Agile Methodology Interview Questions

So, are you preparing for agile methodology interviews and looking for frequently asked agile methodology interview questions? Well, you have landed at the right place. It can be overwhelming to find many interview questions related to agile methodology online but going through all of them can be very time-consuming. In this blog, I will talk about the most popular agile methodology interview questions that you must know in order to crack your interviews with ease. We will be looking at the interview questions related to agile methodology, which every software engineer faces in an interview. This is both for people who are new to the software engineering world and people who are experienced in this field. So, let us get started!

What is Agile?

The term agile refers to the ability to move quickly and easily by becoming more flexible and adaptable. Therefore, it is very important for organizations to become Agile for their sustenance and growth. Requirements and solutions are obtained through self-organizing cross-functional teams collaborating.

Explain the difference between a traditional waterfall model and Agile testing?

So, when we say agile and waterfall, they are two different dynamics altogether.

• The agile model is the continuous iteration life cycle model for developing and testing software. In contrast, the waterfall model is a linear sequential life cycle model for developing and testing software.
• If we talk about rigidity, agile methodology is a flexible way of building a software, adopting any change is very easy here. Whereas waterfall methodology is a rigid, structured way of software development, because it will require to change many things, it then becomes a tedious job for the developers.
• In the case of the collaboration factor, the agile model is a highly collaborative approach towards software development, which gives you a better output. It involves all the members, like customers, team members, project managers, etc. In the case of the waterfall model, it is less flexible and follows a sequence of pre-defined steps, which does not allow the teams to collaborate. Even if collaboration happened in the waterfall model, it would have many limitations because everything is already defined, and people have to follow it and comply with it.
• In agile, the development process is divided into short phases called as sprints, and after each sprint, some product output will be released. In the case of the waterfall model, the complete software development process is broken down into several well-defined linear phases and executed one by one.
• In the agile approach, you can make the changes even after the initial planning is completed. On the other hand, in the waterfall approach, you cannot change development requirements once the project development begins.

Tell us about some important parts of the Agile process?

Here are some of the essential principles that need to be followed to make a process agile:

• Customer satisfaction: You need to satisfy the customer through early and quick delivery of the product. The product should be delivered according to the requirement and feedbacks of the customer.
• Welcome change: You need to address all the changing needs even late in the development process. It is easier to make changes in agile processes.
• Deliver frequently: Ensure the software is delivered frequently, focusing on a shorter time scale through a clear understanding of the product.
• Work together: Developers and business individuals need to work together throughout the course of the project so that the necessary outcome can be created.
• Motivated team: Projects need to be built around motivated individuals, and they must be trusted to get the job done. Their active involvement is necessary for the success of a project.
• Face to Face conversation: It is the most efficient way of communication. It helps in collaborating better and contributing proactively.
• Working software: It is the primary measure of the progress which will be delivered in each iteration so that the users can give the necessary feedback.
• Constant pace: The agile process promotes sustainable development because all the products that get developed receive feedback in real-time. So, people actually know what is being produced and what can be expected as progress.
• Good design: Agility can be improved by focusing on technical excellence and good design.
• Simplicity: The amount of work that is not being done needs to be minimized. So do what is required to be done, consider only that much, not anything above or below that.
• Self-organized: Self-organized teams provide the best architectures, requirements, and designs because they possess different capabilities and are multi-skilled also.

What are some popular agile tools?

It is very important for all the organizations working on agile principles to understand what help they require exactly, and then accordingly, they need to look for the tools and analyze which tools can help them depending on the requirement. Here is a list of some very popular agile tools used in most of the organizations:

• GitHub
• Jira Software
• Trello
• Zoho
• Pivotal Tracker
• VersionOne
• Active Collab
• Asana
• Axosoft
• Notion
• Basecamp

Explain iterative and incremental development in Agile.

Incremental development in agile all about dividing the processes into small workable increments which can be done one after the other. Each successive increment builds on top of the work done in the previous increments. And over time, functionalities are added based on what was already created.

Iterative development involves the development of a system by following repeated cycles or iterations. Based on the results from the most recent iteration of the process, changes are made. This helps the project evolve over time. So, the term evolved is something that people should keep in mind. There can be various changes and variations which can happen as and when the development is happening. Accordingly, the necessary adjustments or deviations need to be made to progress further.

So Agile is the combination of iterative and incremental development. It involves consideration and creation of works produced in an iteration which is part of the overall final product. Each iteration is an enhanced working increment of the final product. This process continues until all the product functionalities are satisfied.

What are the different types of agile methodologies?

Below are some popular agile methodologies used in the industry:

Extreme programming: It is a framework that enables teams to create high-quality software and improves their quality of life. It enables software development with appropriate engineering practices.

