Professional Scrum Master II v1.0
Question 1
Steven, a Scrum Master, is approached by the Development Team members complaining that one of the senior engineers is using too much time during the Daily
Scrums to share technical solutions.
Which are the best two actions for Steven to take? (Choose two.)
- A. Coach the Development Team to help them find a way to solve the problem, and for them to take ownership of the solution.
- B. Contact the team memberג€™s direct manager and to resolve this problem.
- C. Suggest that the team members timebox the amount of time each person can speak at the Daily Scrum to a maximum of two minutes.
- D. Suggest using a token to limit who is allowed to speak during the Daily Scrum.
- E. Speak with the person privately and coach him on the purpose of the Daily Scrum.
Answer : AE
The Scrum Master serves the Development Team in several ways, including:
✑ Coaching the Development Team in self-organization and cross-functionality;
Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed.
It is the Scrum Masterג€™s responsibility to teach the Scrum Team the value and objective of each Scrum event in order to help them maximize the benefits of each event in accordance to the Scrum values and theory.
Question 2
During Sprint Planning, the Definition of Done will help the Development Team forecast the amount of work, selected from the Product Backlog, deemed feasible to make 'done' by the end of the Sprint.
Which two items best describes what 'done' means? (Choose two.)
- A. All the work needed to prepare the Increment for User Acceptance Testing.
- B. All the work needed to prepare the Increment for Integration Testing.
- C. Having an Increment of working software that is potentially releasable to the end users.
- D. All the work performed as defined in the Definition of Done.
- E. All the work completed within the current skills and expertise in the Development Team.
Answer : CD
When a Product Backlog item or an Increment is described as ג€˜Doneג€™, everyone must understand what ג€˜Doneג€™ means. Although this may vary significantly per
Scrum Team, members must have a shared understanding of what it means for work to be complete, to ensure transparency. This is the Definition of Done for the
Scrum Team and is used to assess when work is complete on the product Increment. The purpose of each Sprint is to deliver Increments of potentially releasable functionality that adhere to the Scrum Teamג€™s current Definition of Done.
Question 3
During the implementation of an item in the Sprint Backlog, a conflict arises between team members about what work is needed to make the item 'done'. Some say it is a part of the Definition of Done and others say it isn't. Steven, the Scrum Master, observes a debate forming and members beginning to take sides.
What is the best action for Steven to take?
- A. Bring the Development Team members together and interpret the Definition of Done for them so that there are no future conflicts on interpretation.
- B. Immediately end the discussion before it becomes worse. Make the decision on what work is needed to make the item ג€˜doneג€™ and teach the team about the importance of avoiding conflicts.
- C. Facilitate a session with all members on the Scrum Team to help them resolve the conflict, refine the Definition of Done, and become effective again. Tell the team that conflicts are a natural occurrence and coach them on the value of resolving conflicts.
- D. Bring the Product Owner to the discussion and have him/her decide the work needed to make the item ג€˜done.ג€™ It is the Product Ownerג€™s responsibility to manage the Development Team members.
Answer : C
The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master helps the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions are helpful and which are not. The Scrum Master helps everyone change these interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team.
Question 4
Steven, the Scrum Master, observes that one of the Development Team members is not attending the Daily Scrum. The Development Team feels this is ok as they all sit in the same area and already have constant communication throughout the day.
Which is the best action for Steven to take?
- A. Start running the Daily Scrum and require all members to be in attendance.
- B. Talk to the Development Team member privately and tell him that he needs to be a team player.
- C. Ask the Development Team, what value will result from having all team members present at the Daily Scrum and what are the risks if members donג€™t attend.
- D. The Daily Scrum is owned by the Development Team and it is their responsibility to decide which team members must participate.
Answer : C
The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the Scrum Team understands the purpose and value of the Scrum events. Because the Daily Scrum is owned by the Development Team, it will decide how best to run the event. And if needed the Scrum Master will coach the team to ensure the decisions stay within the boundaries of the Scrum framework.
