CAD Agile Development Practices 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which Agile estimation technique uses a non-linear scale (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…) to reflect increasing uncertainty in larger items?
- T-shirt sizing
- Planning Poker (Correct answer)
- Dot voting
- Affinity mapping
Correct answer: Planning Poker
Planning Poker uses Fibonacci-like cards to estimate story points, with the non-linear scale reflecting that larger items carry proportionally more uncertainty.
Question 2: In Kanban, what does a Work-In-Progress (WIP) limit enforce?
- The maximum number of stories allowed in the product backlog
- The cap on how many items can be actively worked on in a workflow stage (Correct answer)
- The sprint velocity ceiling for the team
- The number of team members allowed per feature
Correct answer: The cap on how many items can be actively worked on in a workflow stage
WIP limits cap the number of items in a given workflow stage to reduce multitasking, surface bottlenecks, and improve flow.
Question 3: What is 'velocity' in the context of Scrum?
- The speed at which developers type code
- The sum of story points completed by a team in a sprint (Correct answer)
- The number of defects fixed per iteration
- The rate at which the product backlog grows
Correct answer: The sum of story points completed by a team in a sprint
Velocity is the total story points a team completes in a sprint, used to forecast how much work can be taken in future sprints.
Question 4: A product owner wants to add a high-priority feature to a sprint already in progress. What should happen according to Scrum guidelines?
- Add the feature immediately by removing an equivalent story
- Wait until the next sprint planning to include the new feature (Correct answer)
- Cancel the current sprint and restart with the new feature included
- Have only the senior developer work on the new feature in parallel
Correct answer: Wait until the next sprint planning to include the new feature
Scrum protects the sprint goal from mid-sprint changes; new high-priority items should be added to the product backlog and addressed in the next sprint unless the current sprint is cancelled.
Question 5: Which Agile practice is specifically designed to discover and address team process improvements at the end of each iteration?
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective (Correct answer)
- Backlog Grooming
- Daily Standup
Correct answer: Sprint Retrospective
The Sprint Retrospective is the ceremony where the team inspects its own process, collaboration, and tools, then commits to specific improvements for the next sprint.
Question 6: In Agile, what does 'INVEST' stand for as criteria for a well-formed user story?
- Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable (Correct answer)
- Iterative, Non-functional, Versatile, Extensible, Scalable, Trackable
- Integrated, Normalized, Verified, Evaluated, Structured, Tested
- Incremental, Needed, Visible, Essential, Scoped, Timely
Correct answer: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable
INVEST is a quality checklist for user stories: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable.
Question 7: What is the key difference between a product backlog and a sprint backlog?
- The product backlog contains bugs only; the sprint backlog contains features
- The product backlog holds all desired work; the sprint backlog holds items committed for the current sprint (Correct answer)
- The sprint backlog is maintained by the Scrum Master; the product backlog by the team
- The product backlog is time-boxed; the sprint backlog is not
Correct answer: The product backlog holds all desired work; the sprint backlog holds items committed for the current sprint
The product backlog is the comprehensive ordered list of all desired work, while the sprint backlog is the subset the team commits to completing within the current sprint.
CAD Agile Development Practices 3
Which Agile estimation technique uses a non-linear scale (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…) to reflect increasing uncertainty in larger items?