CERTIFIED SCRUM MASTER

Introduction

u Name
u Enterprise
u Role and profession
u Familiarity with SCRUM or other frameworks
u Course Expectations
Course Objectives

• Project-product orientation • Principles

• Process control
• Agile relationship with traditional
projects • Self-organization, collaboration,
prioritization and differences in relation to
• SCRUM's relationship with the management of traditional projects
DevOps, Lean and ITIL 4 • Roles and conflicts

• Introduction to SCRUM • Main roles of a SCRUM team

• Agile culture
• What is SCRUM?
• Organizational Change Management
• Why can it be useful?

• SCRUM Fundamentals
• Basic principles and concepts of
the methodology
Course Outcomes

• Delegates will be familiar with the concepts, advantages, and

challenges of the Scrum framework.
• Delegates will be adept in handling the business aspects of the Scrum
framework and business stakeholder engagement.

• Delegates will be equipped with the knowledge needed to play the

role of a Product Owner in their organizations and help their
organizations adopt the Scrum framework. This knowledge will include
a functional understanding of the other roles in Scrum.

• Delegates will have knowledge pertaining to and the ability to

anticipate issues related to the practical implementation of Scrum

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Syllabus Areas

1. Agile Overview

2. Domains of Agile Practices

3. Scrum Overview

4. Overview of the SBOK Guide

5. Scrum Principles

6. Scrum Aspects

7. Scrum Phases and Processes

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SCRUMstudy Certification Schema

All Certification Exams of SCRUMstudy are proctored online. Participants will need a computer and webcam to take
the exam, which will be proctored live by VMEdu.

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Scrum Master Certified Exam

Multiple Choice

140 Questions per Exam

No Negative Marks for Wrong Answers

180 Minutes Duration

Proctored Online Exam

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1. Agile Overview

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Projects and Project Management
A project is a collaborative enterprise to either create new products or services or to
deliver results as defined in the Project Vision Statement.

Projects are usually impacted by constraints of time, cost, scope, quality, benefits, and
risks.

The objective of the project team is to create Deliverables as defined in Prioritized

Product Backlog.

Project management activities include planning, delegating, executing, monitoring and

control.

How is a project different from Business Operation, Program, and

Portfolio

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Introduction to Agile Frameworks

• The popular Agile frameworks include:

◦ Lean Kanban
◦ Extreme Programming

◦ Crystal Methods
◦ Dynamic Systems Development Methods

◦ Feature Driven Development

◦ Test Driven Development
◦ Adaptive Software Development

◦ Agile Unified Process

◦ Domain-Driven Design

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The need for Agile

Rapidly changing market and technology—the need to be cutting

edge

Shrinking the “time to market” of products and increased

innovation demands from customers

Reduction of testing and experimentation costs (simulations and

automation)

Customer value is delivered at point of sale, not at the point of

plan

Need for an adaptive method of development rather than

traditional, predictive methods

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 Agile Manifesto - Values

• “We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others
do it. Through this work, we have come to value the following:

Individuals and Over Processes and Tools

interactions
Working software Over Comprehensive
Documentation
Customer collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
Responding to change Over Following a Plan

• That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left
more.”
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Agile Principles

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 Declaration of Interdependence

Declaration of Interdependence

Agile and adaptive approaches for linking people, projects, and value
We are a community of project leaders that are highly successful at delivering results. To
achieve these results:

We increase return on investment by making continuous flow of value our focus.

We deliver reliable results by engaging customers in frequent interactions and shared
ownership.
We expect uncertainty and manage for it through iterations, anticipation, and
adaptation.
We unleash creativity and innovation by recognizing that individuals are the ultimate
source of value and by creating an environment in which they can make a difference.
We boost performance through group accountability for results and shared responsibility
for team effectiveness.
We improve effectiveness and reliability through situation specific strategies, processes,
and practices.

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 Question

u Which of following statements is NOT True?

