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Continued From Part I HERE
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Interview And Test Prep For Agile, Scrum And PMP Roles:
QUES: What is gold plating and how can we prevent it?
ANS: In a project when the work done after a point of time becomes irrelevant to an extent, whether neither the customer is happy, nor the work put in yields any returns, that is called gold plating. It is basically when the team is putting in efforts into the project, to the point of diminishing returns. So the bottom line is, whatever we are doing now in the project is not of any significance to the stakeholders.
QUES: How do you manage the underperforming assets in your team?
ANS: Just like with everything else in life, prevention is better than cure. So if you see that a performance of a team member has taken a hit, as a project manager, it is better to sit down and understand that the road blocks and the issues the team member has to perform at their best. Discuss the road map for improvements. Find out a way to remove the road blocks for them or assist in any way possible so that they can move forward with their deliverables in a timely manner.
QUES: How does Corporate Strategy align with a daily tactical approach in Project management?
ANS: Check this Corporate cascade funnel to understand how long term purpose can be broken down into multiple daily tasks.
QUES: Why is Project Cost Management so important?
ANS:
1. Getting a baseline is important so everyone knows what to expect.
2. And that governs the actions we can take to execute the project.
How to come up with it?
Estimated costs can help us develop a project budget. And that helps us control spending – including labor, materials, fixed and miscellaneous costs. Also, Budget vs. Actuals can be determined based on what we do in the cost management process.
Some tips are: Take into account inflation for long term projects. Take into account unexpected costs that are out of our control – for example, the effect of natural disasters, staffing issues, labor costs, legal issues etc.
QUES: You have a new job as a project manager, what is the first thing you would do?
ANS: As a project manager, you never jump into action. A good project manager recognizes that just as important product and processes are to the company, so are its people. So they would take time to meet the team members and review and assess any team charter that is available.
QUES: Why would a project story cards be getting bigger with each release?
ANS: With every increment for a product release it is possible that we might be accruing technical debt because we might be simplifying some code and functionality to speed up and push the product increment out for release. As such technical debt keeps building up with each release.
QUES: What is DOR and DOD?
ANS: Definition of Ready and Definition of Done. DOR is a state when user story is ready for to go for development. DOD is a state when user story meets and satisfies this acceptance criteria.
QUES: Definition of Done vs. Acceptance Criteria:
ANS: Definition of Done (DoD) is a checklist or set of conditions which should be met before we mark story as complete. Some of conditions that are mentioned in DoD are
• Code Review completed
• Code check in
• All sub -tasks are completed.
• Acceptance criteria met and story accepted by PO.
• No known defects exist.
Whereas acceptance criteria is related to the output of the story. Working software must meet the conditions mentioned in the acceptance criteria.
Acceptance criteria is to see if the user story is complete or not. And DOD is if the product increment is eligible for release or not.
QUES: What is the skeleton of scrum?
ANS: sprint
QUES: What are some examples of project management tools?
ANS: According to Sprout Social, here are the most common features of a project management tool include:
• Time tracking
• Reporting
• Scheduling and planning
• Budget tracking
• Document storing and sharing
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/project-management-software/
QUES: What are the different metrics used for prioritization in Agile project management? In other words, what are the most commonly used Agile performance metrics?
ANS: 1. Return on investment as percentage
2. Net present value: Money in hand now. Using assumed interest and inflation. NPV, more valuable project.
3. Discount rate where project inflows (revenues) are equal to project outflows (costs)
4. Agile earned value management (EVM) is a technique used to measure the performance of an Agile project in relation to three key factors: Cost. Time. Scope.
QUES: What is the purpose of EVM?
ANS: EVM or Earned Value Management is a project performance estimation tool that uses project schedule, cost and scope to predict the performance of the project. It has three aspects to it. Planned Value (PV) – it is the schedule performance index, Actual Cost (AC) – it is the cost performance index, and Earned Value (EV) – also known as the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP). The PMBOK guide has great definitions and formulae that have been explained really well in this free resource at PMSTUDYCIRCLE.
QUES: How is EVM earned value management) measured?
ANS: There are two visual tools to see how the project is going.
One using Costing graphs – Scharts. And the other using Schedule charts – Gantt charts.
QUES: In project management, what are the fast tracking and crashing techniques?
