Agile Software Development Week2 Course Answers

User Stories

1.

Question 1

What of the following are the qualities of good user story as mentioned in the INVEST model? Choose three.

1 / 1 point

Independent: Dependencies among stories should be minimized

Natural: Stories should feel intuitive to the user

Valuable: Stories should be valuable to user

Editable: Stories should be editable after and during development

Specific: Stories should define a very specific requirement

Testable: Once the story is implemented, we should be able to test that it is done

2.

Question 2

What issues do you see in following story?

As a grocery buyer, I want to see different food items in different colors: red for meats, brown for grains, green for vegetables so that i can identify food items by type.

1 / 1 point

This story has no issues. It has all the info we need in a story.

This story breaks the quality of negotiable.

The user "grocery buyer" is not a valid user.

This story is not testable.

3.

Question 3

What are the 3 Cs of user stories?

1 / 1 point

Confirmation

Card

Complete

Creative

Conversation

4.

Question 4

What are some of the key parts of a user story? Choose four.

1 / 1 point

The story title

The estimated development time

The design of the back-end functionality including table and field names.

Acceptance tests

The names of the developer who will implement the story and the tester who will validate it.

Who is it for? What does the user want to do? Why does the user want to do that?

5.

Question 5

Which of the following statements are true about "Spike" stories? Choose three.

1 / 1 point

They can be used for knowledge acquisition.

Spike stories are timeboxed.

It is recommended that these stories have well defined acceptance criteria so that team knows what is expected at the end of exploration.

Spikes are stories that allow slack time for team members to pursue their interests.

  

Gathering User Needs :-

1.

Question 1

The goal of a story writing workshop is to:

1 / 1 point

Write as many foundational stories as possible.

Write as many user stories as possible in priority order.

Write as many user stories as possible under the themes identified.

Write as many themes as possible.

2.

Question 2

What are some of the valid ways to handle non-functional requirements in agile development? Select two.

1 / 1 point

Create specific stories that outline the non-functional needs with clear acceptance criteria.

Delay handling non-functional requirements until the end and then work on them after development is done.

Add non-functional requirements to the definition of done for all stories.

3.

Question 3

Which of the following are true about story writing workshops? Select two.

1 / 1 point

All stories created have to be at the same level.

A story writing workshop can take anywhere between a few hours to a few days.

The whole team (including the product owner, the scrum master, and the development team) participates in the story writing workshop.

4.

Question 4

What are some of the ways a story map can help software development? Select all that apply.

1 / 1 point

It builds a shared understanding among team members.

It organizes and prioritizes the story backlog.

It helps plan releases and work.

It helps communicate user needs with the stakeholders and get feedback.

It helps discover user needs.

5.

Question 5

What are some of the activities you expect to see in a story mapping exercise? Select three.

1 / 1 point

Find gaps in the story map by walking through the user experience (as expressed in the activities/tasks) aloud.

Find variations in the paths the user can take through the system.

Plan releases/journeys.

Randomly write a story and its details.

6.

Question 6

What are the characteristics of good product backlog? (Select any 4)

1 / 1 point

Complete with design details

Detailed appropriately

Emergent

Prioritized

Estimated

Every story is assigned to developer

Agile Estimation

1.

Question 1

Who estimates the effort to complete a product backlog item (a user story)?

1 / 1 point

The scrum development team after clarifying the requirement.

The scrum master with input from the scrum development team.

The most senior people in the organization such as the engineering managers and the chief architect.

The product owner with input from the scrum development team.

2.

Question 2

What is true about Agile Estimation techniques? Select two.

1 / 1 point

Estimates are shared.

They estimate effort and not duration.

No planning, No estimation. It is considered non productive activity.

The senior-most person should create estimates and get feedback from team members.

3.

Question 3

Which of the following estimates represents concept of relative sizing? Select three.

1 / 1 point

Story A will take half the time Story B will take. Story C will take double the time Story A will take.

