Question 1

Story Mapping

Accepted Answer

User Story Mapping is a holistic visual representation of how all the user stories fit into the overall user experience.

A 2-Dimensional story map can help understand the sequence of activities of a system, identify gaps in the product backlog, and plan releases that deliver customer value.

The goal is not to create a raodmap, rather, change people’s mindset from gathering and writing detailed requirements to building shared understanding.

A sample User Story Map: (Source: Jeff Patton)

Question 2

Story Points Estimation

Accepted Answer

Story Points Estimation technique is based on relative sizing where the team members assume the effort + complexity + Risks (unknowns, penalties, missed opportunity, etc.) to come up a story point number usually based on the Fibonacci series. ( 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, .....)

Product Owner explains a product backlog item, the Developers offer story point estimation based on their current understanding of the work involved, they aggregate the story points offered by developers and based on consensus / average, define a stoy point number for each PBI.

Story Points Estimation technique was invented by Ron Jeffries around year 2000.

In 2019, Ron Jeffries updated his advice on the use of Story Points.

See also: Empiricism

Question 3

Swarming

Accepted Answer

Swarming is a simple way where as many team members as possible work simultaneously on one highest value item. All team members focus on completing this one item before picking the next highest value item.

Working on many items / initiatives at a time increases work in progress, that causes delays and eventually waste of time.

Question 4

Systems Thinking

Accepted Answer

Systems thinking is an approach to solving complex problems that seeks to understand the system as a whole, recognizing patterns and considering connections.

Systems thinking recognizes that complex systems are made up of not just parts, but also of interactions and rules. These rules are important decisions that guide the behavior of the system.

Systems thinking also recognizes relationships between parts and that relationships between parts influence each other.

A systems thinking approach focuses on a system’s properties, such as its relationship to other elements in the system, and the relationships among these elements and behavior of the system as a whole.

An excellent reference on Systems Thinking is the book 'The Fifth Discipline' by Peter Senge. In it, Peter describes 11 laws:

Today’s problems come from yesterday’s ‘solutions.’
The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back.
Behavior will grow worse before it grows better.
The easy way out usually leads back in.
The cure can be worse than the disease.
Faster is slower.
Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space.
Small changes can produce big results…but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.
You can have your cake and eat it too—but not all at once.
Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants.
There is no blame.

Developing Systems Thinking improves the ability of leaders, coaches, Product Owners and Scrum Masters to holistically solve the problems at hand, rather than solving the symptoms.

Question 5

Team Happiness Index

Accepted Answer

The Team Happiness Index is a measure of the overall satisfaction and well-being of the team members. It gauges their morale, engagement, and job satisfaction.

A high Team Happiness Index signifies that team members are satisfied with their roles, have a positive relationship with their colleagues, and feel supported by the organization.

A high Team Happiness Index can positively impact team's performance and creativity.

A low index might suggest potential issues that need attention to maintain team motivation and well-being.

Question 6

Test Driven Development

Accepted Answer

Test-driven development (TDD) is a practice specific to software development that relies on automated tests to ensure high-quality code.

In TDD developers write a test for a feature or module prior to writing the actual code.

Programmers first write a test which ensures that the code they are writing does what they are supposed to, then they write the minimum amount of code that passes the test. The programmer may write another test to make sure the implementation is correct, then write the code to pass that test. After the programmer has written and tested each test, the tests are run against the program to ensure that the program does what it should.

Test Driven Development starts by focusing on a single feature in isolation, and mocking or stubbing out other code until it’s ready to become part of broader product.

Question 7

Toyota Production System

Accepted Answer

Toyota Production System (TPS) is a management system developed by Toyota that comprises its management philosophy and practices.

Toyota identifies TPS as a framework for conserving resources by eliminating waste. People who participate in the system learn to identify uses of material, effort and time that do not generate value for customers. It aims towards lasting gains in productivity and quality with a commitment to positive change".

Two conceptual pillars:

Just-in-Time: Building only what is needed, only when it is needed, and only in the amount that is needed.

Principles:

Continuous improvement
Respect for people
Long-term philosophy
Develop the right process
Develop your people and partners
Continuously solve root problems

Many of the Lean ideas and Agile Frameworks including Scrum are based on or inspired by TPS.

Question 8

Value Stream Mapping

Accepted Answer

Value-stream mapping, is a powerful visual technique originating from Lean Management to determine the efficiency of a value stream.

The Value-stream map visualizes the flow of both materials and information as they progress through the process from Idea to Solution. It involves labelling and quantifing the activity time, and waiting (idle) time to calculate the effeciency of the value creation process.

Value flow efficiency of 5-10% is typical for a large number of manufacturing processes, product development in large organization, etc.

Mapping the time taken during the value creating activities and idle time between two activities, helps identify the process improvement areas in an organization.

Question 9

Velocity

Accepted Answer

Velocity is not a Scrum term, it is a term used in Extreme Programming.

Velocity is the rate at which value has been delivered.

It's calculated as an average of the value delivered by a team in the past few Sprints. [ Let's say average of last 4 or 5 Sprints ].

Let's say: The Team Acers delivered below number of Product Backlog Items:

Sprint Number of Product Backlog Items Delivered

At the end of Sprint 10, the velocity of team Acers is 6-7 Product Backlog Items per Sprint.

The velocity trending upward over a period may indicate that the team is delivering more output.

More velocity does not equal more value or more impact.

Also, velocity numbers can easily be gamed when velocity is used for micro-managing the team or pushing them to deliver more than what they could comfortably deliver.

Comparing Velocity of two teams is usually a waste of effort and futile. As two teams may have different set of work, complexity, skill set, collaboration, availability of Product Owner and many other variables would be different.

Question 10

VUCA World

Accepted Answer

VUCA World is a term used to describe the current market conditions.

V: Volatile

Due to the volatility, uncertainity, complexity and ambiquity involved it's increasingly important to collaborate as a team and build capability to address VUCA conditions. Those who can embrace and address VUCA conditions effectively gets the competitive advantage over others.

Question 11

WIP Limit

Accepted Answer

The maximum amount of Work-In-Process (WIP) that can be pulled in for processing / implementation within a workflow. This is a limit on the total amount of items that can be in process.

The purpose of having a WIP Limit is to increase the focus on the flow of value. Due to the limits on WIP, the remaining work items can be either Waiting to be Picked up or Completed (Done).

In a Scrum environment, to improve the flow of value delivery, it's recommended that the number of work items in progress may be lesser than the number of developers available to execute the work items.