Agile Coach Interview Questions and Answers

4/28/2020 Agile Coach Interview Questions and Answers - Tech Agilist
Agile Coach Interview Questions and Answers

Posted on October 26, 2019
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The Agile Coach is someone who is experienced in

implementing agile projects and can share that experience
with a project team. An Agile Coach helps to define what is
to be done, how, who does it, when, why, how it fits in
with the organization, change management, people
management and interactions between agile teams and
other parts of the organization (like Dev Ops, Hosting,
Build teams, Education, UX/UI, etc).
Agile Coach Please read Agile Interview Questions and Answer for
interview questions related to Agile Fundamentals. Scrum
Interview Questions and Answer for interview questions related to Scrum
Fundamentals.
Agile Coach Interview Questions and Answers

1. How Agile Coach role is different from Scrum Master Role?
Answer: Scrum masters tend to focus upon one or limited number of team and influence
those team with respect to scrum values and principles where as an Agile Coach is often
multiple teams under multiple IT or business areas influencing teams with regard to Agile
which is a super set of Scrum. The coach should also operate at all different levels of the
organization including middle management and senior management.
An Agile Coach helps to define what is to be done, how, who does it, when, why, how it fits
in with the organization, change management, people management and interactions between
agile teams and other parts of the organization (like Dev Ops, Hosting, Build teams,
Education, UX/UI, etc).
2. What does coaching mean to you?

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Answer: Coaching to me means being someone who draws the potential out of both
individuals and teams. Rather than providing solutions as in a consultancy, a coach tends to
draw the solution out of the individual and team rather than providing them with solutions
from which they pick.
The coach does this by helping their clients to see new perspectives and possibilities which
ultimately in our context lead to better performance as a product team and as individuals.
In order to orchestrate this, the coach will typically engage in activities both at the individual
and team level relating to mentoring, teaching, facilitating, problem solving and resolving
conflicts.
3. What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?
Answer: Mentoring is a long-term process based on mutual trust and respect. Coaching, on
the other hand, is for a short period of time. Mentoring is more focused on creating an
informal association between the mentor and mentee, whereas coaching follows a more
structured and formal approach.
Coaching helps the team’s performance get better, whereas mentoring is more specific to
individuals and the specific problem that a team is trying to solve where you transfer your
knowledge and experience that is relevant to that specific problem.
4. How would you establish a highly motivated scrum team?
Answer: I think one of the ways to motivate any team is to empower that team to have
control over their own work where they own it and are self-governing. Help the PO to vision
cast and empower the team.
The work has to be challenging and create an environment in the team in which they can
master a particular skill set. Also, aligning the team with a higher purpose will motivate, so
having the team aligned with other teams but remaining strongly decoupled with little hand-
offs. Being part of a larger vision, engineering strategy will also motivate.
Give the team opportunities to grow – knowledge sharing sessions, lab-like work where they
experiment with different ways of doing things including different technologies. Some key
items to consider are
Acknowledgment and Recognition

