Scrum Discussion Questions:

A Comprehensive Guide for Scrum Teams

Instructions for Scrum Masters:
These discussion questions are carefully designed to help your Scrum Team identify challenges and improve their processes, while also refining their approach to forecasting, flexibility, and maintaining high-quality standards. Moreover, teams should regularly use these questions to encourage meaningful discussions during key events like Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, or intraspectives (reflective sessions held within the Sprint). Additionally, they can be integrated into backlog refinement and Sprint Planning to foster ongoing reflection. As a result, Scrum Masters should continuously encourage the team to reflect on their Definition of Done (DoD), ensuring it remains flexible and adaptable without ever compromising quality. By doing so, teams can benefit from regular reflection and improvement throughout the Sprint, rather than waiting for the end-of-Sprint Retrospective.

Note: The goal of these questions is to help teams consistently inspect and adapt their DoD, especially across different types of products (e.g., software, infrastructure, health solutions). Furthermore, by using storyotypes—reusable criteria tailored to each type of work—you can maintain flexibility while still preventing chaos or poor workmanship. This way, the approach balances innovation with quality, ensuring each product is handled appropriately.

Scrum Discussion Topics

Scrum Basics
Scrum Team
Product Owner
ScrumMaster
Development Team
Backlog
Agile Analysis
Sprint Planning and Retrospective
Increment and Product Quality
Scaling and Cross-Team Collaboration

1. Scrum Basics

1.1 What makes a problem complex? How does Scrum help us deal with complexity?
Explore how complexity influences decision-making and product development. Discuss how Scrum’s empirical process control (transparency, inspection, and adaptation) helps the team manage complexity through regular inspection and adaptation, maintaining a focus on delivering value.

1.2 What does it mean to be empirical as a Scrum Team?
Examine how the team applies empiricism through transparency, inspection, and adaptation, ensuring continuous improvement. Focus on how the team balances flexibility in DoD while keeping quality high.

1.3 Accountability vs. Responsibility: What’s the difference?
Reflect on how accountability for delivering value works in conjunction with responsibility for completing individual tasks. Discuss how the team shares accountability for upholding quality standards in the DoD without rigidly committing to fixed deliverables.

1.4 Who are our stakeholders, and how do they influence our work?
Identify key stakeholders and discuss how their input shapes your Product Backlog. Explore how stakeholders influence DoD criteria and ensure the team delivers high-value increments that align with their expectations.

1.5 Why does Scrum emphasize fixed-length iterations (Sprints)? How does that help our workflow?
Discuss how timeboxed Sprints provide regular opportunities for feedback, helping the team deliver incremental value. Ensure that flexibility in the Definition of Done is managed within the Sprint length, without compromising product quality.

1.6 Vision provides focus, and roadmaps provide guidance. What’s the distinction, and how do both help the team?
Reflect on how product vision and roadmaps help align the team’s work without needing hard commitments. Discuss how both guide the DoD evolution, ensuring that changing requirements do not lower the product’s quality standards.

2. Scrum Team

2.1 What are the basic responsibilities of the Scrum Team?
Explore how the Scrum Team works together to deliver value while remaining flexible with the Definition of Done. Reflect on how the team upholds high-quality standards collectively without making rigid commitments to the specific amount of work.

2.2 How much time should the Product Owner spend with the Scrum Team? How does this collaboration enhance delivery?
Discuss how close collaboration between the Product Owner and the team ensures that priorities are clear and the most valuable work is done without compromising on the Definition of Done and product quality.

2.3 How does the ScrumMaster balance time with the team while promoting self-organization?
Reflect on how the ScrumMaster supports the team in self-organizing to decide how much work can be done while ensuring quality standards remain high, even when the DoD is flexible.

3. Product Owner

3.1 How does the Product Owner determine what will please stakeholders?
Discuss how the Product Owner engages with stakeholders to gather feedback and refine the backlog, ensuring the team always focuses on delivering value incrementally—without needing fixed promises about how much will be done in each Sprint.

