Agile Interview Questions

Last updated on Nov 18, 2023

Agile is a process of a software framework, an approach followed by the business organisations for delivering the products in time. Agile implements the approaches of iterative project models, whereas traditional methods include various project life cycle phases.

In this article, you can go through the set of Agile interview questions most frequently asked in the interview panel. This will help you crack the interview as the topmost industry experts curate these at HKR training.

Let us have a quick review of the Agile interview questions.

Most Frequently Asked Agile Interview Questions

What is Agile Testing?

Ans: Agile testing is a practice based on the principles of agile software development. It includes all agile team members with specific skills and expertise for ensuring the timely delivery of a product with the release of additional features at frequent intervals. 

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What are the most important components of Agile?

Ans: The key component features of agile are.

  • Daily stand-up meetings.
  • CRC (Class Responsibility Collaborator) cards.
  • Timeboxed task boards.
  • TDD (test-driven development), continuous integration, regular code reviews, pair programming, continuous deployment and delivery, automated builds, etc.
  • Iteration planning meetings and iterative development.

How does Agile testing methodology differ from other testing methodologies?

Ans: In the Agile methodology, the testers will ensure that the whole process of testing. The testing process is divided into small steps as possible, and a small unit of code is tested in each of these steps. The team of testers then consistently communicates the results of their work and changes the short-term strategy and even the development plan on the go, based on the results of the agile testing. The agile methodology encourages a flexible and rapid response to change, which leads to better end results.

Discuss the principles of agile testing.

Ans: The principles of agile testing are as follows:

  • Customer satisfaction. 
  • A big free clean mode.
  • Welcoming the changes for customers. 
  • The business people and the developers work together as a team. 
  • Focussing on essence rather than lengthy documentation. 
  • Face to face conversation is appreciated. 
  • Promotion of sustainable development. 

What are the essential qualities a good Agile tester should have?

Ans: A professional agile tester would develop the following essentials.

  1. Understanding the necessities quickly.
  2. The Agile tester should be aware of Agile principles and its concepts well.
  3. A tester should have an understanding of the risks involved during the requirement changes.
  4. The ability to communicate with the developers, associates and testers.

What kind of projects is suitable for Agile Methodology?

Ans: The traditional methodology is most suited for the projects with predefined, clearly stated requirements while agile development methodology is more suitable for projects with dynamic requirements where frequent changes in the product come up on a regular basis.

Define Product backlog and Sprint Backlog?

Ans: 

  • A product backlog contains information about every requirement and features of the product and it is maintained by the project owner. 
  • A Spring backlog is treated as a product backlog subset that contains requirements and features related only to a particular sprint.

What are the different types of Agile Methodologies?

Ans: There are several types of agile development methodology available.

  • Scrum Methodology. 
  • Crystal Methodology.
  • DSDM(Dynamic Software Development Method). 
  • Feature-driven development(FDD).
  • Lean software development.
  • Extreme Programming(XP).

Describe the main roles in the scrum.

Ans:

  • Scrum team: It consists of an individual person who is in charge of working collectively to complete a certain task. 
  • Scrum Master: This person is responsible for the paper execution of the end result of the scrum team. 
  • Product owner: He or she has the responsibility of delivering a whole concept of what to build and then convey the idea to the team. 

. Differentiate between Agile and Scrum.

Ans:

  • The main difference between Agile and Scrum is that the former has a broader spectrum while Agile Methodology is used for project management. Scrum is ideal for projects where the requirements change rapidly. 
  • In the Agile Methodology, leadership holds the most pivotal position, whereas Scrum encourages the creation of a self-organizing and cross-functional team.

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. Can you list some responsibilities that a scrum team has to undertake?

Ans: Major responsibilities of a scrum team includes the following.

  • Splitting the requirements, creating tasks, estimating and distributing the created tasks. To put simply they are in charge of creating sprint backlogs.
  • Conducting daily sprint meetings.
  • The team should ensure that every functional feature is delivered on time. They have to create a sprint burndown diagram to know to get the exact estimate of work done and the work that needs to be done.