Team Building Activities
Staying Positive During Setbacks
Ensuring Balanced Workload
Being Open to Criticism and Differing Opinions
Having Fun
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5. How do you build trust with a team you’re working with? What approaches you
might take?
Answer: Work with team over time. Trust isn’t something established quickly, it can be
quickly lost but not so easily gained.
Start with those already in trusted positions e.g. PO/SM and then work from there to
influence the rest of the team.
Work with the team. Spend time with people listening and observing.
Default by trusting people up front and I often find they return it.
Be transparent and visible, be vulnerable.
Take the heat for other’s mistakes and protect team.
6. If a leader came to you and explained they were budget constrained and wanted to
combine the PO and SM role, what would you advise?
Answer: If they want to use Scrum, then there are three very well-defined roles. Combining
SM and PO will not be effective because PO role needs to focus on product decisions. SM
activities would distract the PO from that. Likewise for the SM role. Both the roles have
different sets of activities and combining both will create conflict of interest.
If the SM and PO were the same person, it’s likely the PO role would dominate. The PO
represents the interests of the customer whereby the SM represents the team. The separation
offers a pragmatic argument between client expectation vs technical feasibility.
7. What are the most common challenges that you encounter as an Agile coach?
Answer: In many cases, it’s the management that is suspicious of the agile approach. In agile
we propagate self-organized teams and for some managers, this sounds like: we do what we
want. But that’s not true at all. There is always a product owner who says what to do and an
agile coach that helps to ensure that the work is carried out efficiently.
But there is somehow a lack of control. The partial results are no longer checked. You no
longer measure whether an employee did this or that, but only focus on the added value at the
end of a sprint. That’s what makes many managers suspicious and some have a problem
finding their own role in it. What is the role of a manager when the teams work
independently? In the sense of an agile leader, management is more than just servant
leadership. Instead of directing and controlling work, they must clearly communicate
expectations and goals and then support the teams in achieving them.
It must be acceptable to make mistakes, because only then can the teams learn and further
progress. You should try something out and then we have to make sure that the mistakes can
be quickly fixed so that no disaster is triggered. Everybody learns from small mistakes and
that’s why I cannot come and punish people. Instead, I have to say, “Making one mistake is no
problem, but do not make them twice”. We always have to learn from the mistake made.
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When the lived culture becomes part of the company, everything is actually fulfilled. The big
challenge is to make everyone believe in this and to take everyone along the way, not just the
team, but also the management and top management.
8. As an Agile coach how do you manage to take management in Agile Journey?
Answer: First of all, I have to make clear that working agile is not something we’ve just come
up with. It’s something that the most successful companies in the world practice and because
of that they are successful. To prove the people that the agile way works, I need a small leap
of faith. For this, you have to work hard with a trustworthy presence and by delivering again
and again.
9. As an Agile coach how would you approach an Agile-resistant environment?
Answer: This is a crucial question for candidates who are applying for a position in a
company that is only starting to implement Agile into its organization. The answer may seem
like an invitation to list a number of actions required to approach an environment that is not
that welcoming to Agile, but this is not the case.
The answer employers will be looking for is an elaboration on how complicated this can be
and the need to tailor one’s approach to a specific situation with an organization. There are
innumerable ways in which organizations reject and only half-accept Agile and the candidates
should display their understanding of this and share their past experiences on how they dealt
with this.
One of the worst approaches to answering this question is to start to contemplate on the
