Certified Scrum Master exam preparation: CSM, PSM, BVOSM sample questions

Preparing for a Certified Scrum Master exam with brands such as CSM, PSM or BVOSM can be exhausting. Especially if you have to learn the whole Scrum Guide by heart. That’s why we share sample questions for preparing for the certification exam.

Preparation for Certified Scrum Master exam preparation: CSM, PSM, BVOSM with sample questions.

With such situations and reactions to them, it will be much easier to understand the essence of Scrum and certification will be easier.

Scrum and the director

The director of your organization wants to start developing three new products and informs you that for the largest product in terms of volume, he wants a team of 10 people. The available specialists for all new products are a total of 15 people.

I will explain to the director that In Scrum, the so-called Development Team, it is customary to have between 3 and 9 developers in total. I will suggest to him that the relevant specialists be divided into 5 in number for each product, which will be supplemented by the Scrum Master and Product Owner. Reference: “Preparation for CMS and PSM Certified Scrum Master exam with sample questions“, https://phron.org/preparation-for-cms-and-psm-certified-scrum-master-exam-with-sample-questions/

The director believes that lower priority products do not need to have a Product Owner role.

I will suggest that the Product owner be a member of the development team, but whether or not they have priority, the products must have a product owner to coordinate product development with stakeholders.

The director insists that because he has many years of experience in people management, he wants to be the general manager of the largest team, set tasks daily, and request reports from each member of the team.

The main characteristics of the Scrum Development team are Self-organization and Cross-functionally. I will explain to the director that he can talk to me about tasks like Scrum master, but to develop the product in time, the team and its members choose their tasks, without anyone else assigning them. Reference: “Certified Scrum Master exam preparation with sample questions“, https://customessaysonline.net/certified-scrum-master-exam-preparation-with-sample-questions/

There is no specific person on the team who makes decisions for everyone or gives orders to others. With the help of the product owner, I will have the responsibility to present reports on the tasks set.

The director tells you that for each product, the client has appointed a project manager, who in case of urgent requests, will assign to each member of the team, a priority task for the day.

I will explain that the contact person for the respective project managers will be me and together with the product owner we will discuss whether his tasks can be included as a priority depending on the User Story. But I will not allow a person outside the team to take a stand on the work of a member of the team and in any way hinder him from performing his duties. Reference: “Preparation for Scrum Master certification exam on Sprint event“, https://medfd.org/preparation-for-scrum-master-certification-exam-on-sprint-event/

Development Team in the Scrum team

To prepare for the Certified Scrum Master Certification Exam (CSM, PSM, and BVOSM) you should also learn questions about the Development Team.

One of the senior programmers of the teams told everyone that since the team is large and he has a lot of experience, he will officially accept the role of Team Lead. He adds that he will choose technologies, offer a way to work to each member of the team, and monitor the progress of tasks.

I will talk to him and say that he cannot accept the role of Team Lead because there is no such role according to Scrum principles. And at the same time, again according to the principles of Scrum, it is right for the team to choose its technologies and tools for work, without anyone requiring specific ones, to impose or choose. Reference: “Preparation for Scrum Master certification and tips for Scrum professionals”, https://www.kievpress.info/preparation-for-scrum-master-certification/ This freedom of choice allows the team to choose tools and technologies that can achieve better results than I would with other people imposed by other teams. The team, and all members, know best their skills, knowledge of technology, level of competence. He is used to certain tools and therefore everyone has the right to choose their own. Read more: “Preparation with sample questions for Scrum Master certification exam CSM & PSMI”, https://wikipedia-lab.org/preparation-sample-questions-scrummaster-certification-exam/

A new employee in your organization, recently hired, tells you that because he is a novice specialist and still on probation, he prefers not to interfere in team decisions and does not want to take responsibility for working on the product.

The technical knowledge and specifics of working on the product are also available to everyone and are shared. We will send him to work with another senior member of the team through Pair programming.Read more: “Free preparation for the Scrum Master certification exam (CSM, PSMI, PSMII, BVOP)”, https://brightonbot.com/preparation-scrum-master-certification-exam/

Generally and simply put, this is programming work, or any other type of technical work, when a senior and a novice team member work together on one task, from one computer, or any other type of work tool. In this way, beginners get into the subject easier and faster and all have shared knowledge on specific technical topics. But everyone is responsible for working on the specific product. The responsibility is shared. Read more: “Free training to prepare for the Scrum Master Certification exam”, https://www.islandjournal.net/scrum-master-certification-exam/

You understand that most of your team members have already talked to your HR manager and received permission to work outside the office.

The main idea of ​​small teams is to achieve self-organization and fast communication, where team members place a physical environment (workplace). This could also be a virtual environment. As long as the team members are self-organized and trust each other. Read more: “Best Scrum Master Certifications for 2022 and 2023“, https://eduwiki.me/best-scrum-master-certifications-for-2021-and-2022/

Here, my role as Scrum Master will be crucial to guide and encourage communication. According to the team and how responsible they are to share progress during the Sprint and to hand over work already done, it depends on the people themselves and the ability of the Scrum Master to unite them to achieve the goal. Read more: “Best Scrum Master certification online”, https://scrumtime.org/best-scrum-master-certification-online/

A member of the Development team introduces you with joy and enthusiasm that outside of working hours, he has written a large collection of program code that he can easily add to the product and through it speed up many of his tasks and some of those of the rest of the team.