. What does it mean by the product roadmap?

Ans: A product roadmap refers to the holistic view of product features, which creates the product vision.

. What is meant by sprint retrospective meeting?

Ans: It is the meeting conducted in the last part of the sprint after the review meeting of a sprint. The whole team will participate in this discussion, which lasts for 2 to 3 hours.

. Differentiate between “Sprint Planning Meeting” and “Sprint Retrospective Meeting.”

Ans: 

Sprint Planning Meeting:

  • A Sprint Planning Meeting involves all the Scrum roles such as product owner, scrum team, and scrum master will come together to discuss the project priorities and backlog items. 
  • The Sprint Planning Meeting is a weekly event that consumes about an hour.

Sprint Retrospective Meeting:

  • In Sprint Retrospective Meeting all the Scrum roles such as product owner, scrum team, and scrum master will come together to discuss the good and bad elements of the sprint and the sprint improvements. 
  • This meeting is an extension of the Sprint Planning Meeting and consumes the time of two to three hours.

. Define Zero Sprint and Spike in Agile.

Ans: 

Zero sprint: 

  • It is defined as the preparation step of the first sprint in Agile. 
  • There are certain activities that should be performed before starting the project. These activities are considered as the Zero sprint. 
  • Examples: Setting the environment for development, preparation of backlogs etc.

Spike: 

  • It is the type of story that is considered between the sprints. 
  • Spikes are commonly used for the activities related to the design or technical issues such as research, design, prototyping, and exploration. 
  • There are two types of spikes which are functional spikes and technical spikes.

. State some of the Agile quality strategies.

Ans: Agile quality strategies include.

  • Iteration.
  • Re-factoring.
  • Dynamic code analysis.
  • Short feedback cycles.
  • Reviews and inspection.
  • Standards and guidelines.
  • Milestone reviews.

. What do you know about impediments in Scrum? Give some examples of impediments.

Ans: Impediments are the obstacles or issues faced by the scrum team which slow down their speed of work. If anything is trying to block the scrum team from getting their work done then it is called as an impediment. Impediments can come in any form. Some of the impediments are given as follows.

  • Lack of resources.
  • Technical, operational, organizational problems.
  • Lack of management support system.
  • Business issues.
  • Insufficient skill or knowledge.

. What do you understand by Daily Stand-Up?

Ans: The daily stand-up is an everyday meeting which is conducted during the morning hours in which the whole team meets for almost 15 minutes to find the answer to the following three questions.

  • What was done yesterday?
  • What is your plan for today?
  • Is there any impediment or block that restricts you from completing your task?

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. What do you know about Agile Manifesto & its Principles? Explain in brief.

Ans: Agile Manifesto is a theory which explains the most of agile/scrum roles. Four manifesto values and twelve principles should be explained as much as possible. It is even fine when it is not explained with a 100% accurate manner but intentions of values and principles should come out as follows.

  • The working software must be demonstrated at regular intervals.
  • Individuals & interaction such as self-organization, self-motivating should be encouraged.
  • Collaboration with customers.
  • Welcoming the change at any point in time in the project.

. What is the use of burn-up and burn-down charts?

Ans: The burn-up chart illustrates the amount of work completed in a project whereas the burn-down chart depicts the amount of work remaining to complete a project. Both burn-up and burn-down charts are used in discovering the progress of a project.

Related Article: Agile Prioritization Techniques

. Explain the role of the Scrum Master.

Ans: The main role of the Scrum Master is to ensure that the team abides by the Agile values and principles and follows the agreed-upon processes and practices. The crucial responsibilities of the Scrum Master are as follows:

  • Removing the impediments that hamper the productivity of the Scrum team.
  • Establishing a productive and collaborative work environment for the Scrum team.
  • Protecting the team from the interruptions and distractions of the outside world.
  • Maintaining a good relationship between the team, clients, and other stakeholders involved in a project. 
  • Supervising the operations of the Scrum team and motivating them when needed. 