A. Agile team size is small, whereas Waterfall team size is generally large.
B. The ROI in Agile is throughout the project life, whereas in Waterfall it is,
generally, at the end of the project.

C. Agile management is autocratic, whereas Waterfall management is

decentralized.
D. Agile requires minimal documentation, whereas Waterfall practices
comprehensive documentation.

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 Question

u Identify the INCORRECT Agile principle and its implications.

A. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the
project: it is mandatory for the business stakeholders and the team to
meet and converse daily.

B. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances

agility: it keeps the software maintainable.

C. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-

organizing teams: self-organizing teams have a higher level of ownership
in the designs they create.

D. Deliver working software frequently: this ensures timely feedback that

can be incorporated early in the product development process.

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 Question

u Which of the following is NOT implied by the Agile principle, “At

regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more
effective and then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly”?

A. Lessons are identified only at the end of the product development

cycle as a part of Retrospective Meetings.

B. Change can be incorporated throughout the project, and not just at

the end.

C. The team shall identify what works well and what does not.
D. The team should be flexible enough to adapt its behavior to the
changes incorporated.

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 Question

u Which principle is used to help effectively manage the duration of

project planning and execution?

A. Time-Boxing
B. Collaboration

C. Value-based Prioritization
D. Self-organization

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Question

In your organization, are projects delivered in an hybrid

environment or purely Agile or waterfall environment?

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2. Domains of Agile Practices

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Domains of Agile Practices

Agile project activities can be organized into the following six major domains of
practice:

Domain I: Value-Driven Delivery

Domain II: Stakeholder Engagement

Domain III: Team Performance Practices

Domain IV: Adaptive Planning

Domain V: Problem Detection and Resolution

Domain VI: Continuous Improvement

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Agile methods aim to deliver value early in the project. Due to the unpredictable
nature of product development, it becomes important to deliver important
components as early as possible.

• This early delivery of value provides an opportunity for reinvestment, as well as

proving the worth of the project to interested business stakeholders.

• To provide Value-Driven Delivery, it is important to:

• understand what adds value to the customer;
• reduce risks that can potentially reduce the value if they occur;
• implement the plan that has been formulated based on the priorities
determined.

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Practices for Value-Driven Delivery

• There are five practices that accompany this domain, each with its own tools,
techniques, knowledge, and skills.

• Assessing Value
• Planning Value
• Delivering Value
• Confirming Value
• Tracking and Reporting Value

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Assessing value

• The value of business projects is estimated using methods such as Return on

Investment, Net Present Value, and Internal Rate of Return.

• Return on Investment (ROI)

• Net Present Value (NPV)

• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Planning value

• The responsibility for determining how the value will be created falls on the
business team, while the development team must concentrate on what is to be
developed.

• Agile projects are typically dynamic and may require several adjustments during
the course of project development. Thus, Agile charters should effectively outline
processes that allow developers to make necessary changes while still ensuring
that high-value components can be delivered.

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Planning value

• Value Stream Mapping uses flowcharts, also called visual maps, to illustrate the
flow of information needed to complete a process.

• Product Roadmap is a tool that provides a visual outline of the product and its key
components. Story maps, popularized by Jeff Patton, are commonly used to
illustrate product roadmaps.

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Planning value

• Prioritization

• MoSCoW prioritization scheme

• Paired Comparison

• 100-Point Method

• Kano Analysis

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Delivering value

• WIP limits
• Work In Progress (WIP) refers to work that has been undertaken but has not
yet reached completion. Identifying bottlenecks in the project becomes
difficult when several tasks are WIP at the same time. Each WIP item requires
capital and does not contribute to ROI until it becomes a completed, usable
product.

• Kanban boards are effective in placing limits on WIP. If the limit on WIP is too
low, (that is, only a few processes are allowed to be WIP) then it may result in
underutilizing the team.

