Interview Questions & Answers

1. What is a spike in Agile and when to use it?

A spike is a user story for which team cannot estimate the effort needed. In such case, it is
better to run time-boxed research to learn about the issue or for a possible solution. So that
team can further break down the feature into the stories and estimate them.
A spike can only be used after product backlog grooming. And even after the grooming if
team are uncertain and not able to estimate the effort.
A spike can be used in scenarios like
There are multiple solutions and not sure which one to use
Not certain about the solution they are thinking of
Absolutely no idea how to approach the problem
Team needs to do some initial work to determine the estimate of the effort

2. Can you describe the role of a Scrum Master?

Basically, Scrum Master is a servant leader who serves and guides the Scrum team and the
organisation in adhering to the values, principles and processes of the Scrum as defined by
the Scrum Guide.
He does that by facilitating the scrum evens as requested or when needed and helping the
Product owner in formulating techniques for effective product backlog, and ensuring that the
product owner has clarity on arranging the backlog items to yield maximum benefit and
product planning in an empirical way.
By identifying and removing the impediments that are blocking the development team in
achieving sprint or product goal. Helping the development team in creating high value
products. Constantly reviewing the progress ensuring the team is working effectively.
Maintaining transparency.
Helping the stake holder and employees to understand the scrum value and principles.
Leading and guiding the organisation in successful scrum adoption.
Scrum Master acts as a coach for the team and acting as a bridge.
Scrum master actually doesn’t solve the problems, in fact he facilitates and helps the team in
self organisation and finding solutions.

3. Please can you describe in one sentence what you think agile is?

Agile is a mindset, a philosophy based on 4 values and 12 principles giving more importance
to the people over processes and delivering useful increment of working software in iterations
and also by inspecting the results and adapting changes accordingly.

4. Describe a typical day in your current role

My day starts by diving into my inbox with a black coffee mug in my hand. I spend sometime
reading and responding to priority emails from the team and others like stake holders and
move onto teams Jira Scrum board to see if there are anything that need to be addressed and
modify the impediments board, if any of them were resolved and by the time team arrives, I
will be going into the daily scrum meeting room and after the daily stand up, If there are any
parking lot items to be discussed, I will stay over to discuss them. And if there are any
meetings scheduled with anyone like some managers, agile coach or stake holders, I will
participate in them before my lunch break.
 If it is planned, I will be facilitating a backlog refinement event leading to a sprint planning,
review or retrospective.

Any scheduled meetings with the team members like testers, BA or I might facilitate any
team building workshop.

Check my emails for the final time for the day and schedule my next day before I sign off.

5. What is the purpose of a retrospective? Can you describe at a high level a typical format?

Retrospective is an opportunity for the team to reflect on what went well and how it could’ve
been better and what to change or improve to make it better. It is when we get to ask
ourselves and answer 3 questions.

What is working well: what is not; and what to change or adapt to make it better. Its kind of
inspect and adapt.; learning from mistakes. Stop doing what is not working and Making notes
of action points to implement going forward. You may call it as actionable team learning.
Whether it’s an acquisition of new knowledge or skill that leads to change in the way of
working for improved productivity, improved capability, improved quality and more
importantly improved enjoyment of doing work.

6. There are many ways during a sprint when inspection and adaption occurs, or continuous
improvement is promoted, can you describe these.

7. Can you describe a situation when there has been some conflict within your Scrum team and
how did you resolve it?

There was a conflict between a developer and tester in my previous role at BJ Learning and it
was impeding the progress of the work. As soon as I realised it, I approached both of them
individually and made them comfortable to understand more about their concerns. They
opened themselves to me while I listened to them patiently of their pain points. I
implemented the same approach for both of them and tried to analyse the root cause for their
conflict. I appreciated their individual contribution towards the great work they are doing and
explained why it is important to work as a team for the greater benefit for the overall success
of the team and ultimately the business. After that conversation, I noticed that they were
working together without any further conflict.

8. How might you manage actions that come out of a retrospective?

9. Your Product Owner has limited (or no) experience working in an agile framework. They
are not interested in attending scrum ceremonies. How could you encourage them to attend?
10. On the last day of the sprint a story is found to have a number of defects, how will you
manage this situation?
I will always check with QA team as well.
11.
12. SLACK – Question 26 – can speak individually, huddle – because JIRA is integrated. Team
interaction thakkuva ayyindi. Informal gathering thakkuva ayinayi., video calls, Friday social,
Thursday quiz
13.