A Scrum Master is responsible for the success of a team of developers and a product manager, effectively applying the Scrum method.
As an Agile methodology, Scrum seeks to enable product team members to work autonomously. This works while maintaining as much interaction as possible.
Notably, many businesses are now hiring freelance Scrum Masters to facilitate their operations. These independent contractors help bridge communication gaps within a Scrum team.
They also ensure adequate visibility on the progress of ongoing projects and incorporate new demands. More importantly, such freelance experts are cost-efficient and have broad exposure to frameworks.
Let’s now look at some popular Scrum Master interview questions to help your hiring process, particularly when hiring freelancers.
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Hiring the Best Freelance Scrum Master
As you schedule that job interview to find a Scrum Master for your project team members, here are some things you must know:
- Finding the best independent contractor for this role goes beyond certification. The right person to hire is someone who’s willing to serve and deliver Scrum values. Also, this candidate must be willing to embrace continuous improvement.
- The Scrum Master’s job requires sufficient experience. Ur must be handled by experts who understand the Scrum project. You need someone with in-built instructional leadership who can change structural work methods when necessary.
- Finding the best Scrum Master isn’t an easy feat. Nevertheless, many freelance gig platforms feature such experts, with their portfolios displayed. Using these job platforms can ease your burden, connecting you with top professionals.
18 Interview questions to ask freelance Scrum Masters
No doubt, the Scrum Master role is quite challenging to fill. Companies often seek experts who can help everyone else understand Scrum values, boards, and rules.
Here are the key interview questions and answers that will help assess how candidates can guide teams through Scrum events. Freelance Scrum Masters can also prepare for upcoming interviews using these questions and answers.
Questions for Scrum master certification
1. Are you a certified scrum master?
Certification is often a prerequisite for many hiring decisions. And sometimes, it may not be needed. Nevertheless, it gives insight into the candidate’s background. Often, it is a way to break the ice before asking questions about implementing Scrum.
And for freelancers, this is where you talk about your certification and how you’ve applied the principles. If you’re not certified, be honest about it. Just focus on relaying your practical experiences and team coaching.
Questions for knowledge of agile and scrum process
2. Can you define scrum?
This open-ended question is also common in interviews.
It helps employers quickly assess the candidate’s understanding of the Scrum methodology. This question enables you to understand how this person is willing to interact with the team and project stakeholders.
Scrum defines a set of guidelines, artifacts, and ceremonies within a flexible methodology. It ensures that Scrum Masters guide teams and apply unique touches during the process.
So, even as a freelance expert, it may seem challenging to come up with such a basic definition on the spot.
But relax, have a solid definition handy and highlight the Scrum values.
3. What is Agile?
This question is often considered tricky, as you have to decide whether it is a methodology or a framework. Employers throw this out to evaluate the Scrum Master’s mindset and how they fit the organization’s work culture.
If you’re preparing for an interview as a Scrum Master, here’s what you should know. The best answer you give depends on what conforms to your work culture and approach.
You can define it as a methodology and mindset that reflects the Agile manifesto’s core principles. This is where you reflect on your past experiences, working with diverse teams across varying organizations.
4. Does Agile differ from Scrum? If yes, how?
This question can help reveal whether or not the candidate is indeed a Scrum Master. Experts must be aware of the Scrum principles and values and how they differ from Agile’s principles and values.
Agile refers to a set of iterative and incremental principles, while Scrum is the implementation of Agile methodology. Also, Agile suits projects involving a small team of experts, with the project head handling all tasks.
However, Scrum is used in teams that require constant change. The Scrum team has no apparent leader, as issues are handled by both the team and the Scrum Master.
5. What other Agile frameworks exist?
A Scrum Master should know that other Agile frameworks exist outside Scrum.
Thus, this question helps the hiring manager measure the candidate’s knowledge and practical experience.
There are Kanban, Lean, and SAFe. The Kanban, which uses Kanban Boards, is test-driven and feature-driven. It is helpful for teams that require a continuous flow of sprints. Also, Lean principles are handy for limiting wastes and improving flow.
And, SAFe aligns multiple teams and works well for bigger organizations.
As an expert, this is where you talk about any framework (besides Scrum) that you’ve worked with. Be sure to explain how they worked in the project handled.
6. What scenarios prioritize Waterfall over Scrum?
A good Scrum Master must have the success of the project in mind.
So, this question helps gauge whether the candidate is willing to adopt other approaches to ensure a successful outcome. Sometimes, a traditional approach may be necessary rather than the hybrid methodology.
In traditional project management, the Waterfall method plans and completes work in a linear, sequential order. It is best suited for simple, predictable, and well-defined work.
Questions for leadership and collaboration
7. What are the duties of a Scrum Master?
This question is aimed at understanding how flexible the candidate is and how they approach different tasks. Being in a unique position, the Scrum Master must play a rangee of specific and critical roles.
These experts must facilitate Scrum events, enhance the team’s agility, implement key Scrum concepts, etc.
Notably, Scrum has three primary roles: Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Delivery Team. While these roles are cross-functional, they are not shared amongst other projects.
Nevertheless, not all projects follow precise rules; specific adjustments may be required. Thus, the ideal Scrum Master must demonstrate how they can align with an organization’s Scrum implementation approach.
8. How do you manage a self-organizing Scrum team?
You must know that every individual in a Scrum team has the autonomy to decide their work mode. That is because these teams are cross-functional and self-organizing. Each member can decide on how they want to execute specific tasks or collaborate with others.
Despite this autonomy, a Scrum Master can still support team members’ efforts by tracking their progress. Mostly, such monitoring comes through daily Scrum meetings, sprint planning, and sprint retrospectives.
These are necessary for understanding the work each member performs and how they can be more efficient.
