Agile and Scrum Practices
Domain 2: Agile and Scrum Practices
This domain tests the mechanics of Scrum under the current Scrum Guide and the reasoning behind Agile values. Expect questions on accountabilities, events, artifacts, and how they interact when reality changes.
Core rules
- The four Agile Manifesto values favor individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change over their right-hand counterparts. The right-hand items still matter; they are not discarded.
- Scrum has three accountabilities: Product Owner (maximizes product value and owns the Product Backlog), Scrum Master (establishes Scrum and removes impediments), and Developers (create the Increment).
- Five events: Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective. They exist to create transparency and adaptation, not ceremony.
- Artifacts and commitments: Product Backlog/Product Goal, Sprint Backlog/Sprint Goal, Increment/Definition of Done.
- The Definition of Done is a shared quality standard. Acceptance criteria are per-item conditions. An item is not done until it meets both.
Worked example
Mid-Sprint, the Product Owner brings a "must-have" request from sales. The Developers are 70% through the Sprint Goal. The correct reasoning: the Sprint Goal protects focus, so the team does not silently absorb the work. The Developers discuss the trade-off with the Product Owner; the PO may renegotiate the Sprint Backlog, but scope should change only if the Sprint Goal remains achievable. If the new work invalidates the Sprint Goal, the PO alone can cancel the Sprint. The team does not "add it and work overtime" as a default.
Traps
- Treating the Scrum Master as a project manager who assigns tasks.
- Using the Daily Scrum as a status report to a manager instead of a Developers' planning event.
- Turning Sprint Review into a one-way demo and skipping backlog adaptation.
- Using velocity as a productivity target; it is a forecasting aid.
- Confusing "done" with "code complete" or "tested by QA."