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Delivering value

• Incremental delivery

• Incremental delivery is another method that can be used to maintain

efficiency in delivering value during a project. In this method of delivery,
functional increments of the product are deployed over the timeline of the
project. The software can either be deployed for testing and evaluation, or it
can be deployed for production in increments.

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Confirming value

• Prototypes, Simulations, and Demonstrations

• Demonstrating prototypes to customers and simulating their functionalities is

an important practice in confirming value.

• Often, after demonstrating and using the features, customers can more
clearly assess whether the features are adequate and suitable. They might
realize that they need additional features. In product development, the
description for this customer experience has come to be known as “I’ll Know
It When I See It”.

• Through demonstrations, customers can also evaluate to what degree the

team has successfully interpreted the product requirements and built them
accordingly. This is known as the “gulf of evaluation.”

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Tracking and Reporting value

• Agile Earned Value

• Earned Value Management focuses on predicting the time it will take to

complete the project and the final cost incurred.

• Earned Value Analysis uses visuals in the form of graphs as a primary way to
report status.

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Tracking and Reporting value

• Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFDs)

• Cumulative Flow Diagrams give valuable insight into the project status and are
important tools to track and report Agile projects.

• The shaded area shows the total number of features to be built. The dotted
area represents the WIP, and the striped section shows the work that has
been completed.

• CFDs provide a visual of how the project is performing. It is a great tool to

identify roadblocks and bottle neck processes.

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Value-Driven Delivery

• Tracking and Reporting value

• Risk Burndown Chart

• The formula for calculating risk severity is Risk severity = risk probability X risk
impact.

• Calculating risk severity can also help rank risk and response priorities and is
not unique to Agile projects. However, Agile projects focus on creating value,
and calculating EMV can assist in avoiding risks. Risk probability and risk
impact both can be assigned scores of low (1), medium (2), and high (3). Using
this formula, risk severity can be calculated on a numerical scale.

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 Question

u Which of the following statement(s) is/are true for a Cumulative Flow Diagram
(CFD):

1. It is a useful tool for tracking and reporting project performance.

2. It identifies roadblocks and bottlenecks within processes.
3. It is usually used to provide daily updates for individual Sprints.
4. It provides a simple, visual representation of project progress at
a particular point in time

A. 1 and 2
B. 3 and 4
C. 1, 2, and 4
D. 1, 2, 3, and 4

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 Question

u Which of the following is NOT a prioritization technique under

Customer Value-based Prioritization?

A. MoSCoW Prioritization Scheme.

B. Monopoly Money.

C. Kano Analysis.
D. 20-point Prioritization Scheme.

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Question

u Which of the following concepts regarding iterative development

should an Agile team be aware of?

A. The designing, developing, and testing of feature code should be

done once in the beginning.

B. All changes should be addressed to at the end of the development

phase.

C. There is room to accommodate changes.

D. Simplification of the development process is not a priority.

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 Question

u Your team is working on creating software that raises and lowers a bridge to
allow water traffic. You are considering several prioritization schemes to
determine high-value features. Which among the following techniques should
be in your list?

1. Kano analysis
2. Risk-based spikes
3. MoSCoW
4. T-shirt sizes

A. 1, 2 and 3
B. 2 and 4
C. 1 and 3
D. 2, 3 and 4

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Business Stakeholder Engagement

• There are four practices that accompany this domain, each with its own tools,
techniques, knowledge, and skills, they are:

• Aligning Business Stakeholders’ Understanding

• Communicating with Business Stakeholders

• Using Critical Soft Skills

• Leading Effectively

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Team Performance Practices

• To be successful on Agile projects, it is important to understand how and when

teams perform best and how to create an empowered team. This will be discussed
in two parts.

• The first part deals with concepts related to understanding team performance, and
the second part deals with team practices.