ways in which Agile can be implemented as a modification of the existing (usually waterfall)
model of doing things. While it may show some resourcefulness on part of the candidate, all
experienced and knowledgeable Agile practitioners know that these Agile-like abominations
help no one.
10. How do you deal with employees who have worked with the waterfall approach
for ages and now all of a sudden have to adapt to the agile way of working?
Answer: It is important for everyone to understand the reason why we work agile and what it
means for the further development of the team. It’s not about organizing a short standup
meeting every day or splitting the work into 2-week stages. But instead, I always start by
explaining the core values of the agile world: Respect, Openness, Focus, Commitment, and
Courage. Then I specify with the team whether everyone stands behind them and finally how
exactly we want to implement them in the team.
The team should only consist of people who want to live the values and I support anyone
who wants to learn this. Depending on the task of the team, I introduce appropriate
procedures such as Scrum and Kanban and together with the team I decide how to start.
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Sometimes there happen to be people that simply don’t want to learn the agile way of
working. In this case, I’m powerless and the only possibility is that this person goes out of the
agile team and does something else or works in another company.
11. How do you as an agile coach work together with scrum masters, or do you also
take on the role of a scrum master yourself?
Answer: That varies a lot. In the past, as an agile coach, I personally took on teams as a scrum
master and then moderated the entire ceremonies myself, such as reviews and retrospectives.
But as an agile coach, I also took on the task of coaching the scrum masters and introducing
the scrum master to the teams. It highly depends on what level you are currently working on
& at what agile maturity the organization is currently on.
12. What kind of work would you do as an agile coach? And what is not your
responsibility?
Answer: I would do almost every kind of work but still prioritize where my help will be most
useful. For example, if someone would come and say to me, “I have a great idea! We have to
change the framework somehow, but the other people in the team do not want that.” Then,
of course, I would first ask, “Did you talk to the other people?” or “Why do they not want to
do it? or “Did you get any feedback from the rest of the team?” – and then I would advise
solving the problem themselves. If this is being rejected by the others in the team then maybe
there is a reason for it.
But when it comes to the fact that you generally cannot develop within the team, then I can
be helpful by taking a closer look at the dynamics of the team to see if everyone also has a
voice to be heard. That’s why I always listen in order for me to be able to address the problem
in the best way possible. I always ask critically to find the reason for why the team needs my
help and of course, I also evaluate who I think is the right person for a given task.
13. What does a day at work as an agile coach look like?
Answer: At least the day looks like I have no clue what will happen throughout the day. First,
I go to the teams and ask them how everything is going. I offer them to take my help if they
need it and then people come to me and say, “This just happened here. How should I proceed?
Do you have an idea? or “Can you take the lead here?” Basically, I offer my service. You can
see it as Management as a Service or Leadership as a Service.
Sometimes very trivial topics also arise like, “Can you organize a meeting for this and that –
and can you moderate it?”. Or more demanding topics like, “I have a problem with this other
team. They never do what we ask them to do. Can you talk to them?” Then I’ll assign the task
to myself and do it.
14. As an Agile Coach what do you do to meet the changing requirements during
the phase of development? Privacy - Terms
Answer: Change requirement is the very aspect of the agile method. So it is necessary for the
team to maintain a check over the requirements of the customer. These changes must be
made regularly in the upcoming sprints and until changes are not done completely, the team
should not move to the next process. Change requirement in agile is an advantage to ensure
satisfaction of the owner.
15. During the phase of software development, what were your responsibilities for
meeting the changing requirements?
Answer: A team needs to be very aware of the requirements of a customer. Therefore, a