Question 5
Over the course of several Sprints, the relationship between the Product Owner and the Development team has suffered. The Development Team is upset with the Product Owner for the constantly changing the upcoming items for the product. The Product Owner is upset with the Development Team for changing the work that needs to be done during the Sprint.
What should Steven, the Scrum Master, do?
- A. During the Sprint Retrospective, ask the Product Owner and the Development Team to address the issues. Have the Team discuss why the changes occur and what impact they have on the value of the product.
- B. The Scrum Masterג€™s responsibility is to ensure the Development Team has a stable velocity. Any changes that negatively impact the teamג€™s velocity will be rejected by the Scrum Master.
- C. Take the time between Sprints to organize a team building session to rebuild the relationship.
- D. Explain to the Development Team that the Product Owner is accountable for flow of value and needs to be followed in order to maximize the value delivered.
Answer : A
Conflicts are a natural occurrence and the Scrum Master coaches the Development Team on the value of resolving conflicts. Leaving conflicts unresolved can impact the Scrum values of openness and respect diminishing trust. Lower trust levels will impact the Scrum Teamג€™s effectiveness and can cause impediments in the future. It is the responsibility of the Scrum Master to remove impediments that hinder the team through conflict resolution and facilitation.
Question 6
Individual Development Team members have been approaching Steven, the Scrum Master, to complain about Chris. Chris has the most experience on the system they are building. He often questions the choices team members make in design and architecture making them feel bad.
What are two good ways for Steven to address this problem? (Choose two.)
- A. Steven observes whether this topic is raised at the Sprint Retrospective. If not, then he checks with the team on how comfortable they are with the way the design and architecture is being handled.
- B. Steven suggests facilitating a session with the full team to help resolve the issue.
- C. Steven tells the concerned members that Chrisג€™ opinions should be respected as he has the most experience and understands what is best for long term sustainability.
- D. Steven shares his concerns with Chris and the impact on the other team members and that he should be a team player.
- E. Steven takes the time between Sprints to organize a team building session to build a stronger relationship.
Answer : AB
Conflicts are a natural occurrence and the Scrum Master coaches the Development Team on the value of resolving conflicts. Leaving conflicts unresolved can impact the Scrum values of openness and respect diminishing trust. Lower trust levels will impact the Scrum Teamג€™s effectiveness and can cause impediments in the future. It is the responsibility of the Scrum Master to remove impediments that hinder the team through conflict resolution and facilitation.
Question 7
By the end of the Sprint, a Product Backlog item in the Sprint Backlog does not meet the team's Definition of Done.
What two things should happen with the item? (Choose two.)
- A. It will be inspected at the Sprint Review and if it is acceptable by the stakeholders then include it in the Increment.
- B. Do not include the item in the Increment for the Sprint.
- C. Split the item and add the estimation of the completed work to the current Sprint so not to impact the velocity and add the ג€˜undoneג€™ work to the next Sprint.
- D. Estimate the remaining work needed to make it ג€˜doneג€™ and add it to the Product Backlog for the Product Owner to decide what to do with it.
Answer : BD
At the end of a Sprint, the new Increment must be ג€˜Doneג€™, which means it must be in useable condition and meet the Scrum Teamג€™s definition of ג€˜Doneג€™. Scrum
Team members must have a shared understanding of what it means for work to be complete, to ensure transparency. This is the Definition of Done for the Scrum
Team and it is used to assess when work is complete on the product Increment.
Question 8
You have been hired as a Scrum Master for a company that has been doing business for over fifty years. In order to stay competitive, they have started an initiative to digitize their legacy systems. The company has several Scrum Teams working on different components that will be integrated to a single back office platform.
Your team is responsible for building the back office platform and integrating all other components. The Scrum Teams work in two week Sprints and are expected to deliver all functionality in six Sprints.
