ScrumMaster

Situational Interview
Questions

www.mountaingoatsoftware.com
 Scope creep
The boss is at a trade show and needs two new
unplanned features by tomorrow. Last week when this
happened, you just put in a little overtime and
wedged it in. Same thing the time before. If you dont
come through, it will cost you sales and your boss will
be mad.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

2
 Unready stories
In the retrospective, it came up that the stories just
werent really ready for development. Instead of
getting down and coding, the team had to spend
several days going back and forth with the product
owner, analyzing what should happen. Youve pretty
much heard that complaint for three months in a row.
Nothing seems to be helping.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

3
 Blah retrospective
Our retrospective is so blah! Nobodys willing to
speak up about the real problems.

You know there are some normal tensions, but hadnt

thought they were so bad.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

4
Six months of architecture
Star developer Tom is worried and makes sure the
boss knows it. Theres nothing incremental about this
rst part; no way to divide that into month-sized
chunks. We need at least six months for architecture
only. Really, theres no reason to do sprints: the
product owner cant help. The Scrum meetings are
overhead; lets hold them once a week. Maybe once
the architecture is done we can try the sprint stuff, but
if we do that now, were doomed.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

5
 Resistant product owner
The product owner says, Theres no point in doing
just parts of these stories just so theyll t into a sprint.
These features arent useful unless theyre all
completely there. And please quit bugging me about
priority. Theyre all equally important. Theyre called
requirements because theyre required!

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

6
Never time to fix problems
The product owner always picks new functionality and
never picks bug xes. In the end, the crashes and
data corruption have to be xed. Those problems are
already slowing down testing.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

7
 The frustrated manager
Your manager stops in. Im not happy with the way
the team is working. Youve insisted outsiders cant
change the sprint backlog, and thats hurt us with
Marketing in a big way. Were no longer perceived as
team players. Youve insisted on a lot of early testing;
we're spending way more on that than ever. And
people are complaining that they have to waste time
on the Scrum meeting every single day.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

8
 Unintegrated work
Three teams are working together on a product.

At the end of each sprint, each team claims that its

work is done. And, in fact, few problems are seen at
each teams separate sprint review. But when the
work is subsequently integrated, numerous problems
are found.

As the ScrumMaster for one of these three teams,

what do you do?

9
The assigning ScrumMaster
The ScrumMaster on a team manages all task assign-
ments.

You ask him about it and he says, We tried to let

people take their own tasks, but nobody wanted to
pick. I cant let people sit around all day deciding
what to do. Weve got way too much work for that.

As the ScrumMaster of a different team, what would

you say to him?

10
 Overcommitting
The team has over-committed. Team members are
cutting corners on the acceptance tests (well do that
one manually too), and you suspect the unit tests
arent up to their past levels.

Things are reported as done, but you cant escape a

feeling that something is off.

Nobody admits to feeling pressured to cut quality,

but nobody will really look at you either.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

11
 Automation troubles
The team isnt sure what to do about automating the
acceptance tests. Some people say, It costs so much,
and it hardly nds bugs.

Others are willing to try, but after the rst few days of
experimentation, they dont have anything working.

Youre told, Weve never gotten automation to work

well on any project in this company. The test team
knows theyll have to do a lot of manual tests.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

12
 Fixes arent prioritized
The programmers say, We didnt break that during
this sprint. If you want it xed, you have to get the
product owner to prioritize it.

These are features that are supposed to work, and

theyre in areas the programmers are working on this
sprint.

As the ScrumMaster, what do you do?

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