. What is the difference between Epic, User Stories, and Tasks?

Ans: 

  • An Epic is a group of related user stories.
  • User Stories define the actual business requirements. They are generally created by the business owner.
  • Tasks are the business requirements that have to be accomplished. The tasks are created by the development team.

. What do you know about “Planning Poker” technique?

Ans: Planning poker is also called Scrum Poker. It is a card-based agile technique that is used for planning and estimation. To start a session of planning poker technique, the agile user story is read by the product owner. The steps performed in the poker planning technique are as follows.

  1. Each estimator has a deck of poker cards with the values such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, and so on, this denotes the story points, ideal days or for other means that the team uses for estimation.
  2. Each estimator has a discussion with the product owner and then privately selects a card on the basis of their independent estimation.
  3. If the cards with the same value are selected by all estimators, it is considered as an estimate. If not, the estimator discusses the high and low value of their estimates.
  4. Then again, each estimator privately selects a card and reveals. This process of poker planning is repeated to reach a general agreement.

. What is the velocity of a sprint and how it is measured?

Ans: A velocity is a planning tool used for estimating the speed of the work and time of completion of the project. The calculation of velocity is performed by reviewing the work of a team that is successfully completed during earlier sprints. 

Example: If the team completed five stories during a two-week sprint and each story were worth three-story points, then the team’s velocity is fifteen-story points per sprint.

. Explain the product backlog in Scrum.

Ans: The product owner reviews the list of all new features, change requests, enhancements, and bug reports before the initialization of scrum sprint and determines the priority. If the project is new, then it includes new features that the new system must provide. This list of items is referred to as a product backlog. The items that are kept on the sprint are referred to as sprint backlog.

. What is the ideal duration of a Scrum Sprint?

Ans: 

  • The duration of a Scrum Sprint or the Scrum Cycle primarily depends on the project size and the team working on it. 
  • A Scrum team may consist of 3-9 members, and it takes about 3-4 weeks to draft and complete a Scrum script. The average duration of a Scrum Sprint would be four weeks with this calculation.

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. Can agile methodology also be applied in other than software testing and development projects?

Ans: There are various areas where the agile methodology is applicable in the field of biophysics, biochemistry, biomedical or at the place where there is insufficient data, where the project needs to be completed with a small team, where to work in unknown.

. Name some project management tools used in agile?

Ans: The following are project management tools used in agile.

  • Version one
  • X-planner.
  • Icescrum.
  • Rally Software.
  • Agilefant.
  • Agilo. 

. Mention the challenges involved in developing Agile Software?

Ans: The following are the challenges involved in developing Agile software.

  • More testing and customer involvement.
  • Impacts management more than developers.
  • Each feature needs to be completed before moving on to the next.
  • All the code has to work fine to ensure the application is in a working state.
  • More planning is required.

. What do you understand by the term “Scrum of Scrums”?

Ans: The term “Scrum of Scrums” is used during the involvement of multiple teams in a project. It refers to the scaling of the daily Scrum meeting. Here each team is responsible for conducting and leading its separate scrum meeting. To maintain coordination and communication among all the different teams, a separate meeting is conducted where all the teams will participate. This is known as the “Scrum of Scrums.” In this meeting, one team leader from every team known as the “ambassador” will represent their team. The main idea is to encourage Agile teams to collaborate and coordinate their work with each other.

The following primary things which are discussed in the meeting:

  • Team progress after the last meeting.
  • The task to be done before the next meeting.
  • The hindrance that the team faces while completing the last task.

About Author

As a Senior Writer for HKR Trainings, Sai Manikanth has a great understanding of today’s data-driven environment, which includes key aspects such as Business Intelligence and data management. He manages the task of creating great content in the areas of Digital Marketing, Content Management, Project Management & Methodologies, Product Lifecycle Management Tools. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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