PMI-ACP: PMI Agile Certified Practitioner

Question #: 101
Topic #: 1
Early in a project, stakeholder analysis is performed; however, an organizational restructure redefines key roles.
What should the project team do?

A. Note the changes to the restructure and roles that affect team activities
B. Use direct engagement and two-way conversation to update the stakeholder analysis for any new stakeholder requirements
C. Email a copy of the project vision to those redefined for key roles and ask if they need to be involved in the project
D. Obtain a copy of the redefined key roles to update the stakeholder analysis

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 102
Topic #: 1
A team member has spent 5 days on a spike and the first set of experiments has not been successful. The issue is the development team member has determined a short-term rather than a long-term solution.
What should the project leader do?

A. Assign the spike to another resource to continue research for the long-term solution
B. Re-estimate the spike, encourage experimentation and collaborate with the team
C. Stop experimentation and negotiate the short-term solution with the customer
D. Schedule a root-cause analysis with the development team on the main issues with the spike

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 103
Topic #: 1
An agile team notices that the same problems continue to occur during multiple iterations. Several team members have suggestions to fix the problem.
What is the proper agile approach to handle this?

A. Hold frequent retrospectives and share the responsibility for making changes
B. Understand that this is the nature of innovative business and strive to work harder
C. Collect team member feedback and discuss them privately with the product owner
D. Conduct a team-building exercise to increase trust among the team members

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 104
Topic #: 1
An experienced product owner presents the epics and corresponding stories during a release planning session with the established team. The executive sponsor asks the team when the features will be delivered.
What should the agile team do?

A. Evaluate how much can be delivered based on the Scrum Master’s estimation
B. Identify a set of user stories based on the team’s velocity
C. Initiate an estimation session
D. Consult historical data for project completion

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 105
Topic #: 1
An agile team is planning the next iteration for a product release that has accumulated technical debt.
What should the team do?

A. Add code cleanup activities to the product backlog and request prioritization by the product owner
B. Add code cleanup activities to the next iteration and request clarification from the product owner
C. Add code cleanup activities to the next iteration and ask the product owner to end the current iteration
D. Add code cleanup activities to the next release backlog and request documentation from the product owner

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 106
Topic #: 1
An agile project manager is planning the initial scope, schedule, and cost range estimates on a new project. The team will be using Kanban to control work.
What metrics should the team use to measure performance?

A. Lead time, throughput, and due date performance
B. Work in progress limits, Kanban board, and time boxes
C. Work item types, sprint cadences, and defect classes
D. Burndown charts, scatter diagrams, and throughput

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 107
Topic #: 1
During project inception, an agile practitioner engages the stakeholder to ensure alignment on the project’s strategy and vision. The stakeholder asks for detailed requirements, design, and delivery plans.
What should the agile practitioner do?

A. Provide all information requested by the stakeholder
B. Set expectations regarding the appropriate level of details requested during this stage
C. Inform the stakeholder that no detailed documents are provided using agile practices
D. Ask the team to supply the information to the stakeholder

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 108
Topic #: 1
A product owner feels that the last sprint failed to sufficiently deliver what was valuable to their organization’s overall project goals.
What should the scrum master mention at the next retrospective?

A. Solutions to project problems that were built into the last sprint
B. Problems that arose
C. Solutions that saved the organizations the most time and money
D. Problems that were solved

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 109
Topic #: 1
A new product owner needs to manage the backlog of a high-visibility, fast-moving project that is consuming a considerable amount of time.
What should the product owner do?

A. Schedule regular meetings with the scrum team to write, groom, and size user stories
B. Focus on stores based on the highest number of story points to first address those items with the highest value
C. Seek regular input from project stakeholders, and reflect this input in the backlog’s priorities
D. Schedule in-person, monthly meetings with key stakeholders to review the project’s progress

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 110
Topic #: 1
A team identifies the number of threats and lists them in the order in which they were identified. After analyzing a cause-and effect diagram, the ownership of the threats and their treatment is assigned, and a number of risk cards are placed on the Kanban board.
What approach should be used to manage these threats?

A. Create a risk register detailing the threats, their causes, and their treatment strategies, and complete ownership to provide together risk control and a stakeholder
B. Focus on the threats during the daily stand up and ensure they are visible to the entire team and other interested parties
C. Prioritize the risks based on their criticality and timing, and track actions to closure
D. Ensure that the prioritization of threats is complete, and that ownership actions are assigned and visible to everyone

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 111
Topic #: 1
During product development, changes in technology and regulations require the team to reassess product architecture.
How should this technical debt be captured?