3.2 What happens when the Product Owner lacks clear direction for the team? How does that affect the Sprint?
Explore how a lack of direction from the Product Owner can impact Sprint goals. Discuss how the ScrumMaster and the team can help clarify priorities, ensuring that quality remains a priority even when direction is unclear.

3.3 How do we ensure that the Product Owner does not have undue influence over the team?
Reflect on the balance of power between the Product Owner, ScrumMaster, and the team. Ensure that DoD flexibility is managed without pushing the team into chaos or sacrificing product quality for speed or quantity.

4. ScrumMaster

4.1 How does the ScrumMaster support team development while fostering self-organization?
Examine how the ScrumMaster enables the team to self-organize, ensuring that the team adheres to evolving Definitions of Done while maintaining high-quality standards.

4.2 How does the ScrumMaster identify and remove impediments? Can the team provide examples of past impediments and resolutions?
Share examples of how the ScrumMaster has removed impediments that could have impacted the team’s ability to meet quality standards within the Sprint. Reflect on how impediments are resolved without sacrificing quality.

5. Development Team

5.1 Who belongs on the Development Team, and how do we ensure we are cross-functional?
Reflect on how the team ensures they have the necessary skills to deliver a quality increment while adhering to a flexible DoD. Discuss how team composition influences the ability to uphold quality criteria across different products.

5.2 Why is it important that team members are accountable to each other? What happens when accountability is missing?
Discuss how accountability is shared among team members, particularly when the DoD is flexible but quality must be upheld. Explore how accountability for quality ensures that flexibility doesn’t invite chaos into the product.

5.3 What’s the difference between a self-directed team and a self-organizing team? Which model do we follow?
First, examine how self-organization enables the team to decide how much work to forecast while maintaining quality. Then, discuss how self-directed teams may differ in terms of decision-making, especially regarding quality criteria and the DoD.

6. Backlog

6.1 Is the Product Backlog a prioritized list? How well does our prioritization process work?
Discuss how the Product Backlog is prioritized to ensure the most valuable work is done. Reflect on how prioritization impacts DoD criteria and ensures the team does not sacrifice quality for the sake of getting more done.

6.2 What does backlog refinement look like for our team? How often should we refine the backlog?
Explore how backlog refinement ensures that items in the backlog are ready for the Sprint, with a clear DoD that reflects evolving quality standards. Discuss how refinement is ongoing, aligning DoD with the team’s learning and adaptation.

6.3 Who can add items to the Product Backlog, and how do we manage the size of our backlog?
Reflect on how the Product Owner manages backlog entries and ensures that the backlog remains actionable, with appropriate DoD criteria for different storyotypes.

7. Agile Analysis

7.1 How does Agile analysis differ from traditional analysis?
Discuss how Agile analysis is iterative and incremental, supporting continuous learning and adaptation in the DoD. Explore how Agile analysis aligns with maintaining quality while adjusting to new information.

8. Sprint Planning and Retrospective

8.1 How does our team handle release planning? Is it integrated with Sprint Planning?
Explore how release planning aligns with Sprint Planning when the team doesn’t commit to completing a specific amount of work. Ensure that the DoD for release increments maintains high-quality standards without sacrificing flexibility.

8.2 Can lessons learned in a Sprint change our release strategy or number of sprints?
Reflect on how the team adapts based on lessons learned in each Sprint. Discuss how DoD criteria evolve as the product matures, ensuring quality is maintained through the release.

8.3 Why are retrospectives necessary, and how has our team improved through them?
Discuss the value of retrospectives for continuous improvement. Reflect on how the team inspects and adapts the DoD, ensuring that it remains aligned with quality standards while staying flexible to evolving requirements.

8.4 How do we forecast capacity and choose what work to focus on in each Sprint without making hard commitments?
Examine how your team forecasts capacity based on available data, ensuring that the DoD for selected items reflects high-quality standards without rigid promises. Discuss how this forecasting impacts the team’s ability to maintain quality.