change in requirement should be kept at check properly. In every upcoming sprint, these
changes should be updated on a regular basis. A team working on this change should not
move to other processes unless that specific change is done completely.
Hence, the answer to this question should be those specific responsibilities that a coach did to
manage these changes and how these changes ensured customer satisfaction with their
requirements.
16. As an Agile Coach in what way do you manage overlapping iterations?
Answer: Iteration overlaps can be managed by having a multifunctional team.

Multifunctional teams consist members that are enthusiastic about all the agile requirements.
They will be skilled in areas of design, testing and coding. These members are capable of
participating in all the processes equally.
There are many views of how iterative/incremental projects should run under Agile.
Overlapping iterations is certainly one strategy. The danger is to pay attention to the
candidate if they say that “iterations should never overlap.” This may tell you that the
candidate is used to having what is called “multidisciplinary teams.” This type of team consists
of a set of generic team members who all have the skills and enthusiasm for requirements,
design, coding and testing and who each participate in those activities almost equally. If your
company has defined roles (business analyst, test analyst, etc.) and career paths then this
candidate may have a tough time fitting into your structure. They will want BAs to code and
testers to do design. Is that okay? It is your decision. Again, nothing wrong with
multidisciplinary teams, but your organization must be able to handle the change if you
decide to go that way.
17. Did you use automated test tools on your projects? Explain how that worked.
Answer: Agile project team members should have experience (or at the very least, the desire)
to use automated testing tools for regression and performance testing of each iteration. At the
end of each iteration you want to have something that your customer/client can “see.”
Automated testing allows quick identification and isolation of development defects as well as
the ability to test development work completed in previous iterations. Expect the candidate to
talk about automated regression testing, continuous integration and testing and even
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performance testing techniques and tools. Also expect them to discuss the need for manual
testing as well as automated testing, due to the ever-changing nature of the code base in
Agile.
18. Have you done continuous integration on a project before? Describe.
Answer: Here you want to get a pretty detailed explanation of how the candidate has used
continuous integration on previous projects. Continuous integration is a set of automated
build, integration and test steps that executes against the code base in a configuration
management repository. For instance, if you were using Java and CVS, the CVS repository
would have a set of triggers that automatically built, integrated and unit tested the code often,
perhaps each night, perhaps a few times a week, or even every time someone checked in new
code. Each of these is a valid continuous integration story.
19. How did you manage traceability of the requirements to testing?
Answer: The point here is to make sure testing goes all the way back to requirements for
validation. Not only is it important to test that the functionality a developer has created
during an iteration actually functions, it is also important to determine if it functions the way
the business wanted it to function. Does it meet the requirements defined in the story card /
use case? Your team members should understand the importance of this concept and if they
understand and accept traceability, you should be able to count on this person to help you
meet project goals.
20. As an Agile coach how comfortable are you with ever-changing requirements?
Answer: Many development methodologies specify that requirements are locked down at the
beginning of a project. Although that is not the case in Agile, it does not mean that
requirements are loosey-goosey! The advantage of Agile and its short iterations is that it is
easy to quickly recognize that work is not progressing as desired what the customer asked for.
If it is not what they wanted then the requirements must be changed. Team members should
be able to handle such changes on an Agile project. It shouldn’t be so tied to code, a story card
or any other component of work that prevents providing a solution which meets the
customer’s needs. The general idea is that requirements can change a lot at the beginning of
the release, and very little at the end.
21. How do you work together with the Scrum Master/Product Owner?
Answer: Good collaboration between a Scrum Master and a Product Owner is essential for a
good Scrum Team and regardless of the position an organization is hiring, the candidates
need to understand this.
Both Scrum Master and Product Owner candidates should be able to provide insights into
exactly how they would support the other role and, just as importantly, when they would ask
for assistance from the other person. Privacy - Terms
Just as an example, both Scrum Master and Product Owner candidates should understand
how they should collaboratively present the product, the Product Backlog and the work to be
done to the Scrum Team. By working together closely, the SM and the PO can also ensure
100% open lines of communication which call for easier problem solving and a more efficient
process.
The important thing is that the candidate understands how these two roles have a common
goal and how they can support one another.
22. What is a product roadmap? How will you create or help in creating a Product
roadmap?
Answer: The product roadmap provides a strategy and plan for product development. It’s
driven by short and long-term company goals and communicates how and when the product
will help achieve those goals. It reduces uncertainty about the future and keeps product teams
focused on the highest priority product initiatives.
In addition, the roadmap helps product leaders communicate the product vision and strategy
to senior executives, sales and marketing teams, and customers, and manage expectations
about when significant product milestones will be completed. When stakeholders don’t feel
heard or are uncertain about where the product is going, they may begin to doubt the
strategy, which can lead to a toxic work environment. The product roadmap aligns the key
stakeholders on product goals, strategy, and development timelines.
The product roadmap typically illustrates the following key elements:
Product strategy and goals