I will congratulate him on the work done and during the Sprint he will discuss with the other members of the team if everyone agrees and considers it necessary and useful to enter the program code in the product, it will be introduced, but after approval by all. Reference: “When to use the Scrum framework in your projects”, https://www.muzonet.com/when-to-use-the-scrum-framework-in-your-projects/

The development team offers you the idea that you set an estimated time to complete the tasks, and that they focus on their work and devote their time to the tasks. They shared this with the Product Owner role, and he was quite pleased.

Developers determine or forecast the time they need. What I can do is enter relative time values ​​without accuracy, because I will not know when everyone can complete a particular task. But even that, I could do it after discussing with each of them the estimated time to complete the task.

The teams of the three parallel products being developed by your organization have decided to reorganize. Their desire is to be divided into teams according to their profession and qualifications. One team will be programmers, the second will be designers, and the third will be quality control. You have been nominated as an activity coordinator.

Cross-functionality of the team is extremely important in Scrum practice and a more useful model would be to work together and have all these common skills sufficient for product development. Each product has its development team that knows what skills and competencies are needed to develop the product on time.

The development team shares the view that User Story contains too little information and wants more details.

In this case, the Product Owner role must accept the opinion of the team and the comments, understand them and take the necessary measures to improve or change the planned work and ask for more information from stakeholders.

Product Owner role in Scrum

Preparation for the Certified Scrum Master certification exam (CSM, PSM, and BVOSM) includes, of course, topics related to the Product Owner role in Scrum.

The Product Owner has asked one of the team members not to temporarily report problems and defects on the product publicly in your defect recording system, but to fix them himself.

Each member of the team has the responsibility to follow and abide by the Scrum process and to ensure that other team members follow and follow. Everyone participates in the Scrum events, does not miss them and ignores them, and realizes the importance of the events and their participation.
A maximum level of transparency is maintained. They do not hide problems and share information with others. The technical knowledge and specifics of working on the product are also available to everyone and are shared. That’s why it’s a huge mistake for the Product Owner to want this.

At the end of the Sprint Planning meeting, your Product Owner states: Colleagues, please all of you now assume the success of the sprint by giving a score of 1 to 4 as one will mean that we will fail to achieve our goal and 4 will mean that you assume high success for the sprint.

Each member of the Scrum team indicates a number from 0 to 3. The Product Owner is also involved, not just the other colleagues. And this is an additional practice that may or may not be applied.

At the end of the Sprint Planning meeting, your Product Owner says: Colleagues, it was exhausting sprint planning and we all worked hard all day. Would you be so kind as to send me and our Scrum Master tomorrow your presentation on how you would complete your sprint tasks and what your self-organization plan is? Thanks in advance.

I will intervene and ask that whether we are tired or not, the explanations of the development team must happen after the sprint. To make sure that the team knows very well exactly what it will work on, how it will work like, and that it has discussed its technical approaches and if there is anything unclear to discuss further.

Your Product Owner is on a business trip again. He will not attend the Sprint Planning meeting. He told the team to calmly choose a job for their Sprint Backlog list and set Story Points. According to him, there is no interesting information that can provide to them and his departure will not negatively affect anyone.

Before sprint planning, the product owner was thought to have prioritized items, and the most prominent top positions in the Backlog were important User Stories. I will check if this is done, and if he has made sure that the items are ready for review by the team and discussed. Everything in them should be well described, there should be no important missing information. They must have Definitions of Done and possibly acceptance criteria. I will ask him to be online in case of any questions or ambiguities from the Development team.

After 5 minutes, your Sprint Planning meeting begins. Your Product Owner tells you at the last minute that your client’s project manager will be present at the Sprint planning meeting because he expects some information from him.

As the Product Owner is responsible for the transfer of information from the client to the team, I will ask an outsider not to be present, but to make a meeting with the project manager and share the necessary information during the meeting. However, only members of the Scrum team are present at the sprint planning.

Planning events in Scrum

A sprint of three weeks awaits you, the team and the product owner have discussed the necessary details on unclear User Stories. It’s been an hour and a half.

In the Sprint of 3 weeks, let’s say that we have 6 hours of meeting – 4, 30 minutes, the work on the priority issues will have to be clarified. I will try to clarify them as much as possible so that work on them can begin.

At the sprint planning meeting, you have 6 members of the Development team. Everyone guesses with a number about the success of your sprint. You count the result and the total is 15.

This means that 5 may have given the maximum points for the positive success of sprint planning and it is considered positive. You will talk to the person who gave fewer points and explain why. If there is a misunderstanding, clarify.

During your Sprint Planning, you notice that a novice member of the Development Team systematically throws cards that have numbers 1 or 3 and always puts his card last. Other members choose much larger cards.

