 PMP Simulation Exam (https://cambridgeeducationonline.talentlms.

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INCORRECT

A startup needs to quickly expand its product portfolio to meet market demand. Recently, staff might
work on two or three agile teams, each dedicated to a different product line. Output is dropping and
defect rates are rising in all teams. 

How can the project manager help the agile teams improve their work? (Select TWO.)

 Perform root-cause analysis in the next retrospectives

Influence the product owners to right-size their portfolios

Organize dedicated teams to reduce context switching

Appoint dedicated test teams to offload the agile teams

 Train the agile teams to improve time and focus management

The scenario leads to conclude that the main problem is high context switching when working on
multiple teams which is resolved by 100% dedicated teams. Root-cause analysis would pinpoint
this and other problems to address. Distractors are either counter to good business practices
(right-size portfolios), counter to agile (dedicated test teams) or not addressing the root cause
(time/focus management).

INCORRECT
A governmental anti-money laundering software project needs a solution to  collaborate with a remote
agile team of four in another country. Spontaneous verbal communication between the teams must be
supported. All the remote team's workstations and kanban boards must be visible at all times.

Which virtual team collaboration solution is most appropriate?

Information radiator monitors

On-demand video conferencing

 Workstation screen mirroring

Always-on fishbowl windows

This is a project where confidentiality and security are ccritical - thus permanent monitoring of
remote resources is necessary. Only the fishbowl solution would have the required field of view
on a permanent basis. Radiators only display content, on-demand video conferencing would not
be a permanent video feed, and mirroring only displays 1 computer screen, not the environment.

INCORRECT

A consultant has advised an IT director to use a DevOps approach to a migration project. The IT director
wants to understand how the necessary speed can be achieved in a safe way.

Which examples could demonstrate how DevOps can  reduce incidents and speed up deployment at the
same time? {Choose TWO.)

Virtualization of all systems and software containers

Early collaboration between operations and development

 Machine Learning based development and deployment

Developers test at deployment sites before operations

 Automation of operations and development

Development and operations collaboration (early and constant) and automation of both domains
is at the heart of DevOps. Virtualization and machine learning are enablers of efficiency but not
DevOps methods. Dev testing on deployment sites is impractical and inefficient.

INCORRECT

The last three agile iterations showed a trend of increasingly prolonged test work.

Which activity should the project manager plan to address the root cause?

 Adopt test automation tools

 Plan an iteration of testing only

Practice a paired testing policy

Plan more backlog refinement

Prolonged tests can be due to overly complex stories. Backlog refinement is used to break down
complex stories into smaller packages. Distractors do not address the root cause.

INCORRECT

An agile innovation team is highly productive. However, the Head of Operations informs the product
owner the company is not getting sustainable return on investment from the team's work. 

How should the product owner address the problem?

 Define a Minimum Viable Product with the team and prioritize relevant backlog items

Reduce the number of team members as necessary to guarantee a positive return on investiment

Identify Minimum Marketable Features and prioritize relevant backlog items

Work with the project manager to run a retrospective and perform project cancellation

Frequent release of smaller incremental products is the fastest way to get return on investment.
Minimum Marketable Features are ready for public launch, whereas MVP is a release that has just
enough to function. Reducing the team would not allow to accelerate value as needed in this
case.

INCORRECT

A cultural event project has distinct work packages of varying durations comprised of tasks which cannot
be predictably scheduled.

What agile approach would be appropriate in this case?

Flow-based

 Incremental

Predictive

Extreme

A flow-based is the only listed approach that can use pull-based scheduling to handle
unpredictable task start conditions on an ad-hoc basis.
INCORRECT

Members of a virtual agile team are separated by seven timezones. Daily meetings are too long and the
problem is made worse by switching laptop cameras between the speaking members.

Which measures should the project manager take to achieve shorter, more efficient daily meetings?
(Select TWO).

Use the iteration reviews to discuss the kanban board

Require all members to stand during the full meeting

 Place webcams to face the kanban boards and teams

 Ask the team members to raise blockers off-line

Limit speakers to only members who have made progress

Standing meetings limited to to one webcam per group has been shown to reduce meeting times
without losing efficiency. Distractors are wrong because they remove key content of the meeting
(kanban review, blockers and the three qeustions per member.

CORRECT

The agile team is tasked with building a senior-friendly version of a smartphone shopping application.
Marketing has not been able to find any volunteer test users fitting the profile. 

Which option would be most effective to ensure the best product value is delivered?

Examine evaluations of similar competitor products

Ask senior relatives what price point they want

Remove eye glasses when testing the user interface

 Ask the team to run friendly tests with senior relatives

Agile favors user feedback from using the product over formal data collection processes or
competitor analysis. Distractors are not correct because simulating the experience of bad
eyesight and gathering price point are too narrowly focused.

INCORRECT

The product owner's schedule is very tight and he wishes to delegate some of his tasks to the experienced
agile team.

Which task is suitable to delegate to the agile team?

Prioritize items to the backlog according to size

 Initiate and run backlog refinement sessions

 Select prioritized items for the sprint backlog

Add items to the backlog before prioritization

The product owner typically has sole authority to prioritize and plan the backlog according to
business needs. Refinement also requires prioritization. Adding items can be delegated, and the
product owner would prioritize at a later time.

INCORRECT

A Scrum innovation team is funded at varying levels by six market units. Four niche market units
complain they are neglected because the team prioritizes mainstream unit goals. The CMO asks to devote
a constant 40% of the team effort to the four niche units in a balanced way. 

How can the product owner support this request?

 Group stories by unit, select 40% of niche stories to work on at each sprint

Split stories into mainstream or niche groups, plan 40% of niche story points at each sprint

Group stories by unit, plan 10% of story points per niche unit at each sprint

Split stories into mainstream or niche groups, plan 10% of mainstream storiies at each sprint

The requirement is to devote 40 % of effort (story points) to each of the four niche units at every
iteration. Group by unit: 4 niche + 6 mainstream 40% story points / 4 units = 10%

INCORRECT

Six months into a strategic agile project, company exectives are closely monitoring its progress. The COO
expresses his frustration that the last weekly burn-down charts show the projected completion date
significantly moving back and forward several times.

How can the project manager forecast the completion date with more accuracy and stability?

Ensure upcoming backlog items are elaborated in more detail with the team.

Educate the executive committee on the flexible nature of agile planning.

 Plan for variable-size iterations according to story complexity and load.

Reduce frequency of the progress reports sent to senior stakeholders.

Erratic progress curve variations are typical of inconsistent or uninformed story point estimates.
Backlog refinement can ensure that overly complex stories are broken down and that past
 progress informs new story estimates. Distractors are false because they either ignore
stakeholder needs or violate agile timeboxing principle (variable-size iterations).

INCORRECT

A security-classified, agile software project requires outside expertise and delivery to add a module based
on machine learning. An approved supplier asks the project manager to join the daily meeting with the
supplier's agile team, but the project manager's schedule is too full with internal meetings.

How could the two teams synchronize interactively but somewhat less frequently?

Set up fishbowl windows at each site

Add and execute a Scrum of Scrum layer

 Align iterations for common retrospectives

Share a common electronic Kanban

The Scrum of Scrum allows both teams to have their own daily meetings while adding a more
targeted meeting between them at a less frequent pace. Distractors are inappropriate because of
security concerns (fishbowl), low frequency and pertinence (retrospectives) or lack of live
interaction (Kanban).

INCORRECT

In an agile project, too many meetings have made the product owner's schedule unworkable. The product
owner wants to prioritize some meetings and decrease frequency of others.

Which meetings should be prioritized to better ensure successful product development?  (Choose TWO.)

 Project performance reviews

Sprint backlog planning

Daily stand-up meetings

Team blocker brainstorming

 End-user feedback sessions

The Agile puts the customer as highest priority, which translates to end-user satisfaction and
focus on delivery. One of the product owner's main responsibilities is backlog planning.

INCORRECT
Two startups have merged and now have more than 100 developers on eight agile teams working on a
common portfolio. 

Which agile practice can best ensure release coordination between the teams?

Scrum of Scrums

 Mobbing

Scrumban

Feature-Driven Development

FDD provides the most complete set of methods specifically for the needs of large software
development projects. Distractors provide fewer software-specific methods.

CORRECT

The legal team informs the product owner that another company owns a patent for an innovation used in
the agile team's product, now 75% complete.

What should the product owner do to determine the appropriate way forward?

Work with the legal department to find markets where the patent is not registered

 Perform marginal economics analyisis and identify minimum releasable features

Terminate project immediately to prevent any further sunken costs

Continue work on the product after removing the patented component

A foundational assumption to release the product is now a show-stopper. Marginal economic

analysis determines if there is a viable way forward. Identifying minimal releasable features can
mitigate the economic loss. Distractors are either unrealistic (unpatented markets, removing
component) or uninformed (terminate project).

INCORRECT

A project manager is visiting a software supplier's office. Some of the sights are surprising: two people per
workstation, estimations based on a deck of cards, developers forcing their tests to fail, and routines with
names such as "traffic_cop" and "ringleader". 

What could explain these practices?

The servant leader has granted the team a bit too much freedom

The supplier has adopted eXtreme Programming methods

 The supplier appears to be conducting gamified training sessions

The project manager happened to visit during a team building exercise

eXtreme Programming practices include pair programming (2 per workstation), planning poker,
test-first programming, and metaphor naming of processes.

INCORRECT

A client selected a software company to develop a smartphone application. The client's legal team
required a detailed source code register for all builds, and refused the company's counter-offer for walk-
through meetings and free developer support. 60% of the project effort was spent on documentation and
15% on implementing 38 feature changes.

How many of the of the Four Values of the Agile Manifesto were upheld in this project?

 zero

one

three

four

The scenario runs counter to three of the four agile values:

- individuals/interactions over
processes: meetings and developer support refused
- working software over documention: 60%
effort on documentation
- customer collaboration over contracts: imposed legal requirements
One value upheld:
- responding to change over plan: numerous changes implemented with little
effort

INCORRECT

After three agile iterations showed a trend of increasingly prolonged test work, the team performed an
intensive backlog refinement.

What metrics would show that the problem was effectively addressed?

Increase in value per story

Speed of impediment resolution

Stories completed per iteration

 Decrease in backlog item count

Refinement results in smaller, less complex stories, which allows the team to complete them
faster. Distractors are either irrelevant to the story complexity (impediment resolution ), illogical
 (smaller stories would typically have lower value) or not in line with agile practices (backlogs
continue to grow in items with further constant refinement.)

CORRECT

Over the past six months, the cost per story has risen by more than 250% due to a faulty platform which is
no longer supported. The agile project is projected to exceed the budget increment threshold at the next
iteration.

Who should decide if the project should be cancelled?

The head of business control

 The product owner

The procurement manager

The project manager

The product owner acts as the sponsor in agile projects and therefore has the authority to decide
if conditions warrant termination of a project.

CORRECT

Several items remain in the kanban blocked column despite the team's efforts to address them. The
retrospective reveals that all the impediments can be traced back to a particular department head, one
the project manager has tried to educate previously but who still shows resistance.

What should the project manager do next? 

Ask the department head for budgetary compensation proportional to the delays incurred due to lack of
cooperation

 Use stakeholder analysis to identify an aligned senior stakeholder to influence the department head

Ask the team members to find other stakeholders who can help work around the department head's barriers

Set up an information radiator ranking stakeholders according to their active support of the project goals

If stakeholders remain resistant despite the project manager's efforts it can be a case where
escalation is required. Distractors are wrong because: - the project manager normally would have
to resolve problems within an established budget
- bypassing the stakeholder does not address
the root cause, which would be likely to resurface
- public "shaming" by rank does not promote
trust and cooperation

INCORRECT
The project manager is using the INVEST method to check the quality of three stories in the product
backlog:

Story 1: As a user, I want to be able to bend the flex conduit up to 90° in any direction to orient lighting
from a fixed position.
Story 2: As a user, I want to exert no more than 4 MPa to bend the flex conduit from an unsupported
standing postion.
Story 3: As a assembler, I want to spray a conduit coating that will inhibit all oxidation when exposed to 50
years of tropical rain conditions. 

What is the evaluation result for these stories?

 Stories 1 and 2 fail on the V criterion and Story 3 fails on the N criterion

All stories fail on the I criterion and Story 3 also fails on the V criterion

Stories 1 and 2 pass all criteria and Story 3 fails on the T criterion

All stories fail on all except the S and T criteria

Story 3 is not testable (T) because the tests cannot realistically last for 50 years. If simulated, the
test approach should be stated in the story.

INCORRECT

An efficient, empowered agile innovation team do not understand why required approvals from the legal
department are allowed to delay their progess. Eventually, the team confronts the product owner in a
heated retrospective exchange. The product owner replies that the approvals are needed to check for
existing patents which would block the team's product from going to market.

How should such conflicts be prevented?

Require that supporting department stakeholders attend the daily meetings to report progress

Ensure that the product owner can be easily approached to respond to team questions and concerns

 Require the team to move a story to the kanban blocked column if they have concerns about progress

Ensure that the product owner presents the team the rationale behind the refinement work flow

The conflict is due to a lack of communication as well as inaction to prevent delay. The most
comprehensive response is to ensure constant communication between the team and product
owner. Distractors are incorrect because unrealistic (daily meetings), inefficient (blocked column)
or incomplete (refinement rationale).

CORRECT

During sprint planning, some new backlog items are prioritized but not estimated. The product owner
requires a new set of tests to verify unique properties of the items. 
What should happen before adding it to the sprint backlog?

Use analogous estimating based on similar tests on similar stories

The product owner defines a new epic to allow testing in the next sprint

 Add the relevant acceptance criteria in the definition of ready, then estimate

The product owner should provide the initial estimate to be refined by the team

Specific acceptance criteria should be defined and checked in the definition of ready of any
impacted item before estimation to ensure all effort is accounted for. Distractors are wrong
because counter to agile (testing across sprints, PO estimate) or illogical (analogous estimating
cannot address unique properties).

INCORRECT

As part of an organizational change program, an experienced agile project manager is hired to a company
with a strong predictive culture.

What should the project manager do to start helping the company adopt agile methodologies? (Choose
TWO.)

Ensure that the MoSCoW method is used to write all project requirements

Analyze all planned projects to pick the appropriate agile model

Show stakeholders how agile can increase quality and decrease risk

 Train project teams to be more self-reliant and cross-functional

 Identify opportunities for incremental business value delivery

Agile adoption is enabled through communicating and demonstrating its benefits. Distractors
describe approaches that are either incomplete (MoSCoW), or premature ( replan all projects and
self-reliant teams).

INCORRECT

The marketing director is displeased that the agile innovation team is producing too many novelty
products with too little business value.

What should the project manager do to correct the team's approach? (Select TWO.) 

Work with the product owners to tighten value criteria in the definition of ready
 Ask the team to take a training course on direct response marketing

 Increase the story sizes to integrate more valuable features

 Survey end users and integrate resulting value rank into the product backlog

Add a process so the marketing director can approve each story

The DOR and user value ranking in the backlog address the root problem of not focussing on
value. Distractors are wrong because large stories are bad practice, marketing comes after value,
and approval of all stories is inefficient and not agile.

INCORRECT

An innovative product fails to satisfy targeted consumers despite significant investments in quality
control and marketing campaigns.

Which agile practice would best prevent future failures of this nature?

Run continuous consumer usability testing on product releases

Align objectives between the product owner and marketing

Broaden the persona type definition of the target consumer

 Add more features and tests to the Minimal Viable Product

Continuous user testing and feedback is the most effective way to align requirements to user
needs, and integrate them incrementally into product releases. Distractors are wrong because
marketing also relies on user feedback, a broader persona would dilute focus and relevance, and
the MVP should not include features of unknown appeal.

INCORRECT

Over the past six months, the development cost per story has risen by more than 250% due to a faulty
platform which is no longer supported. The product vision highlights that unique features of the platform
are a pre-requisite for the product.

What should the project manager do to determine next steps?

Cancel the project due to exceeding the budget constraint

 Ask the product owner to select an alternative platform

Cancel the project as the product vision cannot be fulfilled

Run what-if cost impact scenarios with the product owner

 Foundational assumptions for the product can no longer be fulfilled in an economically
sustainable way. The product owner will need analysis of the possible scenarios to determine if
the project can be continued. Distractors are either uninformed (immediate cancellation) or not in
line with the product vision (alternative platform).

INCORRECT

An agile team is subject to frequent rotation of staff from various departments to augment the team. 

How should the project manager compensate for the disruption to the non-rotating team members?

 Give them authority to assign tasks to the rotating members

Ask staff leaving the project to pick members who deserve recognition

Give them higher priority to choose which tasks they work on

Require staff leaving the project to run a knowledge sharing workshop

One of the most disruptive factors to the team is loss of skills - knowledge sharing workshops
would mitigate this and help develop the team to be more cross-functional. Distractors are wrong
because team members should be equally respected with no differences in authority, priority or
personal favoritism.

INCORRECT

An efficient agile team in a large corporation generated ideas and added innovative features to the
backlog. After the additional features were tested and complete, the portfolio owner rejects all of them. 

What is the most likely reason this situation happened?

 The team did not make use of the normal quality control processes

The portfolio owner does not want to pay for the team's unplanned work

The team would be entitled to intellectual property rights on the features

The product owner did not sufficiently align the ideas with the portfolio owner

The product owner is reponsible for ensuring that the product meets business objectives, which
could be set by a portfolio owner. Distractors are wrong because:
- quality processes are
irrelevant if the product is not providing desired business value
- payment for unwanted work also
points to the product owner's lack of alignment
- IPR is owned by the funding organization

CORRECT
A travel company wants to create smartphone applications for their users. Competitors are racing to do
the same. The product owner's vision describes several versions of the app: Basic, Basic Ad-free, Pro, and
Premium.

Which project approach is best suited to the company's needs?

Flow-based

 Incremental

Predictive

Iterative

The product bundling goes from least amount of features (Basic) to the highest (Premium). An
incremental approach allows to release the Basic product quickly to mitigate competitive time
pressure, and gradually release each bundle by adding the next set of features. Distractors
include approaches that would not be structured to gradually build and release features.

INCORRECT

The Project Management Office wants to offer constant reporting across the dozens of agile projects
running concurrently. They want to use information radiators to share  progress status and key lessons
learned.

How can this best be achieved?

Place monitors displaying combined feature burn-up charts and a digest of retrospectives

 Use fishbowl windows to show all project teams' kanban boards and charts in real time

Place webcams to broadcast all kanban boards and cycle the images sequentially on the radiator

Set up an internal wiki page which all agile teams update in real time and users consult on demand

The feature burn-up chart can be used as a common measure of progress and lessons learned
are recorded in retrospectives. Information radiators are physical displays used to share up-to-
date information across the organization. They are not live cams exclusively (fishbowl and
webcam distractors) and the information in not on demand (wiki page)

INCORRECT

An ongonig agile project is measured as follows:

2-week  Stories  Stories   Planned Completed 

Sprint  Planned  Completed  Value    Value
  1       15        10       450K     300K        
  2       20        18       600K     540K     
  3       20        25       800K    1000K        
  4       22        25      1100K    1250K 

What conclusions can be drawn from these figures? (Choose TWO.)

The team worked less efficiently over time

The backlog was priroritized for time to value

 The team kept a steady rate of efficiency

The backlog was not prioritized for time to value

 The team worked more efficiently over time

The chart shows that value increases over time (meaning late time to value) when dividing
planned value/storied planned. The SPI above 1 (stories completed/stories planned) shows that
the team completed more stories faster over time.

CORRECT

The agile team excels at solving technical problems, but when the product owner requests creative or
business-related ideas, the team falls silent.

Is this a problem?

Yes, specialist teams are prone to higher error rates

No, specialist teams are more effective than generalists

 Yes, lack of diversity will limit the team's adaptability

No, the team performs better without useless distractions

T-shaped skills are desired in agile teams to ensure that a broad set of skills allows the team to
work more independently and with greater ability to adapt to changing needs.

INCORRECT

The quarterly results show that competitors are driving prices down. The company is losing market share
and midway into a product development project, it appears the sponsoring unit is not likely to get return
on their investment.

What should the project manager do adapt the project to these new conditions?  (Select TWO.) 

Incrementally replace local staff by outside expert staff who can work at half the hourly rate or less

Re-scope the project to deliver the same features as the competitors to match their pricing
 Make a cost/benefit analysis of deliverables to optimize delivery cost and speed

 Fast-track the remainder of the project to deliver the intended scope with less overhead costs.

 Split out an agile track to incrementally maximize value within a fixed budget

Cost/benefit analysis and fixed-budget incremental development are correct because they
address the loss of profitability without disruption to business.

CORRECT

The agile team surpassed the planned number of stories in the last three agile iterations.

How can the project manager be sure all the work performed is truly complete?

Ask the product owner if results are satisfactory

 Check results against the definition of done

Ask the team to cross-check other members' work

Check the results of all the tests performed

The Definition of Done lists all criteria that must be met to consider a task/story completed.
Distractors may be part of the criteria in the DoD, but are not complete enough in themselves.

CORRECT

The startup has grown quickly and there are now four agile teams working on interrelated products. All
teams have begun to experience impediments and gaps relating to work in other teams. 

How should the problem be addressed?

Eliminate dependencies between teams

Favor collaboration tools over meetings

 Implement a Scrum of Scrum layer

Merge into two large teams to reduce issues

Scrum of Scrums is most effective coordinate work between teams working on interrelated
products. Distractors are wrong because unrealistic (removal of dependencies), against agile
practices (large teams) or less effective (collaboration tools).

INCORRECT
User testing on the last product release revealed low user interest in certain features that required
significant effort to develop. 

What can the agile team do to prevent this disparity in the future?

Ask the product owner ensure all stories in the backlog support the product vision

 Ensure that user stories in the backlog are broken down into the smallest possible form

Remove all stories from the backlog that are not selected for the Minimal Viable Product

Perform stakeholder analysis to find SMEs who can guide the backlog value ranking process

The product was released without sufficient user input or prioritization to ensure it has appeal
and delivers business value. SME input (for example from marketing or market researchers) can
help with ranking the features appropriately. Distractors include vision alignment and story
refinement which are normal agile practices but do not address the prioritization and business
value problem. The MVP does not target user satisfaction, rather it targets basic functionality to
build upon.

INCORRECT

The agile team sometimes has idle periods while awaiting a product director to inform the product owner
on new goals. The decisions depend on analysis of market research. 

Which measure could reconcile the needs of the director and the agile team?

Plan team training events to coincide with the anticipated idle periods

After clearing the backlog, run market research spikes to update the director

Eliminate slack by reducing the team size to smooth the output curve

 Run team brainstorming sessions on new goals to suggest to the director

Running market research spikes supports the product director and helps build and diversify team
skills. Distractors are wrong because the idle periods cannot be predictable enough to plan
events, reducing output is against productivity, and the team's ideas would not provide market
facts needed to make informed product development decisions.

CORRECT

Four of the five agile team members are away for a month, but the project needs to make progress. Three
foreign contractors are working remotely on the stories. In their first sprint, they  misinterpreted certain
usability requirements, but completed five stories blocked due to algorithmic complexity.

What should the product owner do?

 Engage an interpretor to translate all the requirements

Assign all the usability stories to the local team member

 Reprioritize the backlog to match the remote team's skills

Find another remote team with better linguistic skills.

The project manager should leverage the remote team flling skill gaps of the the local team.
Distractors are wrong because: - interpretor can introduce barriers
- the local member may not
have the right skills for the usability stories, and "assigning" is not an agile practice
- hiring another
team would be inefficient for a short period

CORRECT

A frustrated agile team member approaches the project manager to complain that a senior team member
is monopolizing all the "interesting" backlog items. 

How should the project manager address the complaint? 

Encourage the complaining member to take assertiveness training

Discuss the importance of fairness with the senior team member

Define a new rule so members can select an item on a rotating basis

 Ask the team to define new ground rules for work distribution

The conflict, based on a misunderstanding or an unstated assumption is a sign that the team
ground rules are incomplete. Agile teams collaborate to determine their own ways of working.

INCORRECT

During estimating, the team is discussing an item in the backlog. It becomes clear that the item can be
done in different ways but the best way is not obvious. 

What should the team do to progress on this item?

 Add ranked alternatives to the backlog

Select the cheapest alternative to build

Add a new spike item to the backlog

Select the fastest alternative to build

 The spike is correct because items should be sufficiently researched (to determine the best way
to deliver business value and phrase sufficiently detailed, testable stories. Distractors are
incorrect because counter to the method (ranked alternatives) or not properly weighing the
business value aspects.

INCORRECT

A company is losing market share to disruptive competitors with new business models. A cross-functional
agile team has been formed to recommend ways to recover market share.

How can the team increase their chance of producing successful recommendations? 

Gain a deep understanding of why customers are disappointed by the company's products

 Focus on enabling profitable delivery of unique, high-quality and innovative products

Understand how the competitors' business models can reach more consumers at a lower cost

Focus on understanding the value consumers seek and the value competitors offer

The first principle of the Agile Manifesto focuses on value: "Our highest priority is to satisfy the
customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software." Markets are driven by the
value consumers attribute to the offerings. Distractors are wrong because analysis is incomplete
if only focusing on lost business (disappointed customers), market reach (competitors) or an
uninformed push for innovation and profitability.

CORRECT

An agile project is structured without timeboxing. Tasks are grouped by high-level goal, but cannot be
predictably scheduled.

How can the work be distributed for efficient execution? (Choose THREE.)

 Track readiness status to help the team initiate tasks at the right time.

Set deadlines to ensure that the team completes the work in acceptable limits.

 Use a task board to group tasks into rows and track progress across columns.

 Maintain a to do task pool to limit the number of tasks in progress.

Pre-indentify blockers to determine the order of execution.

Work distribution in a flow-based agile approach can be more efficient if:

- task triggering is
constantly monitored to reduce lag
- the task board dsplays progress stages in columns,
potentially with tasks grouped by rows
- a pool of tasks to do limits the number of concurrent
 tasks in progress
Distractors are against agile practices (deadlines) or unrealistic (anticipate
blockers).

INCORRECT

A project manager wants to know if there is a good combination of T-shaped skills in the agile team.

What can the project manager measure to determine this? 

Decrease in detected defects

Reduction in reassigned tasks

Less internal knowledge sharing

 More collaboration with SMEs

When teams include several T-shaped members, there is less hand-off of tasks because members
can collaborate to complete the work. The distractors describe conditions in I-shaped teams:
higher focus on defects, shared skillsets where knowledge sharing is not effective and a need for
more external expertise on areas out of the specialization.

INCORRECT

An agile team needs to decide who should represent them in the Scrum of Scrums.

Which criteria should be used to select the best-suited team member?

How well the member knows the work in the other teams

How well the member applies their depth of expertise

How convincing the member is as a public speaker

 How long they have been working with Agile methods

The most important factor to effectively collaborate between teams in a Scrum of Scrum is to
understand the work across the teams, not only representative's team. This knowledge promotes
effective coordination to identify and resolve dependencies and impediments. The other qualities
are mainly important within the team (expertise and influence).

CORRECT

Marketing wants to be first to market to launch a senior-friendly version of a smartphone shopping

application, and has asked the agile team to develop it.

What should the project manager do to begin the development process?

 Work with the product owners and SMEs to break the requirements down into stories

Meet with product owner, team and SMEs to identify risks and risk responses

Ask the team to estimate the effort and build the business case accordingly

 Meet with product owner, team and SMEs to define the Minimal Viable Product

The requirement to be first to market implies that an MVP will be needed to enhance as quickly as
possible. The MVP requirements can then be broken down and enhanced with later feature
requirements. In the distractors the business case can be assumed to exist since marketing is
funding the project. Risk identification and responses is performed incrementally while the agile
project advances.

CORRECT

An R&D executive occasionally visits the agile team's work area to give instructions about urgent feature
work. During sprint reviews, the product owner becomes upset that the team worked on the requested
features.

How should the project manager address the problem?

Escalate to ensure that the executive no longer interferes with the team

 Meet with the executive and product owner to agree on a work flow

Require that the executive issues change requests for new items

Give the executive access to add new items to the backlog

In this case, the executive stakeholder is by-passing the product owner and creating disruption.
An working agreement between the executive and the product owner is needed to restore order.
Distractors are either counter to agile (escalation and change requests) or undermines the
product owner role (direct backlog access).

CORRECT

At the end of an Agile project, all stories are completed on schedule and all tests passed, but the customer
does not consider the product a success.

Which is the most effective way to prevent this outcome in future projects?

Ensure that the product vision is approved by the customer before developing the backlog

Agree with the customer on success criteria to be integrated to the Definition of Done

 Collect customer feedback on incremental release demos and user tests

 Ensure that the test plan includes non-functional requirements in the backlog

Continuous and incremental customer/user feedback is the best way to ensure that the product
addresses identified and non-identified needs throughout its development. Distractors are wrong
because the product vision and success criteria do not capture non-expressed requirements, and
non-functional requirements must always be included.

INCORRECT

A client stakeholder shows signs of resistance when coordinating delivery work. The agile project manager
suspects that the automation in the delivered product might make the stakeholder's role obsolete.

Which approach would be most effective to reduce resistance?  

Request the client to change the project counterpart to avoid project delays

Ask the stakeholder to express concerns and ensure full transparency

Express empathy directly to the stakeholder to gain cooperation

 Tell the stakeholder that their cooperation and patience are appreciated

Transparency and active listening are key elements to gain trust. Lack of trust is often the root
cause of resistance. In the distractors, empathy and appreciation help gain trust, but they do not
necessarily promote better communication as active listening would. Swapping out the
stakeholder based on an assumption would be unprofessional and damages trust with the client.

INCORRECT

An agile team member solved a problem that had blocked the team for several weeks. After release of the
software, it appears that the solution caused a function to fail. The quality director demands an
explanation.

How should the project manager react? (Choose TWO.)

Ask the team member to present his rationale and lessons learned

 Work with the team to identify gaps in the definition of done

Issue a warning to the team member about not taking risky initiatives

 Work with the team to identify gaps in the definition of ready

Respond to the director that mistakes are inevitable but will be remedied

Agile teams must have accountability for the results of their work. In this case, valuable lessons
learned and context of error are shared. The team will have to collaborate on ways to prevent the
 problem by updating the definition of done, for example, adding checks on external conditions.

INCORRECT

An agile team is struggling to solve a blocking issue with packaging design. Eventually, they find a solution,
but it requires a different product format.

What should the team do before further developing the solution?

 Create a prototype and demo it to the end customer

Ask the product owner to approve the change

Run a cost/benefit analysis to determine its value

Check if the change is consistent with the product vision

This is a case where basic product characteristics may be affected by the change, and might not
be captured in the product vision. The PO is responsible for shaping the product in collaboration
with stakeholders.

INCORRECT

A company is losing market share to disruptive competitors with new business models. The agile team is
asked to restrict the number of features and release them faster to the market.

How will this request impact the planning?

The backlog will be prioritized to deliver basic functionality in small increments

The product vision will be updated to reflect a user-driven release roadmap

Reprioritize the sprint backlog to work on the smallest and simplest stories first

 The increments will be reduced to enable faster product releases

The first principle of the Agile Manifesto focuses on value: "Our highest priority is to satisfy the
customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software." Markets are driven by the
value consumers attribute to the offerings. Distractors are wrong because analysis is incomplete
if only focusing on lost business (disappointed customers), market reach (competitors) or an
uninformed push for innovation and profitability.

CORRECT

The company has hired a new Architectural Excellence board with a mission to promote new
programming paradigms. The agile team continues to work on new and existing software products.
How should the project manager deal with this new development?

Inform the agile team that resulting changes will be postponed as long as possible

Take a wait-and-see approach until the board gives the team explicit instructions

 Invite members of the new board to sprint planning and backlog refinement meetings

Negotiate a quiet period with the board to prevent disruption to the team's work

By inviting the new SMEs to planning meetings, the team obtains early input which can be
considered to adapt for future needs and to avoid future re-work. All distractors propose delaying
access to the new information, which is counter to agile principles.

INCORRECT

A project manager is using a suitability assessment tool to find the right project approach for a new
project. The tool ranks on the following criteria: 

- Change: rate of change to requirements

- Criticality: Criticality of product, processes and impact of defects 
- Buy-in: Executive support for adaptive methods 
- Team size: Number of members in project team
- Team skill: Project team experience
- Access:  Direct collaboration/feedback with clients/sponsors

Which combination of these factors would be best suited to a fully agile project approach?

 Change: medium Criticality: high Buy-in: medium Team size: medium Team skill: high Access: high

Change: high Criticality: low Buy-in: high Team size: low Team skill: high Access: medium

Change: low Criticality: medium Buy-in: high Team size: low Team skill: medium Access: high

Change: low Criticality: low Buy-in: high Team size: medium Team skill: high Access: high

The ideal combination suited to an agile approach is:

Change: high
Criticality: low
Buy-in: high
Team size: low
Team skill: high
Access: high
Predictive would be required for high criticality and
team size, with low change, buy-in and skill. Hybrid is appropriate for medium values on the
criteria.

INCORRECT

An ongoing agile project is measured as follows:

2-week  Stories  Stories   Planned Completed 

Sprint  Planned  Completed  Value    Value
  1       15        10       450K     300K        
  2       20        18       600K     540K     
  3       20        25       800K    1000K        
  4       22        25      1100K    1250K 
__________________________________________
Totals    77        78      2950K    3090K

What are the project's metrics at this point? (Choose TWO.)

 SPI = 0.98

CPI = 1.05

CPI = 1.30

SPI = 1.01

CPI=0.95

SPI is calculated as stories completed/stories planned (78/77=1.01) and CPI as planned value
/completed value (3090K/2950K=1.05).

INCORRECT

A new team member, unaccustomed to agile practices, becomes nervous when an operations engineer
who often criticized his previous work appears at the morning standup meeting.

What could justify the project manager's invitation to the operations engineer?

 It is an agile practice used to prevent routine setting in to daily meetings

It is a way to boost the new member's performance and keep him on his toes

It is a standard practice in agile to proactively correct misalignments

It is a way for the project manager to learn more about the new member

Proactively seeking input from different stakeholders and transparency of project

communications is considered good Agile practice. Distractors are wrong because they do not
promote the team member's integration to the team by promoting trust (breaking routine, boost
performance) or not favoring direct communication (learning about member indirectly).

INCORRECT

While monitoring progress of the agile team, the project manager notices that an expert member's output
is much lower compared to junior team members. This is a surprise, as the expert works diligently on the
most complex tasks and always produces defect-free results.

Which is the most likely explanation for the developer's low output?
 The expert works faster and reports fewer hours than the junior members

Younger team members are normally more productive

The story point estimates on the expert's work are consistently too low

 The expert runs more tests and therefore completes fewer stories

Story point estimates would be used measure progress in an agile project, and actual hours
worked would not be apparent unless readjusted. Distractors are not in line with agile methods
(hourly reporting), false (productivity of youth) or not the root cause (more tests which would be
integrated into estimates).

CORRECT

A new agile innovation team will be set up with a mission to place product quality above all other
considerations. The initiative comes after a number of high-visibility complaints on social networks about
the brand's drop in quality.

Which method would be most effective to achieve the team's goals?

Raise the product price to fund use of better quality materials

Benchmark features against competitor products and track defects

Create an automated testing bench to eliminate human error

 Use Test-Driven Development based on continuous user focus group input

TDD ensures quality standard before development, but continuous user input is the most
important to determine the target. Distractors do not include user input as a means to
understand quality gap perception.

INCORRECT

A smart phone manufacturer is re-assessing its product development methods in response to a sharp
increase in user complaints. Analysis of the complaints indicates that the users try to use some features in
ways that designers did not anticipate.

Given these findings, which agile practice would most effectively prevent the problem?

 Acceptance Test-Driven Development

Smoke Testing

Behavior-Driven Development
 Red, green, refactor

Behavior-Driven Development is an extension of Test-Driven Development whereby automated

tests and simulations are created before developing the product. Flaws are discovered by forcing
the tests to fail before producing the unit in a way that will pass the tests. Distractors are incorrect
because the tests are either based on team assumptions (ATDD), minimal (smoke) or too limited
(persona).

INCORRECT

In an agile project, too many meetings have made the product owner's schedule unworkable. The project
manager was asked to prioritize some meetings and decrease frequency of others.

Which meetings should the product owner attend less frequently?  (Choose TWO.)

Sprint retrospectives

 Product SME consultations

Daily stand-up meetings

 Team performance reviews

End-user feedback sessions

Agile puts the customer as highest priority, which translates to end-user satisfaction and focus on
delivery. Agile considers administrative processes such as performance reviews as lower priority.
The product owner is not needed at every daily meeting.

INCORRECT

The atmosphere is tense in the sprint planning review. The agile team are mumbling amongst themselves,
one of them kicks a chair, shouting at the product owner, "That just doesn't make sense!"

What should the project manager do in this situation? (Choose TWO.) 

Remind the team of the product owner's responsibilities and authority

 Calm all present by asking them to call on their emotional intelligence

Intervene, giving one uninterrupted minute to all present to state their case

Reprimand the member who kicked the chair with a warning

 Facilitate by asking the team to suggest ways to resolve the points of dispute
 The project manager is addressing the conflict with a collaborate/problem approach, first
ensuring all viewpoints are expressed and then inviting suggestions on how to resolve the
dispute. One distractor includes reminding the team on the PO's authority and reprimanding the
protesting member, but these actions correspond to a force/direct approach, not compatible with
agile principles and in any case not completed with the imposed solution. The call on emotional
intelligence corresponds to the compromise/reconcile approach, which is not complete without
inviting members to compromise.

INCORRECT

The IT department of a glassware manufacturer enthusiastically approved the agile team's mid-project
demo of quality checking software for assembly line workers. However, the final product was considered
unusable because the workers' gloves are too thick to press the software's small buttons.

What should the project manager do to avoid this kind of failure in the future?

Contract directly with the customer department that defines the product requirements

 Ensure that all software releases include adjustable accessibility features

Create a realistic simulation of end-user conditions for developers testing the software

Plan for end users to test prototypes and incremental releases in their target environments

Requirements and feedback from actual end users cannot be replaced by organizational
structures, simulations, or generalized feature sets (accessibility). Contracting with the end-user
department would not be appropriate either, as they would not have expertise, norms and assets
relating to how the software integrates to the larger IT environment.

CORRECT

A new product development project is to be initiated in a difficult business context. Competition is driving
prices down and supply costs are rising.

Why would an agile incremental project approach be the safest choice in this context?

it ensures that the project can be cancelled at any time without loss

 It accelerates delivery of business value and minimizes risk of irrelevancy

It reduces the team size and eliminates communication bottlenecks

It provides stringent methods to reduce cost of quality and conformity

Accelerated business value and better targeting are results of incremental deliveries because
smaller releases can go to market faster and benefit from earlier user input. Distractors are either
 unrealistic (cancellation without loss) or irrelevant to the approach (team size and quality control).

INCORRECT

Several items remain in the kanban blocked column despite the team's efforts to resolve the issues. The
retrospective reveals that all of the impediments relate to mandatory corporate business processes which
introduce wait times.

What should the project manager do next? 

Act as a servant leader to resolve the pending business process issues while the team attend a team building
event

Dedicate the next iteration to team training on the business processes to help them work more autonomously

Work with process owners to streamline procedures, and secure the team coaching on the processes

 Work with the team to increase the story point estimates in the backlog to account for the business process delays

The servant leader should work within the organization to simplify processes affecting the team
as much as possible. However, large companies typically need internal processes which can rarely
be eliminated altogether. Distractors are wrong because:
- It is unrealistic to expect all processes
to be removed during the time a of team buidling event - training is part of the solution, but not at
the price of a full iteration and there should also be a streamlining effort
- story points should
reflect the complexity of the story itself while business processes would be more acurately
reflected as an overall reduction of story point rate over time.

CORRECT

User test results are back on the prototype release. The test users describe the kind of smoother
experience they want, the many missing features they desire, and the ways the product could be more
visually appealing.

What conclusions can be drawn from the user's input? 

The tests are irrelevant: the prototype design is not complete

The tests were a failure: most of the features will need to be re-designed

 The tests were a success: the input will ensure a more targeted backlog

The test results are unusable: the users did not understand the goals

The objective of user tests is to provide the earliest possible input to adjust the product to user
needs. Thus, a large amount of negative input is a success because it enables a large amount of
improvement faster.
INCORRECT

An agile development team finds a workaround to remove a significant blocker. Their output increases
dramatically over the next two iterations. At the third iteration retrospective, the product owner is
horrified to learn about the workaround and asks the team to redo the work based on a better solution.

How can the project manager prevent such situations?

 Set out all decision path conditions in the ground rules and correct any deviations as early as possible

Request additional funding from the product owner for re-work due to lack of collaboration with the team

Ensure regular engagement with the product owner and run catch-up meetings if necessary

As serviant leader, help the team to focus by offloading all work on removing impediments

The product owner has ultimate authority on the scope of the product. Thus product owner
engagement is critical when considering scope changes. Distractors are either unrealistic
(decision rules and extra funding) or violates agile principles (complete offload).

INCORRECT

The agile team will take over from another suppplier to maintain a client's website. The team notices that
recent browser changes imply that most of the website's existing content would now require users to
install a plug-in. 

How should the agile team move forward?

Inform the client and propose an impact analysis

 Update all pre-existing code to remove plug-in dependencies

Inform the client about the previous supplier's negligence

Deliver the code updates as defined in the contract

In this case, the client needs to be aware of the impact of the recent plug-in issue on business
and costs. Distractors would address the problem in an incomplete way (new code not consistent
with old code) or without client awareness (re-write pre-existing code). Pointing out negligence
does not address the issue.

INCORRECT

A financial software company serves stock markets worldwide. An experimental quality assurance project
has agile teams working in three company offices: Seattle, Tokyo and London. The teams work in two
shifts in each location's timezone:
Shift 1: 8AM to 4PM 
Shift 2: 4PM to midnight

Which collaboration method would ensure fastest follow-the-sun problem resolution?

 Conduct Scrum-of-Scrum meetings daily in order: 1 Tokyo Shift 2 with London Shift 1 2 London Shift 2 with Seattle
Shift 1 3 Seattle Shift 2 with Tokyo Shift 1

Run fishbowl windows during the overlap shifts: - London Shift 1 with Tokyo Shift 2 - Seattle Shift 1 with
London Shift 2 - Tokyo Shift 1 with Seattle Shift 2

 Conduct Scrum-of-Scrum meetings daily in order: 1 Seattle Shift 2 with London Shift 1 2 London Shift 2 -Tokyo Shift
1 3 Tokyo Shift 2 -Seattle Shift 1

Run fishbowl windows during the overlap shifts: - Tokyo Shift 2 with Seattle Shift 1 - London Shift 1 with Seattle
Shift 2 - Tokyo Shift 1 with London Shift 2

The fishbowl solution allows teams to interact in real time, thus allowing faster coordination and
handling of issues. The shifts overlap in follow-sun-order: Tokyo 2-London 1, London 2-Seattle 1,
Seattle 2-Tokyo 1

INCORRECT

A trend of stories uncompleted at the end of iterations has become apparent. Multiple team members 
worked on these stories and no blockers were identified .

What can the agile team do to resolve the situation?

Put the stories back into the product backlog and wait for a less intensive iteration to work on them

Use the next iteration for a team spike to determine feasibility of completing the stories

 Put the stories in the blocked column and work with the product owner to remove impediments

Work with the product owner to further break down the stories in the backlog and update the Definition
of Ready

When stories cannot be completed within one iteration, it is typically because the story is not
broken down into small enough goals. Distractors are incorrect because:
- they do not address
the root cause by waiting or setting to blocked
- product owner cannot remove impediments if
they are not identified and analyzed
-devoting full team to a spike is inefficient and bypasses
normal backlog refinement.

CORRECT

A recently formed agile team is exhausted after working 12 hour days to fullfil their sprint commitments. 

Who has not properly performed their duties in this situation?

Project Manager
 Team Members

Product Owner

 Scrum Master

The Scrum Master has the role of ensuring that the team's working conditions, including work
load, are appropriate and sustainable.

INCORRECT

A project manager experienced in predictive methods is taking on an agile project for the first time. To
help in adjusting, the project manager makes a watchlist of situations that arise from inadequate action
as a servant leader.

Which situations would result from a lack of servant leadership? (Choose THREE.)

 Team members avoid taking on challenging tasks

 Team members avoid direct communication with other departments

 Team members raise impediments they are unable to eliminate

High performers in the team move to more senior positions

Project stakeholders express skepticism of agile methods

A is correct because servant leaders must promote professional development through

challenges. B is correct because servant leaders help team build bridges with external groups. E is
correct because servant leaders educate stakeholders on agile business value. C and D are
incorrect, because servant leaders remove impediments and support personal growth beyond
project interests.

INCORRECT

The agile team is composed of highly skilled product design engineers. Their reputation for quality and
speed has earned them new duties in concept development for new products, but  team output in this
new role has dropped steeply compared to their design work.

Which measures are most effective to improve team productivity in this case? (Select TWO.)

 Plan a creativity spike in the next iteration

Seek creative thinkers to mentor the team

Prolong the iterations to adjust to new tasks

 Hire more T-shaped profiles into the team

 Boost motivation with a team building event

The key problem of the team is that they are specialists thrown out of their comfort zone.
Mentoring and diversifying the team to be more cross-functional is the most efficient measure.
Relying on the team's existing skill set (spike), boosting their motivation or prolonging iterations
do not address the root problem of specialization.

INCORRECT

An agile team needs to decide who should represent them in the Scrum of Scrums.

Which criterion should be used to select the best-suited team member?

 Scrum

DevOps

eXtreme Programming

CI/CD

DevOps is designed to eliminate the potential impediments and gaps that cause incidents in the
cycle of development, deployment and use of software and IT resources. CI/CD is included within
DevOps and therefore CI/CD alone would not address as many problems. XP and Scrum would
not address coordination with operations.

CORRECT

The empowered agile team showed impressive progress in the first four iterations, but now the product
owner has noticed low output in the latest five iterations without any apparent reason.

What could be the cause of this situation?

 The team worked on low complexity stories from the backlog in the first four interactions

Technical debt has set in and the team's output will keep dropping until the cause is eliminated

The team was in the storming stage of the development and now have moved to norming

There is most likely a specific under-performing team member slowing the team down

Some agile teams want to favor faster progress by completing less complex stories before more
complex ones. Prioritization of backlog should be value-based, not speed-based. Distractors are
 wrong because: - the change is abrupt: technical debt is a slow degradation - a low performer
would have been apparent in earlier iterations
- the team is autonomous (post-norming).

INCORRECT

The product owner needs a more precise view of actual time spent on tasks in order to apply more
accurate business value estimates in the product backlog.

How should the project manager propose to address the problem?

Halve the iteration length to one week to increase precision of time usage calculations

 Replan the remainder of the project to use flow-based agile and standard hourly scheduling

Explain that flexible estimating units enable agile to accelerate delivery of business value

Train the team on using ideal hour units and work with them to estimate the backlog

Ideal hours for estimating actual work time on stories can be more practical to convert to
business value. Distractors are either bad practice in agile (hourly scheduling, and increment
shortened for procedural reasons), or uncompromising with the sponsor (explanation).

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