Kanban: this method is used to design, manage and improve the flow of systems. Organizations can visualize their flow of work and limiting their work in progress. This methodology helps in monitoring the complete workflow, which tells what work is in progress, what all things have finished, and what is yet to be started, and it uses the visualization system. It helps people working on the project know what is pending at their end so that they can pick up that work and complete it.

Lean: Lean is a set of tools and principles that aims to identify and remove waste to increase the speed of process development. It focuses on maximizing value to the client and ensuring waste is minimized. So, the lean approach says if there is a bottleneck in the flow, it needs to be removed. And for that, you need to identify the waste or the contributor to the waste and eliminate those causes moving forward. This will help in smoothening the flow and also in improving the system for a better outcome.

Scrum: Scrum is a framework that is used by teams to establish a hypothesis, try it out, reflect on the experience and adjust. It is used to enable teams to incorporate practices from other frameworks depending on the team’s requirements. Scrum is very popular in software development organizations, and it is often used for smaller projects.

Crystal: it is an approach to software development that focuses on people and their interactions rather than tools and processes. It is aimed to streamline processes and improve optimization. It works on the principle that projects are unique and dynamic.

What are the principles of agile testing?

• Testing continuously to ensure the product improves continuously because as we develop and test the product, we can reveal any of the issues or defects in the product that was developed.
• Obtain feedback continuously to ensure the product meets the business requirements. This feedback comes from the users and customers when we produce the working piece of the product.
• All team roles (testing, development, etc.) need to be involved in the testing process. The teams cannot work in isolation, and there has to be good collaboration among them.
• The active involvement of the business team and representatives can provide quick feedback for each iteration.
• Clean and simplified code ensures it to be defect-free during the iteration
• The documentation created must be limited into particular iterations. So, when we talk about the waterfall, documentation is very comprehensive, and everything is mentioned in one single documentation. But in the case of agile, the documentation has to be there only for the iteration the teams are working on.
• Along with the development and implementation, testing is done to ensure the product is defect-free.
• Continuous involvement of the user ensures the final product matches their requirements.

What are some Agile metrics that need to be focused on?

Below are some popular agile metrics that you need to focus on:

• Measuring the burndown of deliverables, which is usually represented using burndown charts
• Velocity
• Lead time
• Cycle time
• Code quality
• Code covered in unit test
• Deployment success rate
• Net Promoter score

What is Kanban?

Kanban system is a visual system that enables better management of work as it moves through the processes. It visualizes and provides visibility into the process, workflows, and the work passing through the process. So, when you say it is a visual system, it will have all the work defined and the people associated with it with the current status. So, people can pull their work by looking at the visual representation. In Kanban, tracking the work also becomes easier as the work is clearly visible and put on a display board. Modern organizations also use digital display systems to show all the progress of the project. The goal of Kanban is to identify the constraints (i.e., the potential bottlenecks) in the processes and ensure they are addressed. This ensures that the workflow becomes smoother and more efficient.

What are the obstacles to the agile process?

Below are a few of the obstacles that you can face while using the Agile process are:

• Not having the appropriate or sufficient tools or technologies
• The lack of active involvement from the customer
• The team members lacking in skill and capability
• The inability to design systems based on unseen requirements
• Adapting the agile culture to the organization

Differentiate between agile and scrum.

• So agile is a set of principles that is iterative and incremental in nature. In comparison, scrum is an implementation of the agile methodology to make the organization agile.
• The agile manifesto and 12 principles act as a guideline to help an organization become agile. At the same time, scrum is used in projects where the requirements are constantly changing. It also adheres to agile principles.
• The agile manifesto mentions collaboration and interactions to become agile. In contrast, scrum defines the roles such as the scrum master, the product owner, and the cross-functional self-organized teams who are involved in delivering the project in an agile way.
• The agile manifesto mentions the focus required on working software in change, whereas scrum enables the teams to react to changes quickly, which means it makes the team flexible.
• In agile, the methodology requires frequent delivery to the end-user. Whereas in the scrum, the builds are delivered to the clients for feedback through sprints.
• Agile stresses on individual and customer interactions, where are scrum uses daily stand-up meetings and various other scrum events for collaboration between the teams.

Final Thoughts

Agile is an integral of software engineering processes in every organization, and there is plenty to learn. Do not just mug up these answers, understand the nitty-gritty of these answers and how agile is actually used in the organizations. You can find thousands of agile methodology interview questions online, but these are the few most asked agile methodology interview questions which you must know, and these are the questions that will give you a kickstart to your future interviews. So, prepare well and all the best!