EXIN Agile Scrum Master Interview Questions
The Exin Agile Scrum Master certification is suited for professionals interested in working with Agile development, who would like to continue to expand their knowledge and take on the role of a Scrum Master. In the interview round, you will be tested whether you have an advanced understanding of Agile principles and applying Scrum practices. Moreover, you must possess in-depth skills for facilitating a cross-functional team as a Scrum Master.
You may also go through our EXIN Agile Scrum Master Online tutorial to further strengthen your knowledge base. Our Free Practice Tests will further help attain your desired certification and become competent to your employers in an ever-changing job market.
Interviewers will ask you about yourself, your work habits, and your goals and aspirations. There are some standard questions that you should be prepared for. Below is a list of common EXIN Agile Scrum Master interview questions and answers. Let’s get started!
1. What is the Agile lifecycle?
The Agile software development life cycle is a structured series of stages for completing the development of a product in an efficient manner, containing six phases: concept, inception, iteration, release, maintenance, and retirement.
2. Could you explain what Scrum Master does?
A scrum master facilitates the group’s progress toward its goals by improving or streamlining the processes by which it produces results. The scrum master strives to serve the team, not control it. To be most effective, the best scrum masters collaborate with their teams rather than try to manage them.
3. What are the main responsibilities of a Scrum Master?
- Coaching team members
- Hosting daily stand-up meetings.
- Assisting the product owner with the product backlog.
- Removing roadblocks.
- Teaching Scrum practices and principles.
4. Could you elaborate on the role of the agile master?
An Agile Master has the responsibility of ensuring that the development team adheres to agile values and principles when working on software. The responsibilities of this role include removing any obstacles between the developers and their work as well as establishing a place where they can be effective.
5. What are the skills expected from a Scrum Master?
- Facilitate meetings (daily scrum, sprint planning, sprint demo, and retrospective)
- Shielding the team.
- Conflict resolutions.
- Coaching Agile practices.
- A tight grip on Agile Estimating and planning.
- Forecasting.
- Removing impediments.
- Creating communication channels (team, Product owner, stakeholder)
- Servant leader
- Enforcing Rules
6. What are the six important scrum principles?
- Control over the empirical process
- Self-organization.
- Collaboration.
- Value-based prioritization.
- Time-boxing.
- Iterative development.
7. Can you explain the 3-5-3 Structure in Scrum?
- 3 roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Team.
- 5 events: Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.
- 3 artifacts: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment.
8. Could you elaborate on the term focus in scrum?
The focus in Scrum teams refers to the ability of the team to remain concentrated on their goals and tasks, without distractions from outside influences. The members of a Scrum team are able to concentrate on the tasks at hand because they are empowered to make decisions about how those tasks should be completed.
9. How would you define a Scrum team?
Scrum is a framework that makes it easier for teams to work together. It is like rugby because both are team activities in which everyone practices until the big game. In scrum, teams organize themselves and focus on getting better at their work by reflecting on what they have learned.
10. Why do you think is the Scrum master required to coach the team?
The Scrum Master’s coaching and facilitation skills help the Development Team, the Product Owner, and the organization is more successful. Coaching inspires, empowers, and brings out the best in people. A coach is able to help a person or a team reach their full potential.
11. Is a scrum master a project manager?
While Scrum Masters and project managers have some similarities, the two are not interchangeable. A Scrum Master is a role specifically embedded on a Scrum team, whereas a project manager refers to the person leading virtually any type of project.
12. How is agile planning different from the traditional approach to planning?
The agile approach follows an iterative process. A project is divided into sprints of a shorter span than the traditional approach, which means less time spent on upfront planning and prioritization. There are changes and specifications developments as agile is more flexible.
13. How would you describe the term Sprint Backlog?
A sprint backlog is a list of work items that your team plans to complete during a project sprint. This list is pulled from the product backlog during the sprint planning session and clearly defines what each team member will be working on. This prevents scope creep by clarifying exactly what your team will be doing—and not doing—during each sprint.
