Question 1

Which question is the concern of the project sponsor?

A. Does the team understand the technical requirements?

B. Does the product owner understand the product?
C. Will the team deliver the expected value on time?
D. Is the Scrum Master prioritizing the features accurately?
Question 2

As an agile servant leader, why would you want your teams to be self-directing and self-organizing?

A. To draw upon their technical knowledge to evaluate the product features

B. To take advantage of their superior knowledge of the best way to manage
themselves
C. To leverage their ability to reach the project goals most efficiently
D. To help them remain productive despite changing priorities and new information
Question 3

This team started the project with 54 points of functionality in the backlog, and they have just
finished iteration 8. Their burndown chart per iteration since starting the project is shown here.
At the end of iteration 8 (at the time shown on this chart), the project sponsor wants to know if
the team will finish on time (by the end of iteration 10). You respond:

A. Maybe, but there are still a lot of risks we might run into.
B. Probably, our velocity is stabilizing nicely, we are right on track.
C. Probably not, there’s been too much variability in our velocity.
D. I’ll let you know after I check the spreadsheets.
Question 4

A stakeholder who is new to both Scrum and the project asks you what to expect in the sprint
review. How do you respond?

A. It’s a meeting where we show what we’ve just built and get feedback.
B. It’s our opportunity to reflect on what happened in the sprint.
C. It’s a meeting where we decide what we will build in the next sprint.
D. It’s the ongoing process of refining and updating the product backlog.
Question 5

A federally funded task force is exploring the use of facial recognition software to mine social media
updates for missing persons. This emerging technology faces significant challenges, including
difficulties with removing shadows, reflections, and facial obscurers such as sunglasses from
images. Which approach to solving these issues would be most closely aligned with the agile
mindset?

A. Ask the best people in the industry for their solutions, giving them a fixed deadline
to respond.
B. Hold a public contest with prizes to get as many promising ideas as possible.
C. Analyze how for-profit companies have solved these problems, and try to reproduce
those solutions without breaking their patents.
D. Stay open to all options, and keep disagreements to a minimum.
Question 6

Your team is just starting the second iteration of a new project, and so far the work is going slower
than planned. As team coach, you are taking a servant leadership approach. What should you do
to help out?

A. Prepare the required compliance documentation.

B. Convince the CEO to assign more resources to the project.
C. Adjust the initial estimates to make them more realistic.
D. Settle team debates about how to approach the work.
Question 7

If all the team members aren’t able to work together in the same location, what are they likely to
have?

A. More miscommunication
B. More interpersonal conflict
C. More privacy
D. Better estimates
Question 8

What is a key reason why agile teams use multiple levels of verification?

A. To keep the project visible to stakeholders

B. To ensure the developers are busy and productive
C. To reduce the cost of errors and rework
D. To make testing a regular habit rather than a specific step
Question 9

How would you recommend that a team transition to using agile?

A. Identify a successful agile team and copy what they are doing.
B. Learn what agile is trying to accomplish before deciding which practices to adopt.
C. Try out some agile practices first to see if they are helpful in your situation.
D. Hire the best Scrum-Master you can afford and make that person accountable for the
transition.
Question 10

The Dog Walk Cooperative social media app lets members pick up local dogs to take for a walk while
they are out for a walk themselves. The company’s tag line is: "Ensuring walks have more dogs
and dogs have more walks." The development team is using a task board to track their progress,
as shown here. It is the second to last day of the second week of a two-week sprint. Based on
their task board, how is the Dog Walk Cooperative team doing?

A. They are unlikely to finish all the work in the sprint backlog.
B. They’re on track to complete all the work in the sprint backlog.
C. They are doing okay; most of the work is either ready, in progress, or done.
D. The work is backed up due to an unresolved impediment.

.
Question 11

Which agile concept helps to explain why it is considered economical to have two programmers
working on the same code simultaneously?

A. Work in short iterations

B. Empower the team
C. Face-to-face communication
D. Deliver business value
Question 12

Your team has a lot of work in progress, and you’re trying to educate them about the drawbacks of
working that way. What isn’t one of the problems you mention?

A. It reduces business value.

B. It increases the project risk.
C. It hides throughput issues.
D. It undermines our team roles.
Question 13

Which criterion listed below is least likely to be included in the definition of done for a user story?

A. Has the release deadline been met?

B. Has all the code been written?
C. Have all known bugs been fixed or scheduled as their own user stories?
D. Has the customer accepted the user story as done?
Question 14

Your team rarely sees the sponsor, but one day she appears in the team room to ask whether the
product will be ready to demo at a trade show in two months. This is the first you’ve heard of
this trade show. What do you tell her?

A. We’ll let you know after we talk to the product owner about our priorities.
B. It will be ready when it’s ready, according to our plan.
C. We’ll have the top-priority functionality done by then.
D. That depends; will you be increasing our budget to meet this new goal?
Question 15

Your team has decided to use the Five Whys technique in a retrospective. What are you likely trying
to accomplish by doing this?

A. Encourage everyone to speak up freely about any issues they experienced in the last
iteration.
B. Understand why the same issue keeps cropping up, despite your previous efforts to
address it.
C. Identify and acknowledge the contributions of each team member to the last
iteration.
D. Decide what to do about the root causes of a complicated problem you have been
analyzing.
Question 16

When talking to the sponsor of your project, you refer to the lead time for a feature. She says, "Let’s
get our terms straight—what exactly do you mean by ‘lead time’?" How do you respond?

A. It’s the duration of all the development iterations added together.

B. It’s the time required to complete a deliverable, from eliciting requirements to
deployment.
C. It’s the time required to build and test a user story.
D. It’s the time required to deliver one part of the solution, from planning the
development effort through customer acceptance.
Question 17

You work for an electronics manufacturing company and have been asked to lead a team that will be
researching video compression for high-definition monitors. Your first task is to select the team
room for the project. Which option would be best?

A. A large room containing eight modular cubicles that can be moved around or
changed as needed.
B. A quiet hallway off the main passage with ten offices and a small meeting room/
private space.
C. A suite of small rooms on the corporate floor near the project sponsor’s office.
D. An open space in an old manufacturing building with high windows, brick walls, and
large floor-to-ceiling pillars every ten feet.
Question 18

The large insurance company you work for announces a major change initiative based on the kaizen
approach used at Toyota. Several departments are being realigned, merged, or split off, and
senior management is being reshuffled. How would you interpret this news?

A. A kaizen improvement system should help enhance our responsiveness to the rapid
pace of change in the insurance markets.
B. Kaizen works great at Toyota, hopefully this will increase our profits, and therefore
my bonus, this year.
C. Whoever came up with this plan doesn’t understand what kaizen means.
D. Can kaizen really help us improve if people and departments are just being shuffled
around?
Question 19

Your newspaper’s annual restaurant guide must be completed by the deadline for the Spring Dining
insert four weeks from now. However, after a round of layoffs last year, the team you are leading
is smaller than in the past. You know there won’t be enough time to research all the restaurants
and update their profiles. What should you do?

A. Ask your editor to delay the Spring Dining insert by two weeks.
B. Recycle the profiles that were used last year, updating only the most popular
restaurants.
C. Make the profiles simpler so they don’t require as much research, and instead add
more photographs and maps.
D. Present the best solutions the team has come up with to your editor, and let him
decide what to do.
Question 20

What characteristic would be most important to have in a persona?

A. Relevant
B. Testable
C. Collaborative
D. Verifiable
Question 21

The product owner is overscheduled and hasn’t been available to meet with your lean team for over
a month. Fortunately, the team understands his priorities and has been able to continue making
progress anyway. However, there are now three features that haven’t been accepted yet, and
soon there will be four. The team can keep going like this for a while, but the longer they have to
wait for feedback and approval, the more likely it is that they will get off track. What is the
problem here?

A. This shows why it is problematic to defer decisions for too long.

B. The team’s pull system needs more feedback from the product owner.
C. This team needs to get better at making local decisions.
D. This is an example of the lean waste "waiting."
Question 22

What isn’t a way that incremental delivery can help a team stay adaptable while they are building
the product?

A. We gather lessons learned and adapt our approach after each iteration.
B. We get new direction from the project sponsor after each deliverable.
C. We build the solution in steps and learn more about it with each increment.
D. We get useful feedback from the customer in each product demo.
Question 23

Cal-Pic is a start-up calorie tracking app for Android. Users will take pictures of their food, and the
app will identify the food and estimate the portion size. The venture capital company that is
funding the app’s development faces a number of challenges, including monetizing the app,
teaching the app to distinguish between food and patterns on the plate, and responding to patent
challenges from the rival app I8Wot. The delivery team suggests several spikes that could be
undertaken to mitigate some of these challenges. Which of these proposed spikes would be least
helpful?

A. A marketing spike to test different price points for the premium version of the app
that has no advertising.
B. A development spike to test whether the app can identify common plate designs and
learn to ignore them.
C. A legal spike to test the waters with I8Wot’s parent company to see if they would
enter into merger talks.
D. A marketing spike to test the likely demand for the app based on click-through ads.
Question 24

As ScrumMaster, one of your team members is persistently late to the daily stand-up. You have tried
reminding him about it, but he’s still late half of the time. What should you do?

A. Talk to him one-on-one to determine why he is late so often, then decide what to do.
B. To avoid singling him out, raise this as an issue for the entire team at the next
retrospective.
C. The next time he’s late, pause the meeting to point out that his behavior is
impacting everyone.
D. Propose that the team move their stand-up to a later time so everyone can attend.
Question 25

Your team is having a really productive retrospective, and after generating ideas, you have several
flip chart pages full of improvement ideas. Someone suggests using dot voting next. What would
this help you accomplish?

A. Make sure you aren’t missing anything on the list.

B. Refine the ideas before deciding what to do.
C. Figure out which actions to take next.
D. Narrow the options down to those that are most useful.
Question 26

A team that is designing GPS- and RFID-based pet trackers is estimating their backlog of work for
the next iteration of an upcoming release. They have documented the release requirements as
stories and are now estimating the work in story points. How should they proceed?

A. Estimate each story, then add up all the story estimates and allocate that time to the
component tasks.
B. Roughly size each story, then add up all the stories and add a realistic multiplier
based on past experience.
C. Estimate the tasks, then add up those estimates to see how much can be done in the
next iteration.
D. Estimate the team’s capacity, then decide how many stories can be done, including a
reasonable buffer for testing and rework.
Question 27

In a story writing workshop, the stakeholders are discussing the merits of a user story they have
just written on a card: "As CFO, I want an online shopping cart, so that I can collect revenue."
The product owner turns to you and asks for your thoughts from a development perspective.
How do you reply?

A. This story isn’t testable.

B. This story isn’t independent.
C. This story lacks the confirmation part of the three Cs.
D. This story looks fine to me.
Question 28

In a story writing workshop, the stakeholders are discussing the merits of a user story they have
just written on a card: "As CFO, I want an online shopping cart, so that I can collect revenue."
The product owner turns to you and asks for your thoughts from a development perspective.
How do you reply?

A. This story isn’t testable.

B. This story isn’t independent.
C. This story lacks the confirmation part of the three Cs.
D. This story looks fine to me.
Question 29

Halfway through the project, the team has reduced the major project risks as much as possible.
There are still some risk response actions in the backlog, but they aren’t a high priority. Then the
product owner calls an urgent meeting with the team to discuss mitigation options for a new risk
she has just discovered. The group comes up with a plan for addressing the new risk and rank it
as likely having a lower impact than the other risk actions in the backlog. What is the most likely
outcome of discovering this new risk?

A. The new risk avoidance work will be completed as soon as possible.

B. The new risk avoidance work is unlikely to ever be completed.
C. The new risk avoidance work will be added to the top of the backlog.
D. Even though the new risk avoidance work isn’t that important, the team will add it to
the next iteration it to keep the product owner happy.
Question 30

What’s the best way to share your team’s progress with other project stakeholders?

A. Hold a weekly scrum of scrum of scrums with other team leaders.

B. Post project data on whiteboards in the team’s space.
C. Invite stakeholders to the team’s stand-up meetings.
D. Conduct an iteration retrospective after each product demo.
Question 31

What is the real purpose of using fist-of-five voting to make decisions?

A. To reach agreement quickly

B. To surface disagreements quickly
C. To reach the best decisions collaboratively
D. To make decisions as efficiently as possible
Question 32

The Kanban team you’re leading has been struggling a bit, to the point where the minimal viable
product might not be ready when the customer needs it. What should you do?

A. Develop some solutions to be tested and explain them to the team.

B. Meet one-on-one to identify the issues, then get the team’s buy-in about the
changes that need to be made.
C. Assign the team to analyze the workflow, identify issues, and come up with some
solutions.
D. Add limits to the Kanban board so you can visualize and monitor the workflow more
closely.
Question 33

Why don’t agile teams use a planning poker card for every number?

A. To estimate in ideal time

B. To keep the estimates coarse-grained
C. To provide an iterative estimating process
D. To minimize bias in the estimates
Question 34

What is the most important reason why agile teams want to deliver a minimal viable product as soon
as possible?

A. To reduce risk as quickly as possible

B. To produce a fast return on investment
C. To maintain visibility with project stakeholders
D. To satisfy the end users as early as possible
Question 35

Your team has been asked to evaluate all the credit card payment options for a new online store.
Your initial review has shown that there are over 100 different providers with viable and popular
credit card payment options, but you have a short timeframe in which to do the evaluation.
You’ve decided to use value stream mapping to help address this challenge. What are you hoping
to learn from using that technique?

A. How many options you really need to analyze

B. How to get the best results from your analysis
C. How to investigate the options faster
D. The overall value of the options
Question 36

The team believes it will take about 18 hours to write the workbook for the new course they are
developing, although it could be more or less than that. What should their estimate be for that
task?

A. They will need a 10 percent buffer for distractions and interruptions, so they will
estimate 20 hours.
B. They will estimate 18 hours, and the product owner will reduce it to 15 hours, since
this team tends to overestimate.
C. 15 to 20 hours
D. 18 hours
Question 37

In comparison to traditional projects, using the agile approach doesn’t require:

A. More trust
B. More feedback
C. More customer involvement
D. More detailed reports
Question 38

Your team is just starting to develop an online course in teaching English as a second language. The
subject matter experts who are providing the content haven’t designed an online course before,
and they have lots of creative ideas for complex interactive games and simulated real-world
scenarios. As the web developer on the team, you aren’t sure if some of these ideas are even
possible. You’ve called a meeting with the team to address the situation. What will you say to
them?

A. Let’s select the most promising ideas to build first, then we’ll proceed from there.
B. We need to narrow down the ideas and focus on those that we already know are
workable.
C. I need more detailed information about exactly what you want me to build.
D. Just give me the final content, we don’t have time to experiment with all these off-
the-wall ideas.
Question 39

Agile methods aim to____________.

A. Keep the team fully occupied

B. Keep stakeholders involved in the project
C. Keep stakeholder communications streamlined
D. Let the team relax and get acclimated at the start of the project
Question 40

You are a developer for a small team working on solar energy projects for off-the grid housing. The
technology is new and changing frequently, which brings technical compatibility and supply chain
risks for providing turnkey solutions. You have been asked to track these risks using a risk
burndown graph. Ideally, what will you be hoping to see on the top line of that graph?

A. A steep downward trend early in the project

B. A steady, consistent upward trend
C. A steep upward trend early in the project
D. A steady, consistent downward trend
Question 41

What isn’t one of the key practices recommended for XP teams?

A. Pair programming
B. Small releases
C. Co-located teams
D. Planning games
Question 42

After a first year that saw a lot of struggle and conflict, the agile team you’re leading finally appears
to have hit their stride. It seems all you have to do is show them a target and they get it done.
You breathe a big sigh of relief, and start focusing on more pressing issues. But then you start to
wonder if there’s something else you should be doing to help them stay on track. What would be
most helpful now?