What products and features will be built
When those product features will be built
Who is responsible for building those products and features
“Themes” or high-level priorities
For a small organization the PO might be directly involved in creating the roadmap however
in large organization, he would be someone whose input would be required.
23. What is the relationship between vision and product roadmap?
Answer: Vision is a sort of a goal you see for your organization and for the product. You do
not own the vision, but you should have a clear sense of what it is as you help carry it out.
Thus, there are three elements which constitute a vision on a broader level, the purpose, the
picture, and the values. For any product, it’s really important to understand why we are
building it, what purpose will it serve to the customer or the client.
Next comes the picture where we see how the end result should look like and lastly what
value will it deliver. The vision statement can be just a few lines and it is not going to be very
elaborative or prescriptive.
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To achieve this vision, a roadmap is created, it is a powerful means to define how a product is
likely to grow, to align the stakeholders, and to procure a budget for developing the product
and it is also a visual summary that maps out the vision and direction of the product offering
over time. It outlines goals, milestones, and deliverables for a product in development.
e.g. Let’s say a Space travel company has a vision that “affordable and repeatable space travel”.
The product strategy is to build vehicles capable of going to space multiple times, along with
the supporting infrastructure to make that possible. The product roadmap is (for each
spaceship) the high-level steps required to build a spaceship that meets the requirements of
the product strategy, which in turn is fulfilling the company vision.
24. What are the desirable qualities of the vision?
Answer: The vision forms the foundation of any product, it is something which encourages
and inspires people to stay on the right path, hence it should be clear and firm; extensive and
appealing. Vison should be Imaginable, Desirable/Compelling, Achievable/Feasible,
Challenging, Aligned/Focused, Flexible & Communicable. To list out few desired qualities of
the vision, let’s look at the following points:
Clear and firm – A good product vision should be easy to grasp, interpret and creates a
common purpose for the teams while avoiding confusion and misinterpretation. Visions may
change with changing factors. Small adjustments are allowed provided the value proposition
of the item is retained. But big adjustments may cause confusion, project failure and
demotivation.
Extensive and appealing – It should provide a very high-level view of where we want to go,
and also provides the development team with space to come up with ideas, to collaborative,
to find solutions, to inspire to achieve more. It should encourage the team for better delivery
in line with customer expectations.
Brief and concise –It should contain only information critical to the realization of the
product. It is not a list of requirements, hence, it should not cover the minute details. In
simple terms, it should be short and sweet.
25. Explain some common metrics for Agile.
Answer: You may definitely come across agile scrum interview questions regarding agile
metrics. The question may be related to a particular agile matrix or explaining all the metrics.
So, the detailed description of some common metrics for Agile is as follows:
Velocity – Velocity is the average number of points from last 3-4 sprints. It is measured by
the summation of the all approved estimates of the stories. It gives an idea of the capacity,
progress etc.
Cumulative Flow Diagram – With the help of a cumulative flow diagram, an inspection is
done over the uniform workflow. In this diagram/graph, the x-axis represents time whereas
the y-axis represents the number of efforts. Privacy - Terms
Work Category Allocation – Work category allocation is an important factor that gives a
quick information of the time investment i.e. where the time is being invested and which task
should be given priority as a factor of time.
Time Coverage – It is the time that is given to a code during testing. It is calculated in
percentage as a factor of the number of lines of code called by the test suite and the total
number of relative lines of code.
Business Value Delivered – It is a term which denotes the working efficiency of the team. The
business objectives are assigned numerical values 1,2,3.. and so on, as per the level of priority,
complexity, and ROI.
Defect Removal Awareness – It is the factor that helps the team to deliver a quality product.
The identification of an active number of defects, their awareness, and removal plays an
important role in delivering a high-quality product.
Defect Resolution Time – It is a procedure through which the team members detect the
defects (bugs) and set a priority for the defect resolution. The procedure of fixing errors/bugs
or defect resolution comprises of multiple processes such as clearing the picture of defect,
schedule defect fixation, completing defect fixation, generation, and handling of resolution
report.
Sprint Burn Down Matric – The sprint burndown chart is a graph to represent the number of
non-implemented or implemented sprints during a Scrum cycle. This matric helps to track
the work completed with the sprint.
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This entry was posted in Agile, Interview Q&A and tagged Agile Coach, Agile Coach Interview Questions,
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The Agile Coach is someone who is experienced in

Agile Coach Interview Questions and Answers

2. What does coaching mean to you?

3. What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?

4. How would you establish a highly motivated scrum team?

Acknowledgment and Recognition

8. As an Agile coach how do you manage to take management in Agile Journey?

9. As an Agile coach how would you approach an Agile-resistant environment?

13. What does a day at work as an agile coach look like?

Answer: A team needs to be very aware of the requirements of a customer. Therefore, a

16. As an Agile Coach in what way do you manage overlapping iterations?

Answer: Iteration overlaps can be managed by having a multifunctional team.

18. Have you done continuous integration on a project before? Describe.

19. How did you manage traceability of the requirements to testing?

The product roadmap typically illustrates the following key elements:

Product strategy and goals

23. What is the relationship between vision and product roadmap?

24. What are the desirable qualities of the vision?

25. Explain some common metrics for Agile.

PSD Practice Assessment Random Mode Questions Privacy - Terms

PSD Practice Assessment Real Mode Questions

PSD Practice Assessment Practice Mode Questions

OUTFIL control statement in SORT JCL

Conditional Expressions use in COBOL

EVALUATE statement in COBOL Programs

DB2 EXPLAIN: Access Path for Query Optimization

Sprint ID for an Active or Closed Sprint

PSM Practice Exam Practice Mode Questions

PSM Practice Exam Real Mode Questions

PSPO Practice Exam Real Mode Questions

PSM Practice Assessment Random Mode Questions

Product Owner Interview Questions and Answers - Pa...

PSM Practice Assessment Real Mode Questions

CSM Practice Exam Real Mode Questions

Professional Scrum Master, PSM, CSM, CSPO, CSD, CSP, A-CSPO,

trademarks of the Project

© 2020 TechAgilist. All rights reserved.

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