Question 1

Lean Coffee

Accepted Answer

Imagine yourself in a dynamic Scrum team, where open communication and collaboration are essential for success. That's where the Lean Coffee technique comes in, bringing a touch of magic to your discussions. It all begins with each team member jotting down their thoughts and ideas on colorful sticky notes. These notes are then organized and prioritized using a group voting system, ensuring everyone's voice is heard.

Now comes the exciting part: the conversations! Each topic is given its moment in the spotlight, with a fixed time frame set by the team per topic. This ensures a fair balance, preventing any one person or topic from dominating the stage. By embracing this iterative approach, you dive deep into the most relevant and valuable topics, uncovering hidden gems along the way.

But it doesn't stop there. Lean Coffee empowers your team to make the most of their precious meeting time, channeling their energy into focused discussions that truly matter. This technique brings out the best in your team, fostering a sense of togetherness and shared purpose. So let the Lean Coffee aroma fill the room, and watch as your Agile team flourishes with each sip of conversation.

Question 2

Continuous Integration

Accepted Answer

Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice where developers integrate their work frequently during the day and automatically, rather than waiting for the end of every development cycle.

Continuous integration is a continuous, automated, and integrated software build and test cycle that merges source code from participating programmers to produce an executable that is ready to be tested.

Question 3

Release Planning

Accepted Answer

Release Planning is the process of planning a product release, identifying the capabilities that need to be released, stakeholders and team members involved, budget and timelines.

In Scrum, every Sprint enables inspection and adaptation of progress toward a Product Goal. Every Sprint begins with Sprint Planning and results in at least one increment that is usable to customers.

Some teams release increments multiple times a sprint, other teams group features from more than a sprint before releasing to the customers.

Those releasing at least once a sprint, do not need seperate release planning besides the Sprint Planning that already exists.

Question 4

Kaizen

Accepted Answer

Kaizen is a Japanese terms referring to incrementally achieving excellence through the relentless and endless pursuit of perfection.

In a business context Kaizen is continuous improvement of processes, operations and functions involving all employees.

Kaizen is Change for the Better.

Also see: Lean Thinking, Lean Waste, A3 Problem Solving, Lean Product Development, Value Stream Mapping.

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

Facilitation

Accepted Answer

Facilitation is an intervention through which a group improves the way it communicates, examines and addresses problems, and makes decisions.

A neutral and unbiased facilitator would create the environment, design the structure and may use various facilitation techniques to help a group improve it's effectiveness.

Question 7

Product Owner

Accepted Answer

The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product/service being built.

The Product Owner owns the decisions related to funds, works with the stakeholders and steers the direction of the product to optimize the outcomes and impact for the customers.

Question 8

Lean Product Development

Accepted Answer

Lean product development a method for developing products that focuses on increasing visibility through small batches, shortening feedback loops, reducing waste, and continuous improvement. It results in speeding up delivery, reducing lead time and increasing customer value.

Some of the Principles of Lean product development are:

Eliminate waste.
Amplify Learning.
Build change capacity
Fast Feedback through rapid development
Empower the team
Build integrity in
See the whole

Also see: Lean Thinking, Lean Waste

Question 9

Self-Managing Team

Accepted Answer

A self-managing team is empowered to internally decide who does what, when, and how. It is responsible and accountable for all or most aspects / decisions of planning and producing a product or delivering a service.

Self-Management requires the team members must be empowered and kept shielded from hierarchy.

See also: Self-Management, Scrum Team

Question 10

Scrum Team

Accepted Answer

The fundamental unit of Scrum is a small team of people, a Scrum Team. The Scrum Team is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal.

The Scrum Team consists of one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and Developers.

Scrum Teams are cross-functional, self-managing, small (10 members or less).

Also Refer: Self-Managing Team, Cross-Functional Team, Feature Teams

Question 11

Stakeholders

Accepted Answer

Anyone with a stake / interest in the Scrum Team and it's outcomes could be a stakeholder to the Scrum Team. Stakeholders could be internal as well as external to the organization.

Internal stakeholders may be people from various functions / departments of the organization such as: finance, sales-marketing, infrastructure, customer support, release management, etc.

External stakeholders may include clients, paying customers, end users, consumers, prospects, etc.

Question 12

True Leader

Accepted Answer

Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization. - Scrum Guide.

A True Leader may exhibit characteristics such as:

Leads by Example: Scrum Master not only invites the team members to regularly seek feedback and try to continuously improve, however, models exhibiting the same and seeks feedback about their own performance and strives to keep improving how they serve the team, the product owner and the organization.
Supports those having difficult times: The Scrum Master stands in support of those who are having difficult times. Team members having difficult times don't need to be treated as bad people. The Scrum Master emphatizes and stands in support of these people.
Leads by Serving: Not there to Manage, the Scrum Master serves to lead.

Also see: Scrum Master as a Servant-Leader

Question 13

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 14

Sprint Demo

Accepted Answer

Please see: Sprint Review

Question 15

Timebox

Accepted Answer

Timebox is a maximum duration allocated for an activity / event. Scrum Events are Timeboxed to keep everyone focused on the agenda of the event. Timeboxing also reduced risk by limiting the time a team would spend on a particular activity.

Question 16

Done

Accepted Answer

When a Product Backlog Item meets the Definition of Done an Increment is recognized as Done.

See more: Definition of Done

Question 17

Methodology

Accepted Answer

Methodology is a body of methods, rules, procedures and processes to achieve a goal. Usually methodology tries to define steps and answers to various situations. Most methodologies are bulky and rigid due to being prescriptive.

Question 18

Forecast

Accepted Answer

Forecast is selecting how much work can be completed within a Sprint. Developers use empirical information to forecast their Sprint scope during Sprint Planning. Forecast is not a guarantee.

Also see: Sprint Planning

Question 19

Information Radiators

Accepted Answer

Any tools / means that radiate out the information by making it visible and transparent to other team members, stakeholders and relevant parties. Usually Big Visible Charts, Large Displays, WhiteBoards, etc. may be used to make information visible.

Information such as: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Defects Open, Impediments, Status of Build etc. may be made available through information radiators so that the team members can regularly inspect and adapt as needed.

Question 20

Scrum Board

Accepted Answer

Visualizing the work of the Scrum Team via a board (either virtual or physical) is a common practice used by Scrum Teams. The purpose of creating such a board is to create transparency of information.

While the Scrum Guide doesn't prescribe any specific practice or a board, it's valuable tool to enhance shared understanding and empiricism.

The Scrum Board may contain the list of everything that's needed in the product (a Product Backlog) and the work of the current sprint (Sprint Backlog).