A. Include it in the product backlog and use a new indicator to annotate that is technical debt
B. Include it in the product backlog as a low-priority issue
C. Since it is not a part of agile methodologies, it should not be tracked
D. Have team members maintain personal lists of issues and consolidate the lists during review

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 112
Topic #: 1
The agile team disagrees with the business stakeholders on completing some epics.
What could help eliminate misunderstandings?

A. Agree on requirements with all stakeholders
B. Begin planning every four iterations
C. Consider previous sprint demo feedback when planning the next sprint
D. Include the reasons for the project in the contract

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 113
Topic #: 1
A customer and a product delivery team meet to discuss a product’s attributes, goals, expectations, hypothesis, and high-level needs.
What is a benefit of this meeting?

A. The team will learn how its contribution will create product value
B. It will enable team acceptance of client priorities
C. It will enable the team to see the entire project in one glance
D. It will enable the team to ask any questions to the customer upfront

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 114
Topic #: 1
When introducing agile processes to a company, a quality assurance (QA) manager resists and believes that the switch to agile will remove quality controls and documents.
How should the agile practitioner address this concern?

A. Educate the QA manager that in agile, quality is integrated from the beginning to end of the project
B. Write backlog items that include QA as part of the description
C. Ask for the current QA documents and incorporate them into the technical debt backlog
D. Ask the product owner to write tests and QA controls into the acceptance criteria

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 115
Topic #: 1
While struggling to take ownership of delivery, an agile team fails to keep up with its sprint commitments.
What should the agile coach do?

A. Work with the sponsor to develop team expectations
B. Provide the customer with a list of deliverables and obtain agreement
C. Encourage the team to more frequently interact with all stakeholders
D. Work on finishing upfront product design rather than comprehensive documentation

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 116
Topic #: 1
During a team meeting, members who are subject matter experts (SMEs) mention that they are continuously working on repetitive tasks, which has lowered motivation.
What should the agile practitioner do?

A. Organize a team-building activity to improve team morale
B. Have team members work in pairs to learn from each other and develop new skills
C. Ask team members to perform a value stream analysis of their activities
D. Add more resources to the team to help with tasks

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 117
Topic #: 1
An agile team is working on a new product. To ensure that all unknown issues are clarified before committing to the scope, the team plans to work only on spike user stories for the next three sprints.
What should an agile coach do in this situation?

A. Ensure that the spikes identify the risks early in the project to increase the chances of success
B. Ensure that the business sponsor accepts the proposal and agrees to fund the additional spike sprints
C. Recommend that, in the first sprint, user stones with higher priority be executed in addition to the spike
D. Support the decision, because release planning will be improved, and the product backlog can be better groomed after all spikes are executed

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 118
Topic #: 1
How can an agile team working on a new product ensure alignment with external stakeholders?

A. Ask the product owner to provide a detailed product specification document
B. Conduct story-mapping exercises to clarify deliverables and release priorities
C. Hold a kick-off meeting to assign roles and responsibilities
D. Work with the scrum master and stakeholders to ensure agile principles are followed

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 119
Topic #: 1
What can an agile team use to prioritize stories?

A. Planning poker technique
B. Weighted average calculation
C. Risk-value quadrant
D. INVEST scale

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 120
Topic #: 1
During a daily stand up, the tester engages the developer in a discussion about what will be tested during unit testing versus regression testing.
What should the scrum master do?

A. Ask the tester and developer to discuss it after the meeting, since it is not a part of the daily stand up
B. Encourage the discussion to resolve impediments
C. After the meeting, escalate this issue to the tester’s supervisor to ensure that this does not reoccur
D. Ask more questions about the testing techniques to obtain clarification on team efforts for quality improvements

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 121
Topic #: 1
A team is delivering work as per the sprint plan, and team velocity is stabilized. However, at the end of the release, the customer is dissatisfied with project quality.
What should the agile project manager have done to avoid this?