ANS: In fast tracking, the overall timelines is compressed and the project schedule is shortened. This is done by performing the tasks together at the same time, instead of approaching them sequentially.
Crashing basically shortens the project schedule by reducing the time for few of the tasks. This is done by adding more resources to the project to reduce the time taken to complete it.
QUES: How do you safeguard a project’s budget?
ANS: The first thing is you have to come up with a comprehensive budget plan. And take notes from any previous similar projects to understand what you’re getting into. You should also come up with instances where budget cuts might be possible. But you should also list the consequences of those budget cuts. You should also continuously track progress and actively reassign resources when you don’t need them anymore.
QUES: Who is responsible for managing the progress of a work during a Sprint?
ANS: The Developers
QUES: When does a Developer become accountable for the value Of a Product Backlog item selected for the Sprint?
ANS: Never. The entire Scrum Team is accountable for creating value every Sprint.
QUES: The most common n-tier architectural pattern for Software projects consists of which layers?
ANS: There are three layers of architecture, or three vertical slices.
The UI LAYER, LOGIC LAYER and the DB LAYER. Also known as the Presentation, Application and the Data layers.
QUES: The Scrum team must choose at least one high priority process improvement item, identified during the Sprint Retrospective, and place it in the Sprint Backlog. True Or False?
ANS: FALSE
QUES: It is required to use User Stories in Scrum. True Or False?
ANS: FALSE
QUES: How much work must be done to each Sprint Backlog item in a Sprint?
(choose the best answer)
A) Analyze. design. implement. test, document and approval.
B) All the work needed to deliver a ‘Done• increment.
C) All development tasks.
D) All the work that has been defined during Sprint Planning.
ANS: B
QUES: What happens if work is finished early in a Sprint?
ANS: It is not good, because the team might be under committing. And if there are no working agreements to take on more things, it is ok to just work on clearing the Tech Debt. Or try to do cross functional training, or who knows something might come up in testing in the current sprint.
QUES: What are the three things that Developers in Sprints are responsible for?
(choose the best three answers)
A) Create a plan the Sprint Backlog.
B) Sizing Product Backlog items.
C) Pulling Product backlog items for the Sprint.
D) Ensuring the Product backlog is ordered properly.
E) Reporting progress to the stakeholders.
F) Creating and adding User Stories to the Product Backlog.
ANS: A, B, C
QUES: What must the Product owner do to the product backlog before setting up a meeting with the Scrum master and the Dev team to refine the product backlog.
ANS: At the product backlog meeting, the Scrum team must estimate and refine the work items. But before that, the Product Owner must work on prioritizing the work items before bringing to the team.
QUES: When should a new Sprint be started?
1. As soon as an increment is done
2. When the Product Owner decides so
3. As soon as the timebox of the previous Sprint expires
4. Every month
ANS: 3
QUES: The length of the Sprint should be:
a. Short enough to keep the business risk acceptable to the Product Owner.
b. Short enough to be able to synchronize the development work with other business events.
c. No more than one calendar month.
d. All of the above.
ANS: D
QUES: Who is accountable for the Scrum team’s effectiveness?
ANS: The Scrum Master
QUES: When do Development team members take ownership of a Sprint backlog item?
ANS: This is a trick question. The answer is NEVER. All sprint backlog items are “owned” by the entire Dev team, even though each one may be done by an individual Dev team member.
QUES: The Sprint Review is mainly an inspect and adapt opportunity for which group?
ANS: The Scrum team and stakeholders
QUES: Who creates the work plan necessary to create an Increment?
ANS: The Developers
QUES: When many Scrum teams are working on the same product, should all of their increments be integrated every Sprint?
ANS: Yes, otherwise the PO and the Stakeholders may not be able to accurately inspect what is done.
QUES: Which of the Scrum ceremonies is essentially designed for the Developers?
ANS: The Daily Scrum
QUES: What is Extreme programming?
ANS: XP or Extreme programming is a type of Agile methodology that is known for embracing change in 5 essential ways, using Communication, simplicity, feedback, respect and courage.
It uses a technique called yesterday’s weather to give the right sized commitment to stakeholders. XP is a test driven development area where continue integration is planned iteratively as the product increments keep getting worked on.
QUES: Who creates the definition of done if it doesn’t exist?
ANS: The Scrum Team itself
QUES: Who is responsible to size the Product Backlog items?
