Agile Foundations Quiz

16 questions covering the Agile values and principles, agility itself, user stories, estimation and anti-patterns.

Values and principles

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The Agile Manifesto values "responding to change over following a plan". What does the phrase "over" mean here?

Both have value, and when the two conflict, the left-hand item wins

Correct. The manifesto states this explicitly in its closing line, which is the part most often dropped when it is quoted.

The right-hand item has no value in agile projects

The left-hand item replaces the right-hand item entirely

The team may choose either, depending on the Sprint

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Which of the four values is most directly violated by a team that communicates only through a ticketing system?

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Correct. This is also principle 6, which names face-to-face conversation as the most efficient method of conveying information.

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Agile principle 10 says "simplicity, the art of maximizing the amount of work not done, is essential." What practice does it most directly justify?

Writing detailed specifications before coding

Adding configuration options for every foreseeable variation

YAGNI, building only what is needed now instead of speculative flexibility

Correct. Simple design in XP applies exactly this principle at the code level.

Documenting every class and method

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A team maintains a constant pace with no overtime, but delivers no working software for four months. Which principle is being violated?

Principle 8, sustainable development

Principle 1 and 3, early and continuous delivery of valuable software

Correct. Sustainable pace is necessary but not sufficient. The measure of progress is working software delivered frequently.

Principle 11, self-organizing teams

Principle 5, motivated individuals

Agility

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Which statement best describes agility?

The ability to respond to change effectively, both rapidly and adaptively, with the customer inside the team

Correct. Speed without adaptation is just fast delivery of possibly wrong software.

The ability to deliver software faster than competitors

The absence of documentation and up-front planning

The practice of working in two-week iterations

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Why does short-iteration delivery make "welcome changing requirements" economically viable?

Because customers change their minds less often when releases are frequent

Because estimates become accurate in short cycles

Because short iterations reduce the total amount of work required

Because short increments, automated tests and continuous integration flatten the cost-of-change curve

Correct. In a plan-driven process a late change ripples through artifacts finished long ago, which is what makes late change expensive.

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An agile process "recognizes that plans are short-lived." What follows from that?

Planning is skipped so the team can start building sooner

Only the Product Owner is permitted to plan

Plans are made, then revised as each increment reveals new information

Correct. Planning is continuous rather than absent, which is a distinction cargo cult adoptions usually lose.

Plans are replaced by estimates in story points

User stories

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Which part of a user story is most often dropped, and why does it matter?

The "As a" clause, which identifies the user

The "so that" clause, because without the underlying need the team cannot propose a cheaper or better solution

Correct. Losing the reason quietly turns a negotiable story into a fixed specification.

The "I want" clause, which states the feature

The acceptance criteria, which define testability

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In INVEST, what does "Negotiable" mean?

The story describes a need rather than a prescribed implementation, so how it is built remains open

Correct. It is the property that lets developers offer alternatives that meet the same need for less cost.

The delivery date for the story can be moved

The estimate can be revised by the team

Priority can be traded with the Product Owner

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Which is a valid split of a story that is too large?

"Build the backend" and "build the frontend"

"Write the code" and "write the tests"

"Design the schema" and "populate the tables"

"Search by product name" and "search with filters and sorting"

Correct. Splitting by behavior keeps each part independently valuable, which is what makes it releasable.

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Where do cross-cutting requirements such as a latency budget or a compliance rule belong?

In a user story written from the perspective of an attacker

In the Sprint Goal for the Sprint that introduces them

In the Definition of Done or a separate constraints document, since they apply to every item rather than one

Correct. Forcing a global constraint into a single story means it stops being enforced as soon as that story is closed.

In the acceptance criteria of the first story that touches them

Estimation

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Why does the story point scale widen as values grow (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20)?

Because larger stories are always exactly twice as risky

Because precision is a fiction for large items, so the scale stops offering it

Correct. It also nudges teams to split anything above 13 rather than estimate it more carefully.

Because the Fibonacci sequence models developer productivity

Because it makes velocity easier to compute

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What is the actual value of Planning Poker?

Divergent estimates reveal that team members understand the item differently, which is discovered before the Sprint rather than during it

Correct. The number is a by-product. The conversation triggered by disagreement is the deliverable.

It produces the most accurate possible estimate

It prevents senior developers from dominating the discussion permanently

It converts story points into hours reliably

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Two teams report velocities of 20 and 60. What can you conclude?

The second team is three times more productive

The second team has three times more developers

The first team has a stricter Definition of Done

Nothing, because story points are unit-free and team-local, so the numbers are not comparable

Correct. Comparing velocities is like comparing currencies by the number printed on the notes.

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A burndown chart has been flat for a week. What are the two possible explanations?

The team is blocked, or the chart is not being updated

Estimates were too low, or the Sprint Goal changed

Nothing was completed, or as much scope was added as was completed

Correct. A burndown cannot distinguish the two, which is why a burnup plotting scope separately is preferred for release tracking.

The Definition of Done was tightened, or testing is late

Anti-patterns

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Which of these is the clearest symptom of Water-Scrum-Fall?

The team holds a Retrospective only once a month

A long requirements phase up front and a hardening phase at the end, with Sprints only in the middle

Correct. The team is agile only in the part of the process that was never the bottleneck, so the first Increment still reaches users months late.

Velocity varies significantly between Sprints

The Product Owner attends the Daily Scrum

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