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Adaptive Planning

• There are three practices that accompany this domain, each with its own tools,
techniques, knowledge, and skills:

• Planning Concepts

• Estimation

• Agile Plans

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Problem Detection and Resolution

• Problems are an inevitable part of any project. Proactively identifying and resolving
problems is crucial.

• Identifying problems
• Cycle time
• Escaped defects
• Project and quality standards
• Failure modes and alternatives
• Variance and trend analysis
• Control limits

• Resolving problems
• Continuous integration
• Risk-based spike
• Frequent verification and validation
• Steps in solving problems

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Continuous Improvement

• Several tools, techniques, knowledge sets, and skills can continuously improve Agile
projects:
• Retrospectives,
• Knowledge sharing,
• Process tailoring
• Principles of systems thinking
• Process analysis
• Applying new Agile practices
• Continuous improvement processes
• Self-assessment

• Agile tools and artifacts:

• User stories and backlogs
• Requirements hierarchy
• Information radiators
• Burndown and burnup charts
• Agile modeling

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 Question

u Sponsors are business stakeholders who fund the project. As part of

business stakeholder engagement, the Product Owner needs to make
sure that the Sponsors have clarity about all of the following,
EXCEPT:

A. Performance of individuals within the project team

B. Risks involved in the project and the steps or strategies to mitigate

them
C. Deadline targets and the overall cost of the project

D. Benefits of Scrum implementation

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Question

u Though it is not the main role of the Scrum Master to interact

directly with business stakeholders on a project, yet he/she should
be aware of the importance of maintaining business stakeholder
involvement. Which of the following statements is NOT true for
business stakeholder involvement in a Scrum project?

A. The responsibility for keeping business stakeholders engaged lies

with the Product Owner.
B. Regular communication must be maintained with business
stakeholders.
C. Business stakeholders should be informed about the target Releases
and estimated cost of the project.
D. Business stakeholders should be consulted while appointing people to
Scrum Team.

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 Question

u Which of the following statements is FALSE about the concept of

‘Continuous Improvement’?

A. Learn lessons from previous projects

B. Learn lessons from the current project

C. Learn lessons only at predefined intervals

D. Pass lessons for future projects

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Question

u Find the total cycle time of the following process:

A Scrum team spends 10 minutes to gather for the Daily Standup meeting,
spends 15 minutes in the meeting, 10 minutes for a quick session to
identify issues that need immediate attention followed by another 5
minutes to discuss last night’s baseball game. Note that the first and the
last events are not “value-adding” activities.

A. 25 minutes
B. 40 minutes

C. 30 minutes
D. 15 minutes

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3. Scrum Overview

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 Scrum Overview
• A Scrum project involves a collaborative effort to create a new product, service, or other
result as defined in the Project Vision Statement.

• Projects are impacted by constraints of time, cost, scope, quality, resources, organizational
capabilities, and other limitations that make them difficult to plan, execute, manage, and
ultimately succeed.
• However, successful implementation of the results of a finished project provides significant
business benefits to an organization.

• It is therefore important for organizations to select and practice an appropriate project

management approach.

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What is Scrum?
Scrum is one of the most
popular Agile methods. It is
an adaptive, iterative, fast, Scrum ensures transparency
flexible, and effective in communication and
framework designed to creates an environment of
deliver significant value collective accountability and
quickly and throughout a continuous progress.
project.

The Scrum framework, as A key strength of Scrum lies

defined in the SBOK® Guide, in its use of cross-functional,
is structured in such a way self-organized, and
that it supports product and empowered teams who
service development in all divide their work into short,
types of industries and in concentrated work cycles
any type of project, called Sprints.
irrespective of its
complexity.

