PMI-ACP Sample Questions Answers

The correct answer is C – Use class of service. In Kanban, the Class of Service (CoS) model is a key technique for prioritization and flow management. It helps teams decide which work items should be expedited, delayed, or treated as standard. Using CoS enables teams to handle tasks based on urgency, business value, and risk.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Classes of service define the rules by which work is selected, prioritized, and delivered. They help make prioritization policies explicit and transparent to stakeholders and team members.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.4 – Kanban and Flow-Based Approaches)

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“Class of service models—such as ‘Expedite’, ‘Fixed Delivery Date’, ‘Standard’, or ‘Intangible’—allow teams to prioritize tasks by business value, risk, and urgency. This is particularly useful in Kanban systems where items flow continuously.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery / Kanban Practices)

Option A (involving the product owner) is more applicable to Scrum teams; Kanban teams often have shared ownership of flow.

Option B (reviewing WIP limits) affects flow but doesn’t guide task prioritization.

Option D (measuring lead time) helps with process analysis but not immediate prioritization.

Answer: C

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A user story that is too large to complete in one sprint is considered anepic. Agile teams shouldsplit it into smaller, valuable, testable stories. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2: User Stories and Decomposition)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)recommendbreaking down large storiesand renegotiating sprint scopecollaborativelywith the product owner.

Option Cis correct: this aligns withcollaborative planning and story decomposition.

Option Ais rigid and dismisses collaboration.

Option Bpromotes unsustainable practices.

Option Dviolates the principle offixed-length iterations.

Velocity is a measure of how much work a team completes in a given sprint, typically measured in story points or other units of effort. While velocity can be useful for tracking progress and forecasting future work, it has some limitations when it comes to accurate capacity planning.

Velocity can vary from sprint to sprint due to multiple factors, such as the complexity of the tasks, interruptions, or even external influences. This variability can make it difficult to predict how much work a team can handle in future sprints, leading to inaccurate capacity planning.

Delivering value in agile depends onfrequent prioritization and real-time feedback. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.1 Product Backlog and Prioritization), product owners and agile teams mustcontinuously reprioritize the backlogbased on changing stakeholder needs, market shifts, and feedback. Failure to do so can result in building the wrong product—even if it's "done."

Mike Griffiths (PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 6: Value-Driven Delivery) stresses thatvalue delivery is iterative and depends on current priorities, not static backlogs. It is vital that teams confirm that they're working on thehighest-value itemsbefore committing to a sprint.

Option Ais correct: proper backlog refinement and reprioritization ensures alignment with evolving stakeholder needs.

Option Bis an anti-pattern; agile welcomes change even late in development.

Option CandDare irrelevant or do not address the core issue of prioritization.

In Agile, the Definition of Done (DoD) typically requires that the feature be both developed and fully integrated into the release package before it is considered complete. Even though the feature was successfully tested and demonstrated by QA, if it is not included in the release package, it is not technically completed according to the DoD. Therefore, its story points should not be added to the burndown chart until it is actually part of the release. This ensures that the team’s progress is accurately tracked based on completed, released work.

A well-defined, mature Definition of Done (DoD) ensures that all aspects of a user story are completed, tested, reviewed, and integrated into the codebase. This sequence includes all necessary steps:

Unit testing ensures the code works as expected.

Meeting the acceptance criteria ensures that the business needs are met.

Business testing and functional testing confirm the product works from both the business and technical perspectives.

Code merging ensures that the feature is integrated into the main branch.

Updating documentation ensures that the product is well-documented for future reference and use.

The correct answer is B – Prioritizing stories.

The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique used in Agile to categorize requirements and backlog items based on their business value. It helps stakeholders and teams agree on what is essential to deliver versus what is desirable or optional.

MoSCoW stands for:

M – Must have

S – Should have

C – Could have

W – Won’t have (this time)

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The MoSCoW prioritization method helps stakeholders classify backlog items based on their criticality and desired delivery timing. This enables better alignment with business objectives.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Prioritization)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“MoSCoW is a simple but effective method for clarifying which features are essential and which can be deferred. It enhances transparency during prioritization discussions.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A – Estimating story size involves techniques like planning poker or T-shirt sizing.

C – Product validation is done via demos, acceptance criteria, and stakeholder feedback.

D – Progress tracking uses tools like burndown charts or cumulative flow diagrams.

Answer: B

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Effective stakeholder engagement starts withshared understanding and agreement on goals and requirements. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 7.2 Stakeholder Engagement)emphasizes the need tocollaborate with stakeholders early and often, especially on prioritization and epic-level expectations.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 4: Stakeholder Engagement)underscores thatmisunderstandings are reduced when all parties are aligned on what "done" means, and epics and requirements arecollaboratively defined.

Option Ais correct: agreement and shared understanding reduce misalignment and conflict.

Option Bintroduces unnecessary delays in planning.

Option Cis useful but insufficient if initial requirements are misunderstood.

Option Dmay help in contract terms but doesn’t solve day-to-day misalignment.

The correct answer is A – Hold a meeting with the team and the Product Owner to develop the team charter, working agreement, guiding principles, and product vision. This collaborative approach fosters shared understanding, ownership, and alignment early in the project.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The team chartering process includes developing working agreements, clarifying the product vision, defining team norms, and establishing the team's mission. Early alignment builds trust and commitment.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.3 – Team Charter and Working Agreements)

Mike Griffiths elaborates:

“A strong start includes co-creating team values, the product vision, and working agreements. Doing this together builds a strong foundation for delivery.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 2 – Agile Principles and Chapter 4 – Team Formation)

Incorrect options:

B separates the Product Owner from the team early on.

C reverses the roles—vision should be owned by the Product Owner.

D is helpful, but not a prerequisite for team alignment and success.

Answer: A

According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 7.2.2), one of the key responsibilities of the agile practitioner is toactively engage stakeholdersthroughout the development cycle—not just during review meetings. Agile frameworks promote continuous collaboration and frequent feedback. Merely attending sprint reviews is passive participation and may lead to missed alignment on expectations.

Mike Griffiths also emphasizes in hisPMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 4: Stakeholder Engagement)that stakeholder satisfaction requires more than periodic visibility—it requiresongoing interactionand inclusion in decision-making and backlog refinement sessions. This deepens shared understanding and reduces the risk of late-stage surprises.

Hence, answerBis correct because proactivestakeholder engagement with the product ownerfosters mutual understanding, timely feedback, and course correction—ensuring the product aligns with expectations.

As a servant leader, it is important to address the root cause of the disruption, which in this case is the director's repeated visits and distracting conversations. Coaching the company director on agile practices and good communication helps them understand the need to minimize interruptions and foster a productive environment for the team. This approach will help align the director's behavior with Agile principles, ensuring that the team can focus on delivering value without unnecessary distractions. By educating the director, the servant leader can improve overall team dynamics and project efficiency.

To support quick feature delivery while maintaining quality, the best approach is to automate integration, testing, and deployment activities. This aligns with the principles of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD), which streamline processes and reduce the manual effort required to test and deploy software. This approach can help the team to quickly release features with confidence that they meet quality standards, reducing manual errors and speeding up the delivery cycle.

The correct answer is A – Cross-train some members in the automation framework to broaden their capacity with that skill. Agile teams are cross-functional and self-organizing. Cross-training helps build resilience, reduce skill bottlenecks, and ensure continuous delivery without unnecessary delays or dependence.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Cross-training improves team performance and flexibility. Agile encourages developing T-shaped skills—broad knowledge across functions and deep knowledge in one.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.3 – Team Performance and Cross-Functionality)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“High-performing agile teams actively cross-train to address skill gaps and reduce dependencies. This enhances velocity and self-sufficiency.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Incorrect options:

B undermines team self-management and is not the PO’s responsibility.

C delays the needed skill improvement.

D sacrifices quality and value.

Answer: A

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When overwhelmed by support tickets, the agile approach is toprioritize systemic problem-solving over reactive work. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.5: Quality and Continuous Improvement)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 7: Problem Detection and Resolution), agile teams should identifyroot causesrather than just addressing symptoms. Byanalyzing the backlog, the team can spot patterns and addresssystemic issues, reducing incoming ticket volume in the long run.

Option Cis correct: addressing the root cause improves sustainability and overall efficiency.

Option Aleads to burnout and is unsustainable.

Option Bignores prioritization or value.

Option Dis not a strategic response—it increases cost without solving the core issue.

The correct answer is B — Establish a live video feed between the dispersed teams to enable spontaneous engagement and collaboration on issues.

Agile encourages face-to-face communication as the most effective form of knowledge sharing. For distributed teams, this means using video conferencing, virtual whiteboards, and real-time collaboration tools to replicate co-located team dynamics. This improves clarity, reduces misinterpretation, and accelerates problem-solving.

PMI Agile Practice Guide states:

“For distributed teams, using video conferencing, shared tools, and real-time collaboration platforms helps bridge communication gaps and maintains team cohesion. Face-to-face communication, even via video, remains the most effective method.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 — Stakeholder Engagement)

Mike Griffiths also notes:

“Distributed teams must invest in communication technologies to reduce barriers. Real-time, visual communication enables faster resolution of issues and a shared understanding of tasks.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 — Team Performance)

Incorrect Options:

A involves centralized control and status reporting — not Agile.

C demands co-location, which may not be feasible.

D accepts poor performance instead of addressing root causes.

Answer: B

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The burndown chart displayed shows two lines:

Adiagonal guideline (ideal trend line)representing the expected or planned burndown rate.

Aline with plotted black squaresrepresenting the actual progress of work completed during the iteration (typically in story points or hours).

The actual progress line (with black squares) staysconsistently abovethe ideal line throughout the iteration.

This indicates thatless work was completed than plannedat each point in time.

Toward the end of the iteration (around the 30th or 31st), the chart shows thatthe total remaining work does not reach zero—implyingincomplete workby the iteration’s end.

Analysis of the Chart:Interpretation According to Agile Standards:According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.4: Tracking Iteration Progress)andMike Griffiths' PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning):

A burndown chart that remainsabove the ideal lineanddoes not reach the baseline (zero)by the end of the iteration reflects that theteam is behind scheduleanddid not complete all planned work.

The burndown chart is a primaryinformation radiatorfor evaluating scope completion versus time and is a critical tool for monitoring iteration performance.

Therefore:

Option Cis correct:

"It trended behind schedule and did not complete everything on time."

Option Ais incorrect — the chart clearly shows a lag behind schedule.

Option Bis incorrect — there is no indication that the iteration time box was extended.

Option Dis incorrect — the team did not finish early or complete all tasks.

The correct answer is C – Invite the new release manager to the sprint demo and ask for help. Agile encourages stakeholder collaboration and visibility. Sprint reviews (also known as demos) are key opportunities for stakeholders, including release managers, to engage directly with the team and provide feedback. Since the issue is related to environmental instability and the new release manager is a key stakeholder, involving them in the sprint review enables mutual understanding and sets the stage for collaboration.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams use the sprint review to present completed work to stakeholders and receive direct feedback. It is also an opportunity to engage stakeholders who can influence the delivery environment.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement)

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“Agile encourages frequent stakeholder collaboration. Sprint reviews should include key stakeholders who are responsible for operational and release matters to ensure alignment.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Options A and D are passive approaches and may not lead to effective communication. Option B (attending daily standups) may be helpful but is not the best opportunity for strategic involvement compared to a sprint demo.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is A – Use an information radiator to help increase the transparency of work for key stakeholders.