A. Invited end customers to attend the stand ups
B. Organized design review sessions with the customer to obtain sign-off
C. Held regular meetings with the product owner and project team to elicit detailed business requirements
D. Conducted frequent review meetings with the customer to continually enhance delivery effectiveness

Selected Answer: D

Question #: 122
Topic #: 1
A company president is concerned about the impact of a natural disaster on the company.
How should management identify areas to apply its resources and mitigate potential impacts?

A. Establish and keep an active risk register that includes mitigation strategies and a cost-benefit analysis
B. Establish and keep an active risk register based on qualitative risk analysis and expected losses
C. Have each development team post the highest risk development items on the information radiator
D. Avoid risk by splitting development teams into two locations to ensure knowledge continuity

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 123
Topic #: 1
An event management team is following an agile approach to prepare for an upcoming conference. The regional sales manager, from where the conference is to be held, contacts the team with a number of questions about the company’s booth.
What should the team do?

A. Inform the sponsor about the regional sales manager’s disruptiveness and ask that all questions be diverted to the weekly meetings
B. Stay focused on the current iteration and let the project manager deal with the regional sales manager’s questions
C. Invite the regional sales manager to the next iteration review to share the progress
D. Create a risk on the risk register to account for some potentially new requirements from the regional sales manager

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 124
Topic #: 1
What should a team consider when calculating the effort needed to complete a product backlog?

A. The increase in velocity and cost
B. A buffer in the sprint to mitigate unexpected risks
C. Assigning extra points to each task to allow time for changes
D. Stories describing infrastructure tasks and analysis tasks

Selected Answer: D

Question #: 125
Topic #: 1
Two teams have received project requirements and completed estimates. Team A estimates 420 story points for scope and 30 story points for velocity per sprint.
Team B estimates 280 story points for scope and 20 story points for velocity per sprint. Both teams have same number of team members and have assumed a sprint duration of 2 weeks.
What can an agile practitioner conclude about team A and team B’s estimate?

A. Team B has underestimated scope compared to team A
B. Team A is more confident in delivering velocity than team B
C. Both teams need to indicate their proposed technology before the estimates can be analyzed
D. Both teams have estimated the project to be of same size

Selected Answer: D

Question #: 126
Topic #: 1
Throughout the project, an agile practitioner notices that one team member is becoming an emergent leader.
What should an agile practitioner do?

A. Present opportunities in order to be supportive and grow that team member’s talents
B. Encourage the team member to fit in more with the established team norms
C. Bring this to management’s attention so they don’t disrupt the team
D. Ask team member to respect defined roles on the project to avoid confusion with the team

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 127
Topic #: 1
A product’s scope and acceptance criteria have been detailed, and the product is planned for release at the end of the next quarter.
What should the project team do next?

A. Estimate the project team’s capacity
B. Determine how much work can be delivered
C. Calculate how much work will fit into the next iteration
D. Estimate items in the product backlog

Selected Answer: D

Question #: 128
Topic #: 1
At the retrospective, the burndown chart shows that the project is slightly behind schedule. The project team identifies an inexperienced software engineer as the source of reduced velocity.
How should the project team address this issue?

A. Suggest pair programming during the retrospective
B. Ask the product owner to re-prioritize the user stories at the next retrospective
C. Re-estimate the story points with team members at the next iteration planning meeting
D. Assign less complex user stories to the inexperienced software engineer at the next iteration planning meeting

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 129
Topic #: 1
How should a project leader manage stakeholder expectations in an agile project?

A. Establish a common vision and success criteria and involve all the stakeholders in the iteration reviews
B. Invite stakeholders for the iteration reviews but do not include new stakeholders which may limit project success
C. Involve all the stakeholders in iteration reviews but do not entertain all expectations of all stakeholders
D. Communicate issues to all stakeholders via email and only communicate risks to internal stakeholders

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 130
Topic #: 1
A scrum master would like to provide information to key stakeholders on the daily resource and project activities.
Which tool should the Scrum master use to provide these updates?

A. Shared vision statement and sprint goal
B. Release burnup chart
C. Velocity metrics
D. Iteration burndown chart

Selected Answer: D

Question #: 131
Topic #: 1
After a successful product deployment, a key stakeholder informs an agile team member that an implemented feature is failing to deliver its expected business value. The team member replies that the requirement was provided by the customer, and that the scope was clearly met.
If the problem were an issue of requirement elicitation rather than delivery, what should have been done to avoid this situation?