During development the requirement changes in the other components have been slowing down your team's progress. Because of these changes, your team has estimated that they will not be able to deliver all expected work within the original timeframe. The Scrum Teams working on the other components confirm that they are still on track to meet the expected delivery date. The program manager in charge of the digitization initiative is upset and angry with your team.
As a Scrum Master, what could you do to help the Product Owner?
- A. You suggest working with the program manager and the other teams on the ordering and the value of your teamג€™s open Product Backlog items to redefine the possible delivery date.
- B. You shorten your teamג€™s Sprints to be ready sooner.
- C. You remove all items from the Product Backlog for which development is forecasted to be beyond the expected date. These are likely to be low value anyhow.
- D. You suggest adding additional developers to the team in order to increase velocity and meet the original date.
Answer : A
The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner in several ways, including:
✑ Finding techniques for effective Product Backlog management;
✑ Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items;
✑ Understanding product planning in an empirical environment;
✑ Ensuring the Product Owner knows how to arrange the Product Backlog to maximize value.
Question 9
Steven is a Scrum Master for three different teams building a single product from the same Product Backlog. Development Team members from each team have approached Steven complaining that their teams need Nicole, an external specialist, to commit full time for their next Sprint.
Which three acceptable solutions would Steven consider? (Choose three.)
- A. For Sprints that require Nicoleג€™s expertise for more than one team, combine the teams into one and separate when they no longer need to share her services.
- B. Investigate whether applying additional techniques or frameworks for scaling Scrum would be appropriate for this product team in the future, since you have multiple Scrum Teams working on the same product, with dependencies between the teams.
- C. People from the Development Teams with an interest in Nicoleג€™s domain could volunteer to take on this work in their respective teams.
- D. Ask Nicole for a plan to hire and train additional people in her domain, and in the meantime work with the Product Owner and Development Teams to re- prioritize the work so that tasks not depending on Nicole can be done first.
- E. Have the Development Team re-order the Product Backlog so Nicole can serve one team full-time in a Sprint.
- F. Create a team with Nicole and people from the teams to temporarily work in Nicoleג€™s domain to serve the existing teams.
Answer : BCE
The Scrum Master is responsible for removing impediments within the current context of the situation AND boundaries defined by the Scrum framework.
Question 10
At the fifth Sprint Retrospective, the Product Owner mentions that he is surprised about the amount of technical debt that has built up in the system and that the product is not able to support an adequate number of users. Peter, the Product Owner, is upset that the product will need several more Sprints to address the scalability issues in order to meet his expectations.
What factors may have led to this?
- A. The Scrum Team has not used the past Sprint Retrospectives effectively to inspect and adapt.
- B. The Development Team has not been paying enough attention to technical quality.
- C. The Development Team and the Product Owner are not having conversations around technical debt.
- D. The Scrum Master has not ensured that the Scrum Team is transparent.
- E. All of the above.
- F. None of the above.
Answer : E
Each component within the Scrum framework serves a specific purpose and is essential to Scrumג€™s success and usage. Scrumג€™s roles, events, artifacts, and rules are immutable and although implementing only parts of Scrum is possible, the result is not Scrum.
Question 11
Which two scenarios would best represent a self-organizing Development Team? (Choose two.)
- A. The Development Team members are strictly focused on the work within their functional role and always handing off the work to other roles in a timely matter.
- B. Management works with the Scrum Master to optimize the Development Teamג€™s progress during the Sprint.
- C. Development Team members collaboratively select and re-plan their work throughout the Sprint.
- D. The Development Team invites external people to the Sprint Planning to help them create a complete and detailed Sprint Backlog.
- E. The Development Team creates its own Sprint Backlog, reflecting all work that is part of the Definition of Done.
Answer : CE
A self-organized team is a team that is able to self-manage and decide how best to accomplish their work.
Question 12
Steven is a Scrum Master of a Development Team that has members working in different cities and time zones. Organizing the Scrum events is time consuming and requires a lot of effort to set up and run. The Development Team proposes to only hold the Daily Scrum on Mondays.