8.5 How do we inspect and adapt our Definition of Done based on what we learn in each Sprint?
Explore how the Definition of Done is inspected and adapted during Sprint Retrospectives, ensuring it reflects new insights while maintaining the necessary quality standards.

9. Increment and Product Quality

9.1 How do we ensure our increments meet the Definition of Done, even without committing to specific work?
Discuss how your team ensures that increments meet evolving Definitions of Done while maintaining high-quality standards. Ensure that flexibility in the DoD doesn’t invite chaos or poor workmanship.

9.2 How do we manage and address technical debt during Sprints?
Reflect on how the team handles technical debt within Sprints, ensuring that it does not accumulate and affect the product’s long-term quality and DoD

9.3 How do we balance delivering new features and maintaining product quality with a flexible Definition of Done?
Explore how your team balances the need for new features with the importance of maintaining quality standards. Discuss how the DoD can be adapted to meet both goals.

10. Scaling and Cross-Team Collaboration

10.1 How do we collaborate with other teams in multi-team Scrum?
Discuss how your team collaborates with others in a multi-team Scrum environment. Explore how Definitions of Done can differ between teams and maintain high-quality standards across teams.

10.2 What governance structures ensure alignment between teams in a scaled environment?
Examine the governance structures in place to align teams working on the same product. Discuss how cross-team collaboration and consistent quality criteria ensure that flexibility in the DoD doesn’t lead to product chaos.

10.3 How do we manage dependencies between teams?
Reflect on how your team manages dependencies with other teams. Ensure that these dependencies don’t compromise the Definition of Done or lower the product’s quality.

Final Thoughts

These Scrum discussion questions strongly emphasize the importance of balancing flexibility in the Definition of Done (DoD) with the need to maintain high-quality standards. Therefore, Scrum teams must continuously inspect and adapt their DoD to reflect new learning, while also ensuring that flexibility doesn’t invite chaos or reduce the product’s quality. Furthermore, by regularly discussing these questions, your team can ensure they are delivering high-quality increments, aligned with modern Scrum practices.

Share your team’s insights! Upload your team’s discussion transcripts to receive further review and alignment with Scrum best practices centered on empiricism and adaptability.

Instructions for Scrum Masters

To maximize the benefits of these Scrum discussion questions, follow this step-by-step process with your team:

Gather the team: Inform the team that you’ll be incorporating a new practice to enhance your Scrum processes and align more closely with modern Scrum principles.
Introduce the process: Let the team know that you will focus on one discussion question during each Sprint Retrospective (or another appropriate session). This will allow the team to reflect and adapt based on the discussion.
Facilitate the discussion: Choose a question from the list and lead a 20-minute conversation. Encourage open participation, ensure that all voices are heard and the team feels comfortable discussing challenges and improvements.
Record the discussion: Capture the full transcript of the discussion. The Scrum Guide Coach will analyze this transcript later, so don’t worry about identifying key points—just facilitate a great session.
Submit the transcript: After the discussion, submit the complete transcript to the Scrum Guide Coach for analysis. The coach will review the transcript, assess how well your team is aligning with modern Scrum practices, and provide actionable feedback.
Iterate and improve: In the next Sprint, review the feedback from the Scrum Guide Coach, apply the suggestions, and move on to the next question. This iterative process will help your team continuously evolve and maintain a strong alignment with Scrum’s core principles.

This process ensures that the team has thorough, recorded discussions, with the Scrum Guide Coach providing an external assessment to help identify areas for growth and improvement.

References

Esther Derby – Insights on Agile and Organizational Change
Esther Derby is a leading voice in agile transformations and organizational change. Her work emphasizes improving team dynamics, fostering collaboration, and promoting adaptive leadership in agile environments.
Esther Derby Website

Johanna Rothman – Managing Product Development
Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” specializes in helping organizations manage projects, products, and people in ways that support agile values. Her insights into managing risk, improving product development processes, and guiding teams through agile transitions are invaluable for Scrum teams aiming for long-term success.
Johanna Rothman Website