AAC Agile Planning & Estimation 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In MoSCoW prioritization, the 'S' stands for:
- Significant
- Should have (Correct answer)
- Scheduled
- Systematic
Correct answer: Should have
MoSCoW stands for Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have — 'S' represents 'Should have,' items important but not critical for the current release.
Question 2: T-shirt sizing (XS, S, M, L, XL) is best used during which phase of Agile planning?
- Detailed sprint-level task breakdowns
- High-level roadmap and portfolio-level estimation (Correct answer)
- Final acceptance testing before release
- Post-sprint retrospectives
Correct answer: High-level roadmap and portfolio-level estimation
T-shirt sizing is a quick, relative estimation technique used at the roadmap or portfolio level when precision is not yet needed or possible.
Question 3: The Cone of Uncertainty in Agile planning illustrates that:
- The team's confidence increases as the project progresses and unknowns are resolved (Correct answer)
- Estimates become less reliable over time due to team turnover
- Scope changes are always the result of poor initial planning
- Velocity decreases predictably in the final stages of a project
Correct answer: The team's confidence increases as the project progresses and unknowns are resolved
The Cone of Uncertainty shows that estimation ranges are widest at the start and narrow as the team learns more through actual delivery, reducing unknowns.
Question 4: Rolling wave planning in Agile refers to the practice of:
- Completing all planning upfront before development begins
- Planning near-term work in detail while keeping future work at a higher level (Correct answer)
- Assigning work in waves of ten stories at a time
- Re-estimating every story at the end of each sprint
Correct answer: Planning near-term work in detail while keeping future work at a higher level
Rolling wave planning acknowledges uncertainty by detailing only near-term work and progressively elaborating future work as more information becomes available.
Question 5: A sprint burndown chart shows:
- The number of bugs introduced during the sprint
- Remaining work (story points or tasks) plotted against time within a sprint (Correct answer)
- The team's cumulative velocity across all sprints
- The total cost incurred by the project to date
Correct answer: Remaining work (story points or tasks) plotted against time within a sprint
A sprint burndown chart tracks remaining work against time, allowing the team to see at a glance whether they are on track to complete sprint commitments.
Question 6: The INVEST criteria for user stories include which of the following attributes?
- Integrated, Negotiable, Valuable, Extensible, Standardized, Testable
- Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable (Correct answer)
- Iterable, Normalized, Verified, Efficient, Scalable, Timely
- Interactive, Networked, Verified, Executable, Structured, Trackable
Correct answer: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable
INVEST stands for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable — a checklist for evaluating the quality of a user story.
Question 7: A 'spike' story in Agile planning is used to:
- Address a sudden increase in user traffic to the application
- Allocate time for research or experimentation to reduce uncertainty before estimation (Correct answer)
- Document technical debt discovered during a sprint
- Capture emergency bug fixes that bypass normal backlog prioritization
Correct answer: Allocate time for research or experimentation to reduce uncertainty before estimation
A spike is a time-boxed investigation or proof-of-concept that reduces uncertainty, enabling the team to estimate related stories more accurately afterward.
AAC Agile Planning & Estimation 2
In MoSCoW prioritization, the 'S' stands for: