Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) Planning, Estimation, and Tracking Progress Syllabus

Planning, Estimation, and Tracking Progress syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Planning, Estimation, and Tracking Progress in Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Product Planning

   3 topics

   • Product Vision and Goal
     • Crafting a compelling product vision
     • Connecting vision to the Product Goal
   • Release Planning
     • Forecasting releases empirically
     • Balancing scope, time, and quality
   • Roadmaps in an Agile Context
     • Outcome-based roadmaps
     • Adapting plans to feedback
2. 2

   Estimation Techniques

   4 topics

   • Relative Estimation
     • Story points versus ideal days
     • Reference stories and baselining
   • Planning Poker
     • Wideband Delphi origins
     • Reaching shared understanding through discussion
   • Other Estimation Methods
     • T-shirt sizing
     • Affinity estimation
   • Estimating Versus Forecasting
     • Embracing uncertainty
3. 3

   Tracking Progress

   4 topics

   • Velocity
     • Calculating and using velocity
     • Pitfalls of velocity as a target
   • Burndown and Burnup Charts
     • Sprint burndown
     • Release burnup
   • Forecasting Tools
     • Cumulative flow diagrams
     • Monte Carlo forecasting basics
   • Empirical Progress Measurement
     • Measuring value, not just output

Planning, Estimation, and Tracking Progress flashcards for Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

20 of 50 cards from the Planning, Estimation, and Tracking Progress deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is a Product Vision in Scrum?

   A concise, aspirational description of the desired future state the product aims to create. It explains why the product is being built, who it serves, and the value it delivers, providing long-term direction that aligns the Scrum Team and stakeholders.

2. What is the Product Goal in the 2020 Scrum Guide, and where does it live?

   The Product Goal is the single, long-term objective for the Scrum Team that describes a future state of the product. It is the commitment for the Product Backlog, so the backlog emerges to define what to do to fulfill it. The team must fulfill (or abandon) one Product Goal before taking on the next.

3. How does the Product Vision differ from the Product Goal?

   The Vision is a broad, enduring aspirational picture of why the product exists; the Product Goal is a specific, measurable, longer-term objective derived from the vision that the team commits to next. The vision rarely changes; multiple Product Goals are pursued over time to move toward the vision.

4. Who is accountable for developing and communicating the Product Goal?

   The Product Owner is accountable for developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal, as part of their accountability for effective Product Backlog management.

5. What is a common technique for crafting a product vision, and what elements does it capture?

   Geoffrey Moore's elevator-pitch / vision template: 'FOR [target customer] WHO [need], the [product] IS a [category] THAT [key benefit]. UNLIKE [competitor], our product [differentiation].' It captures target customer, need, product category, key benefit, and differentiation.

6. What is Release Planning in Agile?

   A collaborative, longer-horizon planning activity that maps how Product Backlog items will be delivered over several sprints toward a release. It answers roughly when a set of features can be delivered and what scope fits a target date, using velocity and estimates as inputs.

7. What are the two basic ways to frame a release plan (the two questions it answers)?

   Date-driven (fixed date): 'Given this date, how much scope can we deliver?' and Scope/feature-driven (fixed scope): 'Given this scope, by what date can we deliver it?' Velocity and backlog estimates are used to answer either.

8. In release planning, how do you estimate the number of sprints needed for a fixed scope?

   Number of sprints = Total remaining story points (backlog size) divided by average velocity (points per sprint). Multiplying sprints by sprint length gives the projected calendar date.

9. In release planning, how do you estimate how much scope fits a fixed date?

   Deliverable scope = average velocity (points per sprint) multiplied by the number of sprints available before the date. The highest-priority backlog items totaling that many points form the likely release content.

10. Why is a release plan considered a living artifact rather than a fixed commitment?

    Because Agile embraces empiricism and change: as the team learns, velocity stabilizes, and the backlog is re-ordered or re-estimated, the release plan is continuously updated. It is a forecast, not a guarantee.

11. What is a product roadmap in an Agile context?

    A high-level, time-oriented visual plan that communicates the anticipated evolution of the product, the major themes, goals, or feature sets expected over upcoming periods, used to align stakeholders. It is intentionally flexible and outcome-focused rather than a detailed feature commitment.

12. How does an Agile roadmap differ from a traditional roadmap?

    An Agile roadmap is goal/outcome-oriented, loosely time-boxed (now/next/later or by themes), and expected to change as learning occurs, whereas a traditional roadmap lists fixed features tied to firm dates. Agile roadmaps emphasize objectives and value over locked deliverables.

13. What is a common low-commitment format for Agile roadmaps?

    The 'Now / Next / Later' (or theme-based) roadmap, which groups initiatives by relative time horizon rather than precise dates, signaling decreasing certainty further into the future.

14. How do vision, roadmap, release plan, and sprint backlog relate as planning levels?

    They form a hierarchy of decreasing horizon and increasing detail: Vision (why) to Product Goal/Roadmap (themes over time) to Release Plan (which features over sprints) to Sprint Backlog (what this sprint). Each lower level is more detailed and more certain.

15. What is relative estimation?

    Estimating the size of work by comparing items to one another (this item is about twice as big as that one) rather than assigning absolute time durations. It leverages humans' strength at comparison and avoids false precision.

16. What is a story point?

    A unitless, relative measure of the overall size/effort of a Product Backlog item, accounting for amount of work, complexity, and uncertainty/risk. Points are compared to a reference item rather than mapped directly to hours.

17. What three factors are typically combined into a single story-point estimate?

    The amount of work (volume/effort), the complexity (technical and domain difficulty), and the uncertainty or risk involved. These are blended into one relative size number.

18. Why is relative estimation often preferred over absolute time estimation?

    People are more accurate and consistent at comparing relative sizes than at predicting absolute durations; relative sizes stay stable even as the team's speed changes, and estimation is faster and less contentious. Actual time is then derived empirically via velocity.

19. What is a reference (baseline) story in relative estimation?

    A well-understood backlog item the team agrees represents a known size (e.g., a 2- or 3-point story) used as an anchor to which all other items are compared during estimation.

20. What is T-shirt sizing?

    A coarse relative estimation technique that classifies items into sizes like XS, S, M, L, XL instead of numbers. It is fast and useful for early, high-level estimation such as roadmaps or large backlogs before finer story-point estimation.

See more Planning, Estimation, and Tracking Progress flashcards →

Planning Planning, Estimation, and Tracking Progress for Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

Planning, Estimation, and Tracking Progress (Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)) FAQ