Information radiators (such as Kanban boards, burndown charts, and story maps) make work status visible to the entire team and stakeholders in real-time, improving communication without additional meetings or reporting overhead.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams use information radiators to promote transparency, show progress, and increase stakeholder engagement without adding administrative burden.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5 – Information Radiators)

Mike Griffiths confirms:

“Effective agile environments display work status where everyone can see it. Visual indicators allow stakeholders and team members to remain informed without direct queries.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 5 – Agile Monitoring and Control)

Other options explained:

B creates unnecessary manual effort.

C may disrupt team rhythm; daily stand-ups are sufficient in Scrum.

D encourages siloed behavior and contradicts collaboration.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is C – Show the stakeholder the progress radiators for the project.

Progress radiators, such as task boards, burndown charts, and Kanban boards, visually communicate the status of work in progress, completed items, and remaining scope. They are effective tools for quickly bringing stakeholders up to speed without interrupting the team or requiring extensive reporting.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Progress is tracked and made visible using information radiators such as burndown charts, task boards, and velocity charts. These tools allow stakeholders to monitor project health in real time.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5 – Information Radiators)

Mike Griffiths emphasizes:

“Transparency and visibility are essential in agile. Information radiators keep stakeholders informed and promote collaboration without relying on status reports.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 5 – Agile Monitoring and Control)

Other options explained:

A and D offer limited insights or are inappropriate for immediate understanding.

B is valuable but time-limited; radiators provide continuous insight.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is A – Ask the team for suggestions.

In Agile, the Scrum Master serves the team by facilitating problem-solving rather than dictating actions. When a team member falls behind, the first step is to bring the issue to the team (e.g., in a daily stand-up or task review session) and allow the team to self-organize around resolving the impediment—whether through swarming, pairing, or shifting workload.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Teams are empowered to self-organize and solve problems collaboratively. The Scrum Master supports this by facilitating discussion and removing impediments—not by reassigning work unilaterally.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.1 – Agile Mindset and Section 6.2 – Coaching Agile Teams)

Mike Griffiths also explains:

“The Scrum Master fosters a problem-solving culture. When issues arise, teams should explore solutions together—this builds ownership and improves trust.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Why other options are less suitable:

B circumvents team collaboration and may lead to resentment or overburdening.

C may be needed later, but collaborative resolution should be the first step.

D escalates prematurely and is not aligned with servant-leadership principles.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is C – Agile leader (e.g., Scrum Master). One of the key responsibilities of an agile leader is to protect the development team from external interruptions so that the team can maintain focus and maximize productivity.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The agile leader shields the team from outside disruptions to allow them to remain focused on their commitments. They work to establish working agreements, communication protocols, and help manage stakeholder access to the team.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.1 – Responsibilities of the Agile Leader)

From PMBOK® Guide – 7th Edition (tailoring for agile environments):

“Leaders in agile environments facilitate communication, clear obstacles, and protect teams from disruptions and distractions that can compromise the team’s ability to deliver value.”

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“Scrum Masters and agile leaders act as gatekeepers to the team, ensuring that stakeholder interactions are managed and that the team can focus on iteration goals.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Option A (Product owner) is responsible for backlog clarity, not for shielding the team from distractions.

Option B (Project manager) is not a standard agile role; agile uses roles such as Scrum Master or Agile Coach.

Option D (Developers) may address distractions, but it is the agile leader's role to proactively prevent them.

Answer: C

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According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 7.2: Stakeholder Engagement), managing stakeholder expectations starts with establishing ashared visionand involving stakeholders in key activities likeiteration reviews. This ensures transparency, feedback, and alignment on progress and priorities.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 4: Stakeholder Engagement)supports the idea that acommon vision and shared goalsfoster trust and improve stakeholder relationships.

Option Ais correct: a shared vision and active involvement lead to better stakeholder alignment.

Option BandCare partially right butlimit collaborationor dismiss stakeholder input.

Option Dis inconsistent with agile’s emphasis onopen, continuous communication.

Sprint reviews are a crucial Scrum event for obtaining early feedback from stakeholders, which allows the team to inspect the progress and adapt the product accordingly. By skipping sprint reviews in favor of only release reviews, the team loses the opportunity to make adjustments and improvements throughout the project. The scrum master should emphasize the importance of regular feedback and ensure the team stays aligned with Scrum principles for continuous improvement and value delivery.

A quick mock-up (or prototype) is a highly effective way to visually represent the product's features and functionality to stakeholders. This allows stakeholders to get a tangible sense of what the product will look like and how it will work. By iterating on this mock-up and adjusting it based on feedback, the team can build consensus and gain stakeholder approval more effectively. This approach encourages active collaboration and ensures that the product aligns with stakeholder expectations early in the development process.

Once scope and acceptance criteria are known, the next step is toestimate the size and effort of backlog items, which enables planning. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2: Backlog Estimation)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)recommend using estimation techniques (e.g., story points, T-shirt sizing) to determine therelative effort of each backlog itembefore performing release or sprint planning.

Option Dis correct: backlog estimation enables velocity-based forecasting.

Option AandBcome after estimation is complete.

Option Cis too narrow—iteration planning comes later.

The correct answer is B – Invite the team to evaluate the suggestion and measure the effectiveness of the implementation.

In Agile, continuous improvement is a shared responsibility, and retrospectives are meant to be collaborative sessions where all team members—regardless of experience—can contribute. Ideas that could enhance performance should be discussed by the team as a whole and, when deemed valuable, tested and evaluated in upcoming sprints.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The team owns the process and should inspect and adapt at regular intervals. During retrospectives, the team identifies potential improvements and experiments with them in subsequent iterations.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.5 – Continuous Improvement)

Mike Griffiths states:

“Retrospectives empower teams to improve. All suggestions, regardless of origin, should be treated with respect. Teams test ideas and inspect outcomes to improve incrementally.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 7 – Continuous Improvement)

Why other options fall short:

A delays action and discourages innovation.

C makes the product owner responsible for a team process decision, which is outside their role.

D promotes hierarchy, which undermines team collaboration and Agile values.

Answer: B

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The sprint retrospective is a key Scrum ceremony where the team reflects on the sprint, identifies what went well, what didn’t, and discusses ways to improve their processes. The focus is on continuous improvement, and the team makes plans to implement those improvements in future sprints. Stakeholders are typically not involved in the retrospective, but it’s important for them to understand that the meeting is about helping the team improve their collaboration, efficiency, and performance.

In an adaptive environment, the project manager’s role is focused on facilitating collaboration and communication among stakeholders, teams, and sponsors to ensure that decisions are made quickly and effectively as circumstances change. This aligns with the agile principle of collaboration over contract negotiation and emphasizes adaptability and the ability to respond to changing needs. While project managers may still contribute to planning and other activities, fostering a collaborative and flexible decision-making process is key in an adaptive environment.

The correct answer isC – Initiate an estimation sessionbecause agile planning isiterative and collaborative. When delivery timing is in question, especially during a release planning session, the team must firstestimatethe size of the work (epics and user stories). Once estimates are made (often using story points or relative sizing techniques), velocity can be used to forecast delivery timelines.

From thePMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Estimation is typically performed at the beginning of a release or iteration planning session to determine how much work can be completed. Teams use estimation to size items and then apply their known or projected velocity to forecast completion.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Estimation and Velocity)

Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Bookalso states:

“Before making any delivery commitments, teams should first engage in collaborative estimation to understand the scope and effort of the work. These estimates then inform velocity-based forecasting.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A– Scrum Masters do not estimate work; estimation is a team activity.

B– You cannot determine deliverables based on velocity until the work has been estimated.

D– Historical data can support forecasting but must be preceded by proper estimation of current backlog items.

Answer: C

The correct answer is A — To better listen, serve, and help the team grow their strengths individually and as a team.

An agile coach is a servant-leader whose role is to guide the team by modeling agile values, being present, actively listening, and helping teams grow. Coaching in agile is about enabling—not controlling—the team. A coach’s mindfulness, authenticity, and presence inspire the same behaviors in the team.

PMI Agile Practice Guide notes:

“The agile coach models the agile mindset, including being present, self-aware, and aligned with agile principles. This helps the team build trust, foster collaboration, and grow capabilities organically.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.2 – Coaching the Agile Team)

Mike Griffiths emphasizes:

“Effective coaches guide by example. By modeling agile values and demonstrating presence, emotional intelligence, and listening, coaches help teams unlock their full potential.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Incorrect options:

B suggests control rather than collaboration.

C is anti-agile and contrary to the servant-leader model.

D is valid but lacks the depth of A, which captures the coach’s mindset and actions.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is C – Explain that the Kanban board enables the team to complete the work and increases transparency on work that is not done.

Agile values transparency, visibility, and collaboration. Kanban boards are a form of information radiator—tools that openly display the team’s workflow, work-in-progress (WIP), and progress toward goals. Their visibility helps stakeholders and the team remain aligned and encourages accountability.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams use information radiators such as Kanban boards to provide transparency and make status, bottlenecks, and priorities visible to all. This fosters trust, communication, and quick decision-making.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5 – Information Radiators)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“Visibility into progress and issues enhances communication and alignment across stakeholders. Information radiators like task boards or Kanban boards are vital tools for agile success.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 5 – Agile Tools and Techniques)

Other options are inappropriate:

A and D compromise transparency and contradict agile values.

B misstates the purpose of the Kanban board—it’s not about assigning work post-completion.

Answer: C

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Value stream mapping is a powerful tool in Agile and Lean methodologies used to visualize and analyze the flow of materials and information across the entire process. By mapping the current state, the team can identify bottlenecks, delays, and inefficiencies, especially when multiple teams are involved in sequential activities. Once these gaps and constraints are identified, the team can work on improving the process, such as by finding ways to increase the number of systems migrated per day from two to three, thus improving overall efficiency.

Technical debtrefers to the accumulated cost of suboptimal design or code, often due to shortcuts or lack of refactoring. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.5 Quality and Technical Debt)recommends treating technical debt as animpedimentthat should be logged, tracked, and discussed openly so it can be prioritized and addressed.

Mike Griffiths in hisPMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 7: Problem Detection and Resolution)advises teams to be transparent about technical debt and elevate its visibility so that product owners and stakeholders can make informed decisions.

Option Cis correct: logging technical debt as animpedimentbrings visibility and ensures discussion.

Option Amay indicate a problem, but it’s indirect.

Option Bdistorts estimation metrics and is not advised.

Option Dcould help but does not communicate impact explicitly.

The correct answer is D — Suggest an iterative approach including timely engagement of all key stakeholders and hold regular review meetings.

Engaging stakeholders continuously and using iteration reviews to validate deliverables ensures that misunderstandings are addressed early. This is especially critical in situations where expectations were not met in previous projects. Agile thrives in environments that require responsiveness to feedback.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Early and continuous stakeholder engagement and regular reviews help ensure alignment and satisfaction, especially when past experiences were negative.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Mike Griffiths:

“Agile promotes iterative delivery and early validation, minimizing the risk of misaligned expectations and unmet requirements.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

A and C are useful, but don’t directly prevent recurrence of the problem.