This provokes a discussion every time that ends quickly. Then this colleague of yours plays card 13 every time. Why do you think he does it? What exactly would you do?

At the end of the sprint planning, the average value of all cards thrown will be taken. I will ask the novice colleague to explain why he is throwing away these values ​​and whether there is any misunderstanding about the consumer stories that need to be developed. I will ask the colleague to share, then I will ask the other members of the development team to explain the difficulty of working to the novice colleague.

During your Sprint Planning, you notice that a senior member of the Development team systematically throws cards that have numbers 3 or 5 and always puts his card first. Other members choose much larger cards. Explain the possible cause and actions.

The possible reason, in my opinion, will be the senior member’s confidence that he will be able to do the job faster than his other colleagues, and that is why he is throwing away these values. I will ask him to explain the reason and I will ask him to take into account the skills and abilities of the other colleagues to be on the same level in the development of user stories and items from the backlog.

Just before your Sprint Planning, your Product Owner informs the others that beginners will not throw cards because there is a lot of work to be done, and in his opinion, the time will not be enough.

I will talk to the Product Owner that it will be good to understand the views of novice colleagues to see how they would get involved. In any case, we will comply with the same cards as the older colleagues from the team.

Senior members of the Development team suggest that the Sprint Planning game be held with open cards and that their numbers be visible so that beginners can more easily choose their choice of cards.

I would not comply with their decision and I will again urge all colleagues to throw cards. First, because novice colleagues will be introduced to the technique, and second, it will be understood what points and what degree of difficulty they see in the user hundred.

After each “play” to select Story Points on each User Story, the team discusses the differences in card numbers. After the discussion, they take the proposal of the participant with the highest value on the card.

I will say that this is not right and the practice will require taking the average of all the cards to satisfy all colleagues on the team. If the card with the highest value is taken, it would mean that colleagues with lower values ​​would be able to do it faster and remain uncommitted until the next sprint.

During your Sprint Planning, a senior member of the Development team openly complained about the User Story, prioritized at the top of the backlog, and carefully prepared for the Development team. All information is available and well described. A senior member of the Development team said that if they do so in this sprint, they are likely to damage important architectural decisions. Your Product Owner emphasizes that it is his responsibility to take care of the backlog, and the development team to develop the product.

It will be discussed with the other members of the development team by asking the senior colleague to explain which are the architectural solutions that will be damaged and whether there is a way not to be damaged but made promptly with the user in the first place. If not, we will look at the product backlog and if everyone on the team thinks there are problem items, we will prioritize them.

The development team has a Velocity of 103 points. For Sprint Backlog they choose User Stories with Story Points from 3, 5, 1, 8, 21, 13, 1, 21, 8, 8, 13, 5

They choose story points equal to 107. I will ask them if they think they will succeed given that they have a value of 103? I will ask them if it is not right to reconsider the points and the facts, and if it is not better to maintain 103 points again.

At the Sprint Planning meeting, the team rolls cards 8, 8, 13, 5, 5, 8. They average the points and score Story Points for that User Story of 8 points time.

In this case, I will ask the colleague who is 13 to explain why and share the reason why he made his assumption and each country shares its opinion on its forecast. After the discussion, he can change his mind and set another value and then average to 8.

At the Sprint Planning meeting, the team rolls cards 3, 5, 5, 13, 21, 8. They average the points and score Story Points for that User Story of 13-time points.

The values ​​are too different to take an average value of 13. I will provoke a discussion in which everyone will clarify why they set the corresponding value. If we repeat the voting until we equalize the values ​​within the nearest ones.

General topics for preparation for the Certified Scrum Master certification exam (CSM, PSM, BVOSM)

In the middle of a Sprint planning meeting, you are on your 5th sprint. The development team is taking their seats and you hear people talking about changing some of the technology they use for the product.

I will ask them why this is necessary and whether it will hinder the planned work and whether it will in any way disrupt the prioritization of user stories. I will ask if it is possible to observe the set values ​​and the planned time of the sprint.

Your director is calling you. He wants to hear as a guide how many User Stories and which ones your team can do next sprint.

I will be able to give him information about the current sprint because for the next sprint the plan has not yet passed, and without the development team, I can not make a decision or prioritize specific user stories. The other option is to call the Product owner.

The development team is discussing the idea of ​​stopping work on the preliminary graphic design of elements of the project because they already have a known collection of developed components. Senior team members offer the new designer in the team to stop design work and start checking the usability of the product.

I will arrange a meeting to clarify why this is necessary. The development team determines how it works and how much work it can do, and it manages its Sprint Backlog. If they think this is necessary, the product owner and I will accept it.

You have a sprint of 1 week. You settle in comfortably for your sprint planning and the product owner presents the Product Backlog items he has chosen for the Development team to develop during the sprint. All items seem clear and understandable. The team has no questions about them and suggests starting a quick forecast of the time of the items for the next sprint.

We can’t start predicting the next sprint until this one is over. We can play and evaluate additional items from the backlog product that will be completed if the team finishes work earlier.