Agile Scrum Master (ASM)

1. A week into a 3-week Sprint, a team discovered that they were unlikely to complete the
Sprint deliverables. Some of the team members felt they could catch up with the work
during the last 2 weeks if they got lucky with some of the dependencies. The Scrum Master
is required to log a weekly Sprint status with the stakeholders. What is the most appropriate
status for the Scrum Master to represent?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Delayed

On Time

At risk

In progress

Correct Option:C

EXPLANATION

Transparency is one of the pillars of Scrum teams. The team is currently reporting a delay and this
must be conveyed to the stakeholders so that they can be prepared for the eventuality and make
adjustments if necessary

2. Early into the planning of a release, a team felt they could not demonstrate any working
system in the first three Sprints because the user interface would not be built until the
fourth Sprint. What should the Scrum coach of the team recommend?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The team should advance the User interface work to the first Sprint to enable early demos

Do not set up demos until Sprint 4 and mark the first 3 Sprints as Iteration Zero

Ask the team to present a design document or similar artifact during the demo for the first 3
Sprints

Ask the team to figure out a way to provide a demo; even if it is a bare bones UI or simply the
API or schema

Correct Option:D

EXPLANATION

Working software is the primary measure of progress as per the Agile principles, therefore the team
must find a way to show a working system. Further, the coach should avoid dictating to the team
how they should schedule their work, but gently suggest to them that they need to find a way to
showcase their work.
 3. During a Scrum retrospective, a team identified a bunch of improvement actions, but said
they could not work on any of those because the next few Sprints were going to be very
busy. How should the Scrum Master respond?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Make it mandatory for the team to pick up improvements but leave it to the team members to
figure out who exactly does it

Ask the team to prioritize the actions and pick the top two or three, offering to negotiate the
Sprint backlog during the next Sprint planning meetings

Remind the team that the next Sprint is not planned yet, so they cannot use that as an excuse
for not taking up the actions

Reserve capacity for one of the team members to work exclusively on improvement actions

Correct Option: B

EXPLANATION

Continuous improvement is a key tenet of the Agile way of thinking and it cannot be put on a pause
mode. It is OK not to try too many changes at a time, but the changes can be prioritized and (in the
spirit of sustainable pace) the sprint backlog can be tuned to accommodate the time needed to bring
in the improvements.

4. What does osmotic communication, one of the core properties of projects in the Crystal
methodology, mean?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Communication by overhearing and currents, beyond the parties who are actually conversing

Communication at a whiteboard with the ability to doodle and draw

Communication between remote team members unable to see each other

Communication between members of the teams and external stakeholders

Correct Option: A

5. DSDM Atern proposes a prioritization scheme abbreviated as MoSCoW-Must, Should, Could,

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Roadmap

Release
 Sprint

Day

Correct Option:D

6. A team is working on the development of internal tools. One of the tools is meant to help
optimize network traffic for the company. What is the best time to involve the transition
manager from the Network Team into the team's development cycle?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Close to deployment to plan the training and transition

During the Sprint reviews to get feedback and identify any deployment issues early

During daily stand-ups to ensure they have maximum visibility of the team's work

During Sprint planning so that they know what is coming

Correct Option: B

7. A Product Owner is going on vacation for 3 weeks and has requested the Scrum Master to
stand in for her in the interim. How should the Scrum Master respond?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The Scrum Master should have a quick meeting to understand backlog and immediate priorities
in order to help the team in the PO's absence.

PO is a highly specialized role, so it is better that another PO in the organization take this up.

The PO role will compromise the Scrum Master role, so it is better that the PO finds somebody
else from the team.

The best solution is for the PO to spend about an hour daily to respond to the team's
requirements.

Correct Option: A

8. A team member is stuck on a technical blocking issue for the past three days. There is
nobody on the team (or the entire organization) who has worked on the platform. What is
the best course of action for the Scrum Master?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Reset expectations with the PO that the particular activity would likely not be completed in the
Sprint

Ask senior management to announce a special incentive for anybody who solves the problem
 Help the team member post the issue on internal and external Q&A forums and ask

Tell the team member to start working on something else until a solution to this problem can be
found

Correct Option:C

9. The new members of the team have been struggling with the core logic for a product, which
resulted in quality issues in the previous Sprint. The Scrum Master managed to convince
Mike, a senior technical lead, that he should spend some time explaining the logic and pair
program to the new members. How should the Scrum Master proceed from this point?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Involve Mike in Sprint planning and allocate him to the tasks being taken up by the newer team
members

