Answers to Agile Questions in PMP

Answers
1. Of the following, which statement about change in agile is LEAST valid?
A. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.
B. Agile is all about the response to change. If the product owner thinks of a new feature,
he can add it to the sprint backlog.
C. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
D. More current requirements provide a competitive advantage for the customer.

Answer: B. The key phrase in this question is “during a sprint.” The sprint backlog contains only the work
the team has committed to completing in the current sprint. During a sprint, the product owner should
add new product backlog items (PBI) only to the product backlog. (Not to the sprint backlog)

2. Assume that you are assigned as Product Owner of new agile initiative in an organization, which
among the following statements is LEAST valid about your role?
A. Must estimate product backlog items along with the team.
B. Balance the needs and desires of the different project stakeholders.
C. Only one that can change the product backlog.
D. Collaborate closely with the Team.

Answer: A. Estimation is development team responsibility. Rest of the statement about Product Owner
role are valid.

3. When scope is discussed in agile, which of the following is NOT true?

A. “Scope creep” doesn’t exist in agile projects, because scope is expected to change.
B. Scope is defined and redefined using different levels of planning that take the team
from the broad vision down to what team members plan to complete today.
C. WBS is created in the planning phase, and scope is re-baseline at the completion of
every release.
D. Scope is controlled through the use of the backlog, rolling wave planning, and the
protection of the iteration.

Answer: C.

If we compare agile with plan driven, the rebaseline is happening at every iteration not after every
release.

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 4. Which statement least applies to Agile method of managing projects
A. Command-and-control project management is replaced with servant leadership and
facilitation in order to help the team realize its goals.
B. The formal project plan document is no more; instead, this activity is divided into
several different visioning and planning exercises done on an iterative basis with the
team and informally documented as appropriate.
C. Agile projects are estimated bottom-up rather than top-down.
D. Cost estimates become more refined throughout the life of the Project.

Answer: C. In agile, estimates is from top-down rather than bottom-up.

5. What is the primary reason for conducting daily meeting?

A. To brief the status to the product owner.
B. To give a status report to the ScrumMaster.
C. To give team members a chance to take a break from their work/tasks.
D. To share as a team what each member is working on and uncover obstacles standing in
the way of completing the work.

Answer: D.

Daily meeting is a Team’s opportunity to synchronize their work and report to each other on obstacles.”
Daily meeting is not a status reporting meeting to Scrum Master or to a Product Owner

6. Which of the following statement is true about ScrumMaster role?

A. ScrumMaster is one of the decision makers for the project schedule.
B. ScrumMaster estimate the product backlog items along with the team.
C. ScrumMaster must protect the team from external interference.
D. ScrumMaster must manage the work of the team.

Answer: C. ScrumMaster is responsible for removing impediments, obstacles, and protects the team
from external interference.

7. Which statement is the most valid about Kanban?

A. Iterations are time-boxed.
B. The progress is track using velocity.
C. Task Board is reset after every iteration.
D. Team owns process.

Answer: D.

In Kanban, team owns the process as compared to ScrumMaster in Scrum. Kanban is flow based
process where no estimation of task is required. The performance measurement is through cycle time,
lead time, throughput etc. as compared to velocity in Scrum.

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 8. Scrum Scales by:
A. Adding more team members.
B. Cannot be scaled.
C. Adding more scrum teams.
D. By combining with XP.

Answer: C.

A typical Scrum team is five to nine people. Rather than scaling by having a large team, Scrum projects
scale through having teams of teams. In this way, we have worked on projects with more than 500
people and have consulted on projects with more than 1,000.

Although it’s not the only thing necessary to scale Scrum, one well-known technique is the use of a
“Scrum of Scrums” meeting. With this approach each Scrum team proceeds as normal, but each team
identifies one person who attends the Scrum of Scrum meeting to coordinate the work of multiple
Scrum teams.

9. The Project Management Office in an organization that has adopted Agile regularly issues best
practices and records performance data. They have just published a comparison of velocity data
(story points completed per iteration) from different teams. As a Scrum Master for one of the
teams, what would be your next steps?
A. Share this data with the team and discuss with them how to improve its numbers in
relation to the rest of the organization.
B. Write back to the PMO saying we should not be comparing velocities across teams.
C. Write to the management giving justification for the difference between the
organizational benchmark and the figures for your team.
D. As the team is self-organizing, simply share the data with them and let them figure out
what to do

Answer: B. Comparison of productivity data across teams is useless because each team would have
different circumstances and also different basis for capturing story points. This practice is not healthy
hence it must be pushed back to the PMO.

10. Which of the following is MOST true about Agile methodologies:

A. It is the same as Lean principles; focusing on eliminating waste

B. They include an incremental and iterative life-cycle for software development
C. They rely on pull-based systems to deliver the product sooner
D. It requires people to be co-located

Answer: B. Agile methodologies emphasize an incremental and iterative approach to software

development. It takes inspiration from Lean, but it is not necessarily the same thing as Lean. The
methodology relying on “pull-based” system is Kanban, which is related to Agile but not quite the same
thing. It helps if the team is co-located, but that is not really a central tenet of Agile.

