Agile Project Management Agile Team Dynamics and Collaboration 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does it mean for an Agile team to be 'self-organizing'?
- The team has no manager or accountability
- The team decides internally how best to accomplish its work without being micromanaged (Correct answer)
- The team selects its own members and sets its own salaries
- The team writes its own user stories without product owner input
Correct answer: The team decides internally how best to accomplish its work without being micromanaged
Self-organizing teams determine how to best accomplish their goals internally, fostering ownership and accountability without top-down micromanagement.
Question 2: What is a 'cross-functional' Agile team?
- A team made up of members from different companies
- A team with all the skills needed to deliver a working product increment without depending on external teams (Correct answer)
- A team where every member performs every role
- A team that works across multiple projects simultaneously
Correct answer: A team with all the skills needed to deliver a working product increment without depending on external teams
A cross-functional team has all the skills — development, testing, design, etc. — needed to deliver a complete, working product increment independently.
Question 3: What is psychological safety in the context of Agile teams?
- Having an anonymous feedback system
- The belief that team members will not be punished for speaking up with ideas, questions, or mistakes (Correct answer)
- A secure login system for team collaboration tools
- Conducting background checks on all team members
Correct answer: The belief that team members will not be punished for speaking up with ideas, questions, or mistakes
Psychological safety is the shared belief that the team environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, enabling honest communication and learning.
Question 4: How does Agile handle team conflict?
- Conflicts are escalated directly to management to resolve
- The team is encouraged to resolve conflicts at the lowest level using open communication (Correct answer)
- Conflict is avoided by assigning tasks individually to prevent overlap
- The scrum master makes all final conflict decisions
Correct answer: The team is encouraged to resolve conflicts at the lowest level using open communication
Agile encourages teams to surface and resolve conflicts directly and transparently at the team level, supported by the scrum master as a facilitator.
Question 5: What is the recommended size for an Agile Scrum team?
- 2–3 people
- 5–9 people (excluding scrum master and product owner) (Correct answer)
- 15–20 people
- Any size, as long as everyone has a defined role
Correct answer: 5–9 people (excluding scrum master and product owner)
Scrum recommends teams of 5–9 developers, small enough to communicate easily and large enough to complete meaningful work each sprint.
Question 6: What is 'osmotic communication' in Agile teams?
- Using email to keep all team members informed
- Information absorbed passively by team members sitting near each other (Correct answer)
- A structured daily communication meeting
- Sharing meeting notes with the entire organization
Correct answer: Information absorbed passively by team members sitting near each other
Osmotic communication refers to the passive absorption of relevant information by co-located team members who overhear conversations happening around them.
Agile Project Management Agile Team Dynamics and Collaboration 1
What does it mean for an Agile team to be 'self-organizing'?