Story A will take 1.5 ideal days, Story B will take 5 ideal days and Story C will take 3.5 Ideal Days

Story A is 1 apple, Story B is 5 apples, and Story C is 10 apples

Story A will take 1 day, Story B will take 5 Days and Story C will take 10 days

Story A is bigger than Story B. Story C is smaller than Story A.

4.

Question 4

What is true about the planning poker estimation technique? Select three.

1 / 1 point

It supports the concept of shared estimates.

Everyone involved in development has to participate in estimation.

It is a superfast technique to estimate lots of stories in a short amount of time.

It helps uncover misunderstandings.

5.

Question 5

Which of the following observations are true about Card Sorting? Select two.

1 / 1 point

It is very useful for estimating a large number of stories.

It is a very inaccurate method of estimation.

This technique benefits from using relative sizing.

Not everybody on the development team participates in this method.

6.

Question 6

What is true about estimation using Ideal Days? Select two.

1 / 1 point

It is relative sizing technique.

It has a potential issue of "My ideal days are not your ideal days".

It is very fast to estimate.

It is very natural for a new team member to understand.

Release Planning and Tracking

1.

Question 1

Calculate the velocity range a team should use to select work for next iteration based on their past velocities (see chart below). The team uses the last 5 iterations to estimate their velocity. Use format "from-to" to specify the answer (e.g., 0-100).

Table 1: The velocity of previous iterations

Iteration	Story points completed
1	14
2	18
3	23
4	17
5	15
6	21
7	22
8	20

2 / 2 points

15-22

2.

Question 2

A team was doing release planning and they decided that the next release will include all stories from Story 1 to Story 11 (see table 2 below).

• The velocity range to be used for the release planning is 15-22.

• The team works in a 2 week iteration.

• It costs about $50,000 per iteration to fund the entire team.

Calculate the estimated duration for next release. Additionally, how much will this release cost?

Table 2: Prioritized Product Backlog

Story Title	Estimate (in ideal days)
Story 1	5
Story 2	5
Story 3	8
Story 4	3
Story 5	5
Story 6	5
Story 7	3
Story 8	5
Story 9	8
Story 10	8
Story 11	3
Story 12	3
Story 13	3
Story 14	5
Story 15	8
Story 16	3
Story 17	5
Story 18	5
Story 19	8
Story 20	8

4 / 4 points

Duration: 6-8 weeks, Cost: 150K to 200K

Duration: 3-4 weeks, Cost: 150K to 200K

Duration: 10-14 weeks, Cost: 500K to 700K

Duration: 6-8 weeks, Cost: 300K to 400K

3.

Question 3

Select scenarios below where the team used the correct approach to handle special cases of team velocity.

2 / 2 points

One of the team members is taking a couple days off in next iteration, but the team didn't adjust its velocity to reflect that.

The team is getting more defects / support work so they are not able to finish the stories selected for the current sprint. The team estimated that it takes 30% of team capacity to handle support work. The team decided to reduce velocity by 30% and use it for future iteration.

A new team member is going to join the team in the next iteration, so the team adjusted their velocity appropriately and selected more work to do in the iteration

To forecast velocity for first iteration,

1) the team builds deeper understanding of few stories from the backlog

2) From the understood stories, they select stories they feel they can get done in one sprint.

3) The sum the estimates of the selected stories is the team's forecasted velocity.

4.

Question 4

Which of the following methods can help you track a release? (select any 2)

2 / 2 points

A cumulative flow diagram for a release

A release burn-up chart

An iteration burn-down chart

A weekly status report

Requirements and Planning

1.

Question 1

What is true about user stories in Agile Software Development? (Select any 3)

1 / 1 point

User stories are tokens for conversations.

To be valid, a story MUST follow the following syntax template: "As a ____ I want to _______________ so that ____________________ ."

Stories can be written at different levels and can be refined and split into smaller stories as you move from vague idea to implemented software.

