Must know Agile Methodology Interview Questions and Answers

In this article, we will be looking at some most important agile interview questions and
answers. There are certain agile methodology questions that are generally asked in an
interview. We’ve created this agile interview questions and answers guide to understand the
depth and real-intend behind the questions.
Q1. What is Agile Testing?
The first question of agile interview question tests your knowledge about the basic of agile
testing. Agile testing is a practice based on the principles of agile software development. It
includes all members of an agile team with specific skills and a certain expertise to ensure the
timely delivery of a product with the release of additional features at frequent intervals.
Q2. How is Agile Methodology different than Traditional Waterfall process?

This is the most commonly asked agile interview question.

In agile methodology, features of the software are delivered frequently, so that the testing
activity is done simultaneously with the development activity. Testing time is shortened as only
small features are need be tasted at once.

Waterfall Agile
While, in the waterfall model, testing activities take place at the end of the entire development
process. Testing time, in this case, is as long as the entire product is to be tested in one go.
Waterfall methodology is a closed process where all stakeholders are not involved in the
development process whereas agile methodology requires the involvement of various
stakeholders including customers.
Q3. What are the pros and cons of Agile Methodology?
This is one of the most frequently asked agile interview questions.
Pros of the agile methodology:

 Speedy and continuous delivery of the software ensures customer satisfaction.

  All the stakeholders (customers, developers, and testers) are involved in the process
which leads to technical excellence and good design.
 It facilitates close interaction between business people and developers.
 Its flexibility ensures the adaptation to changing circumstances. Changes added at the
last moment or at a later stage of development can be incorporated without any
problem.
 Breaking down the project into iterations allows the team to focus on high-quality
development, testing, and collaboration. Conducting testing during each iteration
means that bugs get identified and solved more quickly.
However, it does have some disadvantages too:

 Sometimes when software deliverables are large ones, it is tough to determine the
effort level required at the beginning of the software development lifecycle.
 In agile methodology, documentation and designing take a back seat.
 The decision making crucial for the development process comes with seniority and
experience. Hence, freshers can hardly manage to find a place in the agile software
development process.
 Active involvement and collaboration are required throughout the Agile process, which
is more time consuming than a traditional approach.
Q4. What kind of projects is suitable for the Agile Methodology?
The traditional methodology is suited for projects with predefined, clearly stated requirements
while agile development methodology is suitable for projects with dynamic requirements
where frequent changes in the product come up on a regular basis.
Q5. What are the different types of Agile Methodologies?
An agile interview question and answers guide will not complete without this question.
There are several types of agile development methodology. Scrum is one of the most popular
and widely used agile methods. Other types of agile development methodology are;
development like Crystal Methodology, DSDM (Dynamic Software Development Method),
Feature-driven development (FDD), Lean software development (Kanban) and Extreme
Programming (XP).
Q6. Difference between extreme programming and scrum?
Scrum teams usually have to work in iterations which are known as sprints which generally last
up to two weeks to one month long while XP team works in the iteration that lasts for one or
two weeks.
XP teams are more flexible as they can change their iterations while Scrum teams do not allow
any change in their iterations.
The product owner prioritizes the product backlog but the team decides the sequence in which
they will develop the backlog items in scrum methodology. Whereas XP team works in strict
priority order, features developed are prioritized by the customers.
Q7. Can you explain the lean methodology in detail?
Lean software development method follows the principle of “Just in time production”. It aims at
increasing the speed of software development and decreasing cost.
The basic idea of lean is to reduce non-value-added activities (known as “wastes”) in order to
increase customer value. The agile process itself is a lean method for software development
lifecycle. However, activities like backlog grooming (when team review items on the backlog to
ensure the appropriate items are in the backlog, that they are prioritized well, and that the
items at the top of the backlog are ready for delivery) code refactoring (process of restructuring
existing computer code – changing the factoring — without changing its external behavior) fits
agile methodology more in tune with lean principles.
Q8. What is Kanban?
Kanban is a tool which helps the team to keep a close eye the work i.e., to measure its progress.
Apart from the progress, the status of a development story can be seamlessly described with
the help of ‘Kanban board’.
Kanban board aids in writing the whole scenario of a project at a single place to give a perfect
picture of the bottleneck, a task done, workflow progress. It helps in the continuous delivery of
the product without overburdening the team.
Q9. Is there any difference between incremental and iterative development?
Yes, the iterative methodology is a process of software development without any interruption.
In this method, software development cycles consisting of sprint and release are repeated until
the final product is obtained. Whereas, the incremental model is a process of software
development where the product is designed, implemented and tested incrementally until the
product is finished. It involves both development and maintenance.
Q10. What are burndown and burn-up charts in agile methodology?
To track the progress of an ongoing project, these charts are used. Burn-up charts indicate the
work that has been completed while Burn-down chart shows the amount of remaining work in
a project.

Q11. Define the roles in Scrum?

There are mainly three roles that a Scrum team have:

1. Project Owner has the responsibility of managing the product backlog. Works with end-
users and customers and provides proper requirements to the team to build the proper
product.
2. Scrum Master works with the scrum team to make sure each sprint gets completed on
time. Scrum master ensures proper workflow for the team.
3. Scrum Team: Each member of the team should be self-organized, dedicated and
responsible for the high quality of the work.

Q12. What is Product Backlog & Sprint Backlog?