ANS: The Developers
QUES: Who defines the Sprint goal?
ANS: The Scrum Team itself
QUES: During a sprint, when is new work or further decomposition of work added to the Sprint backlog?
ANS: Anytime, as soon as possible after they are identified.
QUES: What is the role of management in scrum?
ANS: Support the product owner management supports the product owner with insights and information into high value product and system capabilities. support the scrum master to cause organizational change that fosters empiricism, self-management, bottom-up intelligence and intelligent product delivery. Their role is to facilitate the Scrum team with insights and resources that help them improve.
QUES: Who can cancel a Sprint?
ANS: The Product Owner
QUES: Your project involves a commercial off-the-shelf system. How can you best reduce the risk associated with purchasing this new solution in the integration phase of your project?
A. Request for integration to be preinstalled.
B. Ask your vendor to perform integration.
C. Have your IT team perform integration.
D. Perform integration before the software is installed.
ANS: B
QUES: Who writes definition of done?
ANS: The entire scrum team writes the definition of done.
QUES: What is Value Stream mapping?
ANS: Value Stream Map is heavily used in Lean manufacturing project management. However, it can be used in non-manufacturing settings as well.
Value Stream map is a snapshot of how a product or a service is delivered to the customer. It begins at the true start, when a customer puts an order in, and all the processes that it has to follow in order to fulfil the task of delivering the goods to the customer.
Before beginning to get an idea of a value stream of your company, consider this starting question.
If a customer makes a phone call for an order, or request first service, where’s the first place does that happen in the company? Is it at customer service or any other department?
Let’s begin mapping. There are specific icons that are used for a quality value stream map. There are icons for Customers, suppliers, shipment trucks, inventory, manual processes etc. There is also what is known as a Kanban burst, which is to indicate opportunities of improvement. Remember, in a value stream map, information flows from right to left from the end user to the supplier and process flow is from left to right.
Value Stream Map © Wikipedia
QUES: Which two ways of creating Dev teams are consistent with Scrum’s values. Choose two.
A. Existing teams propose how they would like to go about organizing into the new structure.
B. Managers personally re-assign current subordinates to new teams.
C. Managers collaborate to assign individuals to specific teams.
D. Bring all the developers together and let them self-organize into Dev teams.
E. The Chief Product Owner determines the new team structures and assignments.
ANS: A and D
QUES: Why is the definition of done important to the product owner?
ANS: Because it creates transparency regarding the progress within the scrum team and it stabilizes the expected quality of the increment reviewed at the sprint review.
QUES: What can the Scrum team do when unplanned work shows up?
ANS: There are many ways to approach this.
1. So, the first step is to inform the Product owner and ask him to discuss the priority of the work that the Stakeholders are asking for.
2. Absorption: If the unplanned work is valuable or urgent and doesn’t endanger the sprint goal, then it can be quickly added to the sprint backlog. This is called easy absorption but only if the sprint goal is not compromised. Example, a bug has cropped or a regulatory requirement has been missed.
3. Buffer: It always helps to add a buffer to the timeline in terms of additional story point, like 10 extra story points to address these kinds of issues like tech debt and bug fixes etc. So, in this case we can add a virtual backlog item worth 10 points as the buffer.
QUES: Who should make sure everyone on the Dev team does his or her tasks for the Sprint?
ANS: The Dev team itself
QUES: What is the Product Backlog and what is DEEP in its management?
ANS: The product backlog is one of the three main Scrum Artifacts which consists of all the features, functions, requirements, enhancements, and fixes that needs to be developed for the product release.
Product Backlog items have the attributes of a description (Detailed appropriately), Story points (Estimated), order (Prioritized) and they are continuously to be added, removed and updated (Emergent) in the backlog to reflected to understanding of the backlog of the team in just-in-time and just-enough manner.
QUES: What is a sprint 0?
ANS: Sprint 0 happens when the team is new to scrum it usually takes place before the formal start of the project to create a skeleton of the project. In sprint 0 scrum master helps the team in getting good its infrastructure and getting required KT from SME.
QUES: Which Scrum value is affected by a lack of trust in the Scrum team?
A. Focus
B. Respect
C. Openness
D. Courage
E. Commitment
ANS: E
QUES: An organization has decided to adopt a scrum but management wants to change the terminology to fit with terminology already used. What will likely to happen if this is done?