B is vague and lacks concrete action.

Answer: D

The correct answer is D — Identify this as a risk, decide on the response, and prioritize spike to determine the solution on the product backlog.

A spike is a time-boxed research activity used in Agile to explore potential solutions to uncertainty. The architectural concern is a technical risk, and it's best addressed by formally identifying it, analyzing potential responses, and scheduling a spike as a backlog item to investigate solutions.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Spikes are stories used for time-boxed research and exploration when the team needs more information to understand technical or functional uncertainty.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Types of Backlog Items)

Mike Griffiths:

“Agile risk management integrates spikes and prioritization. When risk is detected, the team should identify it transparently and explore mitigation or investigation through a spike.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Incorrect options:

A skips backlog prioritization and team alignment.

B deflects the issue without analysis.

C ignores risk and blindly follows the existing priority.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is C — Ask probing questions to other team members to encourage dissenting viewpoints.

Agile coaches foster team collaboration and help surface diverse opinions. When one member dominates, the coach should use facilitation techniques to ensure equal voice. Encouraging quieter team members to contribute through thoughtful questions promotes balanced participation and trust.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile coaches foster an environment of trust and collaboration. When team dynamics are unbalanced, the coach helps ensure psychological safety and equal participation.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.2 – Coaching the Agile Team)

Mike Griffiths:

“Coaches use powerful questions to draw out quieter team members and help build a culture where everyone feels heard and valued.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Incorrect choices:

A is extreme and non-collaborative.

B ignores the coach’s facilitative responsibilities.

D is reactive and too late.

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In an agile environment, the product backlog should be continuously refined based on input from all relevant stakeholders, including the customer, business, and team members. It's essential for the whole team to collaborate when discussing and prioritizing the backlog to ensure that stakeholder needs and feedback are incorporated throughout the process. The backlog should reflect the team's understanding of what is most valuable to the stakeholders and the product, allowing the team to focus on delivering the highest priority features that align with the stakeholders' goals.

The scrum master should emphasize the core principles of agile, which are centered around collaboration, delivering value incrementally, and fostering a shared mindset among the team. In an agile environment, success is not only about following processes but about the team working together towards a common goal, adapting to change, and continuously delivering value to customers. These principles are the foundation of agile methodologies and essential for teams that are new to agile to understand.

The most effective way to address and correct defects while maintaining predictability and capacity is by working with the team to establish clear coding and quality standards, as well as comprehensive testing policies. By setting these explicit rules, the team will have a shared understanding of the quality expectations and testing requirements, which will help prevent defects from escaping into production. This approach focuses on building quality into the process, rather than reacting to defects after they occur, and supports the long-term goal of improving software quality and predictability without overburdening the team.

In Scrum, theproduct owneris the primary point of contact betweenstakeholders and the development team. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 3.3: Roles and Responsibilities), the Scrum Master ensures thatcommunications flow properlyand protects the team from distractions.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 4: Stakeholder Engagement)emphasizes the importance of having asingle point of contactfor stakeholder feedback to avoid miscommunication and overload.

Option Ais correct: redirecting communication through the product owner keeps the team focused and the backlog structured.

Option Bis unprofessional and discourages stakeholder engagement.

Option Cbypasses review and prioritization—backlog management should be intentional.

Option Dcould blur roles and bypass proper channels.

When a security issue is revealed mid-sprint, the project manager should consult with both the product owner and the project team. The product owner is responsible for prioritizing the backlog and ensuring that the most valuable features are worked on, while the team will help assess the technical implications of addressing the security issue.

The product owner needs to understand the impact of the security issue on the product's value and determine if it needs to be prioritized over other work in the sprint.

The project team should help evaluate the effort required to address the issue and ensure that the solution is feasible within the sprint’s capacity.

By collaborating with both the product owner and the team, the project manager can make an informed decision on whether to adjust the sprint plan, reprioritize the backlog, or take necessary actions to address the vulnerability. This ensures that the security issue is resolved without jeopardizing the overall sprint goals.

The agile facilitator should focus on keeping the daily coordination meeting (daily stand-up) focused and efficient. If the meeting is becoming unproductive or lengthy, the facilitator needs to actively manage the flow and intervene when team members deviate from the meeting's objective, which is to quickly discuss progress, identify blockers, and align on the work for the day. By doing this, the facilitator can help the team maintain the purpose and time-box of the meeting, which is generally 15 minutes.

The correct answer is B – Discuss the situation with the functional manager. The Scrum Master serves as a facilitator and servant leader, helping resolve impediments that interfere with the team’s ability to deliver. When conflicting assignments arise, the Scrum Master should facilitate communication with functional managers to clarify priorities and reinforce team commitments.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The Scrum Master removes impediments and facilitates collaboration with stakeholders, including functional managers, to ensure the team can focus on sprint goals.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Agile Leadership and Stakeholder Collaboration)

Mike Griffiths writes:

“When external interference affects team performance, the Scrum Master should engage in dialogue with stakeholders to clarify roles and commitments, promoting alignment and removing blockers.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Incorrect options:

A is extreme and not within the Scrum Master's authority.

C is unnecessarily escalatory.

D is confrontational and undermines collaboration.

Answer: B

When the team determines that the highest-priority item will take longer than expected in the current sprint, it is essential to engage the product owner. The product owner is responsible for maintaining the product backlog and defining the priority of work items. By scheduling a meeting with the product owner, the team can collaboratively reassess the priorities and make adjustments based on the evolving understanding of the work required.

The product owner can help determine if the current high-priority item should be moved to the next sprint or if other adjustments to the backlog are needed. This ensures that the team is always focused on delivering the most valuable work within the given sprint time frame. Engaging with the product owner fosters collaboration and ensures alignment between the team and stakeholders, maintaining flexibility and focus on delivering customer value.

Before the workshop, the team members should read and identify relevant user stories from the product backlog that directly contribute to the goal of developing the feature for receiving and resolving customer complaints. This ensures that the stories being worked on are well-understood and aligned with the release goal.

The team should also consider the possible risks associated with each selected user story, such as technical challenges or dependencies. Additionally, they should evaluate the value each story adds to the final user (customer), ensuring that the team focuses on delivering maximum value in the release.

The correct answer is D — Discuss the issue with the team at the next project retrospective.

Fatigue and declining productivity are ideal topics for the sprint retrospective. Retrospectives provide a dedicated time for the team to reflect on what's working and what's not, and they promote continuous improvement in a psychologically safe environment.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Retrospectives allow teams to reflect on how they work and to continuously improve their practices, processes, and team dynamics.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.8 – Retrospectives)

Mike Griffiths:

“Retrospectives are opportunities to openly discuss issues such as burnout or fatigue and decide as a team what improvements to implement.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 7 – Continuous Improvement)

Incorrect options:

A (daily standup) is focused on immediate blockers, not deep reflection.

B might help but creates unnecessary ceremony; the retrospective is the correct venue.

C escalates the issue outside the team prematurely.

Answer: D

—

To improve collaboration, it's essential that the team members understand the importance of the project vision statement and feel empowered to contribute. Setting clear expectations ensures that all participants know the purpose of the meeting and their role in contributing. By encouraging everyone to share their ideas and perspectives, the team can reach a consensus or at least acknowledge differing views in a constructive way. This fosters a collaborative environment where team members feel their input is valued.

The correct answer is A – Create a user story for this new improvement and put it in the product backlog for prioritization and validation by the customer. Agile is iterative and feedback-driven. New requirements or enhancements identified during reviews are treated like any other backlog item: they are created as user stories, evaluated, and prioritized collaboratively.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Feedback during review meetings may lead to new stories. These are added to the product backlog and prioritized based on value, risk, and customer need.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Product Review and Feedback)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“Agile welcomes change—even late in development. New feedback should be captured as stories, then reviewed and prioritized by the Product Owner in alignment with business goals.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

B assumes premature prioritization.

C implies scope creep, which contradicts agile’s flexibility.

D contradicts team empowerment and planning integrity.

Answer: A

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Servant leadership is about supporting the team, empowering them, and ensuring they have what they need to succeed. The team leader should focus on removing impediments that block the team's progress. By doing so, the leader enables the team to work more efficiently and effectively, without being obstructed by recurring issues. This aligns with the servant leadership mindset of putting the team's needs first and helping them reach their goals.

The correct answer is D – Increase the opportunities to confirm common understanding with the client.

The rise in defects and change requests indicates a disconnect between what the team is delivering and what the customer expects. Agile emphasizes constant feedback and collaboration. Ensuring shared understanding through frequent interaction and validation reduces misunderstandings and rework.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Frequent interactions with customers and stakeholders help teams build a shared understanding and reduce the risk of misaligned expectations and defects.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“A high defect rate often results from unclear requirements. Teams should improve communication loops with stakeholders to confirm understanding before development begins.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Why the other options are suboptimal:

A doesn’t address the root cause: misalignment with the client.

B is reactive and temporary, not a sustainable solution.

C may help but should be preceded by improving collaboration and understanding.

Answer: D

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The daily coordination meeting (often referred to as the daily standup) should be a brief check-in where each team member quickly shares their updates and impediments, focusing on the status of work and immediate blockers. If a detailed discussion arises during the meeting, the agile facilitator should politely stop the discussion and suggest scheduling a separate meeting to dive deeper into the issue. This ensures the daily meeting stays focused, time is used efficiently, and team members aren't distracted from their updates. By handling the issue separately, the facilitator helps maintain the flow and productivity of the team while still addressing the impediment effectively.

The correct answer is D – Understand the impediments and facilitate issue resolution to enable the team to succeed.

The Agile Project Manager (or Scrum Master) acts as a servant leader by removing impediments and coaching the team toward improvement. Instead of dictating action or adjusting timeboxes, the right approach is to facilitate problem-solving and help the team meet its sprint goal.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The Scrum Master works to remove impediments and support the team’s progress. They do not give commands but instead facilitate improvement.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Roles and Responsibilities)

Mike Griffiths affirms:

“Agile leaders remove roadblocks and create an environment where the team can succeed. They support rather than direct.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Other options are inappropriate:

A is command-and-control, not servant leadership.

B violates timebox principles of Scrum.

C misplaces responsibility for testing onto customers.

Answer: D

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The best approach for the agile coach would be to address the root cause of the concern immediately and help the team reflect on their current processes to identify ways to improve. This can be achieved by engaging the team in a discussion that focuses on understanding the issues related to the technical design and the definition of done (DoD).

This will allow the team to openly discuss and identify specific areas of the technical designs that do not meet the DoD. By understanding the underlying issues, the coach can help the team find solutions and ensure that future work aligns with the agreed-upon quality standards and expectations.

According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 7.2.1), the Scrum Master’s role includesremoving impediments and shielding the team from outside interference. A team member being pulled into work on a different project is a classic example of an impediment. Recording the issue in a risk register is appropriate, but more importantly,the Scrum Master must communicate and resolve the issue.