All stories have to be the same size.

User stories are used to plan, design, describe, build, and validate your product.

2.

Question 2

What are some of the benefits of writing acceptance tests for a story? (select 4)

0.8 / 1 point

They can potentially help you split stories, if required.

They make sure the story is easy to develop.

They help the product owner (who is writing the story) think through the user needs.

They help build a common understanding between team members.

They help you write tests cases for the story.

3.

Question 3

What is wrong with the following story? (Select any 2)

"As a product owner, I want a list of highly-rated restaurants on the brochure."

1 / 1 point

It doesn't specify the value of the story (the "why" is missing).

The user who benefits from this story is missing (the "who" is missing).

The story is not small.

The story is not negotiable.

4.

Question 4

What is wrong with following user story? (Select any 2)

"I want the software to be easy to use."

1 / 1 point

The story is not valuable.

It is not testable.

The story is very big.

No valid user is identified.

5.

Question 5

How is gathering user needs / requirements different on an agile project? (select any 3)

1 / 1 point

At any given time, the level of detail may be different for different parts of the software.

The agile way supports progressive refinement---defining the right level of detail at the right time.

Agile encourages conversations as a key method for building a shared understanding.

In agile, we don't waste time on understanding user needs. Instead, we build something, show it to the user, and learn.

6.

Question 6

What are some of the activities that happen during a User Story Writing Workshop? (Select any 4)

1 / 1 point

Everybody silently writes user stories around a theme

Sometimes, you keep it free-form for people to write stories and later group them by theme.

User role analysis and defining personas

To generate stories, one of the options is to start from the top down or bottom up.

The leaders from the organization lay out exactly what needs to be built.

7.

Question 7

Which of the following are true about the Story Mapping technique? (select 3)

1 / 1 point

It is a user-centric approach where we map out the system from a user's perspective.

Only the product owner and users attend the story mapping exercise.

The horizontal axis (moving from left to right) in a story map represents time.

The vertical axis (moving from top to bottom) in a story map represents rough priority.

One story map can only have one user. It is not recommended to have multiple users on same story map.

8.

Question 8

Due to an unpredictable market event, the Product Owner (PO) asked the team to complete the next release in 6 weeks. Assuming the backlog in Table 2 is up to date and prioritized from highest to lowest, the Product Owner wants you to estimate what can be done in next 6 weeks. Describe 1) what can be done, 2) what might be done, and 3) what will not be done.

• The velocity range to be used for the release planning is 15-22.

• The team works in 2 week iteration.

Table 2: Prioritized Product Backlog

Story Title	Estimate (in ideal days)
Story 1	5
Story 2	5
Story 3	8
Story 4	3
Story 5	5
Story 6	5
Story 7	3
Story 8	5
Story 9	8
Story 10	8
Story 11	3
Story 12	3
Story 13	3
Story 14	5
Story 15	8
Story 16	3
Story 17	5
Story 18	5
Story 19	8
Story 20	8

1 / 1 point

Most likely: Story 1 to Story 8; Might Be Done: Story 9 to Story 13; Not likely: Rest of the stories

Most likely: Story 1 to Story 9; Might be Done: Story 10; Not likely: Rest of the stories

Most likely: Story 1 to Story 11; Might be Done: Story 12 and 13; Not likely: Rest of the stories

9.

Question 9

What is true about planning with an agile mindset? (Select any 2)

1 / 1 point

Planning is mostly done by project manager.

Use Adaptive Planning.

Plan as little as you can. Planning is considered a non-productive activity.

Plan just enough, just in time.

10.

Question 10

What do we mean by Velocity in agile terms?

1 / 1 point

It is calculated at the team level and represents how much work a team can get done in an iteration.

It is calculated at the team level and represents the estimated duration of current iteration.

It is a velocity of the individual team members, not the team

It represents actual work done in the first iteration of project.