Ask Mike to review the code for the new team members and provide feedback directly

Introduce Mike to the team and ask them if they would like to accept his offer for help

Bring up the topic during the next stand-up meeting and introduce Mike only if the team is
agreeable to taking external help

Correct Option:C

10. A team has a very pushy and demanding Product Owner. The Scrum Master was sick during
one of the Sprint planning meetings and couldn't attend it. After he was back, the Scrum
Master discovered that the team had been pushed into accepting more work than they
could accommodate in that Sprint. What can be done in this situation?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Ask the PO to cancel the Sprint and re-plan the Sprint based on more realistic estimates

Tell the team nothing can be done about the backlog of the current Sprint

Encourage the team to do the best they can to complete the current Sprint, and they could take
it easy during the next Sprint

Ask the team how much work they can get done in the Sprint and work with the PO to identify
the MUSTs within the current Sprint

Correct Option:D

11. For the past several Sprints, the team completed development on most of the planned
issues, but testing could not be completed. The testers felt it was impossible to complete all
the tests in the given timebox. How should the Scrum Master proceed?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Ask the team members if some of them would like to be nominated for a training on Agile
testing methods

Ask the developers to give a helping hand to the testers in finishing their work

Advise the team to embrace automated testing to overcome these issues

Correct Option: B

12. During a retrospective meeting, the team agreed that their Sprint duration (3 weeks) was
insufficient to deliver with good quality. They felt a 4-week Sprint would help reduce the
severity of this issue. The Scrum Master asked them to consider reducing the duration to
two weeks instead. Why did the Scrum Master make such an unexpected suggestion?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The Scrum Master said this to challenge the team to consider alternative options.

The Scrum Master probably said this in jest to lighten the mood a little.

The Scrum Master probably has an organizational mandate to move to 2-weekSprints.

The Scrum Master may have a personal preference for 2-week Sprints and would like the team
to try it out.

Correct Option: A

13. An enterprise architect from a company was conducting a technical review of a product.
During the review, he suggested that the team consider using the latest UI framework to
enable their web portals for mobile and tablet devices in keeping with the latest trend. He
followed up a week later asking the team whether they were doing anything about it. How
should the team respond?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

They should ask the Scrum Master to respond to this request.

They should ask the architect to contact the Product Owner so that the request can be
prioritized.

They should perform a small proof of concept in the Sprint and showcase results back to the
client.

They should push back saying the new framework is not on the current roadmap.

Correct Option: B
 14. Jim is part of a Scrum team and is accused of slacking off by the rest of the team. Apparently,
Jim doesn't collaborate with others, focuses only on his own tasks, and never helps anybody
else. The team members want to remove Jim from the team. They approach the Scrum
Master with the request. How should the Scrum Master respond?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The team should resolve their issues along with Jim, in the spirit of self-organization.

As long as Jim was completing his assigned tasks, there was no cause to remove him from the
team.

Call for a meeting of the rest of the team and if there is unanimity, Jim should be removed from
the team.

The feedback about Jim needs to be reported to his manager, and Jim should be given a chance
to reform.

Correct Option:D

15. Kim is a Tech Lead with a product team and is the team's most senior developer. Her team
decides to adopt Scrum. Kim wonders what will happen to her role and asks the coach who
is managing the transition. How should the coach respond?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Kim can be given an option to become a Scrum Master.

Kim should consider becoming an Architect and work across multiple teams.

Kim can become a programmer and use all her knowledge to help the team succeed.

Kim should transition into an Analyst role given her knowledge of the system.

Correct Option:C

16. The coach of a Scrum team recommended that the stories be written by hand on an index
card rather than entered into the system. Which is the best argument in favour of hand-
written stories as compared to stories typed into an Excel sheet or a tool?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

It is one way of ensuring that the story remains small.

It gives a personal touch to the story.

You can write the acceptance criteria behind the card.

Cards are accessible even when you are away from a network connection.

Correct Option: A
 17. A Product Owner was reading out a user story: "... we should make use of REST-based web
services to build our So A layer." The Scrum Master interrupted and said this is not a good
user story. Why did the Scrum Master say this?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

It contains technical jargon that may not be familiar to everybody in the team.

The story should express a need, not the solution; it should be up to the team to figure out the
solution.