ANS: Without a new vocabulary as a reminder of the change very little change may actually happen. The organization may not understand what has changed with scrum and benefits of scrum may be lost management may feel less anxious.
QUES: For the purpose of transperancy, when does Scrum say a new increment of working software must be available?
A. After the user acceptance testing
B. Before the release Sprint
C. Every 3 Sprints
D. At the end of every Sprint
E. When the Product Owner asks to create one.
ANS: D
QUES: What is time box for a sprint PLANNING meeting?
ANS: Eight hours or less for one month sprint
4 hours if it is a 2 week sprint
QUES: How do you estimate a story point?
ANS: A story point estimation is calculated by taking into consideration the development effort plus testing effort plus resolving dependencies and other factors that would require to complete a story.
QUES: What is the Scrum Methodology?
ANS: The scrum methodology is that of Empiricism. Empiricism is that knowledge comes from actual real experience, and making decisions based on what is observed. -> It stands for transparency, inspection and adaptation.
QUES: Which statement best describes a Product Owner’s responsibility? (Choose the best answer)
A. Managing the project and ensuring that the work meets the commitments to the
stakeholders.
B. Optimizing tne value of tne work tne Scrum Team does.
C. Keep stakeholders from distracting the Developers.
D. Directing the Developers.
ANS: B
QUES: Who should know the most about the progress toward a business Objective or a release, and be able to explain the alternatives most clearly? The PO or the Scrum Master?
ANS: The Product Owner
QUES: When does a Developer become the sole owner Of an item on the Sprint Backlog?
ANS: This is a trick question. The Answer is Never. All Sprint Backlog items are “owned” by the Developers on the Scrum Team.
QUES: What is the function or purpose Of Management in Scrum?
ANS: To support the Product Owner witn insights and information into nigh value product and system capabilities. Support the Scrum Master to encourage organizational change that fosters empiricism, self-management, bottom-up intelligence, and intelligent product delivery.
QUES: When many Scrum Teams are working on a single product, how can they manage the Defintion of Done?
ANS: All Scrum teams must have a definition of done that makes their combined increment, valuable and useful.
QUES: What are the 5 Scrum Events or Ceremonies?
ANS: The Sprint itself, Sprint Planning, Standup Or Daily Scrum, Showcase Or Review, Retrospective. These are the formal opportunities for the team to INSPECT and ADAPT.
QUES: What is time box for a sprint REVIEW meeting?
ANS: Eight hours or less for one month sprint
4 hours if it is a 2 week sprint
QUES: What does the Scrum framework consist of?
ANS: The scrum framework consists of the Scrum teams, their roles, events, artifacts and the rules associated with the teams.
QUES: What are the three artifacts of scrum?
ANS: Product backlog, sprint backlog and product increment document.
QUES: Which project management frameworks are most suitable for complex projects in a fast-changing environment?
A. PRINCE2 or Waterfall
B. Scrum or Kanban
C. Waterfall or Scrum
D. Kanban or PRINCE2
ANS: B
QUES: What are the different steps involved in building a COTS project, Commercial Off the Shelf Project?
ANS: 1. Requirements
2. Evaluation and selection using RFPs
3. Finalization of terms
4. Implementation
5. Maintenance and upgrades
6. License maintenance
QUES: What is the INVEST criteria for good user stories?
ANS: A good user story should be:
“I” ndependent (of all others)
“N” egotiable (not a specific contract for features)
“V” aluable (or vertical)
“E” stimable (to a good approximation)
“S” mall (so as to fit within an iteration)
“T” estable (in principle, even if there isn’t a test for it yet)
QUES: What is a good process to keep multiple teams in sync?
ANS: Scrum of Scrums
QUES: What factors will increase complexity? Select all that apply.
a) Larger number of people on the project
b) Longer duration of the project
c) Batching of a large number of features into one big release
ANS: A, B, C
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Continued From Part III HERE
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Free Assessments, Interview Prep and Exam Certification Study Guides:
Find the FREE resource HERE.
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NOTE: This is a living document, and I will keep adding questions and answers occasionally, so please keep checking this space.
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The Future Of Work Is Now
The Non-Cognitive Skills Needed For The Future, Our Hybrid Work Life And Much More
If you’re not careful you can follow your passion right into poverty. ~ Srini Rao
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