Agile Business Analysis In Scrum Environment 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A business analyst is embedded in a Scrum team. During Sprint Planning, the team realizes several Product Backlog Items lack sufficient acceptance criteria. Who is primarily responsible for resolving this before committing to the sprint?
- The Scrum Master
- The Product Owner (Correct answer)
- The Development Team
- The BA alone
Correct answer: The Product Owner
The Product Owner owns the Product Backlog and is responsible for ensuring items are adequately defined before sprint commitment.
Question 2: In Agile BA practice, what is the primary purpose of a Definition of Ready (DoR) for a Product Backlog Item?
- To confirm the item is deployed to production
- To ensure the item is sufficiently understood before sprint work begins (Correct answer)
- To mark the item as accepted by the product owner
- To document all technical design decisions for the item
Correct answer: To ensure the item is sufficiently understood before sprint work begins
The Definition of Ready establishes criteria a backlog item must meet before the team can begin working on it in a sprint.
Question 3: A BA notices that stakeholders keep requesting changes to items already accepted into the current sprint. What is the recommended Scrum approach to handle this?
- Immediately incorporate all changes to satisfy stakeholders
- Log the changes as new Product Backlog Items for a future sprint (Correct answer)
- Cancel the sprint and replan with the new requirements
- Have the BA negotiate scope reductions to fit the changes in
Correct answer: Log the changes as new Product Backlog Items for a future sprint
In Scrum, new or changed requirements are added to the Product Backlog and prioritized for future sprints rather than disrupting the current sprint.
Question 4: Which Scrum event provides the best opportunity for a BA to gather stakeholder feedback on working software increments?
- Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review (Correct answer)
- Sprint Retrospective
- Sprint Planning
Correct answer: Sprint Review
The Sprint Review is explicitly designed to inspect the increment and gather stakeholder feedback to adapt the Product Backlog.
Question 5: As a BA, you discover that two high-priority backlog items have conflicting business rules that weren't caught during refinement. The sprint starts tomorrow. What should you do?
- Let the developers resolve the conflict during the sprint
- Immediately escalate to the Scrum Master to cancel the sprint
- Collaborate with the Product Owner now to resolve the conflict before sprint planning (Correct answer)
- Document the conflict and include it in the sprint retrospective
Correct answer: Collaborate with the Product Owner now to resolve the conflict before sprint planning
Resolving conflicting requirements before sprint planning ensures items meet the Definition of Ready and prevents mid-sprint rework.
Question 6: In Scrum, which artifact directly reflects the work the Development Team commits to completing during a single sprint?
- Product Backlog
- Sprint Backlog (Correct answer)
- Increment
- Release Plan
Correct answer: Sprint Backlog
The Sprint Backlog contains the selected Product Backlog Items plus the team's plan for delivering the sprint goal.
Question 7: A BA is facilitating backlog refinement and notices the team's velocity has been inconsistent. How should this information influence refinement?
- Refinement should stop until velocity stabilizes
- The BA should reduce the number of items refined per session
- Use velocity trends to guide realistic estimates and sprint capacity planning (Correct answer)
- Velocity is irrelevant to refinement activities
Correct answer: Use velocity trends to guide realistic estimates and sprint capacity planning
Historical velocity data helps teams size and select a realistic amount of work during refinement and sprint planning.
Agile Business Analysis In Scrum Environment 2
A business analyst is embedded in a Scrum team.
During Sprint Planning, the team realizes several Product Backlog Items lack sufficient acceptance criteria.
Who is primarily responsible for resolving this before committing to the sprint?