Agile consists of practices and methods that allow software development and project management teams to deliver customer-centric products. Companies have constantly shifted to these practices due to their advantages and benefits. Therefore, do not be shocked if an agile question arises in your interview. This article will look at some of the agile questions you should expect in your upcoming interview.
Remember not to overfocus on the questions that you forget to groom yourself properly and impress the interviewers. Let’s look at some of the most common questions about agile.
1. What Do You Understand By Agile Methodology?
The agile methodology consists of several methods and practices that allow project management and software development teams to deliver customer-focused products in short cycles known as sprints. These methods and practices are heavily vested in feedback and customer involvement. Product developers or software teams generally update the customers in the product, who are in return required to give their input.
2. Can You Mention The Different Types Of Agile
There are more than seven types of agile that everyone should be aware of. The first and most common is Scrum, used to establish and test hypotheses, evaluate the experience, and make necessary changes. It is heavily vested in small teams, self-management, and breaking work into sprints. The second is feature-driven development, which requires the creation of software models fortnightly. It ensures that development teams come up with working software. Other types are lean software development, Extreme Programming, dynamic software development method, crystal methodology, adaptive system development, and Kanban.
3. Mention The Advantages Of Agile To Development Teams
There are several advantages that a team can get from agile. It allows faster and easier adaptation with customers and team members, fast and continuous development, and faster feedback from users and customers. Other advantages are easy to face to face conversations with stakeholders, easier identification and elimination of errors, improved collaboration between the team and clients, and technical excellence Ans design.
4. Are There Disadvantages Of The Agile Processes?
Yes. Agile has its fair share of flaws that affect different users. First, it lacks formal design and documentation. It makes it difficult to come up with an estimate of the resource requirement and needed effort. Other disadvantages include difficulty to scale large projects, problems in testing, the ever-present risk of an ever-lasting project, and the issue of cost, as it is generally more expensive than other methodologies. It is also worth mentioning that agile doesn’t work well for smaller development projects.
5. What Qualities Does One Need To Be A Good Agile Tester?
A good agile tester requires several qualities. They should be critical and creative thinkers, able to cope with constant changes, effectively put across ideas, and understand and live up to the customer’s requirements. Other important qualities include goal orientation, knowledge about agile processes and principles, planning and prioritizing work, and excellent communication skills.
6. Mention The Principles Of Agile Testing
There are seven principles of agile testing. It calls for continuous testing by the agile team to give rise to continuous development progress; continuous feedback, which calls for clients’ input, teamwork where all the stakeholders are required to work closely on a product; clean code, which calls for maintaining the quality of software through continuous testing; less documentation owing to the use of reusable checklists Ans customer satisfaction since they are constantly updated on the progress of the project.
7. Can You Tell Us The Difference Between Sprint And Product Backlog
The sprint backlog is owned and maintained by the development team. In contrast, the project owner owns and maintains the product backlog. The former has only features and requirements relevant to a specific sprint. It is normally viewed as a subset of a product’s backlog. It is also worth mentioning that the sprint backlog only has items to be completed during a particular agile sprint. On the other hand, the product backlog has every product feature and particular requirements. It further breaks down items into steps and is heavily specific to a product’s end goal.
8. Do You Know The Difference Between Agile And Traditional Software Development?
Agile software development is an iterative approach that allows for the easier designing of complex software. It offers project teams more flexibility and ensures that the final product is tailored around the customer’s specifications. Generally, agile makes use of shorter sprints. On the other hand, traditional software development is used to design simpler software. It is more of a linear approach where the phases occur sequentially. It is the best option for projects with lessee change potential. The former also relies heavily on teamwork, customer collaboration, and flexibility, while the latter focuses on upfront planning.
