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Cross-Functional Skills

5 minutes 5 Questions

In the context of Scrum, teams are expected to be cross-functional. This means that each team member should possess a variety of skills, or be equipped to develop them. Possessing cross-functional skills allows team members to contribute to different areas of a project, promotes better understanding of others' work, encourages collaborative problem-solving and reduces dependence on specific individuals. Besides, having cross-functional teams eliminates any waiting time to 'hand-off' work to different departments or specialties, thus increasing efficiency.

Guide to Cross-Functional Skills

Cross-Functional Skills are competencies that transcend traditional job functions and departments. This refers to the ability of a person to work in various domains or fields, outside their primary expertise.

Why it is Important?
Nurturing cross-functional skills enhances the flexibility and adaptability of teams and organizations. It promotes efficiency, innovative problem-solving, and enhances collaboration and communication.

How it Works?
Employees with cross-functional skills have the ability to perform roles outside their primary job functions. This leads to diverse perspectives, sharing and learning across the board which ultimately drives innovation and efficiency.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Cross-Functional Skills
1. Be clear about what cross-functional skills are and the benefits they bring to a team or an organization.
2. Use real-life examples to illustrate your understanding. This could be from your personal experience or case studies.
3. Show understanding of the value cross-functionality adds in terms of innovation, flexibility and improved communication.
4. It's important to convey that cross-functional teams require good leadership and management to overcome obstacles such as conflicting priorities and to maximize the benefits.

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CSM - Building High-Performance Scrum Teams Example Questions

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Question 1

One of your team members has an excellent skill set that is not being fully utilized in the team. As a Scrum Master, how do you address this?

Correct Answer: Arrange coaching sessions where the team member can share this unique skill set with the team

The best approach as a Scrum Master when one of your team members has an excellent skill set that is not being fully utilized, would be to arrange coaching sessions where the individual can share this unique skill set with the rest of the team. This approach encourages knowledge sharing, improves the overall skill set of the team, and maintains the principle of a cross-functional team in Scrum. The other options are less ideal: keeping those skills for critical tasks only limits the usefulness and growth potential of the team; asking the team member to use this skill set for another project can break the team's stability and focus; finally, avoiding utilizing a unique skill simply wastes valuable resources and might demotivate the talented team member.

Question 2

Your team has delivered a piece of software, but quality assurance team finds many bugs, which the development team struggles to fix. How do you improve cross-functionality in this case?

Correct Answer: Promote cross-functional learning, encourage developers to learn basics of testing and quality techniques and similarly for testers to understand development language.

The best approach to handle cross-functional issues is by promoting the understanding of each other's roles and responsibilities amongst the team members. For example, your developers should understand the quality testing techniques and the QA team should understand the language of development. This answer pushes for a healthier cross-functional team work. Having developers learn basic testing and having QA learn a bit of the development language can often identify bugs earlier and make the process much smoother. Asking the QA team to be lenient and accept the bugs would lead to a decrease in overall quality of the software. Hiring more developers to fix the bugs may help in the short term, but it doesn't address the core issue of poor cross-functionality. Blaming the developers for their poor coding skills is not constructive for team morale or for finding a productive solution.

Question 3

As a Scrum Master, how can you best promote cross-functional collaboration within your team?

Correct Answer: Encourage team members to pair on tasks outside their primary skill set

Encouraging team members to pair on tasks outside their primary skill set is the best way for a Scrum Master to promote cross-functional collaboration within the team. This approach allows team members to learn from each other, share knowledge, and develop a broader understanding of the project. It fosters a collaborative environment where team members can support each other and work together effectively. Assigning tasks strictly based on each member's core competency may ensure efficiency in the short term but does not promote cross-functional collaboration or growth. Having the team focus only on their individual responsibilities may help meet the sprint goal but limits collaboration and knowledge sharing. Organizing frequent cross-training sessions on a broad range of topics, even those not directly related to the current project, can be time-consuming and may not provide immediate benefits to the team's current work.

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