Mike Griffiths in hisPMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance)emphasizes that agile teams require full dedication and protection from context switching, as multitasking reduces productivity and increases error rates. Merely documenting the issue is not enough—the Scrum Master must take steps toescalate and resolve the interference, potentially by negotiating with the former supervisor or re-clarifying role boundaries.

Therefore,Option Cis correct as it involvesactively addressing the threatrather than passively monitoring or adjusting around it.

The correct answer is C — Ask management to ensure that the resource is available to only one project at a time.

Agile promotes dedicated, stable teams over multitasking. Task-switching reduces productivity and leads to context-switching overhead. If a key resource is overburdened and switching between multiple projects, the best solution is to secure focused commitment by escalating to management for support.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams should be dedicated and work on one project at a time. Splitting attention across multiple efforts reduces velocity and quality due to context switching.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.1 – Team Composition)

Mike Griffiths highlights:

“Effective agile teams are stable, long-lived, and dedicated. Shared resources create bottlenecks, undermine predictability, and impair team dynamics.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Incorrect options:

A may solve bandwidth issues but not focus or ownership.

B addresses symptoms, not the core issue of divided focus.

D tolerates a harmful practice that contradicts agile team stability.

Answer: C

The correct answer is D – Advise the team of the risks and invite them to change.

Agile teams are encouraged to self-organize, but this should not result in the formation of silos, which can hinder collaboration and shared knowledge. As a servant leader, the Agile practitioner or Scrum Master should coach the team by facilitating discussions about the risks of silos (e.g., dependency bottlenecks, reduced flexibility) and encourage cross-functional collaboration.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile leaders help teams reflect and improve. When silos form, the coach facilitates awareness of the impacts and invites the team to adopt knowledge sharing practices.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.2 – Coaching the Agile Team)

Mike Griffiths states:

“Silos reduce adaptability and team learning. A coach should raise awareness and help the team find new behaviors that support agility and collaboration.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Why other options fall short:

A escalates prematurely and undermines team self-management.

B enforces rules instead of fostering understanding.

C imposes a solution instead of empowering the team to solve its own issues.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is C – Asked to be relieved of project tasks to maintain team velocity.

Agile promotes transparency and accountability within teams. When a team member becomes unavailable due to competing priorities, it is their responsibility to inform the team so that work can be reallocated appropriately. This maintains the integrity of sprint commitments and avoids unplanned impacts on velocity.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Team members are expected to proactively communicate capacity issues. Agile teams thrive when individuals are transparent about availability and workload, allowing adjustments to commitments.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.1 – Agile Mindset and Team Behavior)

Mike Griffiths states:

“If someone’s availability changes, they must make that clear to the team. Holding on to tasks without capacity leads to velocity distortion and delivery issues.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Why other options are incorrect:

A attempts to do both initiatives, which may result in burnout or failed delivery.

B focuses effort away from the agile team’s responsibilities.

D is unrealistic in cross-functional organizations where members may support multiple initiatives.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is D – Write tests that will be used to know when a story has been correctly developed. This practice aligns with Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD), which are common in agile environments. Agile promotes defining “done” through clear acceptance criteria and tests before coding begins.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams use test-first practices, such as TDD or ATDD, where acceptance tests are written before development begins. This ensures that functionality is built to meet agreed expectations.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.5 – Agile Testing and Quality Strategies)

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“Defining acceptance criteria or tests before development is a core agile practice. It ensures the team understands what success looks like and builds quality in from the start.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Option A may be useful but is unrelated to the new requirements.

Option B is not standard—customers help define acceptance criteria but rarely write tests.

Option C skips an important quality control step and doesn’t align with test-first practices.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is C — Facilitate team brainstorming of the risks resulting from complexity for the risk register.

Technical complexity introduces risks that must be identified and managed early. Agile leaders support teams by facilitating collaborative risk identification, not by dictating solutions. Brainstorming sessions help surface concerns and lead to proactive mitigation strategies.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Risks are best identified through team collaboration. Facilitated risk identification sessions encourage broad participation and lead to better awareness and ownership of potential issues.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 7.3 – Risk Management)

Mike Griffiths:

“In agile projects, technical risks are treated early. Collaborative identification and visibility are key to creating a risk-adjusted delivery plan.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Incorrect options:

A is valid long-term, but brainstorming comes first for awareness.

B limits risk planning to a fixed period (Sprint 0), which may not be enough.

D promotes innovation but not structured risk identification.

Answer: C

—

Agile fosters asafe-to-fail environmentwhere experimentation is encouraged. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.6: Retrospectives and Process Improvement)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 7: Continuous Improvement), teams should be empowered totest new ideasandlearn from outcomes, regardless of whether those experiments succeed or fail.

Option Dis correct: promoting experimentation supports learning and innovation.

Option Adiscourages risk-taking and limits growth.

Option Bcreates fear and undermines psychological safety.

Option Cmixes accountability with experimentation, which can discourage honest learning.

Agile emphasizestransparency and team self-organization. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 4.3.3: Self-Organizing Teams)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance), a common practice is tomake work and issues visible to everyoneand allow the team to collaboratively manage their workflow. Using ashared workspace or boardhelps prevent redundant efforts and improves efficiency.

Option Dis correct: shared visibility and self-allocation promote team ownership.

Option Amisuses the backlog—issues aren't typically prioritized by customers.

Option Bis directive and may reduce collaboration.

Option Cfocuses on analysis, not immediate resolution or coordination.

The correct answer is A — Make sure the product owner is fully embedded into the project team so that they are readily available to make quick decisions.

One of the major benefits of agile is that decision-making is streamlined by having empowered roles, such as the product owner, closely embedded with the team. This reduces delays and improves the responsiveness and accuracy of decisions, especially for prioritization and clarification.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Empowering the product owner and embedding them with the team ensures faster decision-making, increased feedback loops, and reduces delays.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Mike Griffiths:

“Agile teams thrive when key decision-makers, especially the product owner, are available to provide clarification and approval on the spot.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

B is too broad and may slow decision-making further.

C adds overhead and delays.

D misplaces decision authority; the Scrum Master is not responsible for product decisions.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is D — Ensure that planning and prioritizing includes consideration of security requirements.

Non-functional requirements (such as security, performance, or compliance) must be included in backlog prioritization and planning sessions. Agile teams must incorporate these concerns into their definition of done and acceptance criteria to ensure continuous compliance and product integrity.

PMI Agile Practice Guide emphasizes:

“Non-functional requirements (NFRs) must be prioritized and planned for alongside functional user stories. They are not optional, and failure to include them early often leads to system failure or technical debt.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 — Planning Considerations)

Mike Griffiths writes:

“Agile teams should treat NFRs as constraints that are baked into every sprint. Rather than isolating them, they should be considered in backlog refinement and story definition.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Other options:

A may help, but meeting agendas alone are not sufficient for managing NFRs.

B may assist with knowledge, but it doesn’t guarantee prioritization.

C implies treating the NFR as a risk rather than a core requirement.

Answer: D

The correct answer is A – Be transparent with all the stakeholders and make them aware of the issues encountered and the current project's status.

Agile encourages transparency and regular stakeholder engagement to ensure alignment and avoid surprises. Even if a stakeholder prefers minimal involvement, it is the team’s responsibility to raise issues that could impact delivery, especially if they introduce risk or require input.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile promotes transparency and ongoing stakeholder engagement. Teams should proactively communicate risks and emerging issues to build trust and enable timely decision-making.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Mike Griffiths notes:

“Transparency is one of the pillars of Agile. Teams must keep stakeholders informed—even those who prefer limited involvement—to ensure that value is continuously delivered.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 3 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Other options explained:

B is a secondary action; transparency should come first.

C risks late discovery and undermines agile values.

D removes responsibility from the team, which contradicts self-management.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is A – Add risk mitigation tasks to the backlog, then prioritize in current and upcoming sprints. In Agile, risk is actively managed and addressed as part of the backlog. When the risk threshold is exceeded, the team should explicitly identify risk-related tasks and bring them into visibility for planning and execution.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams manage risk by incorporating risk mitigation tasks directly into the backlog and addressing them early. Risk exposure is reviewed frequently, and responses are prioritized based on value and urgency.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.7 – Risk Management)

Also from the PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition):

“Risks should be integrated into project activities. Agile teams identify, analyze, and prioritize risks continuously and handle them as regular backlog items.”

(PMBOK® Guide, Section 11.5 – Risk Response Planning)

Mike Griffiths further supports this by noting:

“Agile teams track risks visually and use backlog prioritization techniques to ensure they’re addressed appropriately.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Incorrect options:

B suggests padding estimates, which is an anti-pattern.

C is arbitrary and not recommended.

D delays risk response and contradicts proactive risk management.

Answer: A

The correct answer is B – Break the story up and focus on the most valuable parts. Agile promotes progressive elaboration, and large or complex stories (epics) should be broken down into smaller, testable user stories. This practice enables clarity, faster feedback, and more accurate planning.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Large stories (epics) should be split into smaller user stories to enable understanding, estimation, and incremental delivery. Stories should be small enough to be completed within an iteration.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – User Stories and Story Splitting)

Mike Griffiths states:

“When a user story is too large or unclear, the team should break it down into smaller pieces, focusing on the most valuable parts first. Story splitting is a key agile practice.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Incorrect options:

A discourages collaboration and learning.

C delays the resolution unnecessarily.

D avoids solving the actual problem and abandons valuable work.

Answer: B

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To identify the features that offer the maximum value, the product owner should focus on understanding the needs and priorities of the product's end users. By identifying the users and their key activities, the product owner can ensure that the features included in the roadmap directly address the most important user needs and deliver the highest value. This user-centric approach ensures that the product delivers tangible benefits to its intended audience and aligns with their requirements.

The correct answer is B – How much money the organization will earn or save by having the MMF.

Minimally Marketable Features (MMFs) are the smallest set of functionality that deliver value and can be released to generate revenue or realize benefits. Prioritization of MMFs is typically done based on expected business value—such as cost savings, revenue potential, or customer satisfaction.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“MMFs help teams focus on delivering value early and frequently. They are prioritized based on expected value to the customer or organization, return on investment (ROI), and business impact.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.4 – Delivering Value Frequently)

Mike Griffiths also emphasizes:

“MMFs should be prioritized based on business value—how much benefit they bring to the customer or organization. Value-based prioritization ensures the right features are built first.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A refers to risk but doesn’t address business value.

C addresses stakeholder involvement, not delivery prioritization.

D refers to development time, which is considered but secondary to value.

Answer: B

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Thestorming phase(from Tuckman’s model: Forming–Storming–Norming–Performing) is marked byconflict and role negotiation. Theagile coach or Scrum Masterplays a critical role in guiding teams through this phase withstructured facilitation and conflict-resolution techniques.

According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 4.3.2: Team Development Stages)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance), the agile coach must providesupport, guidance, and toolsto help the team evolve toward self-organization and maturity.

Option Bis correct: effective facilitation helps the team progress toward high performance.

Option Apromotes dysfunction.

Option Crisks escalating unresolved conflict.

Option Dis overly individual-focused and not team-centric.

Understandingproduct vision and customer goalsis foundational to agile. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 2.1 Agile Mindset and Values), early engagement helps teamsconnect their work to real customer outcomes, which increasesmotivation, alignment, and value delivery.

