Scrum PSM II Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 6

B: Ask the Developers and the Product Owner if removing regression testing from the Definition of Done allows the team to produce useful and valuable Increments at the end of every Sprint. This is a good way to challenge the decision and make them think about the consequences of lowering the quality standards. The Scrum Master can help them understand the importance of delivering a potentially releasable product increment that meets the expectations of the stakeholders and customers.

C: Ask the Developers and the Product Owner what problem they are going to solve by altering the Definition of Done during the Sprint to remove regression testing. Will this raise transparency or improve quality? This is a good way to explore the root cause of the issue and find out why they are not able to complete regression testing for all of the selected Product Backlog items in the Sprint. The Scrum Master can help them identify and remove any impediments or inefficiencies that prevent them from achieving their Sprint Goal.

Scrum Guide 2020, page 9: ''The Definition of Done is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality measures required for the product.''

Scrum Guide 2020, page 13: ''The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team in several ways, including coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 12: ''The Definition of Done is a crucial aspect of transparency. If it is not clear when work is done, then stakeholders may make wrong assumptions about the state of the software.''

The situation described in the question indicates that there are multiple problems in the Scrum Team that have led to the increase of technical debt and the dissatisfaction of the Product Owner. These problems include:

The Scrum Team has not used the past Sprint Retrospectives effectively to inspect and adapt. The Sprint Retrospective is an opportunity for the Scrum Team to reflect on their performance and identify improvements for the next Sprint. If the Scrum Team has not been using this event properly, they may have missed some issues or opportunities that could have improved their quality and value delivery.

The Developers have not been paying enough attention to quality. The Developers are accountable for creating a potentially releasable product increment that meets the Definition of Done and the Sprint Goal. If the Developers have not been focusing on quality, they may have introduced defects, errors, or inefficiencies that compromise the functionality and usability of the product.

The Scrum Team is not having conversations around technical debt. Technical debt is the accumulation of work that needs to be done to ensure that a product is maintainable and extensible in the future. If the Scrum Team is not discussing and managing technical debt, they may be neglecting some important aspects of the product architecture, design, or code that could affect its scalability, performance, or security.

The Scrum Master has not ensured that the Scrum Team is being transparent. The Scrum Master is responsible for establishing an environment where transparency, inspection, and adaptation can occur. If the Scrum Master has not ensured that the Scrum Team is being transparent, they may have allowed some hidden problems or assumptions to persist that could affect the quality and value of the product.

Scrum Guide 2020, page 13: ''The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness.''

Scrum Guide 2020, page 10: ''The Developers are the people in the Scrum Team that are committed to creating any aspect of a usable Increment each Sprint.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 12: ''Technical debt is a metaphor for expressing how doing things in a suboptimal way can accumulate over time and make it harder to change or improve a product in the future.''

Scrum Guide 2020, page 6: ''The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. They do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory and practice, both within the Scrum Team and the organization.''

C: Velocity has no direct relationship with value. This is a true statement, as velocity is a measure of the amount of work done by a Scrum Team in a Sprint, not the value or quality of that work. Velocity can vary depending on many factors, such as the size, complexity, and priority of the Product Backlog items, the skills and experience of the Developers, the Definition of Done, and the Sprint length. Therefore, velocity is not a reliable indicator of value creation or team performance.

D: Velocity is the amount of business functionality that a Scrum Team creates in a Sprint. It is unique to that team and used as an input to Sprint Planning. This is a true statement, as velocity is a team-specific metric that reflects how much business functionality the Scrum Team can deliver in a Sprint. Velocity can help the Scrum Team to forecast how many Product Backlog items they can select for the next Sprint, based on their past performance and current capacity. However, velocity is not a goal or a target for the Scrum Team, and it should not be compared across teams.

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 15: ''Velocity is a measure of how much work a team can complete in a given time period. It is usually expressed in terms of story points or function points per Sprint.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 16: ''Velocity is not a measure of value or quality. It does not tell us anything about the usefulness, usability, or desirability of the product increment.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 17: ''Velocity is unique to each team and depends on many factors, such as the size and complexity of the work items, the skills and experience of the team members, the definition of done, and the length of the Sprint.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 18: ''Velocity can be used as an input for Sprint Planning, to help the team forecast how much work they can realistically accomplish in the next Sprint. However, velocity is not a goal or a target for the team, and it should not be used to compare or evaluate teams.''

A: There is one Product Owner for each product (five in total). Each Product Owner may delegate to others for specific value, capabilities, and functionality within their product. The five Product Owners share and align work via Product Backlog. This is a reasonable alternative, as it allows each Product Owner to focus on one product and its vision, value proposition, and stakeholder needs. The Product Owner can also leverage the expertise and input of other people who can help with the product development, such as business analysts, domain experts, or user representatives. The five Product Owners can coordinate and collaborate with each other through the Product Backlog, which is a single source of truth for the product requirements and priorities.

D: There is one Product Owner responsible for all five products. This person may delegate work to others for specific value, capabilities, and functionality within each product to scale their accountability. This is another reasonable alternative, as it allows one Product Owner to have a holistic view of the five products and their interdependencies, synergies, and trade-offs. The Product Owner can also delegate some of the work to other people who can act as proxies or representatives for the different aspects of the products, such as features, modules, or components. The Product Owner can still maintain the ultimate authority and responsibility for the Product Backlog and the product value delivery.