The story is too big to accommodate in the given Sprint.

There is no way of validating the story.

Correct Option: B

18. During the Sprint retrospective meeting, the Scrum Master ran a quick poll of each team
member about how they felt about the achievements of the Sprint. Half the team (mostly
the developers) felt the Sprint went really well and the team got a lot done. The other team
members (mostly testers and other specialists) felt the work wasn't complete and the Sprint
could not be considered a success. Based on this information, what should the Scrum Master
focus on?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Greater clarity about the backlog so that everybody is on the same page about the exact
requirements.

Clearer demarcation and assignment of tasks so that the team knows exactly who needs to do
what

Some team building activities so that there is more collaboration and common thinking in the
team

A clearer definition of done so that the expectations about "done" ness is clarified

Correct Option:D

19. A team is planning a release. There are 10 team members and 6 months (about 10,000
working hours) for the release. The team estimates the backlog in ideal hours, which is
about 800 hours. The team feels confident that they can accomplish this work. The Scrum
Master asks the team and Product Owner to review their assumptions and check again
before making the commitment. Why is the Scrum Master doubtful?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

It is recommended that there should be at least 25% buffer on the estimates, so the plan is
cutting too tight.
 The stories may not be fully elaborated yet and some of the estimates may change in the future.

The estimate of 800 is in ideal hours and not in working hours.

The team should ideally estimate in story points if they intend to work as a Scrum team.

Correct Option:C

20. A team looked at stories prioritized for the Sprint and feels it can take only 8 out of the 10
stories. The Product Owner wants all the stories to be done because he has an internal demo
with the marketing team. The discussion remains deadlocked for several minutes. What is
the best way for the Scrum Master to deal with this?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Tell the Product Owner that the team's estimates should be respected, and he will have to reset
expectations with the marketing team.

Give the team an incentive if they completed the stories in time to enable the demo.

Wait for them to come to an agreement on their own.

Ask the Product Owner if the stories can be split up so that they will be ready for the marketing
demo, but some of the finishing work can be done later.

Correct Option:D

21. A team was working on a 6-month release and had all the stories lined up, estimated, and
assigned to Sprints before they began. During the Sprint review for the second Sprint, the
customer recommended a few changes to the reporting dashboards, which would greatly
increase their utility. How should the team respond to this?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The Product Owner should note this feedback and put it in the backlog and prioritize it against
the existing stories in the backlog.

The team should estimate the work required and determine if additional Sprints are needed.

The Scrum Master, on behalf of the team, should ask for a formal change request be logged so
that change management processes can be followed.

The team should determine if the changes are possible within the current system architecture
or if large-scale changes are needed.

Correct Option: A

22. A team's velocity for the past 5 Sprints was 45, 55, 63, 38, and 57. The customer wanted a
commitment at 90% confidence level about when the team can finish a fixed set of stories.
Which of these velocity values should be used?
SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The average velocity based on five Sprints' data

The average velocity after eliminating the highest and the lowest data points

The lowest data point as the confidence interval is fairly stringent

The median value, eliminating the two highest and two lowest points

Correct Option:C

23. A team was using planning poker technique to estimate for the first time. The process was
taking a very long time. They found that each member was estimating the stories only from
their perspective (Development, Testing, Database) and therefore it was hard to reach
consensus. How should the Scrum Master help the team?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Ask the team to switch to affinity estimating as it gives faster estimates

Tell them that there would be only two rounds of discussion of 2 minutes each and average of
the resulting estimate would be taken

Reiterate the fact that it is only an estimate and that it is OK for it to be not precise as long as it
is reasonable

Set aside the first 2 days of the Sprint to complete the estimation

Correct Option:C

24. The team wanted to work on a refactoring task of a size of about 40 hours, but the Product
owner was keen on getting a new feature in. How can the Scrum Master help in this case?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Tell the team that the backlog prioritization is the PO prerogative and should be left that way

Help the team articulate the value to the customer by calculating the ROI based on the benefits
forecast from refactoring compared to the cost

Let the team and PO discuss and sort out the issue - do not interfere or try to influence the
discussion

Set aside the first two days of the Sprint to complete the estimation

Correct Option: B

25. The Scrum Master finds that the team members are often blocked by having to wait for user
experience designer's (UED) inputs without which they cannot finalize the screens. The
 designers are shared across multiple teams and they have a certain lead time in being able
to accommodate requests. What is the best way to resolve this issue?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Give the team members authority to finalize designs if UED inputs don't come within a day