9. What Is A Daily Stand-Up Meeting In Agile?
It is a daily meeting among the different members of an agile team. It is held to give every team member working on a Scrum project a chance to brief everyone about their progress and performance. Some of the participants include the product owners, Scrum Masters, and developers. During the meeting, the attendees discuss whatever happened the previous day and the day’s plan and better understand the different goals. All the attendees must also make sure that all the team members are geared towards a similar goal Ans everyone is updated, helping the team achieve perfect organization.
10. Tell Us More About Pair Programming
Pair programming is a type of programming where two people write code together instead of one person on one computer or machine. It comes in handy in agile software development, which requires high levels of teamwork. In pair programming, one programmer writes the code while the other checks and reviews it. They can also change roles during software development. It has several advantages such as reduced risk occurrence, higher quality codes, better productivity, and enhanced team collaboration. It is also one of the best ways of sharing knowledge between team members.
11. What Do You Understand By Agile Manifesto?
An agile manifesto is a document in agile that has Agile values and principles. It contains 12 fundamental principles and four values and has been in existence since 2001. It is an important tool that allows different development teams to work efficiently. It further promotes team collaboration and iterative development. The agile values found in the manifesto are working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, change response over following a plan, and individuals and I interactions over tools and processes. The principles include welcoming change, customer satisfaction, frequent delivery, working together, motivating team, face-to-face interactions, working software, constant pace, good design, self-organization, simplicity, and reflection and adjustment.
12. Can You Mention Some Of The Standard Metrics For Agile?
Agile has metrics used to measure a team’s work. They determine work quality, progress, productivity, quality of work, and team health, among many others. Some of the common metrics are velocity, which measures the quality of work a team has done; cumulative flow diagram, which measures the status of work in progress and manages flow stability; work category allocation, which measures where to spend or invest time for priority adjustment; sprint burndown metric which measures the number of sprints or completed tasks compared to the Scrum tasks; defect resolution time used to measure the time a team uses to fix defects and the business value delivered which deals with the efficiency of a given team.
13. Mention All The Meetings In Agile
There are three main meetings in agile: Sprint planning meeting, sprint retrospective meeting, and sprint review meeting. The sprint planning meeting discusses the features and user stories. It is normally graced by the Scrum team, Scrum Master, and product owner and done weekly, for one hour.
Sprint review meetings give the Scrum team a chance to demonstrate the product. The product owner will determine the complete and incomplete items. It inspects the product under creation. Sprint retrospective meetings are done after the sprint planning meeting. It gives the Scrum team a chance to inspect itself and discuss its previous mistakes.
14. Can You Mention The Different Burn-Down Charts
There are four burn-down charts in agile. The product burndown chart has the story points of every sprint. It shows whether a sprint has completed all the requirements. It also shows the product goals that have been achieved and what hasn’t been done yet. The sprint burndown chart shows the remaining work in a given sprint, and it further tells the work completion rate. The release burndown chart shows a team’s progress against a given work. It is usually updated at the end of every script. The last chart is the defect burndown chart, which shows the number of defects to be fixed or removed.
15. What Is The Difference Between Agile And Scrum?
Agile is an approach used in software development where projects are divided into smaller units that can be easily achieved in a given time frame. Customers are always involved in the entire development process. On the other hand, Scrum is one of the agile methodologies that promote teamwork, function, and accountability. However, it has its unique functions and is considered an upgrade of Agile. Overall, both enhance a customer’s experience in the entire software development process.
16. Explain What A Product Roadmap Is?
A product roadmap is one of the most important Ans powerful tools in agile. It estimates how a product will grow over time by offering a wider view of the features that help create a product’s vision. It further sheds more light on what a development team is working on, the problems it expects to solve, and the business goals to be achieved. It is also worth mentioning that the product manager usually owns the roadmap and is occasionally used to encourage the entire team to work together.
17. Can You Mention The Different Developments In Agile
There are two main types of developments in agile: Iterative and Incremental Development. Iterative is a software development process where sprints and releases are done repeatedly until a given product is obtained. The product is developed repeatedly depending on the feedback from customers. On the other hand, incremental development is a process that divides work into portions. Software is normally delivered in pieces, each with its comets set of functionalities.