A. Stakeholders should have regularly been engaged to obtain feedback and reduce the functionality risk
B. The team should have used the lean principle of delay, so that actual facts could be considered rather than assumptions and predictions
C. Interdependent teams should have been engaged using a collaborative approach to identify and leverage the best support
D. An owner should have been identified to obtain timely stakeholder feedback

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 132
Topic #: 1
During a project’s last few sprints, an agile practitioner notices an increase in defects. A rootcause analysis indicates that a poor understanding of the requirements was caused by the inability of the product owner to communicate clearly.
What should the agile practitioner do?

A. Inform the product owner’s manager so that corrective action may be taken
B. Communicate this to the product owner, and offer to help facilitate discussion with the team
C. Encourage a team member to raise this during the retrospective to ensure that the product owner is aware
D. Escalate this issue to the sponsor so that corrective action may be taken

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 133
Topic #: 1
An agile team lead is assigned to a project that must ensure data security.
What should the team lead do to guarantee that security, as a non-functional requirement, is managed throught the project?

A. Include security concerns on the agenda for every meeting
B. Request that a security expert be added to the team
C. Add security as a non-functional requirement to the risk register, and review regularly
D. Ensure that planning and prioritizing includes consideration of security requirements

Selected Answer: D

Question #: 134
Topic #: 1
During a backlog refinement meeting, a senior team member raises a concern about an epic sizing that requires the use of a new interface for a vendor product.
The product owner acknowledges this as a risk.
What should the product owner do now?

A. Log the risk in the risk register, and share the information with impacted stakeholders at the next monthly review meeting
B. Create a spike story to determine what needs to be done to use the new interface
C. Lower the epic’s priority so that it can be deferred, and analyze it during backlog refinement meetings
D. Move the work to the vendor, since they have better knowledge of interface implementation

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 135
Topic #: 1
A project sponsor is upset that an enhancement will be unavailable until next year.
What should the product owner do?

A. Accept responsibility for the product’s delay
B. Ensure that the project sponsor’s priorities are in the product backlog
C. Negotiate with the project sponsor for increased funding
D. Empower the project sponsor to manage the product backlog

Selected Answer: B

Question #: 136
Topic #: 1
An agile practitioner notices that team members are disengaged. As a result, the team’s velocity has decreased.
What should the agile practitioner do to get the team back on track?

A. Escalate the issue to the project sponsor
B. Remove stories to increase velocity
C. Hold a standup to address the issue
D. Facilitate a team retrospective

Selected Answer: D

Question #: 137
Topic #: 1
During sprint retrospectives, some team members are very vocal and tend to dominate the conversation, while others are more reserved and less likely to participate.
What should the scrum master do?

A. Encourage all team members to participate, and have them type their retrospective feedback into the agile lifecycle management tool
B. Ask more specific questions during the retrospectives
C. Sue retrospective techniques, such as silent writing, clustering, and dot voting to field feedback prior to discussion by the team
D. Ask team members to email feedback that can be summarized in a spreadsheet for the team

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 138
Topic #: 1
An agile team provides feedback that user stories include insufficient details to understand the requirements.
What should the agile practitioner do?

A. Coach the product owner to update only the acceptance criteria
B. Instruct the agile team to fix the user stories during the next retrospective
C. Facilitate a user story workshop with the agile team
D. Inform the product owner’s manager that the work items provide insufficient details

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 139
Topic #: 1
Following an upgrade, a software support team is overwhelmed by the number of tickets being submitted by end users. The team’s manager is pushing the team to `work smart` by focusing on activities that deliver the most value in the least amount of time.
What should the team do?

A. Work longer hours to complete more of the support backlog
B. Work support tickets in the order in which they were received
C. Place tickets on hold until the team completes an analysis of the backlog to identify and resolve systematic issues
D. Add members to the support team

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 140
Topic #: 1
What should the agile practitioner know about tracking velocity?

A. A team with an average velocity of 50 is twice as efficient as a team with an average velocity of 25
B. A team with an average velocity of 50 is equally as efficient as a team with an average velocity of 25
C. A team that consistently meets its planned velocity is more efficient that a team that consistently exceeds its planned velocity
D. A team that consistently meets its planned velocity is less efficient than a team that constantly exceeds its planned velocity

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 141
Topic #: 1
During a Kanban team’s daily stand-up, an agile coach observes that the team seems disinterested in the work status. While it appears that there are no issues with flow, there is a marked lack of attention to ream effort. When the agile coach queries the team for reasons, members explain that work continues to be scheduled with no end in sight.
What should the agile coach do?