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History of Scrum - Rugby Approach

• Inception of the Framework in the 1980s

• Developed by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka

• Described an innovative approach to product development that they called a

holistic or “Rugby” approach

• Defined a flexible and all-inclusive product development strategy

• Approach based on manufacturing case studies from different industries

• Product development should not be like a sequential relay race, but rather should
be analogous to the game of Rugby

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History of Scrum - Rugby Approach

u2013 - A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK® Guide) First Edition is
released. It is developed with the help of more than 52 subject matter experts from
over 10 countries.

u2015 - A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK® Guide) Second Edition is
released.

u2015 – SCRUMstudy LinkedIn Group is formed. It is now the largest and the fastest
growing community of Scrum and Agile practitioners with over 210,000+ members.

u2017 - A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK® Guide) Third Edition is
released with detailed sections on Scaling Scrum for Large Projects and the Enterprise.

u2022 - A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK® Guide) Fourth Edition is
released with Improved and expanded description of roles and responsibilities in the
Scrum framework, particularly as they relate to large projects, programs, and
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portfolios.
Why Scrum - Rugby Approach
Scrum Traditional Project Management
Emphasis is on People Processes
Documentation Minimal—only as required Comprehensive
Product delivery style Iterative Can be linear or iterative
Low – through prioritization of Generally high – through various
Upfront planning
requirements based on business value levels of plans
Quality assurance Customer centric Process centric
Authority is delegated from one level
Management style No levels of authority
to another
Through updates to Prioritized Product
Change management Formal Change Management System
Backlog
Leadership style Collaborative, Servant Leadership Command and control
Performance measurement Business value Plan conformity
Return on Investment (ROI) Early/throughout project life Generally, end of project life
Varies depending on the project
Customer involvement High throughout the project
lifecycle
Table 1-3: Scrum vs. Traditional Project Management; Page 20 SBOK® Guide
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What is not agile?

Bureaucracy Hierarchy Immobility

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Agile is a mindset

• Initially, focused on software development

• Applicable to many other environments

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Where and why does it make sense to apply Agile?
Complex
These are problems for which the cause-
effect relationship is explainable in Complicated
retrospect. This is a case not seen before The cause-effect relationship requires
and for which there are no known analysis and often expert knowledge must
solutions or good practices available. The be used. The problem follows a logic,
team has to look for new ways to solve the although more complicated than normal.
problem. Patterns must be investigated to Once resolved, resolution rules can be
understand how the problem occurs. defined and followed. GOOD PRACTICES
Different experiments are often necessary
to understand the dynamics of the
problem and find a solution
Disaster
It is unknown which category the
problem belongs to. Causation is
Chaotic totally unknown.
Simple
The cause-effect relationship is not directly Problems caused by rules not being
perceptible. These are problems that are not followed. The cause-effect relationship is
detectable before they happen. There are no evident to most, it is reproducible,
clear answers and elements of the problem repeatable and predictable. They are
that cannot be known when they happen. usually arranged with Standard
They often require crisis responses to relieve Operating Procedures (SOPs). BEST
symptoms when they appear. PRACTICES. 55
It encompasses many concepts

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Agile requires a cultural change
Culture is the set of values and behaviors that
make up the social and psychological
environment of an organization

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Agile culture indicators

Work in small, transversal, Frequent deliveries with

multidisciplinary and self- real feedback from users
organised teams

Conducting multiple Focus on value rather

experiments than output or costs

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Benefits of Scrum

Adaptability
Transparency

Empirical process control and All information radiators such as

iterative delivery make Scrumboard and Sprint Burndown
projects adaptable and open to or Burnup Charts are shared,
incorporating change. leading to an open work
environment.

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 Benefits of Scrum

Continuous Feedback Continuous Improvement

Continuous feedback is provided The deliverables are improved

through the Conduct Daily Standup, progressively Sprint by Sprint, through the
and Demonstrate and Validate Sprint Refine Prioritized Product Backlog
processes. process.

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 Benefits of Scrum

Continuous Delivery of Value Sustainable Pace

Iterative processes enable the Scrum processes are designed such

continuous delivery of value that the people involved can work at

through the Ship Deliverables a sustainable pace that they can, in

process as frequently as the theory, continue indefinitely.

customer requires.