A. Schedule quarterly performance reviews to give each team member specific

feedback about how they can improve.
B. Take them to lunch to let them know their hard work is appreciated.
C. Trust them to get the work done, but watch to make sure they don’t slip back into
conflict.
D. There’s nothing else you need to do; once a team becomes self-directing it’s fine to
turn your attention elsewhere.
Question 43

Cory, the team coach, has communicated to the team what work will need to be completed in the
next iteration; now they just need to figure out how to get it done. How would you describe this
scenario?

A. The iteration planning process is proceeding smoothly.

B. Cory is overstepping his role.
C. Cory is taking over the product owner’s responsibilities.
D. The team should claim more responsibility for planning in their next retrospective.
Question 44

As a Scrum-Master, you’ve been advocating that your firm adopt agile methods for some time.
Finally, your efforts pay off—a Scrum approach has just been approved for your next project.
While congratulating you on this achievement, the CEO says, "Of course, the usual Scrum
practices will need to be tailored for our company before your team begins work." How do you
respond to him?

A. Absolutely. Customizing our Scrum practices upfront will streamline the adoption
process.
B. Sure, that will be a good learning opportunity for the team, since they haven’t used
Scrum before.
C. We’re not ready for that yet. We should wait until we see where the team runs into
difficulties.
D. That wouldn’t be a good idea. The team should start by using the standard Scrum
practices.
Question 45

Carlo is the product owner of a creative app that turns cell phone photos into a pattern of fractal and
geometric shapes that can be colored in. He’s having difficulty explaining his vision to the
development team. Instead of listening, they just talk about feature extraction and edge
detection models. How can Carlo best communicate with the team to achieve his goals?

A. Document the product vision and circulate it to the team so they can read them
without interruption.
B. Hold a requirements workshop to explain the product vision and listen to the team’s
feedback.
C. Have a one-on-one conversation with the team coach to find out why the team isn’t
understanding the vision.
D. At the next planning meeting, develop a definition of done for the product with the
team.
Question 46

The director of marketing, Uwe, is a key stakeholder on your project to develop a new insulin pump.
One morning he stops you, the team leader, in the hallway and says, "I just saw the backlog,
and we have a problem! We need to move story 4.6A to the top of the list right away—this
feature is critical for marketing our device to health insurers." How should you respond?

A. Respond politely, and then ignore the request since Uwe shouldn’t even be seeing
the team’s backlog, never mind prioritizing it.
B. Explain that you can’t do that because agile teams develop the features that add the
most business value first.
C. Since this puts you in a tricky political situation, respond noncommittally and tell
your sponsor about the conversation.
D. Tell Uwe you will pass his request on to the product owner, who will decide what to
do about it.
Question 47

The project sponsor walks into the team room looking for a quick update. Which tool will tell her how
much work the team is actually getting done in each sprint?

A. Velocity chart
B. Project roadmap
C. Kanban board
D. Risk-adjusted backlog
Question 48

Your team is slicing their user stories. Why are they doing this?

A. To estimate the stories while planning the next release

B. To update their release roadmap based on the latest estimates
C. To size the work they plan to do in the next iteration
D. To make sure all the stories are a manageable size
Question 49

Which key agile principle or value is the reason for holding regular retrospectives?

A. People over processes

B. Inspect and adapt
C. Responding to change over following a plan
D. Face-to-face communication
Question 50

When coaching an agile team, what is an important ground rule to keep in mind?

A. Make sure the team members get along well.

B. Gain the approval of each team member.
C. Try to respect each member of the team.
D. Encourage the team to partner with their managers.
Question 51

You’ve worked in software development for years and have now volunteered to lead the agile
adoption effort of a local nonprofit organization that coordinates volunteers at food banks. The
leaders of the organization are completely unfamiliar with agile but are eager to learn. You take
the PMI-ACP exam to evaluate whether to include exam preparation in the agile training program
you’re planning for them. What do you conclude?

A. The exam tests basic ideas applied to sophisticated scenarios.

B. The exam tests technical details on simple projects.
C. The exam tests basic concepts in a holistic way.
D. The exam tests basic information in a realistic test environment.