Mike Griffiths (PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 2: Agile Principles and Mindset) also notes thatclear understanding of business goalsensures that team members build the right thing—not just build things right.

Option Ais correct: aligning the team with the product’s purpose drivesvalue-oriented thinking.

Option Bis secondary—understanding comes before acceptance.

Option Cis unrealistic and not the goal of this meeting.

Option Dmay occur, but the main benefit is deeper alignment with value.

When the organization transitions from longer to shorter iterations, it’s crucial to provide the team with the right support and ensure they have the resources to adapt. Requesting support from the enterprise coach and HR can help the team manage this change effectively, providing them with necessary training or assistance. Additionally, assessing the impact of the change and brainstorming solutions with the team helps address concerns about testing and ceremonies, while allowing the team to provide input on how they can adapt to the new iteration length without compromising quality or efficiency.

The correct answer is B – Set expectations regarding the appropriate level of details requested during this stage. In Agile, early project stages are focused on vision, strategy, and high-level planning, not detailed documentation. The agile practitioner must educate stakeholders on progressive elaboration and set realistic expectations about how information is delivered over time.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“In the early stages of an agile project, requirements and plans are intentionally kept at a high level. Agile practitioners work closely with stakeholders to set appropriate expectations and explain how details will emerge iteratively.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 2.4 – Agile Project Initiation and Stakeholder Expectations)

Mike Griffiths reinforces this:

“During project inception, agile practitioners should clarify that detailed specifications evolve through iterative planning. Setting appropriate expectations is critical to building trust and maintaining alignment.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 2 – Agile Principles and Stakeholder Engagement)

Incorrect options:

A contradicts agile principles of just-in-time elaboration.

C is too rigid and may alienate stakeholders.

D abdicates responsibility and doesn’t help manage expectations.

Answer: B

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Security features are typically considerednon-functional requirements (NFRs), which should be captured in theproduct backlogand prioritized accordingly. As per thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.1: Product Backlog)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Value-Driven Delivery), any requested functionality—whether business- or system-level—must beclearly defined as a backlog itemso the team can plan for it.

Option Ais correct: security requirements should beadded to the backlog and prioritizedlike other features.

Option Bmay come later if implementation is unclear, but first, the work must be defined and logged.

Option CandDrepresent clarification steps but don’t directlysupport implementationas backlog management does.

To prevent the issue of the customer declining to accept the final deliverable after the demo, the project manager should prioritize frequent releases and feedback loops. By releasing new features or updates frequently, customers have the opportunity to provide feedback earlier in the process, which allows for adjustments to be made during development rather than at the end. This iterative process ensures that the final product better aligns with the customer's expectations and requirements.

The correct answer is D – Brainstorm with the team to identify a solution.

Agile promotes collective ownership and team-based decision-making. When a critical issue such as architectural scalability arises, the team should be involved in brainstorming alternatives, weighing trade-offs, and deciding how best to move forward collaboratively.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile encourages collaborative problem-solving and cross-functional ownership. Teams should collectively analyze challenges and determine the most appropriate course of action.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.3 – Collaborative Decision-Making)

Mike Griffiths also affirms:

“When teams face significant technical or architectural risks, they should come together to explore options and make decisions based on consensus, feasibility, and value.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Why the other options are inappropriate:

A is authoritarian and ignores team input.

B risks performance degradation without team consensus.

C may be part of the process, but only after the team has evaluated options.

Answer: D

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As the project team scales and expands to build a business-critical platform, having a work collaboration platform is the most effective way to ensure that the team can work toward a common goal and communicate efficiently. Such a platform centralizes communication, document sharing, task tracking, and collaboration, which is essential for maintaining alignment, especially as the complexity of the project increases. Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or similar platforms allow for seamless communication and collaboration, even across distributed teams, making it easier to manage and track progress, share knowledge, and keep everyone on the same page.

The correct answer is B — Create a spike story to analyze the impact of the threshold requirement on current stories.

A “spike” is a research activity used in Agile to investigate a technical or functional uncertainty. In this case, the performance threshold requires exploration to understand its impact on multiple backlog items. Creating a time-boxed spike allows the team to analyze without prematurely committing to changes.

PMI Agile Practice Guide describes spikes as:

“A spike is a user story for time-boxed research or exploration. Teams use spikes when they need more information to estimate or deliver a story.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 — Types of Backlog Items)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“When a new requirement introduces uncertainty, such as performance constraints, creating a spike helps the team determine scope, risk, and impact before incorporating it into backlog stories.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 — Adaptive Planning)

Other options:

A prematurely alters acceptance criteria before understanding the impact.

C leans toward big upfront design (non-agile).

D skips the exploration phase and directly breaks into tasks.

Answer: B

—

Theretrospectiveis the agile ceremony designed for teams toinspect and adapttheir process based on actual performance. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.6: Retrospectives), discussingvelocity issues and delivery concernsduring retrospectives allows the team to collaboratively identify improvement actions.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)also notes thatretrospectives are the best settingto discuss variations in velocity and refine estimation or planning practices based on empirical evidence.

Option Cis correct: the retrospective is where the team adapts based on reality.

Option Amay come later but doesn’t address the root issue.

Option Bgoes against agile principles of stable teams and empirical planning.

Option Dis reactive and may mask underlying process issues.

The correct answer is B — Balance risk reduction and value-adding activities in the next iteration.

Agile recommends actively managing risks as part of iteration planning. While delivering customer value remains a top priority, severe risks should be mitigated as early as possible. The team should consider allocating capacity in the next sprint to reduce risk while still maintaining delivery focus.

PMI Agile Practice Guide states:

“Agile teams incorporate risk mitigation work into iteration planning. Teams should prioritize high-impact risks early and balance risk management with delivering customer value.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 7.3 – Agile Risk Management)

Mike Griffiths supports this:

“Agile does not separate risk management into a different process—it is embedded within backlog prioritization. Addressing risk early can prevent downstream impacts, and teams must weigh risk vs. value regularly.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Incorrect options:

A disrupts current iteration goals and contradicts agile time-boxing.

C ignores the severity of the risk.

D escalates unnecessarily—agile promotes team-level decision-making first.

Answer: B

—

The correct answer is B — The stakeholder who can prevent the project from achieving its goals.

Stakeholder prioritization is based on power and influence. Those who can significantly impact or block project success (positively or negatively) should be prioritized. This ensures their concerns are addressed and their support is cultivated early.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Stakeholder engagement is critical in agile. The team must identify those who have the most influence over project outcomes and ensure early and frequent communication.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.1 – Stakeholder Engagement)

PMBOK® Guide:

“Stakeholder prioritization involves assessing who has the greatest influence on project success.”

—

In Agile, continuous integration and regression testing should be part of every iteration to ensure that the product is always in a potentially shippable state. These practices help catch issues early in the development process, preventing defects from accumulating and becoming harder to fix later. By integrating and testing frequently, the team ensures that new code works with existing code and that the product maintains its quality throughout the development lifecycle. This approach aligns with Agile principles of delivering working software regularly and maintaining high-quality standards throughout each iteration.

The correct answer is C – Ask the team to restate the requirements and review them with the client.

Clear communication and shared understanding are core Agile values. The best way to resolve confusion is through direct collaboration. Restating and reviewing requirements with the client fosters alignment and transparency, which reduces rework and frustration.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile encourages frequent interaction with stakeholders to clarify requirements and reduce misunderstanding. Requirements are best elaborated through collaboration.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Backlog Refinement)

Mike Griffiths supports:

“User stories and acceptance criteria should be understood by both team and stakeholders. If confusion arises, revisit and clarify together.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Why not others?

A may boost morale but doesn’t resolve the confusion.

B is speculative and not customer-centric.

D risks building something without validation.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is D – Facilitate a product development roadmap workshop. Engaging stakeholders early through a roadmap workshop helps align expectations, prioritize outcomes, and build shared understanding around value delivery.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Product roadmaps provide a high-level view of deliverables and timing. Facilitating roadmap workshops ensures that all stakeholders contribute to and align with the vision.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.4 – Product Roadmap and Planning)

Mike Griffiths further explains:

“Roadmap workshops allow stakeholders to discuss release priorities and business goals, ensuring engagement in the planning process and continuous alignment throughout the project.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Incorrect options:

A reflects a waterfall mindset.

B involves team-level planning, not broad stakeholder engagement.

C is informative but not collaborative or sufficient for planning.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is B – Facilitate an open and focused team discussion that reinforces team agreements. Agile teams are built on collaboration, mutual respect, and self-organization. When conflict arises about role expectations or task assignments, the Scrum Master should create a safe space for open discussion to reinforce working agreements and promote shared accountability.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile leaders support team collaboration by encouraging open conversations. When team dynamics are strained, the Scrum Master facilitates discussions to reinforce team norms, self-organization, and equality of contribution.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.3 – Team Performance and Working Agreements)

Mike Griffiths further states:

“Agile teams succeed when responsibilities are shared and roles are not rigidly defined. The Scrum Master should facilitate a discussion that encourages shared ownership and mutual respect for all tasks.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Incorrect options:

A imposes action without addressing the root issue or respecting roles.

C brings external authority into a team matter, weakening self-organization.

D is partially correct but doesn’t resolve the immediate team conflict.

Answer: B

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A spike is a time-boxed research activity used in Agile to explore uncertainties or unknowns, such as dependencies in this case. If the product owner is unsure about the risks related to migrating to a new version of a database, they can request a spike from the team. This will allow the team to investigate the dependencies, assess potential risks, and gather the necessary information to move forward with the user story. This helps reduce uncertainty and makes it easier to make informed decisions about the next steps.

The correct answer is A – Prioritize the stakeholder feedback, considering the impact on strategic objectives and current workload, and discuss these priorities with the team in the next sprint planning meeting to collaboratively decide on the next steps.

Agile promotes adaptive planning and continuous stakeholder engagement. While feedback is highly valuable, especially from a sprint review, changes to the product backlog must be carefully prioritized and collaboratively discussed with the team. The product owner’s responsibility is to maintain and refine the backlog, ensuring alignment with stakeholder needs while also preserving team focus and avoiding unnecessary disruption during an ongoing sprint.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Product backlog refinement is an ongoing process in which the product owner and the team collaborate on the details of backlog items. This includes analyzing, estimating, and prioritizing items to reflect the latest feedback and business needs.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Product Backlog Refinement)

“Agile teams embrace change, especially when it delivers value. However, they also maintain sustainable pace and focus by avoiding mid-sprint scope changes unless absolutely necessary. Backlog items are reviewed and reprioritized before the next sprint begins.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.4 – Value-Driven Delivery)

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“While agile encourages responding to change, disrupting sprint commitments can erode team trust and productivity. Sprint planning is the correct forum to reprioritize work based on new stakeholder insights.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Why the other options are incorrect:

B introduces mid-sprint disruption and disregards agile best practices for maintaining sprint integrity and team focus.

C eliminates team collaboration and risks breakdowns in communication, violating agile’s emphasis on transparency and teamwork.

D disregards valuable feedback and delays addressing important stakeholder needs, which could compromise customer satisfaction and strategic alignment.