The Product backlog is maintained by the project owner which contains every feature and
requirement of the product.
Sprint backlog can be treated as the subset of product backlog which contains features and
requirements related to that particular sprint only.

Q13. Do you know what is the scrum of scrums?

The term “Scrum of Scrums” is used when there are multiple teams involved in a project. It
refers to the scaling of the daily Scrum meeting. In this scenario, each team is responsible for
conducting and leading its separate scrum meeting. However, to maintain coordination and
communication among all the different teams, a separate meeting must be conducted wherein
all the teams participate. This is known as the “Scrum of Scrums.”
In this meeting, one team leader from every team (known as the “ambassador”), will represent
their team. The main idea behind this is to encourage Agile teams to collaborate and coordinate
their work with each other.
Q14. What is the velocity of a sprint and how it is measured?
Velocity is one of the planning tools used to estimate the speed of the work and time of
completion of the project. The calculation of velocity is done by reviewing the work team has
successfully completed during earlier sprints; for example, if the team completed 5 stories
during a two-week sprint and each story was worth 3 story points, then the team’s velocity is
15 story points per sprint.
Q15. According to you what are some qualities that a good agile tester must have?
A competent agile tester must possess the following qualities:

 They should be capable of understanding the requirements quickly.

 An agile tester should be aware of all the agile principles and concepts and values as
listed down in an agile manifesto.
 They should be able to prioritize the work based on the requirements.
 They should have excellent communication skills as continuous communication between
business associates, developers and tester is a backbone of the agile development
process.
Q16. Can you list some responsibilities that a scrum team have to undertake?
This is one of the important agile interview questions. Major responsibilities that a scrum team
has to include:

 Breaking down the requirements, creating tasks, estimating and distributing the created
tasks. To put simply they are in charge of creating sprint backlogs.
 They have to arrange daily sprint meeting.
 It is a responsibility of the team to ensure that every functional feature is delivered on
time. They have to create a sprint burndown diagram to know to get the exact estimate
of work done and the work that needs to be done.
Q17. Differentiate between Agile and Scrum.
A critical agile interview question you need to be aware of.
Agile and Scrum have their fair share of similarities and differences. Since Scrum is a part of the
Agile Methodology, both of them promote the completion of projects incrementally in small
fragments. Also, both methodologies are iterative in nature.
However, the main difference between Agile and Scrum is that the former has a broader
spectrum. While Agile Methodology is used for project management, Scrum is ideal for projects
where the requirements change rapidly. In the Agile Methodology, leadership holds the most
pivotal position, whereas Scrum encourages the creation of a self-organizing and cross-
functional team.
Q18. Explain “Zero Sprint” in Agile.
In Agile Methodology, Zero Sprint refers to the first step that comes before the first sprint. So, it
is more like a pre-step to the first sprint. Thus, Zero Sprint would include a host of activities that
are to be completed before starting a project, including setting up the development
environment, preparing backlog, and other such tasks that are usually done before beginning
the actual development process.
Q19. What is the ideal duration of a Scrum Sprint?
The duration of a Scrum Sprint or the Scrum Cycle primarily depends on the project size and the
team working on it. A Scrum team may consist of 3-9 members, and it takes about 3-4 weeks to
draft and complete a Scrum script. Going by this calculation, the average duration of a Scrum
Sprint is four weeks.
Q20. Explain the role of the Scrum Master.
One of the popular agile interview questions.
The Scrum Master is the leader and supervisor of the Scrum team. The main job of the Scrum
Master is to ensure that the team abides by the Agile values and principles and follows the
agreed-upon processes and practices. Some of the most crucial responsibilities of the Scrum
Master are:

 To eliminate all the obstacles that could hamper the productivity of the Scrum team.
 To establish a productive and collaborative work environment for the Scrum team.
 To protect the team from the interruptions and distractions of the outside world.
 To maintain a good relationship between the team, clients, and all the other
stakeholders involved in a project.
 To supervise the operations of the Scrum team and motivating them as and when
needed.
Q21. Differentiate between “Sprint Planning Meeting” and “Sprint Retrospective Meeting.”
Although the two terms may sound similar, Sprint Planning Meeting and Sprint Retrospective
Meeting are quite different from one another.
A Sprint Planning Meeting involves all the Scrum roles – product owner, scrum team, and
scrum master – coming together to discuss the project priorities and backlog items. Usually, the
Sprint Planning Meeting is a weekly event that lasts for about an hour.
A Sprint Retrospective Meeting, on the other hand, is one where all the Scrum roles (product
owner, scrum team, and scrum master) come together to discuss the good and bad elements of
the sprint and the sprint improvements. This meeting is generally an extension of the Sprint
Planning Meeting and can last up to two to three hours.
-------------------------------------------------------
Apart from these agile methodology interview questions, questions based on your previous
experience in case you are already acquainted with agile methodology can be asked by the
interviewer. You might want to revisit your on-the-job learnings and prepare answers to
questions like:
How long were your sprints for the projects you have worked on?
What is the maximum number of scrums you have handled at a time?
What kind of project management tools were used for your project?
Have you used automated test tools earlier? How was your experience?
Did your iterations overlap?
Conclusion
With that, we come to the end of our list of agile interview questions and answers guide.
Although these agile interview questions are selected from a vast pool of probable questions,
these are the ones you are most likely to face.