EX0-008 Agile Scrum Foundation Practice Questions

The Scrum Guide prescribes a strict timebox of 15 minutes for the Daily Scrum. This fixed duration encourages a concise and focused discussion and prevents it from turning into a long status or problem-solving meeting. The timebox remains the same whether the Sprint is one week or four weeks long.

Stories should be self-contained to avoid dependencies.

Stories are not contracts; details can be negotiated between the PO and Developers.

The story should be small enough to be completed in a Sprint.

A Graduated Time and Materials contract can be an effective agile contract. It involves a variable hourly rate that changes based on performance (e.g., the rate decreases if the project is late or increases if it's early), creating a shared risk and reward model. This provides budget incentives for the agency while allowing the scope flexibility inherent in Scrum.

The core problem is the format and purpose of the meeting, not just its length. The most effective coaching action is to address the behavior directly by restructuring the meeting's focus. The Scrum Master should coach the Developers to collaborate as a self-managing team, focusing their discussion on how they can work together to achieve the Sprint Goal. This addresses the root cause of the meeting being a status report to a manager.

Affinity Estimation (or Affinity Mapping) is a technique used to quickly and collaboratively estimate a large number of user stories. Team members place items on a wall or board under different size categories (e.g., T-shirt sizes like S, M, L, XL). This visual and collaborative method is much faster for high-level estimation than discussing each item individually as in Planning Poker.

The Sprint Goal provides coherence and focus for the Sprint, encouraging the Developers to work together. It is an objective that the team commits to, but it also provides flexibility. If the work turns out to be different than expected, the Developers can collaborate and adapt their plan to still achieve the Sprint Goal, even if it means not completing every single forecasted Product Backlog Item.

A Burn-up chart tracks progress toward a goal while also visualizing scope. It has two lines: one showing the total scope of work and another showing the work completed. If new items are added, the scope line goes up, making scope changes clearly visible. A simple Burn-down chart only shows work remaining and can be misleading if scope is added.

The Scrum Guide explicitly states that the Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master is a servant-leader responsible for facilitation and impediment removal. The Developers are accountable for the technical solution, and the entire Scrum Team is self-managing.

The Agile Manifesto states four core values. One of these is valuing 'Responding to change over following a plan.' While 'Individuals and interactions' is also a value, it is paired with 'processes and tools.' 'Comprehensive documentation' and 'Contract negotiation' are the items that are valued less than their counterparts (working software and customer collaboration, respectively).

False. Story points are a relative unit of measure, unique to each team. They represent a combination of effort, complexity, and uncertainty, and do not directly correlate to a fixed number of hours. Their value is specific to the team that made the estimate and should not be compared between teams.