Answer: A

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Spikes are meant forexperimentation and learning, not guaranteed outcomes. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2 Spikes), if a spike does not lead to a clear solution, the team can extend or reframe it, especially when aiming for asustainable long-term solution. Agile supportsencouraging experimentationand learning from failure.

Mike Griffiths (PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 7: Problem Detection and Resolution) recommends adapting when a spike’s results are inconclusive—redefining the scope and collaborating as a teamincreases the chance of a valuable outcome.

Option Bis correct: it continues learning and promotes team collaboration.

Option Aundercuts team ownership.

Option Cprioritizes a short-term fix and undermines agile values.

Option Dis not needed at this early stage—root cause analysis is better for recurring or systemic issues.

Step 1: Identifying Remaining MVP Story Points

From the backlog, the MVP-related stories that are not started include:

Accessibility – color blind (4 story points)

Increase security (21 story points)

Add AI chatbot (5 story points)

Total remaining MVP story points = 4 + 21 + 5 = 30

Step 2: Projected Sprint Completion

MVP Completion: The risk register mentions a burn reduction for sprints 4-6 due to holiday schedules.

If the burn rate is consistent after sprint 6, the MVP will be completed by sprint 9.

The entire backlog is projected to complete by sprint 16 assuming no further deviations.

The correct answer is C – Priority list of desired features and functions.

Agile emphasizes customer collaboration and delivering the highest-value features early. The product owner works closely with the customer to prioritize the backlog so that the most valuable items are delivered first. A prioritized list ensures clarity and alignment with stakeholder expectations.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Work is prioritized to deliver the greatest value as early as possible. The product owner and stakeholders continuously collaborate to ensure that the backlog reflects current priorities.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Prioritization and Backlog Refinement)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“Agile teams deliver customer value incrementally by implementing high-priority items first. Prioritization is based on value, risk, and feedback.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Why other options are incorrect:

A is a traditional project artifact and not used in Agile backlog planning.

B emphasizes cost over value and may create waste.

D is predictive rather than adaptive; Agile favors short-term planning based on priority.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is C – Non-functional requirements should have been added to the definition of done. Non-functional requirements such as performance, security, or usability criteria apply across stories and should be included in the Definition of Done (DoD) to ensure consistent delivery of quality attributes.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The definition of done should incorporate quality standards, including non-functional requirements. This ensures these standards are consistently applied across all deliverables.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Definition of Done)

Mike Griffiths further explains:

“Non-functional requirements are often best represented in the DoD so they’re applied universally. Without this, teams may deliver functionality that lacks necessary quality characteristics.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

A would help but isn’t sufficient for global system qualities.

B is suitable for specific stories but doesn’t ensure consistency across the product.

D is helpful but doesn’t guarantee alignment with quality standards.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is C – Work with the team to create a solution for disseminating team knowledge throughout the company.

Agile values shared learning and continuous improvement. A lack of accessible organizational knowledge is a systemic issue. The agile practitioner should help the team implement lightweight, repeatable knowledge-sharing practices—such as wikis, communities of practice, or internal retrospectives.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Organizational learning is an essential part of agile culture. Sharing information across teams enables continuous improvement and avoids repeated mistakes.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 7.1 – Organizational Learning)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“Coaching agile teams includes promoting knowledge sharing mechanisms across the organization. Practices like open reviews, documentation wikis, or retrospective reports can help teams learn from each other.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 7 – Continuous Improvement)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A suggests reporting but may become overhead without solving the core issue.

B avoids organizational improvement by isolating the team.

D brings in external help when the issue can be resolved internally.

Answer: C

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In Agile, transparency and communication within the team are key. The team member should log the concern into the risk register to formally track the issue and share it with the team at the next standup. This allows the entire team to discuss and assess the situation collaboratively, ensuring that the concern is addressed and managed collectively. This approach aligns with the self-organizing nature of Agile teams, where team members are responsible for working together to find solutions.

The sponsor is looking at the product roadmap, which is a visual representation of the product's planned features and their expected delivery timelines across multiple releases. It typically shows the major milestones, planned releases, and features grouped by their respective release numbers. This aligns with the sponsor's inquiry about when a specific feature will be ready, as the roadmap provides a high-level view of the product's development and release schedule.

The product owner is responsible for managing the product backlog and ensuring that it reflects the priorities and vision of the product. While the Scrum team can suggest changes or improvements during the refinement process, the product owner has the final say on what changes are made to the backlog. This ensures that the product backlog aligns with business needs, stakeholder expectations, and the overall product vision. Therefore, the product owner can reject changes to the backlog if they believe the changes do not align with these priorities.

The goal of each iteration in Agile is to deliver working software frequently, typically at the end of each iteration. This allows the team to gather feedback early and make improvements quickly. The emphasis is on delivering usable software that provides value to the customer, rather than just completing tasks or preparing timelines. This approach aligns with the Agile principle of delivering working software frequently to ensure continuous progress and customer satisfaction.

The team lead should work to resolve the conflict by negotiating with the project director. Since the lead developer cannot complete their work due to the request for a detailed testing plan, the team lead should seek to limit the scope of the documentation request. By negotiating for fewer details or a reduced scope of testing documentation, the team can continue their work on the iteration while still meeting the project director's needs. This approach balances the need to progress with development and address the request without causing significant delays.

Analyzing theburndown chart, we see:

Points Planned(gray squares): decreasing steadily from 50 to 0 over 10 days (ideal burn).

Points Completed(gray triangles):plateau between days 3–6, lagging significantly behind planned completion.

This indicates that theteam is behind schedule, and unless they accelerate, they mayfail to complete all committed work.

According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.4: Burndown Charts)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Monitoring Progress), such divergence between the ideal and actual burn lines indicates that the iteration isat risk.

Option Ais correct: the iteration isin jeopardydue to lack of progress mid-sprint.

Option Bis incorrect—scope removal would show a downward shift in planned points.

Option Cis false—the team isbehind, not ahead.

Option Dis misleading—velocity appears inconsistent (e.g., plateau from day 3–6).

The correct answer is C – Facilitate a retrospective to identify areas of improvement.

In Agile, mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities. The Scrum Master should create a safe environment where the team can reflect, discuss issues openly, and identify ways to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Retrospectives provide a regular forum for teams to inspect and adapt. Teams discuss what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve. This supports continuous learning and performance enhancement.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5 – Iteration Retrospectives)

Mike Griffiths states:

“Mistakes are inevitable; agile teams embrace them to improve. Retrospectives are essential for structured reflection and action planning.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 7 – Continuous Improvement)

Why other options are less appropriate:

A may reinforce outdated or flawed processes.

B may help in quality control but does not address the mistake constructively.

D promotes fear and competition, which undermines team trust and collaboration.

Answer: C

At this point in the planning process, the team has not yet gathered enough data to provide a precise release date. The team's velocity (the amount of work they can complete in each iteration) has not been established, and the team needs some iterations to stabilize and gather insights. However, they can offer a broad range based on the current understanding of the backlog and priorities. This allows the sponsor to have a rough expectation while also managing the uncertainty involved at this stage in the process.

The correct answer is D – Create a collaborative team environment so that the team can explore a solution together. Agile emphasizes self-organization, teamwork, and collective ownership of problem-solving. The Scrum Master facilitates, not dictates, and enables the team to resolve impediments through collaboration.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The Scrum Master helps the team identify, address, and remove impediments. This is often done by fostering an environment of open communication and team problem-solving.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.5 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Mike Griffiths elaborates:

“Rather than escalate or assign responsibility, the Scrum Master enables the team to work together to solve problems. This builds trust, increases team capability, and supports agile values.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Incorrect options:

A and B promote a command-and-control approach, which violates agile values.

C defers the solution to a future sprint, rather than solving it now.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is D – Reestimate all stories including values for A, B, and C. Agile promotes empirical process control, meaning teams adapt based on what they learn. When significant deviations are found in actual effort vs. story point estimates, the team should revisit and refine their estimation process, including reestimating stories to better align with reality.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Estimates are revisited based on experience. Teams inspect and adapt during retrospectives, using data to improve future estimation accuracy.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Estimation and Planning)

Mike Griffiths writes:

“When estimates prove inaccurate, teams should reestimate affected stories. Estimating is a collaborative process, and learning from past deviations is a key part of adaptive planning.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Incorrect options:

A may distort estimation by comparison and not correct the root issue.

B manipulates velocity data and violates agile principles of transparency.

C attempts to “force fit” effort rather than inspect and adapt.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is C – Create an environment of continued learning by providing opportunities for team members to develop their skills as generalized specialists.

Agile encourages the concept of “T-shaped” team members—individuals who have deep expertise in one area and broad skills across multiple areas. Promoting cross-skilling and continued learning reduces risk, increases collaboration, and helps build a resilient, self-sustaining team.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Teams should strive to become cross-functional and develop generalized specialists who can collaborate effectively across domains.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Building High-Performing Teams)

Mike Griffiths notes:

“Agile promotes team learning. Encouraging members to grow as generalized specialists reduces reliance on single individuals and improves flexibility.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Other options:

A helps but is not sufficient on its own.

B is a solid practice but doesn't directly promote skills growth.

D goes against Agile values of team development and empowerment.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is A – Reduced or improper customer collaboration.

One of the core principles of Agile is continuous collaboration with the customer. If multiple feature changes are only identified during a late-stage review, it typically indicates that the customer was not involved sufficiently throughout the development process.

From the Agile Manifesto (cited in the PMI Agile Practice Guide):

“Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.”

“Working software is delivered frequently… with a preference to the shorter timescale.”

And from the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Ongoing engagement with the customer helps align product features with actual needs and reduce surprises during late-stage reviews.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Mike Griffiths also emphasizes:

“When customers are involved in iteration reviews and backlog grooming, their evolving needs are captured in real time. Surprises during release reviews usually reflect a failure of ongoing communication.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Other options don’t directly address the root cause:

B may contribute, but customer collaboration is the key differentiator in agile.

C and D are traditional causes of waterfall-style failure, not typically root causes in agile.

Answer: A

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Agile principles emphasizejust-in-time (JIT) planning and design, meaning work should not begin until it's pulled into the current sprint or iteration. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.4 Iteration Planning)andMike Griffiths (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning), teams shouldfocus on committed iteration workand avoid speculative work that is not yet planned or prioritized.

Designing item B early introducesunvalidated assumptionsand risksreworkif priorities or requirements change. Agile encourages deferring decisions until the last responsible moment to preserve flexibility.

Option Ais correct: the team shouldwait until item B is formally plannedbefore investing effort.

Option Bviolates agile principles by introducing premature work.

Option CandDsuggest formal escalation that is unnecessary and not in the spirit of agile’s decentralized decision-making.

In Agile, one of the key principles is to provide continuous feedback and integration throughout the development process, ensuring that components are tested, integrated, and iterated upon regularly. By separating the work into three teams that work independently and only integrate at the end, the strategy risks delaying feedback and potentially causing integration problems. This approach could lead to significant issues when the components are eventually integrated, as they may not work together as expected due to lack of ongoing collaboration and integration. Therefore, working in parallel with proper continuous feedback and integration is crucial in Agile to minimize risks and ensure smooth delivery.

The correct answer is C — During the retrospective, discuss the issue and create an action plan to avoid it in the future.

