Recently, my client asked me to help formulate some interview questions as they are looking to hire a Scrum Master. I put together the key questions and answers for what I would look for in an ideal Scrum Master. These questions would also apply when interviewing for a Project Manager who would be following Agile or Scrum Methodology.

Technical Interview Questions

1. Describe the Scrum process you typically follow.

Their answer should touch on the following Scrum events:

• Sprint planning
• Daily Scrum or stand up
• Sprint retrospective
• Backlog review and refinement

Their answer should touch on the importance of frequent / regular communications and suggestion of ways they would unblock their team.

2. What are the benefits of Sprints vs Kanban, and in what situations would you implement one over the other?

Kanban works well when the project is short, and/or has frequently changing priorities, pitfalls include less motivation to finish tasks since there is no clear start and end.

> Learn more about using Kanban boards in What is a Kanban board and when should I use it?

Sprints works well to keep the team motivated, organized, and regimented, when the product will be undergoing a continuous evolution with regular releases

3. What are the benefits of Agile product development as opposed to waterfall? Are there any situations that Waterfall might work better?

Agile product development works incredibly well for continuous product evolution

Some organizations don’t lend themselves nicely to a more agile approach since there is no clear end (for example, at the beginning of the project, you don’t know what the end result of the product will be).

Probably would never recommend a FULLY waterfall approach, but having distinct project phases (Sort of how you’d have a distinct design phase upfront) can work as long as engineers are included along the way

4. What is your preferred style for retrospectives? What are the benefits of retrospectives? Are there any risks to having retrospectives?

This is a preference question. Whatever method they include, it should touch on:

• What went well?
• What didn’t go well?
• What can we improve?

Benefits: Course correction, keeping the team happy, improving efficiency and team effectiveness, buying into processes by the team.

Risks: Could become a rant session if not kept on track, don’t want to upset the team, don’t want to blame anyone for issues that might have happened.

5. Describe the difference between prioritization and ordering.

Prioritization (blocker, high, medium, low) is often hard to distinguish between (what is really a high vs. medium) – you end up with more high priority items than you can handle.

There is a new trend toward the importance of ordering – meaning, yes we agree these are all important to do, so which one has to be done first, second, third, etc. down the list.

Interpersonal

6. How do you handle a team member or members who are very negative toward the process – how do you get them to buy into what the team / you are suggesting?

Answers might include:

• Ask them to influence to the planning process
• Asking them to try it out for one sprint and give feedback to help improve the process
• Remind them this is not “process for process’ sake” but to actually improve their job satisfaction

7. How do you keep the team motivated / engaged?

I like to keep people engaged by keeping them involved in guiding the process and the product, so they feel ownership over what we are working toward. Additionally I keep my team apprised of all overall project status, so even if they are just a small piece of the overall project, they feel involved in the bigger-picture.

Most people will answer this question differently, so try to answer this in a way that is true to your working style, and one that would work well in that organization.

8. What are the key responsibilities you expect from the product owner?

The product owner is responsible for the product vision and translating that into actionable work by the teams. They are responsible for getting buy-in from the rest of the organization and championing the product to the proper stakeholders, including customers.

9. How would you handle a situation where you feel the product owner isn’t living up to your expectations?

Being a product owner is a very big time commitment that oftentimes people do not recognize upfront.

Open lines of communication with the Product Owner and clarify what you are expecting from them.

Provide guidance / mentorship since product owner may be new to the role and/or your methodology.

Any questions that you find important that I’ve not covered above? Have your say in the comments below.

Additional reading:

> Learn more about Kanban boards in What is a Kanban board and when should I use it?
> Learn how to create custom Jira workflows for your team in How do I create a custom Jira workflow?
> Read about the importance of measuring team velocity in Understanding Scrum Team Velocity