18. What Is The Meaning Of Velocity In Agile
There are several measurement units Ans metrics in agile. A velocity is a measurement unit used to calculate the amount of work a team can complete in a particular sprint and the time needed for project completion. It is one of the most valuable assets when coming up with timelines. It can measure improvements and identify problems.
19. Mention The Agile Principles
There are twelve main agile principles found in the agile manifesto. They include customer satisfaction, welcome change, frequent delivery, working together, motivating team, face-to-face communication, constant pace, investing in working software, excellent design, simplicity, reflection and adjustment, and self-organization. All these principles guide the operations of teams.
20. Differentiate Burndown And Burnup Charts In Agile
A burnup chat is generally used to show the amount of completed work and the quantity of work needed for an iteration. On the other hand, burn-down charts display the quantity of work yet to be completed in a given project. They are not as complicated as most charts. Also, there are four different burndown charts: the product burndown chart, spring burndown chart, release burndown chart, and defect burndown chart. All four charts show different insights but generally report a development team’s status.
21. Define Agile Testing
Agile testing is a software testing process that abides with all the agile software development principles found in the manifesto. It is an iterative method that brings together both the product owner and the development team. The different principles of agile testing are face-to-face communication, customer satisfaction, quick response to changes, sustainable development, successive improvements, error-free code, collective work, focusing on the essentials, and self-organization. Agile testing is normally done by agile testers familiar with all the concepts Ans principles of agile. They must also understand customer requirements and project risks properly. All in all, agile testing is usually done on software to establish whether it abides by agile or not.
22. Tell Us More About Kanban And Extreme Programming
Extreme programming is a development framework that allows teams to develop high-quality software meant to improve the quality of life. It combines software development and engineering and can effectively handle any changing software requirements or risks occasioned by new software. It is also best used with technologies that allow functional tests and automated units.
On the other hand, Kanban manages, designs, and improves system flow. It allows different organizations to visualize their workflow and minimize work in progress. It comes in handy in unpredictable circumstances or where immediate deployment is needed.
23. What Are Some Of The Challenges Facing The Agile Methodology?
Agile faces many challenges such as lack of active involvement by the customers, inappropriate or insufficient tools and technologies of skills and capability by different team members, issues with adoption, especially in organizations that have always depended on traditional software development and project management frameworks, and lastly unseen requirements that make system design quite difficult.
24. Tell Us More About ASD And DSDM In Agile.
ASD and DSDM are agile methodologies like crystal methodology, Kanban, Extreme Programming, Lean Software development, and feature-driven development. ASD, fully known as adaptive system development, is a type of agile that requires a project to be in a continuous adaptation constantly and works in three repeating series: learn, collaborate and speculate. DSDM, fully known as the dynamic software development method, establishes good governance as project management’s foundation. It concerns itself with the full project lifecycle and is generally user-driven. DSDM anticipates modification to given projects and has a complete roadmap that helps in timely delivery.
25. Explain To Us What Crystal Methodology And Lean Software Development Are
Lean software development aims to minimize waste while maximizing value. It, therefore, makes the process more efficient, resulting in the highest possible results and creating maximum customer value. It is usually based on continuous improvement and respect for everyone. On the other hand, Crystal methodology dwells on individuals and their interactions instead of processes. It is a lightweight and flexible approach that allows for easier software development. It has several variants such as crystal red, crystal clear, crystal yellow, and crystal orange. All in all, both can be used for agility purposes.
Conclusion
Agile has become increasingly popular among organizations, as most people are shifting from traditional software development. Take some time to go through the questions we have covered. We hope that this article will help you ace your upcoming interview. We also advise you to focus on other things such as proper grooming, a good first impression, and fluentness while answering the questions. All in all, make sure that you are in the right mental and physiological frame during the interview.