A. Work with the team to determine points at which to celebrate its work
B. Provide the team with a break by scheduling a team event
C. Have the team increase work in progress (WIP) levels to more quickly complete the flow
D. Rejuvenate the team by temporarily reducing WIP levels

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 142
Topic #: 1
At the end of a product development phase, an agile project team confirms that all tests have passed. The product is released, but the customer complains that it is deficient.
What should the project team have done prior to product release?

A. Requested approval from the project sponsor
B. Undertaken a review of all requirements
C. Conducted an end-of-phase demonstration
D. Performed a retrospective to validate project deliverables

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 143
Topic #: 1
A product owner obtains customer confirmation on product requirements and provides them to the team. After explaining the user stories, the product owner receives agreement for acceptance from the team.
What should the team do next?

A. Use agile estimation techniques to create a shared understanding of when the user stories will be completed
B. Agree upon development and testing activities for the user stories
C. Complete the user stories, and provide a demo for the product owner and customer
D. Complete the user stories, and hold a retrospective to discuss them

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 144
Topic #: 1
An agile team has been in place for five years and the customer is satisfied with the team’s performance and deliverables. Now that the product is built and delivered, the customer is considering the future role of the Scrum Master.
What should the customer do?

A. Expand the Scrum Master’s role to other projects, while allowing them to support the current project
B. Release the Scrum Master, since the team is adequately skilled with agile practices
C. Expand the product owner’s role to serve as the Scrum Master, while providing additional product knowledge
D. Increase the functional manager’s role to act as the Scrum Master, while providing additional information about functional areas

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 145
Topic #: 1
A product owner with experience in a predictive approach wants the team to develop very detailed schedules and cost estimates for the next 10 sprints.
What should the Scrum Master do?

A. Suggest the product owner start by focusing on the next 2 sprints instead of 10
B. Spend the first few sprints to develop detailed schedules and budgets
C. Invite the product owner to the retrospective to explain the team’s approach to schedule and budget
D. Explain that detailed project schedules and budgets are not artefacts in agile projects

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 146
Topic #: 1
An agile team identifies that their velocity is lower than predicted, and that their previous forecasts in the product roadmap are wrong. The team is worried that they will be unable to meet a critical release date without corrective action.
What should the team do?

A. Collaborate with the product owner to reprioritize the product backlog, thus ensuring that more features will be completed
B. Ask the team lead to calculate the team’s target velocity according to the project plan, and assign additional resources to increase the capacity
C. Focus on velocity and schedule concerns during the retrospective to inspect, adapt, and improve the process and plans
D. Reestimate the backlog items from the release, ensuring that contingency is included to set stakeholder expectations

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 147
Topic #: 1
A product owner adds a 21-point, high-priority story to a sprint backlog. The team is concerned that it cannot be completed during the current sprint.
What should the team do?

A. Advise the product owner that the story will have to wait until the next sprint
B. Work extra hours to complete the story and satisfy the customer’s requirements
C. Break down the story into smaller increments and negotiate other stories on the sprint backlog
D. Increase the length of the sprint to accommodate the story

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 148
Topic #: 1
A senior team member feels underutilized.
What should the agile practitioner do?

A. Transfer the senior member to another team that will more fully utilize their skill set
B. Conduct a performance evaluation to determine whether or not this member is a team player
C. Encourage the project team to involve the senior member in more project activities
D. Ask the functional manager to determine the best course of action

Selected Answer: C

Question #: 149
Topic #: 1
A product that recently went to market is receiving a great deal of attention from upper management who expresses interest by directly emailing and calling the developer team. The team expresses frustration during a standup.
What should the Scrum Master do?

A. Ask the product owner how upper management’s comments can be redirected
B. Direct the developer team to ignore the phone calls and emails
C. Ask the product owner to enter the requests into the product backlog as high priority
D. Personally respond to upper management’s phone calls and emails

Selected Answer: A

Question #: 150
Topic #: 1
What estimation technique is an agile team using when collectively estimating the relative size of its stories using story points?

A. Parametric
B. One-to-one comparison
C. Affinity
D. Planning poker

Selected Answer: D