Scrum Guide 2020, page 7: ''The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team.''

Scrum Guide 2020, page 8: ''The Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product. It is the single source of work undertaken by the Scrum Team.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 22: ''The Product Owner may delegate some of their work to others who can help them with the product development, such as business analysts, domain experts, or user representatives. However, the Product Owner remains accountable for the Product Backlog and its content.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 23: ''The Product Owner may scale their role by working with other Product Owners who are responsible for different products, features, modules, or components. However, there should be only one Product Owner per product who has the final say on the product vision and value proposition.''

This is the best answer because it empowers the Developers to take ownership of their own process and find a solution that works for them. The Scrum Master can facilitate the discussion and help the Developers understand the value and importance of the Daily Scrum, but not impose or dictate any specific action or rule. The Scrum Master can also support the Developers in conducting an experiment and evaluating the results, if they decide to do so.

Scrum Guide 2020, page 13: ''The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team in several ways, including coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 14: ''The Daily Scrum is a key opportunity for inspection and adaptation at the team level. It helps the team to synchronize their work, identify impediments, and collaborate on solutions.''

Professional Scrum Master II Course, page 21: ''The Scrum Master can help the team to resolve conflicts by facilitating dialogue, listening actively, asking powerful questions, and supporting collaborative decision making.''

According to the Scrum Guide 2020, the Developers can choose the location and structure of their Daily Scrum, as long as it is consistent and conducive to inspection and adaptation. The Daily Scrum is an event for the Developers, not for the Scrum Master, the Product Owner, or the management. The Developers are responsible for planning their work for the next 24 hours and synchronizing their progress toward the Sprint Goal.

Scrum Guide 2020, page 11: ''The Developers can select whatever structure and techniques they want, as long as their Daily Scrum focuses on progress toward the Sprint Goal and produces an actionable plan for the next day of work.''

Scrum Guide 2020, page 12: ''The Daily Scrum is held at the same time and place each day to reduce complexity.''

A ''Quality Assurance and Release Readiness Sprint'' is not a Scrum concept, but a sign of poor engineering practices and weak adherence to the Scrum values and principles. It indicates that the Scrum Team is not delivering a potentially releasable product Increment every Sprint, which is one of the core commitments of Scrum. This could be due to a weak or incomplete Definition of Done, which allows technical debt to accumulate and compromises the quality and usability of the product. It could also be due to the Developers finding it nearly impossible to create a valuable, useful product Increment in a Sprint, which could be caused by various factors such as lack of skills, tools, collaboration, feedback, or empowerment. The Definition of Done is not being met every Sprint, which means that the Scrum Team is not fulfilling its accountability for the Increment and is not transparent about the state of the product.

Scrum Guide 2020, section ''Commitments'', ''Definition of Done'', ''The Sprint'', ''The Increment''.

Advanced Knowledge of Scrum, section ''Definition of Done'', ''Technical Debt''.

Scrum Master Accountabilities, section ''Accountability for Effectiveness''.

A Scrum Master is not a management position in the traditional sense of the word. A Scrum Master does not have authority over the team members, the product, or the project. A Scrum Master is a servant leader who helps the team self-organize, collaborate, and deliver value. A Scrum Master is accountable for managing the Scrum process, ensuring that the team follows the Scrum values and principles, and facilitating the team's interactions with stakeholders and the organization. A Scrum Master is also accountable for removing organizational impediments that limit the team's progress and productivity, such as bureaucracy, silos, or conflicts. A Scrum Master is not accountable for reporting on the performance of a team, managing the project plan and the project deliverables, or managing the capacity and utilization of the Developers. These are responsibilities of the Product Owner, the Developers, or other roles in the organization.

Scrum Guide 2020, section ''The Scrum Master'', ''The Scrum Team''.

What is a scrum master? [+ Responsibilities] | Atlassian, section ''Scrum master responsibilities''.

Scrum Master Roles and Responsibilities [2023] | Simplilearn, section ''What Does a Scrum Master Do?'', ''Scrum Master Responsibilities''.

Technical debt is the implied cost of rework caused by choosing an easy solution now instead of a better approach that would take longer1. Reducing the Definition of Done for the next three Sprints will create technical debt, which will have negative impacts on the product quality, value, and delivery. Two ways to explain these impacts to the Product Owner are:

Releasing the version creates false assumptions about the actual state of the system.This is likely to result in interruptions during future Sprints in order to react to unforeseen problems arising from not having met the Definition of Done2. This will reduce the transparency, predictability, and adaptability of the Scrum process, and compromise the trust and satisfaction of the customers and stakeholders.

As development progresses and functionality is added upon the reduced Definition of Done, unknown errors will creep in. The system becomes more difficult to stabilize.Work for the actual release as well as future releases will be slowed down in unpredictable ways3. This will increase the complexity, risk, and cost of the product development, and lower the value and quality of the product.

What is Technical Debt in Scrum? | StarAgile, section ''The technical debt is created when''.

Technical Debt & Scrum: Who Is Responsible? | Scrum.org, section ''What Is Technical Debt?''.

Managing Technical Debt in a Scrum Project | SCRUMstudy Blog, section ''Technical debt accrues''.