Scrum FAQs
These Scrum FAQs help you understand some of the practical aspects of Scrum implementation in a simple question-answer format.
How Agile & Scrum are related?
Agile is a philosophy, a set of values and principles that provides mindset guidance for better product development. Scrum is a framework that implements these agile values and principles through a set of high-level activities.
Can you explain how “Empiricism” is one of the foundations (pillars) of the Scrum framework?
Scrum teams evolve and measure their work based on concrete observations, experiences, and experiments.
List at least 5 activities of a Scrum Master in a Scrum Team?
- Train and coach Scrum teams and organizations on Scrum in specific and agile in general.
Help product owners with backlog optimization- Ensure Scrum events are conducted effectively and within timeboxes.
- Remove obstacles or “impediments” for the team
- Enable teams to be self-managing.
What is the difference between Sprint Planning and Product Backlog Refinement?
Sprint Planning involves team discussing and deciding what work can they accomplish during the Sprint and how will they accomplish it. They then choose the prioritized Product Backlog Items (PBIs, can be user stories) from the Product Backlog to the Sprint Backlog.
Product Backlog Refinement involves adding sufficient details to the PBIs such that the team can effectively size them. It also involves the Product Owner prioritizing these items. In that sense, Product Backlog Refinement is input to Sprint Planning. Also, the Scrum Guide is silent on Product Backlog Refinement. It is not defined as a separate event and doesn’t have a time-box. The teams can decide the best approach to the Product Backlog Refinement.
What is allowed Sprint duration as per Scrum, who decides the Sprint duration, and what parameters will be considered to come up with suitable Sprint duration?
Scrum Guide mentions the Sprint duration to be between 1-4 weeks.
It is the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer) who decide the Sprint length. The Scrum Master actively guides and helps the team to arrive at the decision. However, the Product Owner and Developers must balance the product requirements and delivery capabilities to decide the optimal Sprint length for the product and the team. Multiple Scrum teams working on the same product may have different Sprint lengths.
Some of the other critical parameters to be considered for defining the Sprint length are;
Product Uncertainty and need for feedback- Higher uncertainty may require frequent feedback, in which case the Sprint length may tend to be shorter.
Customer Value – The Sprint length must be such that the team is able to produce a valuable product increment at the end of the Sprint.
A Scrum Team working on 5 items in the current Sprint and the Sprint length is 2 weeks (10 days). All the 5 items are completed by the 7th day’s end, so they wanted to close the Sprint early as the work is completed early. Is it fine or not, if it is not fine share your justification.
The Sprint lengths are fixed, and only the Product Owner can terminate the Sprint early if the Sprint goal becomes obsolete.
If the team finishes all items, they can negotiate with the PO to determine what additional items they can pull into the Sprint backlog from the Product Backlog. However, they must ensure that they are still able to deliver a working Product Increment at the end of the Sprint.
Changing Sprint lengths break the consistency and rhythm. It also makes adopting empiricism difficult (e.g. velocity determination) for various processes.
A Scrum team could not complete all the items in their current Sprint, there are 2 items not done by the last day of the Sprint. They are exploring 2 options: option 1: Moving them to the next Sprint, option 2: Moving them to the TOP of the Product Backlog. Which option is correct, if none of these 2 options are incorrect, share your answer on what is the best thing to do in this case.
The team should move the unfinished items back to the top of the Product Backlog. However, there is a possibility that the Product Owner may have different items with higher priority now since the situation might have changed, so they can move such unfinished items down the order in the product backlog. Nevertheless, the Product Owner must get the opportunity to decide the priority of such unfinished items.
Who creates the Definition of Done in Scrum? What is the difference between the “Acceptance Criteria” and “Definition of Done”?
Definition of Done (DoD) is created by the Scrum team. It may include elements of organization-wide criteria, e.g. coding/development standards.
Defining Acceptance criteria is the responsibility of the Product Owner. The acceptance criteria define the conditions for the user stories to be considered to be correctly developed, hence they would be unique for each user story. DoD applies to all user stories and defines general conditions that the team must satisfy before they can say that the product increment is complete.
What is the difference between “Consulting” and “Coaching”?
Consulting is where the consultant gives answers and solutions to the problems. Whereas, coaching the process of the coach helps the coachee arrive at a deeper understanding and conclusion of the problem and solution.
Can the Product Owner and Scrum Master be the same person in a Scrum Team, if not please provide your justification?
Yes, they can be the same person. Product Owner and Scrum Master are not designations, they are accountabilities, and one person can have more than one accountabilities on a Scrum team.
What is the recommended Scrum Team size and how do you handle if there is a need for more members in a Scrum Team?
Ideally, the Scrum teams would have 10 or fewer members, with smaller teams being the preference. The team size should be small enough to be agile and flexible, while big enough to deliver meaningful product increments at the end of the Sprint.
If there is a need for more people, the team may be divided into multiple teams that work on the same product backlog.