When teams misestimate or experience incomplete work, it’s important to reflect during the retrospective and create action items. This is a fundamental aspect of agile: continuous inspection, adaptation, and team-driven improvement.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Retrospectives help identify opportunities for improvement. The team reviews its estimation accuracy and adjusts processes or practices based on patterns observed.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.8 — Retrospectives)

Mike Griffiths elaborates:

“Estimating complexity is an area for ongoing learning. Teams use retrospectives to improve their sizing, identify knowledge gaps, and refine their planning techniques.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 — Adaptive Planning)

Other options:

A unnecessarily involves a project manager (non-agile).

B assumes one-size-fits-all rules, which limits team agility.

D ignores the structured opportunity the retrospective provides for team learning.

Answer: C

—

Planning Pokeris a well-known estimation technique where team members use numbered cards (usually Fibonacci series) to estimatestory point valuesbased on relative size. It’s aconsensus-based estimation method, as described in thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2: Estimation Techniques)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Estimating Techniques).

Option Dis correct:Planning Pokeris explicitly designed for estimating stories in terms of points.

Option A (Parametric)is more common in traditional (predictive) planning.

Option B (One-to-one comparison)refers to relative sizing without collaboration.

Option C (Affinity)is another agile technique but typically used forgrouping stories into size buckets, not direct story point consensus estimation.

The daily standup is focused on ensuring the team stays synchronized on their commitments for the sprint, and it is meant to be a short meeting where team members quickly discuss what they did the previous day, what they plan to do today, and any blockers they are facing. It is not a forum for external stakeholders to ask detailed questions about the sprint backlog or delivery timelines, as this can disrupt the team's focus and hinder the meeting's efficiency.

By explaining that the standup is about synchronizing commitments, the project manager helps the business partners understand the purpose of the meeting and suggests an appropriate time and place for discussing more detailed or strategic topics.

To ensurehigh code quality, especially for critical products, agile teams employtechnical practiceslikepair programmingandpeer code reviews. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.5: Technical Practices and Quality)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 5: Quality and Technical Excellence)support these practices as part ofbuilt-in quality—ensuring that issues are caught early in the development cycle.

Option Ais correct: pair programming and peer reviews increase code quality and reduce defects early.

Option Bis essential but a feedback tool—not a direct quality assurance practice.

Option Cimplies waterfall-style handoffs.

Option Dis inefficient and risky without integrated testing or validation.

The correct answer is D – Fishbone diagram. Also known as an Ishikawa or cause-and-effect diagram, this analysis tool helps teams identify root causes of delays or inefficiencies. In this scenario, the team needs to understand the causes of delayed release cycles to make process improvements.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Root cause analysis tools such as fishbone diagrams can help teams identify underlying causes of inefficiencies or failures, supporting continuous improvement.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.5 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Mike Griffiths also writes:

“A fishbone diagram helps the team brainstorm and categorize the potential causes of a problem, enabling a structured investigation into delays or bottlenecks.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 6 – Problem Resolution)

Incorrect options:

A is for identifying and managing risks, not diagnosing root causes.

B analyzes progress metrics but doesn’t provide root cause insights.

C is for understanding customer satisfaction, not operational delays.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is B – Recommend an Agile delivery approach and provide information to the stakeholders on Agile values and principles.

Agile enables early and continuous delivery of valuable software, short feedback loops, and faster time to market. When competitive advantage and speed are critical, introducing Agile principles allows the organization to remain flexible, respond to change, and deliver increments faster.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile approaches provide quicker feedback, faster time to market, and more opportunity to deliver business value early. They are ideal in dynamic environments with evolving customer needs.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 1.3 – When to Use Agile)

Mike Griffiths states:

“Agile emphasizes early and continuous delivery, allowing organizations to test, learn, and adjust quickly to changes—critical for achieving business agility and competitive advantage.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 1 – Agile Mindset)

Why other options are not optimal:

A suggests a predictive mindset and planning before implementation.

C focuses only on Scrum roles, which may be too narrow for organizational-level change.

D relies on traditional governance structures that may resist Agile change.

Answer: B

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DevOps is a methodology that focuses on enhancing collaboration between development and operations teams to create a continuous feedback loop and speed up the delivery process. The key to enabling and sustaining a fast workflow is the establishment of a culture of collaboration, supported by the right tools and processes that allow for continuous delivery. This culture helps break down silos between teams, leading to faster and more efficient workflows that can continuously deliver value to customers.

In Scrum, the goal is to have open discussions during estimation, where all team members, including junior developers, can express their thoughts and assumptions. The Scrum Master should encourage the junior developers to keep their estimations because these can highlight different perspectives, constraints, or assumptions that others may not have considered. This helps create a more comprehensive understanding of the work and fosters a collaborative environment. It also builds confidence in junior team members, allowing them to contribute more effectively and learn from their peers in the process.

In agile, work is considered “done” only when it meets the agreed-uponDefinition of Done (DoD), which includes all aspects like coding, review, testing, and documentation. If there's disagreement about completion, thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.3 Sprint Review and Acceptance)recommends revisiting and aligning the DoD between the team and product owner.

Mike Griffiths in hisPMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Value-Driven Delivery)explains that without aclear and shared Definition of Done, misunderstandings about completion status can occur, especially with quality-related tasks like testing.

Option Ais correct because aligning on the DoD resolves current and future misunderstandings.

Option Bintroduces unnecessary escalation.

Option Cpostpones resolution and does not solve the core issue.

Option Dincorrectly assumes testing isn’t part of the story’s completion criteria.

Kaizen is a Japanese term that means "continuous improvement," which is a fundamental principle in Agile. It focuses on making incremental, continuous improvements to enhance processes and quality. Standup meetings and retrospective meetings are common Agile practices that support Kaizen. Standup meetings provide a daily check-in to ensure the team is aligned, while retrospectives allow the team to reflect on the sprint, identify areas for improvement, and make adjustments. Continuous improvement is at the core of Kaizen, and these practices enable the team to refine their processes over time, leading to better product quality and customer satisfaction.

The correct answer is D — Explain to the team the importance of reducing team size by reducing specializations and bottlenecks and that every team member plays an equal part.

Agile promotes cross-functional, self-organizing teams where all members are responsible for delivering a working product increment. Avoiding specialized silos reduces bottlenecks and improves overall flow. Everyone contributes based on team needs, not personal preferences or status.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams minimize individual silos by encouraging cross-functional collaboration. Everyone contributes to the team goal, even if the task is outside their core skillset.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.1 – Team Composition)

Mike Griffiths:

“Specialization often becomes a bottleneck in agile teams. Agile promotes generalizing specialists—team members who are willing to stretch outside their expertise to help the team meet its goals.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Incorrect options:

A promotes a command-and-control model—contrary to Agile servant leadership.

B reinforces silos and inefficiency.

C contradicts Agile’s emphasis on team ownership.

Answer: D

—

The correct answer is B – Social awareness. Social awareness includes recognizing and respecting diversity, empathy, and being sensitive to cultural and interpersonal dynamics. It’s essential for fostering inclusion and trust in diverse agile teams.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Social awareness includes being mindful of others’ emotions, needs, and concerns. Agile leaders use empathy and active listening to promote a culture of inclusiveness.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.3 – Agile Leadership Skills)

Mike Griffiths reinforces:

“High-performing agile teams are inclusive. Leaders demonstrate social awareness by recognizing differences and adapting their behavior to support psychological safety and mutual respect.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Incorrect options:

A is more externally focused.

C is necessary but not specific to handling team diversity.

D is general and doesn’t address interpersonal sensitivity.

Answer: B

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Agile teams evaluate new tools or technologies throughspikes—time-boxed research or experimentation tasks. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2: Spikes and Exploration)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning), the appropriate way to introduce new technology is toengage the teamin the decision and create abacklog itemfor a spike to evaluate its viability.

Option Cis correct: it follows agile collaboration and backlog grooming practices.

Option Askips team consensus and formal prioritization.

Option Bcontradicts self-organizing team principles.

Option Dmay delay necessary action and is better suited for process discussions, not technical trials.

The correct answer is D — Iteration Burndown Chart.

An iteration burndown chart provides daily updates about the team’s progress during an iteration (or sprint). It tracks the remaining work in the sprint backlog and helps both the team and stakeholders assess if the sprint goal is likely to be met. This visualization helps communicate real-time progress to key stakeholders and supports adaptive planning.

PMI Agile Practice Guide states:

“Burndown charts display work remaining in a timebox and are updated daily. They are effective for communicating iteration progress to the team and stakeholders.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.6, Information Radiators)

PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition) and Mike Griffiths both emphasize using task boards and burndown charts as “information radiators” for transparency.

Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book elaborates:

“Iteration burndown charts are the most widely used artifact to track sprint progress. They offer insight into how much work remains and signal whether the team is on track to meet its sprint goal.”

Options A and B are long-term planning tools. Option C (velocity) is a forecasting metric and not updated daily.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is D — Up-to-date project radiators.

Information radiators provide at-a-glance visibility into project status, progress, blockers, and other key metrics. Sharing or including these visual tools in extended stakeholder communication ensures transparency and up-to-date awareness, which aligns with agile values.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Information radiators provide immediate and transparent access to project health and status. They reduce the need for formal reporting and keep stakeholders aligned in real time.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.6 – Information Radiators)

Mike Griffiths:

“Using radiators to keep stakeholders informed improves trust, accelerates decision-making, and supports ongoing engagement.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

A and B are not relevant for stakeholder reporting.

C is too narrow and lacks the holistic view offered by radiators.

Answer: D

To assessprocess efficiency, agile teams usevalue stream mappingto identifywaste, delays, and non-value-adding steps. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.5 Process Analysis and Value Stream Mapping), value stream analysis helps determine how efficiently a process converts inputs into valuable outputs, making it ideal for supporting customer inquiries on operational performance.

Mike Griffiths (PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 7: Continuous Improvement) reinforces the value of usingvalue stream mappingfor both software development processes and operational workflows to increase transparency and drive improvements.

Option Bis correct: reviewing thevalue streamprovides a structured way to evaluate efficiency.

Option AandDare important for team improvement and performance but don’t focus onprocess activity efficiency.

Option Crelates tovalue prioritization, not operational efficiency.

The correct answer is D — Help establish the next sprint's goal.

The sprint goal provides a shared objective and guides the selection and execution of user stories. It is established collaboratively between the product owner and the development team at the start of sprint planning and precedes task decomposition or estimation.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The team collaborates with the product owner during sprint planning to define a sprint goal. The sprint goal gives the team clarity and focus on what it intends to achieve during the sprint.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.5 – Iteration Planning)

Mike Griffiths reinforces:

“Effective planning starts with understanding the desired outcome of the sprint. The sprint goal aligns the team and informs prioritization and task breakdown.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Incorrect options:

A prematurely assigns tasks, which goes against Agile’s collaborative ethos.

B and C happen later in the sprint planning process after defining the sprint goal.

Answer: D

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Once the team has clarity on the user stories and agrees they are ready, the next step in agile planning is toestimatethem. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2: Estimating)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning), agile estimation techniques likestory pointsorPlanning Pokerhelp the teamgain a shared understanding of effort, complexity, and delivery time.