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 Benefits of Scrum

u
val
e

Early Delivery of High Value Faster Problem Resolution

The Create Prioritized Collaboration and colocation of cross-

Product Backlog process functional teams lead to faster problem

ensures that the highest solving.

value requirements of the

customer are satisfied first.

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 Benefits of Scrum

Effective Deliverables Collective Ownership

The Create Prioritized The Commit User Stories
Product Backlog process and process allows team
regular reviews after creating members to take ownership
deliverables ensures of the project and their work
effective deliverables to the leading to better quality.
customer.

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 Benefits of Scrum
Idea!

The Retrospect Sprint and Retrospect

Innovative Environment Release processes create an

environment of introspection,
learning, and adaptability leading to an
innovative and creative work
environment.

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 Question
The Product Owner, being a part of the Scrum Core Team, must ensure
that he/she collaborates with the other team members and the business
stakeholders throughout the project. Which of the following statements
is true about the particular project benefits realized due to collaboration
within Scrum?

A. Collaboration helps identify the need for change in the process.

B. Collaboration enables prioritization of requirements by the Product
Owner.

C. Collaboration enables all the team members and users to be on the

same page in terms of project requirements.

D. Collaboration requires the exchange of tasks between the team

members at regular intervals.

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Question
Which among the following is not a key strength of Scrum?

A. Cross-functional teams
B. Self-organized teams
C. Empowered teams

D. Multi-tasking teams

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 Question
Which of the following is a benefit of Self-organization in Scrum?

A. Team buy-in and shared ownership.

B. The need for changes due to poorly clarified requirements is
minimized.

C. Motivation, which leads to an enhanced performance level of the

team.
D. Innovative and creative environment conducive to growth.

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 Question

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using Scrum in projects:

A. Transparency
B. Customer centric
C. Individual Ownership

D. Continuous Improvement

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Question

How is performance of project teams is measured in

your organization?

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Waterfall - Agile

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Waterfall - Agile

Traditional Agile
approach approach

Iterative and incremental

● In each iteration, the product is reviewed and improved

● Incremental - Piecemeal development of the product and integration as they are completed

● Iterative + Incremental - At the end of each iteration, a more stable version of the software is
achieved, with more quality and adding new functionalities compared to previous versions.

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Waterfall - Agile

Traditional Agile
Start with the complete product Focus on delivering a functional product in
design every Sprint
Product construction is followed by It's an iterative way of delivering products
final product testing by starting with the core functionality and
adding features in each iteration
The final product is tested in the It focuses on delivering value to the
production environment customer as quickly as possible through
Value-Driven Delivery
Does not contemplate feedback It focuses on the deliverable, which is the
loops product (Product-Focused)
It is a systematic way of developing Activity-Focused
products (Pla-Driven)

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4. Overview of the SBOK Guide

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Overview of the SBOK™ Guide

A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge

(SBOK® Guide) provides guidelines for the successful
implementation of Scrum—the most popular Agile
product development and project delivery framework.
Scrum, as defined in the SBOK® Guide, is applicable to
the following:

ü Portfolios, programs, and/or projects in any

industry
ü Products, services, or any other results to be
delivered to business stakeholders
ü Projects of any size or complexity

The SBOK® Guide can be used as a reference and

knowledge guide by both experienced Scrum and other
product and service development practitioners, as well
as by individuals with no prior experience or knowledge
of Scrum or other project delivery methodology.

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Framework of the SBOK® Guide
The SBOK® Guide is broadly divided into three areas of Principles, Processes and
Aspects.

Figure 1-2: SBOK® Guide Framework; Page 7 SBOK® Guide

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Scrum Principles

Figure 1-3: Scrum Principles; Page 9 SBOK® Guide

Scrum principles are the core guidelines for applying the Scrum framework and should
mandatorily be used in all Scrum projects.
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