Which two responses would be most appropriate from Steven? (Choose two.)
- A. Coach the team on why having a Daily Scrum every day is an important opportunity to update the Sprint plan and how it helps the team self-organize work toward achieving the Sprint Goal.
- B. Ensure that there is an overall consensus by having the Development Team members vote.
- C. Help the Development Team understand that lowering the frequency of communication will only increase the feeling of disconnect between the team members.
- D. Acknowledge and support their decision.
Answer : AC
The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the Scrum Team understands the purpose and value of the Scrum events. Because the Daily Scrum is owned by the Development Team, it will decide how best to run the event. And if needed the Scrum Master will coach the team to ensure the decisions stay within the boundaries of the Scrum framework.
Question 13
Steven is a Scrum Master of a Scrum Team that is new to Scrum. At the halfway point of the Sprint, the Product Owner comes to Steven telling him that he is concerned the Development Team will not be able to complete the entire Sprint Backlog by the end of the Sprint.
What should Steven do in this situation?
- A. Motivate the Development Team to meet their commitment to the Product Owner.
- B. Coach the Product Owner that with complex software development, you cannot promise the entire scope that was forecast during Sprint Planning. As more is learned during the Sprint, work may emerge that affects the Sprint Backlog.
- C. Advise the Product Owner that the Development Team owns the Sprint Backlog and it is up to them to meet their commitments. No one tells the Development Team how to turn Product Backlog into Increments of potentially releasable functionality.
- D. Add more people to the Development Team to meet the Product Ownerג€™s expectations.
Answer : B
Scrum is founded on empirical process control theory, or empiricism. Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is known. The Sprint Backlog is a forecast by the Development Team about what functionality will be in the next Increment and the work needed to deliver that functionality into a ג€˜Doneג€™ Increment. The Development Team modifies the Sprint Backlog throughout the Sprint, and the Sprint Backlog emerges during the
Sprint. This emergence occurs as the Development Team works through the plan and learns more about the work needed to achieve the Sprint Goal.
Why C is incorrect:
a) The Dev Team does not commit to finishing all items in the Sprint Backlog. Committing to completing all items would be fixed scope and fixed time leaving no room to adapt. They commit to the Sprint Goal and doing the right thing. b) Itג€™s also incorrect for the PO to focus on completing the entire Sprint Backlog. Finishing everything should not be his main focus. Having a shippable increment that meets the Sprint Goal is more important than trying to finish everything. The advice in option C is equivalent to ג€Donג€™t worry, theyג€™ll get everything done.ג€ but because of the complex domain, you cannot guarantee everything will get done.
Question 14
Scrum addresses which of the following four risks in software development? (Choose four.)
- A. The complexity and unpredictability of the requirements.
- B. The stability and complexity of the technology.
- C. The skills and working relationships of the people on the teams.
- D. The timescale of the planned work.
- E. The clear definitions of stages and gateways in the overall governance model.
- F. The definition of incentive and bonus strategies by HR for all team members.
Answer : ABCD
Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products of the highest possible value. Scrum employs an iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability and control risk.
Question 15
After several Sprints, a key stakeholder starts using the product. The stakeholder is surprised by the slow performance and complains to the Product Owner. The
Product Owner comes to the Scrum Master asking for advice.
What is the best action for a Scrum Master to take?
- A. Wait until the next Sprint Retrospective as it is the most opportune time to modify the Definition of Done.
- B. Bring the concern to the testers in the Development Team and ask them to include performance testing.
- C. Explain to the Product Owner that itג€™s up to the Development Team to. decide on acceptable performance standards as they own the Definition of Done.
- D. Encourage the Product Owner to bring the performance concerns to the Development Team and work with them on how to improve performance, and ultimately have stronger Definition of Done.
Answer : D
The highest priority of agility is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Because the Development Team is the one doing the work and increments must meet performance standards, they can expand their Definition of Done to include more stringent criteria for higher quality.