Talk to the UED team's manager to prioritize their allocation in favour of the team so they get
quicker responses

Ask the HR team to recruit more people with UED skills

Ask the team if it is possible to give more lead time to the UED team to get inputs by staggering
their work

Correct Option:D

EXPLANATION

26. For the past several Sprints, the Scrum Master found that the team's burn down chart used
to slope downward gently, flattening toward the middle of the Sprint, and then rapidly
declining to zero on the last day. How should the Scrum Master interpret this trend?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The team may not be updating the remaining hours diligently during the middle of the Sprint.

The PO might have pushed some additional work into the Sprint.

The PO removes a lot of work from the Sprint backlog at the end of the Sprint.

The team tends to relax during the middle of the Sprint.

Correct Option: A

EXPLANATION

27. Scrum teams across the organizations measure their velocity in story points completed. The
Project Management Office (PMO) wants to collect the velocity data for all teams to set an
organizational benchmark. The Scrum Master of a team tells the PMO representative that it
is not such a good idea. What might be the Scrum Master's reasoning?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Velocity cannot be compared because each team is different and so are their benchmarks for
measuring story points.

Velocity can only be compared after a few Sprints.

Teams might be tempted to fudge the numbers if they know they are in a competition with
others.
 Velocity is not a good measure for comparison; they should compare defects per completed
story instead.

Correct Option: A

EXPLANATION

28. A customer has outsourced a project to a remote team which uses Scrum. Due to the time
zone issues, the users are rarely able to participate in the reviews and give feedback though
they would like to. What is the best solution that the Scrum Master can suggest?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

They should appoint a Product Owner as their representative and channel their feedback
through the PO.

They should help the team document the personas clearly so that they can visualize the user
situation and the need for real-time feedback will diminish.

The team should try to find a suitable time slot sharing some of the time zone pain and record
the demo for those users who cannot attend.

The team should schedule reviews only once in 2-3 Sprints to make the time zone issues
manageable.

Correct Option:C

EXPLANATION

29. A very large product team has been split up into 10 different Scrum teams. The product
comprises 10 different subsystems which share functionality. Each team has been finding it
difficult to sift through the entire backlog, so they request each team to have its own backlog
to make it easier to manage and prioritize. How should the Scrum Master respond to this?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The backlog is the Product Owner's responsibility, so the decision lies with the chief Product
Owner.

There should be only one product backlog for one product; the teams can always create views
for their own subsystem if they need to.

It is OK to split the backlog if the teams feel it will help them be more productive with their
work.

They should use physical cards to capture the backlog and share the cards among different
teams

Correct Option: B

EXPLANATION
 30. A large product team comprises five different Scrum teams working on the same product.
The Scrum Masters meet once a week to synchronize the work. For one of the teams, the
Scrum Master is out sick. Whom should the team send for the meeting?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Scrum Master from any of the other teams can represent

The chief product owner can cover for the Scrum Master

A developer from the team familiar with the overall product

Should be OK to skip one meeting

Correct Option:C

EXPLANATION

31. A team has been trying to use Scrum for a while, but it has not been working out for them.
The main reason is that the team's backlog is too volatile. The team often gets support
tickets to work on in a completely unpredictable and ad-hoc manner. Since the system is
business-critical, it is not possible to ignore the tickets. This results in the development
Sprints going for a toss as more than 50% of the team's work is unforeseen. What should the
team's coach recommend?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The team should go back to using Waterfall.

The team should try out slightly longer iterations so that it can accommodate the uncertainty.

The team should push back ad-hoc requests and consider them only in the next Sprint.

The team should consider using a continuous work flow system like Kanban or use ultra-small
iterations to accommodate the frequent changes.

Correct Option:D

32. A team is trying to build a complex product which requires a lot of framework and API level
coding before the user visible features can be developed. The team's Scrum coach insists
that every Sprint, including the first one must show visible value to the customer. The Scrum
Master disagrees with the coach. Is the Scrum Master, right?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The Scrum Master is right; it's is all right for the team to spend a time-boxed iteration or two
writing just enough framework code.

The Scrum Master is right, in such projects the team needs to spend two or three Sprints
upfront on analysis and design.
 The Scrum Master is wrong; this violates the fundamental values of Scrum.

