Answering: “After some small experiments with Scrum, your company decides to do a complete project with Scrum. As Scrum Master you have been invited to the “project kick-off meeting” with IT and product management.”

Architecture and infrastructure work is handled inside regular Sprints, emerging alongside working functionality and made visible in the Product Backlog. Scrum has no up-front technical phase before value delivery starts.

Exam Question

After some small experiments with Scrum, your company decides to do a complete project with Scrum. As Scrum Master you have been invited to the “project kick-off meeting” with IT and product management.
The Product Owner asks how many Sprints IT will need to first figure out architecture and infrastructure issues. What are two options to explain how such work is managed using Scrum?
(choose the best two answers)

• A. You explain that product management should not worry about such typical IT work. You inform them that you will assure that the team members reach out to the right people within the IT organization when needed. During each Sprint Planning meeting they will keep the Product Owner updated about the additional effort it will take for that Sprint. That effort will come on top of the effort for the forecasted functional development.
• B. You explain that technical risks are best controlled when architecture and infrastructure emerge alongside the development of functionality. The additional advantage is that business value is created faster and sooner.
• C. You thank product management for understanding that these efforts indeed require effort and budget. You confirm that architecture and infrastructure are best handled before starting Scrum, but that the exact budget is difficult to calculate upfront. You say you will organize this work in timeboxed Sprints of no more than 30 days to limit risk and be transparent toward product management on the actual progress.
• D. You educate the Product Owner to add this work to Product Backlog to uphold transparency. Ask the Developers to plan work during the first several Sprints to estimate these items, while also creating some business functionality in these early Sprints.

Correct Answer

B and D.

Why This Is the Correct Answer

Scrum is founded on empiricism, so risk is reduced by building something real and inspecting it. When architecture grows together with functionality, each Sprint tests technical decisions against working software, which exposes risk early. It also means stakeholders see value from the first Sprint. Option D keeps the work transparent: architecture and infrastructure items go into the Product Backlog, where the Product Owner can order them with full knowledge. The Developers size them and plan them into early Sprints together with business features. Every Sprint should still produce at least one useful Increment, so no Sprint is purely technical.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

A. Tell product management not to worry about IT work. This hides technical work from the Product Owner and stacks it on top of the forecast. It removes transparency and makes Sprint plans unreliable.

C. Do architecture and infrastructure before starting Scrum. This is a waterfall design phase dressed up as Sprints. It delays value and leaves technical risk untested until functionality is built.

Exam Tip

If a question proposes doing architecture, design or setup “first”, look for the answer where it emerges alongside working functionality and sits in the Product Backlog.

Key Takeaways

• Architecture emerges with functionality in Scrum.
• All work the product needs belongs in the Product Backlog.
• Every Sprint should produce a usable Increment, including the first.