Last week we had a chat with James Coplien (a.k.a “Cope”), the man who helped start the Scrum/Agile movement some 24 years ago.
Cope asked us to help the software development community gain a better understanding of Scrum by posing the following 8 questions on the basics of Scrum. Enjoy :-)
1. What is the goal of the Daily Scrum?
a) To ensure the team finishes the Sprint Backlog at the end of the Sprint
b) To report progress to the ScrumMaster
c) To answer the Three Questions
d) To re-plan the work for the next day so the Sprint achieves the Sprint Goal
2. The Product Backlog is:
a) Unordered
b) In delivery order
c) In priority order
d) In value and cost order
3. The Product Backlog is:
a) a list of requirements.
b) a list of Enabling Specifications
c) a list of descriptions of product features and deliverables
d) a roadmap
4. The Product Backlog is a roadmap:
a) True
b) False
5. What is the Sprint Review?
a) An event with wide-ranging discussions about the product, how to improve it, and what is ready to be shipped
b) A demo by the Developers and evaluation by the PO about what is ready to be shipped
c) A report on the status of the product to determine what is shippable
d) A formal risk assessment of the new Product Increment
6. Which best describes the relationship between the Product Owner and the Development/Delivery Team?
a) The PO defines the Product Backlog contents and the Developers provide constraints that the PO uses to properly order it
b) The whole Scrum Team comes to a consensus on Product Backlog content
c) The PO defines the ROI of each PBI and the Developers define cost, and the rest is just a mechanical reordering to optimize profit
d) The PO and Developers define the Product Backlog together, but the PO has final say on the ordering and content
7. About what percentage of its Sprints should a great Scrum team fail, where “fail” is defined here as not completing everything on the Sprint Backlog?
a) 75%
b) 50%
c) 25%
d) 0%
8. What is the value of certification in the area of managing projects?
a) It more than doubles the efficiency.
b) It increases efficiency by about 25%
c) It makes no difference in anything
d) It makes the corresponding team less efficient.
To discuss the answers to the above questions, just email us :-)