14. How is a sprint backlog created?
During the planning stage of a sprint, the team creates a sprint backlog. They move tasks out of the product backlog and into the sprint backlog based on their velocity; they break down each task into steps.
15. Does Scrum Master manage backlog?
The Scrum Master assists the Product Owner and team to create and groom the product backlog. He schedules the Product Backlog Creation Session and Grooming Session, handles logistics, helps the Product Owner write user stories, and supports the team in writing user stories.
16. Who makes the final decision on ordering the product backlog?
Product owners have the final say in prioritizing the product backlog. This is because the scrum team should involve product owners in their daily scrum meetings and make every effort to get them involved with prioritizing the product backlog.
17. Can you tell me to whom the sprint backlog belongs?
Scrum framework stipulates that everyone on the agile team – scrum master, product owner, and developers share ownership of the project sprint backlog because as each sprint begins, all members of the team will bring different perspectives and knowledge to the project.
18. Could you elaborate on the use of sprint backlog?
The sprint backlog is a document that breaks down user stories to be delivered and the tasks needed to complete them. This document brings clarity to the scrum sprint, making it easy to outline what needs to be done, track progress, and estimate your workload for future sprints.
19. What is meant by Release backlog in Scrum?
Release Backlog is the compilation of all User Stories that the Scrum Team has identified that will be completed within a release cycle. The same User Stories that go into the Release Backlog become a part of the Development Backlog.
20. How would a scrum master track the progress of a sprint?
- Firstly, reviewing the overall progress.
- Then, the Sprint Burndown.
- Reviewing work items needing attention.
- Updating and reviewing impediments and risks.
- Reviewing blocked work items.
- Also, reviewing team member task assignments.
- Finally, reviewing stories in progress
21. Who tracks the progress of the release in Scrum?
In Scrum, the development team is responsible for giving these estimates. Release burn-up charts help show how much progress the team has made towards completing a given set of product backlog items (that form the release).
22. Is the Agile approach suitable for all projects?
While Agile can be used in every project, it depends on how you define Agility. If you define it as having all team members wear t-shirts with the word “Agile” on them, then every project can be called Agile.
23. How will you know when is Agile suitable?
Agile works well when the product vision or features are not well defined because it allows the product owner to adjust requirements and priorities in order to take advantage of opportunities and ultimately deliver a better product to all of the project stakeholders.
24. Could you explain the purpose of the tools of Agile methodology?
By enabling team members to collaborate, solve bite-size problems quickly, and track upcoming tasks and work in progress, Agile software tools allow constant buzz of activity to be handled within the team.
25. Why do we need an agile tool?
By using the Agile methodology, project managers are able to deliver valuable products and increase performance by adapting quickly to changing events in the workplace. Agile tools allow for a quick response to changes in every stage of production, including team communication, task management, issue tracking, and knowledge sharing.
26. Is Scrum Master self Organised?
Scrum Teams are essentially both self-organizing and cross-functional. The organization structures and empowers Development Teams to manage and organize their work on their own.
27. How do you self-organize a Scrum team?
- Arranging short intro meetings.
- Setting sensible milestones and checkpoints.
- Letting people leverage their talents.
- Not interrupting people once they start.
- Facilitating the information exchange.
- Avoiding a culture of blame.
- Regularly reviewing and readjusting the team’s work process.
28. Could you tell me some of the agile requirements?
- Define document properties
- Communicate the overall goals.
- Background and strategic fit.
- Assumptions.
- User Stories.
- User interaction and design.
29. What do you know about agile environments?
An Agile environment is one that supports the Agile methodology. The bedrock of an Agile environment is the support and encouragement of the project teams to adopt its values and principles. These four pillars are Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
30. What is meant by Agile requirement analysis?
As part of the Agile Project Management framework, projects need to undergo the Requirements Analysis phase where business priorities help determine what work should be done. The team must deliver working software at the end of each iterative cycle.
