you to learn some interesting subtleties of scrum.
Scrum in french: framework scrum
Fancy a V2 scrum corrected exercise? Let us know in the comments.
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