Hiro Takashimya

A few members of the Scrum Team discuss work that is not being done. Some say it is part of the Definition of Done; others say it isn’t. After an hour of angry discussion, someone starts making personal insults and the anger level goes way up. What is the best action for the Scrum Master to take?
(choose the best answer)
A. Defuse the conflict. Take the Definition of Done and tell the Scrum Team members how to interpret it so they can autonomously decide whether the debated work is or is not part of it.
B. End the discussion. Make the call whether the work is or is not part of the Definition of Done. Identify who is involved in the conflict and decide on their further presence on the team.
C. Conduct a session to help the entire team resolve the conflict, create a uniform Definition of Done, and become effective again. Remind the team that conflicting ideas are natural, but making it personal doesn’t help.
D. Take the people involved aside. Ask them to resolve the situation outside of the team, if required through their managers. The goal is to maintain stability in the team.

One of the Developers is always missing the Daily Scrum. She feels that as long as he is doing his job well it doesn’t matter whether she attends or not. The other Developers are not doing anything about it. You are the Scrum Master of this team, how would you respond to this situation.
(choose the best answer)
A. Teach the Developers how to deal with this situation by attending the Daily Scrum yourself.
B. Talk to the Developer who is missing the Daily Scrum and ask her to always attend the Daily Scrum.
C. Ask the Developers, what value they get by having the Daily Scrum with all team members present and what might go wrong if all Developers do not attend.
D. You do not intervene. The Developers own the Daily Scrum, so they should deal with any issues with attendance.

The relationship between the Product Owner and the Developers has degraded over time.
The Developers are growing increasingly angry with the Product Owner for changing the requirements all the time and not being available enough. The Product Owner is angry with the Developers for changing requirements during implementation. What guidance should the Scrum Master offer?
(choose the best answer)
A. Address why requirements change during the Sprint Retrospective. Ask the Developers and the Product Owner to talk about why the requirements are changing and consider the impact on value during this discussion.
B. Ask for a project manager or other external resource to mediate and temporarily take over for the Product Owner.
C. Take everyone to a 2-day off-site event to relax and re-align. It is liberating to take people’s minds away from work.
D. Ask each person’s functional manager to instruct their employees that they have to collaborate better, or be removed from the team.

You are the Scrum Master of a Scrum Team that has one Developer who disagrees with team decisions. Their disagreements are becoming disruptive and slowing progress. The Developer often returns to earlier team decisions and re-opens the issue.
What are two ways to go about this problem?
(choose the best two answers)
A. At the Sprint Retrospective you observe whether the topic is raised. If it doesn’t happen, you check on how comfortable everybody is with the way team decisions are made.
B. To every team member expressing this concern you suggest raising this with the full team. You offer to help initiate the conversation but not to resolve the concern yourself.
C. You go to the Human Resources department and ask them to have a conversation with the Developer based on the issues the team has raised.
D. You take the Developer aside to express your concern over their disagreements and tell them to act as a team player and to comply with the team’s decision.
E. You organize an offsite team building activity in order to establish a foundation of trust. You observe whether the problem persists after the offsite activity.

A Scrum Team selected a Product Backlog item during the Sprint Planning. However, at the end of the Sprint the work does not meet the Definition of Done. What two things should happen with this incomplete Product Backlog item?
(choose the best two answers)
A. Only the stakeholders decide over acceptance of undone work and whether to release it.
B. The item is not included in the Increment for this Sprint.
C. Review the item, add the done part of the estimate to the velocity and create a Story for the remaining work.
D. It is put on the Product Backlog for the Product Owner to decide what to do with it.

Eight months ago your company started development of a new platform consisting of several components and systems. You are the Scrum Master on the team building the “core” application of the platform; your application connects all other systems.
The Scrum Teams work in monthly Sprints, and the team is expected to deliver all functionality in three Sprints. Recently the team’s progress was slowed down because of changes to interfaces of other components that you integrate with, as well as unavailability of the program’s testing infrastructure. The program manager is extremely upset and angry when they find out that the team will need two more Sprints. The project managers of the other components confirm their adherence to the expected date.
As a Scrum Master, what could you do to help the Product Owner?
(choose the best answer)
A. You suggest working with the program manager and the project managers of the other systems on the ordering and the value of your open Product Backlog items to redefine the possible delivery date.
B. You shorten your Sprints to be ready sooner.
C. You inform the program manager that there is a way. You remove all items from the Product Backlog for which development is forecasted to be beyond the expected date. These are likely to be low value anyhow.
D. You calculate how many additional developers it would take to increase velocity in order to make the original date. You inform the program manager of the additional budget for these developers. This would then allow making the expected date.