Certified Agile Service Manager Agile and Scrum Fundamentals 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Agile, what is a 'spike' used for?
- A technical term for a production incident
- A time-boxed research task to reduce uncertainty before committing to work (Correct answer)
- A rapid deployment to production
- An emergency change to the Sprint Backlog
Correct answer: A time-boxed research task to reduce uncertainty before committing to work
A spike is a time-boxed effort used to research, explore, or prototype a solution in order to reduce unknowns before estimating or planning.
Question 2: Which Agile estimation technique uses relative sizing with a non-linear number sequence?
- T-shirt sizing
- Planning Poker (Correct answer)
- Dot Voting
- Affinity Mapping
Correct answer: Planning Poker
Planning Poker uses the Fibonacci-like sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…) to encourage relative estimation and expose disagreement.
Question 3: What is the Agile concept of 'technical debt'?
- Money owed to vendors for software licenses
- The future cost of rework caused by choosing an expedient but imperfect solution now (Correct answer)
- Bugs found in production after release
- The backlog of unfinished features
Correct answer: The future cost of rework caused by choosing an expedient but imperfect solution now
Technical debt is the implied future cost of additional rework caused by choosing a quick or easy solution instead of a better approach.
Question 4: In Scrum, who has the authority to cancel a Sprint?
- Development Team
- Scrum Master
- Product Owner (Correct answer)
- Stakeholders
Correct answer: Product Owner
Only the Product Owner has the authority to cancel a Sprint, typically when the Sprint Goal has become obsolete.
Question 5: Which Agile practice involves breaking stories into the smallest possible piece that still delivers user value?
- Story splitting (Correct answer)
- Backlog grooming
- Spike resolution
- Velocity calibration
Correct answer: Story splitting
Story splitting (or story decomposition) is the practice of dividing large user stories into smaller, independently valuable pieces.
Question 6: What is the primary benefit of cross-functional teams in Agile?
- Each member only needs one skill set
- The team can complete end-to-end work without external dependencies (Correct answer)
- Management can assign individuals to multiple projects
- It reduces the need for a Product Owner
Correct answer: The team can complete end-to-end work without external dependencies
Cross-functional teams contain all the skills needed to deliver a complete Increment, minimizing dependencies on outside teams.
Question 7: In Lean thinking applied to Agile, what are the eight wastes (muda)?
- Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Extra-processing (Correct answer)
- Planning, Designing, Coding, Testing, Deploying, Monitoring, Feedback, Retrospecting
- Risk, Cost, Time, Scope, Quality, Resources, Communication, Stakeholders
- Vision, Backlog, Sprint, Review, Retro, Release, Measure, Improve
Correct answer: Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Extra-processing
The eight Lean wastes (DOWNTIME) are Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, and Extra-processing.
Certified Agile Service Manager Agile and Scrum Fundamentals 4
In Agile, what is a 'spike' used for?