The Scrum Master is wrong; the Product Owner should decide this and not the team or Scrum
Master.

Correct Option: A

EXPLANATION

33. The chief product manager is representing a large product team comprising several Scrum
teams working in parallel. There are many epics and stories that require multiple projects to
be connected and worked on by different teams. The PO would like to implement a tool for
managing the backlog, planning, and tracking the project across various teams and give
detailed views about progress across the board. What should the Scrum Masters and team
members recommend?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Scrum recommends the stories to be written on cards, so they should continue to use physical
story cards.

The team should use simple Excel templates rather than expensive tools that will only add to
the overhead and not provide value.

Work with the PO to build a business case for the adoption of the tool if it brings in some
benefits.

It is the PO's decision as the team has no role to play in managing the backlog.

Correct Option:C

EXPLANATION

34. A senior member of the Project Management Office in a large company wants to try out
Scrum as a methodology. She tries to convince at least one executive to sponsor the
program. Everybody questions the need to try out a new methodology when the existing
one has been working well. What should be her first step in selling the methodology?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Get data about how Scrum improves productivity in teams

Explain the issues with the current methodology and how it is hurting or limiting the
organization

Organize a Scrum coach to come and talk to the executives

Try to get the customers to insist on using Scrum

Correct Option: B
EXPLANATION

35. An organization in the middle of a Scrum adoption program has selected a few pilot projects
with buy-in from executives. They have appointed Scrum coaches to provide real-time
guidance to the teams. Team members have been appointed to the Scrum roles and they
have been provided training. What else must be done to make the pilot projects successful?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Get the HR team on-board with regard to changing the organization-wide evaluation criteria

Explain the benefits of the methodology and get executive sponsorship

Ensure that the team is made aware of the definition of done and how to use it

Create an Enterprise transition committee and have them iterate through the backlog of issues
surfaced by the team

Correct Option:D

EXPLANATION

36. David is part of a Scrum team. He doesn't like Scrum and is an active opponent. He makes his
displeasure known at every opportunity. He thinks that Scrum is fine for mickey mouse sized
projects but doesn't work for enterprise class projects. He uses every challenge in the team
to drive home his point. What can be done about David?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Send David for Scrum training so that he understands the benefits of the methodology

Appoint David as the Scrum Master so he becomes part of the process and not an outsider who
can criticize

David's manager needs to have a direct conversation with him and he should be moved to
another assignment or out of the organization

Ask David to give suggestions about how to scale Scrum and apply whatever suggestions he
provides

Correct Option:C

EXPLANATION

37. Catherine is an executive in an organization which is practicing Scrum for three months. One
of her teams missed the Sprint deliverables for three Sprints in a row. Catherine would like
to speak to a member of the team about what the issues are and how it should be
addressed. Who should be invited to meet with Catherine?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

The whole team

Product Owner

Technical lead of the team

Correct Option: A

EXPLANATION

38. Michael is a DBA and serves five Scrum teams. All the teams have equal need for his time
and he also needs about half his time to perform maintenance and tuning on production
databases. What is the best way to split up David's time so that all the teams are able to
work with him?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Michael should spend one Sprint with each team while taking care of his routine activities

Michael's manager should be part of the Sprint planning for the five teams and prepare David's
schedule accordingly

Michael should spend a day with each of the Scrum team during the week and, may be, half a
day on the maintenance activity

The teams should block Michael's time on his calendar based on their need

Correct Option:C

EXPLANATION

39. Sean was a developer in a team that transitioned to Scrum about year ago. He is skilled in his
trade, knows the product, and has great business insight. His ratings were always top class.
He was surprised when his performance rating came down drastically in the current year. His
manager told him that the feedback from the rest of the team was not good and Sean was
obviously displeased. What should be done about this?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

Sean should talk to team members and get direct insight about what is going wrong.

The feedback should be more frequent and specific so that Sean can take action on it.

The evaluation criteria need to be revised to have an equal balance between individual
performance and team feedback.

The HR team needs to be called in to provide feedback on the process.

Correct Option: B
 40. A Scrum team came up with a request to redesign their team space to make it more open
and collaborative. The budget requirement was about $20,000. What is the best justification
for this expense?

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER

It would improve the team's morale.

It is not possible to do Scrum effectively without these changes.

It would reduce the disturbance caused to other teams.

It would enable real-time communication and improve productivity.

Correct Option:D