Option Ais correct: estimating comes before development and guides prioritization and planning.

Option Bprematurely dives into task-level detail before effort is understood.

Option Cskips planning and development entirely.

Option Drefers to retrospective, which comes after execution, not before.

Agile roles are clearly defined to avoid overlap and confusion. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 3.3 Agile Roles), theProduct Owneris responsible forbacklog prioritization and stakeholder communication, not managing team tasks. Task management is the domain of the self-organizing team and facilitated by the Scrum Master or Agile Project Manager.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 4: Stakeholder Engagement)reinforces that resolving role confusion through discussion helpsrealign expectations and improve team performance.

Option Cis correct: by clarifying roles and responsibilities, the agile project manager helps prevent overreach and ensures smoother collaboration.

Option Aaddresses the issue too late and in the wrong forum.

Option Bmisrepresents agile dynamics (self-organizing teams).

Option Drisks team morale and doesn’t address the root cause.

The correct answer is A – Use the DISC framework with each team member.

The DISC model (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness) is a well-established behavioral assessment tool used to understand communication preferences, motivators, and individual work styles. Agile leaders may use tools like DISC to foster emotional intelligence, improve collaboration, and re-engage disengaged team members.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Effective agile leaders understand individual team members' communication styles and motivations. Tools such as DISC or MBTI can help assess personality preferences and enable better coaching.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.2 – Coaching Agile Teams)

Mike Griffiths notes:

“Behavioral models such as DISC support the development of emotionally intelligent teams. They help leaders tailor their coaching and communication approaches to individual needs.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Why other options are incorrect:

B (MoSCoW) is a prioritization technique, not a tool for personal engagement.

C (Hiring a SAFe coach) is overkill and not the most direct or relevant response.

D (BDUF – Big Design Up Front) is a traditional approach unrelated to team dynamics or motivation.

Answer: A

Velocity is a team-specific, relative measureof work done in a sprint and should not be used to compare teams. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.4: Estimation and Velocity)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)highlight that aconsistent and predictable velocityis more valuable than simply trying to exceed estimates, which can lead toovercommitment or burnout.

Option Cis correct: predictability and consistency are hallmarks of agile maturity.

Option AandBfalsely equate velocity across teams.

Option Dvalues overperformance, which may underminesustainable pace.

When the team is facing difficulties in estimating the scope of work due to unclear or ambiguous requirements, the product owner should collaborate closely with the client to ensure that the requirements are clear and well-defined. By refining the product backlog with more detailed and clarified requirements, the product owner can help the team generate more accurate estimates and better understand the scope of work. This is a fundamental step in ensuring the team can properly plan and execute the project on time.

The correct answer is B – Ensured the early engagement of key stakeholders. Agile emphasizes early and continuous stakeholder involvement. In this case, engaging enterprise architects and standards stakeholders early in the design process would have helped detect conflicts before sprint execution.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Key stakeholders should be engaged early in the development cycle to ensure alignment with organizational policies, standards, and expectations.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Mike Griffiths notes:

“Involving stakeholders early helps mitigate the risk of late surprises and rework. Enterprise architects should be consulted during backlog grooming or prior to sprint planning.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Incorrect options:

A is reactive and escalatory.

C presumes the standards are flawed without analysis.

D ignores necessary compliance and does not solve the issue proactively.

Answer: B

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The correct answer is C — The team should have conducted more demonstrations with the product owner during the iteration.

Continuous feedback is essential in Agile. Regular product demos or interim check-ins during the sprint (not just at the end) allow the product owner to validate progress and course-correct early. This ensures that expectations are aligned and surprises are avoided at the sprint review.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Stakeholder feedback should be gathered continuously throughout the sprint. Regular engagement and interim demos reduce the risk of misalignment at iteration end.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.7 – Reviews and Demos)

Mike Griffiths:

“Waiting until the sprint review to validate features with the product owner increases risk. Frequent collaboration and demonstrations ensure the work remains on target.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

A is helpful but doesn't guarantee alignment.

B is testing-focused and misses early collaboration.

D places all responsibility on the product owner, ignoring shared ownership.

Answer: C

The correct answer is A — Suggest the product owner start by focusing on the next 2 sprints instead of 10.

Agile embraces progressive elaboration — planning is done in detail only for the near term, while long-term plans remain high level and flexible. By encouraging short-term focus, the Scrum Master helps the product owner shift from a predictive mindset to an adaptive one.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile projects plan at multiple levels (release, iteration, and daily), focusing on near-term commitments while allowing flexibility for change. Planning multiple sprints in detail violates the principle of adaptability.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 — Progressive Elaboration)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“Detailed long-term estimates reduce agility. The product owner should learn to prioritize work based on value, and accept that estimates beyond the next sprint or two are rough forecasts.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 — Adaptive Planning)

Other options:

B undermines agile principles by reverting to waterfall planning.

C misuses the retrospective, which is team-focused.

D may alienate the product owner rather than encourage a mindset shift.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is A – Kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning "continuous improvement." In Agile, Kaizen refers to the practice of regularly reflecting on processes and results, then making incremental improvements. By tracking impediments and resolving them transparently, the team engages in Kaizen behavior.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams embrace a mindset of continuous improvement (Kaizen), regularly inspecting their work and processes and adapting them for better outcomes.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.6 – Continuous Improvement)

Mike Griffiths writes:

“Agile is rooted in lean thinking, including Kaizen. Teams reflect on what went well and what needs to change, often using tools like Kanban boards to visualize and track improvements.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 7 – Continuous Improvement)

Incorrect options:

B refers to goal-setting, not process improvement.

C are metrics, not an outcome of experimentation.

D (Muda) refers to waste, which Kaizen seeks to reduce.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is A — Conduct a requirements gathering workshop.

In Agile, workshops such as story-writing or backlog refinement sessions help the team and stakeholders collaboratively explore requirements. These sessions are interactive and iterative and allow for joint discovery, prioritization, and clarification of user needs.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Collaborative workshops enable teams to gather requirements and clarify expectations in an iterative fashion. They engage stakeholders in prioritizing and decomposing work into user stories.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Backlog Refinement)

Mike Griffiths writes:

“Workshops are a key practice for backlog development. They are particularly useful when initiating complex projects with minimal requirements, allowing the team to iteratively develop stories with stakeholders.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

B assumes delivery before refinement, risking misalignment.

C places the burden on the product owner alone.

D is waterfall-oriented and contradicts iterative backlog evolution.

Answer: A

—

Kanban is a visual management tool that helps teams improve workflow efficiency. One of its key principles is the use of a pull system, where work is pulled into the process when capacity allows, rather than being pushed into the system. This contrasts with a push system, where work is assigned or forced into the workflow regardless of capacity. This approach helps avoid bottlenecks and ensures work is handled efficiently.

In Agile and user-centered design, creating user personas is a valuable way to represent the different types of users who will interact with the application. By identifying these personas, the project manager can ensure that the development team better understands the varying needs, behaviors, and goals of different user groups. This approach helps create a more effective and tailored user experience for the application. It also provides clear guidance to the team on how to prioritize features and functionality for diverse user groups.

The correct answer is A — Establish and keep an active risk register that includes mitigation strategies and a cost-benefit analysis.

Risk management is essential to identifying and mitigating threats such as natural disasters. While Agile teams do not typically use traditional risk registers extensively, at the enterprise level (especially in regulated or high-risk environments), maintaining a risk register aligned with Agile values is appropriate. It should include mitigation options and their associated cost-benefit to guide decision-making.

PMI Agile Practice Guide states:

“Agile risk management practices include establishing lightweight mechanisms such as risk-adjusted backlog prioritization, risk registers (in high-risk or large programs), and risk mitigation strategies.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 7.3 – Managing Risk in Agile Projects)

PMBOK® Guide (6th Edition) supports this:

“The risk register is a critical project artifact that includes identified risks, their analysis, mitigation or response plans, and cost-benefit considerations for managing risks.”

Incorrect options:

B lacks the inclusion of mitigation strategies and full cost analysis.

C refers to surface-level risk visibility, not comprehensive risk planning.

D assumes avoidance is the only mitigation strategy, which is not always feasible or optimal.

Answer: A

—

The correct answer is B – It prevents a wasteful buildup of requirements inventory that may never be processed. Rolling wave planning is a core agile planning practice where detailed planning is deferred until closer to execution. It aligns with lean principles by avoiding over-specification and prioritizing only near-term, high-value work.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Rolling wave planning minimizes wasted effort by only detailing work that is near execution. Planning further ahead can result in rework or unused artifacts if requirements change or become irrelevant.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Adaptive Planning and Rolling Wave Planning)

Mike Griffiths writes:

“Agile avoids big upfront planning. Rolling wave planning reduces waste, improves responsiveness, and focuses on delivering the highest-value features first while leaving less valuable work unplanned until necessary.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Incorrect options:

A is misleading; agile allows varying levels of detail, not fixed.

C is a traditional (waterfall) planning mindset.

D suggests fixed scope per release, which contradicts agility.

Answer: B

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In an Agile environment, fostering a culture of collaboration and effective communication is key to success, especially when working with a diverse team. By creating a shared vision, the project manager aligns the team towards common goals, which helps reduce misunderstandings. Using techniques to increase empathy and positive interaction ensures that team members understand and respect each other's different perspectives. This approach promotes a collaborative environment where diverse ideas can be valued and conflicts can be addressed constructively.

A key agile principle is that user stories should includeclear acceptance criteria, which must bereviewed and accepted by the product owner. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2: User Stories and Acceptance Criteria)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Value-Driven Delivery), acceptance criteria ensure that the team and product ownershare a clear understandingof what constitutes “done.”

Option Ais correct: having the product owner validate acceptance criteria ensures alignment.

Option Baddresses technical quality but not stakeholder dissatisfaction.

Option Cunfairly shifts blame without addressing communication.

Option Dgoes against agile’s iterative and flexible nature.

The correct answer is A – Educate the QA manager that in agile, quality is integrated from the beginning to the end of the project. Agile emphasizes “built-in” quality through test-first approaches, continuous integration, and Definition of Done. Addressing resistance through education helps clarify that quality is a core part of Agile—not an afterthought.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile does not remove quality controls; rather, it integrates them throughout the development process. Quality is everyone’s responsibility and is embedded through practices such as TDD, automated testing, and continuous feedback.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5 – Quality and Agile)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“In Agile, quality is not sacrificed. It is a fundamental principle. Teams ensure quality by defining acceptance criteria, using continuous integration, and practicing test-first development.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

B may be helpful tactically, but doesn’t address the underlying concern.

C misrepresents technical debt.

D places too much QA responsibility on the product owner.

Answer: A

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Story point estimation in agile is acollaborative team activity, and consensus is critical. Techniques likePlanning Pokerare designed to reveal differences in understanding. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2 Estimating Techniques)andMike Griffiths (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning), when there's adiscrepancy in estimates, it is essential todiscuss and understand the rationalebehind differing views.

Option Cis correct: the team shoulddiscuss and clarifyto reach a shared understanding.

Option Aignores potential misunderstandings.

Option Bunnecessarily delays estimation.

Option Dis incorrect—the team, not the customer, estimates the effort.