9. What’s your biggest strength and weakness as a Scrum Master?
As an employer, you ask this question to assess the candidate’s skills and mindset. You want to understand how well they can connect with your organization’s target audience.
Also, you can now gain insights into their potential influence on the overall project success. The best answer to this question is to discuss your strengths with notable examples.
And your weakness should explain how you’re trying to overcome likely adverse situations. Here’s a noteworthy example:
My greatest strength is enhancing collaboration across diverse groups. I did this in a recent software project, where I made sprint goals transparent through visual task boards. In addition, I encouraged members to talk about blockers during stand-up.
As a result, improved communication and transparency led to a successful outcome.
And my most significant weakness lies in the excessive time I spend on considering all perspectives. Sometimes, this can delay decision-making, but I am learning to strike a balance and aim to make timely decisions by prioritizing critical discussions.
Questions for metrics, tools and technical knowledge
10. As a Scrum Master, what tools do you use?
Specific tools are needed to enhance “how the Scrum Master serves.” These are necessary to increase productivity and ensure all team members are on the same page.
So, a Scrum Master should be familiar with several management software tools used in Agile. These include Gnatt charts, Kanban boards, project dashboards, etc.
During the interview, the employer wants to hear how the candidate uses these to plan and track sprints.
11. How do you measure the progress of a project?
When asked this question, the interviewer wants to know how you evaluate team performance as a Scrum Master.
It tells how the organization can know when things are progressing. Now, there are multiple answers to this; you can mention burn-up charts and burn-down charts.
When answering, focus on actual work performance metrics. Be sure to highlight how you’ll use these standard metrics to measure the extent of the work you’ve completed. It can also help if you explain how these metrics will reflect the team’s commitment.
Questions for empirical process control
12. Do you favor the use of automated testing?
Regression testing or automated performance testing can be used in Scrum to deliver software swiftly. The former discusses the testing Purpose, supporting existing functionality even with code changes.
The latter, however, describes the testing mechanism and runs the test automatically.
This question analyses the tools the candidate prefers and their experience with them. As a freelance Scrum Master, ensure you answer tactically. List the automated testing tools you and your team have used in the past.
13. What skills do you use when building teams?
Captured as user stories, the Scrum Master really has no business writing the Scrum requirements. Nevertheless, they can assist the product owner in doing so. Through this, the stories become the top priority and are ready for Agile sprints.
The Master ensures that the entire Scrum team understands and delivers these requirements properly. So, as a candidate, explain how you’ll break down and refine stories.
14. Explain how you utilize Scrum artifacts?
A Scrum Master utilizes Scrum artefacts to reveal a picture of a specific Agile project. This remains a toolbox that allows the Master understand projects clearly. Thus, asking this question helps you know how the candidate will assist the team and prioritize coordination.
As a freelance Scrum Master, this is where you highlight your use of the different Scrum artifacts. You need to remember what each of the three artifacts is about.
The product backlog is a list of new features, changes, and infrastructure fixes to deliver a specific output. Then, the sprint backlog is a subset of the product backlog.
It contains the focus task the team needs to fulfill to achieve the sprint goal.
Finally, the product increment merges all completed product backlog items from a sprint. It also holds the value of all previous sprints’ increments.
Questions for daily Scrum meetings
15. How do you run and manage daily Scrum meetings?
One of the basic foundations of Scrum is the daily Scrum (also known as a Stand-up) meeting. Such a meeting is crucial in reinforcing sprint planning. It also helps with monitoring sprint progress.
During such meetings, the Scrum Master asks about the work completed to date and the current plan.
Another critical question is about potential blockages and how to overcome them. So, the answer a candidate provides to this question helps the interviewer measure the person’s understanding and fit for the job.
16. How long should Sprints last?
The average sprint timeline is 2 weeks. It could span across one month or even less.
Knowing where the candidate falls will inform how you plan to handle projects. Nevertheless, a Scrum Master knows that the ideal time frame depends on the team they’re working with and the specific project.
The length should be balanced to support quick feedback and the completion of meaningful assignments.
Questions for sprint retrospective
17. How do you motivate and introduce a new team to Scrum?
Encouraging team members is part of a Scrum Master’s role. This is especially necessary when there’s a new team that hasn’t really practiced Scrum or isn’t interested in Agile.
Now, it is your duty as a freelance Scrum Master to explain that focusing on work alone is not efficient. There’s a need for meetings to evaluate progress and provide valuable input where necessary.
So, the interviewer wants to know whether the candidate has worked on a new Scrum team before and how they handled it. Kindly explain your approach, including how you’ll educate, listen, and create room for continuous improvement.
18. What is the best way to deal with discord within a Team?
Team conflicts can occur for various reasons; most often, they stem from disagreements and personality clashes.
Conflict may be a positive thing, as you can turn it into a means to attain a common goal. The employer asks this question to see if the candidate can prevent excessive discord that could derail the project.
Specifically, the hiring manager wants to know whether the Scrum Master has previously handled conflicts and how they kept the team bonded afterward.
You should explain how you’ll get to the root cause of the problem and effectively address it. Mention key strategies to help diffuse the disagreement, and emphasize the need for continuous monitoring.
Furthermore, you should talk about establishing a clear guide for common understanding. This preventive measure is necessary for scaling Scrum or working in a fast-paced environment.
Conclusion
Scrum adoption is spreading rapidly, and many organizations are seeking freelance Scrum Masters to implement Agile principles.
But hiring a Scrum Master is not just about their certification.
There is a need to assess their organizational skills and to understand how the Scrum Master helps a team focus on projects. Whether you are an employer or a freelancer preparing for your next Scrum interview, this guide will help you get started.
It presents critical questions and answers that reflect on the five Scrum values.