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 11. Which of the following is the BEST role for the Project Management Office to play in an
organization had widely adopted Agile methodologies?
A. Collate data on the productivity of the teams and establishing organizational capability.
B. Reporting on the progress of each Agile team and guiding them about how to move
closer to goals.
C. Provide guidelines for taking decisions in an uncertain environment.
D. Provide an organization-wide standard Agile process for teams to follow

Answer: C.

Statement A is about comparing productivity data across teams. This is not advisable in Agile, because
each team may have a different baseline.

B interferes with the self-organized team principle by intervening in the progress tracking and
implementation of corrective actions.

D calls for establishing a rigid framework of processes across the organization, which is also ill-advised
because it compromises the flexibility that Agile advocates.

C talks about giving guidance about decision making in an uncertain environment. Given these choices,
C seems most appropriate.

12. A team is encouraged to do “value-based prioritization”. What does the term “Value” mean?
A. It compares the amount of functionality delivered to cost of delivering it.
B. Price that customers will pay for a feature in the system.
C. Delivering maximum stories with the smallest possible team.
D. Providing the same amount of functionality with fewer defects.

Answer: A. Value is best measured by the Return-on-Investment, i.e. the benefit gained as compared to
the cost of delivering something. The objective of an Agile team should be to drive maximum value for
the customer.

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 13. All of the following are valid about risk management in Agile project EXCEPT:
A. Risk management is owned by the team.
B. Conduct both qualitative and quantitative analysis; determine how to respond and use
the results to update the Risk Register.
C. Risks can be analyzed and addressed in all planning meetings, with the focus on
qualitative analysis, not quantitative.
D. Risks are monitored by the use of high visibility information radiators, daily stand-ups,
and iteration reviews and retrospectives.

Answer: B.

Please remember:

• Risk management can be both organic (intrinsic in the process framework) and overt (addressed
by specific activities).
• Risk management is owned by the team.
• The project manager facilitates the process and makes the results visible
• Risks are identified in all planning meetings: release, iteration, and daily stand-ups
• Risks can be analyzed and addressed in all planning meetings, with the focus on qualitative
analysis, not quantitative.
• Risks are monitored by the use of high visibility information radiators, daily stand-ups, and
iteration reviews and retrospectives.

Traditional approach (before moving to agile):

➢ Prepare a formal risk management plan.

➢ Conduct formal risk identification meetings and document results in a Risk Register.
➢ Conduct both qualitative and quantitative analysis; determine how to respond and use the
results to update the Risk Register.
➢ Periodically review the Risk Register and make updates as needed.

Approach to be followed when using agile:

➢ Educate the team about risk management and invite the team to determine how to best
manage risk: formally, organically, or informally but overtly.
➢ Ask the team to identify risks (either organically as assumptions and concerns or overtly as risk
events) in all planning meetings and record them on flip charts, whiteboards, or online tools,
making sure they are in a highly visible area accessible to all stakeholders.
➢ Facilitate the team in its qualitative analysis, determine how to respond, and post results (see
the previous item).
➢ Constantly review risks and responses as part of the planning meetings, reviews, and
retrospectives, either organically as emergent discussions or overtly as scheduled agenda items.

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 14. Which statement is LEAST valid about work in progress (WIP)?
A. WIP is a piece of work that is not yet finished. The cycle time will increase by reducing
WIP.
B. WIP represents money invested with no return on that investment yet.
C. WIP hides bottlenecks in processes, and it masks efficiency issues.
D. WIP represents work that is currently being worked, or waiting in a queue to be worked
on.

Answer: A. Reducing WIP will reduce cycle time. Not increase. Little’s law establishes the relationship
between cycle time, WIP, and throughput: Cycle time = WIP/throughput, and the key insight is that to
reduce cycle time, start by reducing WIP.

15. Which among following statements is true about managing business requirements in agile
projects?
A. Product Owner creates business requirement document (BRD) in the planning phase of
the project.
B. In sprint planning meeting, stakeholder provides requirements directly to the
development team for the current sprint.
C. Requirements are typically prioritized using high-value and high-risk items first.
D. Product Owner creates product backlog in the planning phase, changes in the
requirements are managed through change management process in the remaining
phases of the project.

Answer: C.

Product Owner is primary responsible for maintaining and prioritizing product backlog throughout the
project. Typically order of prioritizing requirement is the highest value and highest risk to balance the
business value and risks

16. Which statement is BEST described a role of a Product Owner?

A. Responsible for building high quality product.
B. Ensures and maximizes the profit/return on investment (ROI).
C. Ensures team adhere values, rules, processes, and practices.
D. Uses TDD, Automation and other best practices

Answer: B. The primary function of product owner is to ensure and maximizes the profit/ return on
investment (ROI) for customer. PO is also responsible for product vision, decides what will be built and
in which order.

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 17. If the burndown chart showed an upward trend for two days in a row in the middle of the
iteration, what might be the reason?
A. The team is not completing the stories fast enough
B. Few team members are absent
C. Stories got added to the iteration backlog
D. The team is working overtime

Answer: C. The burndown chart plots the number of hours of work remaining in a given iteration. Slow
completion of tasks, absenteeism may see this number remain stagnant or move down slowly, but it
would only move upward if new tasks got added.

18. All projects done by a team are affected by a risk due to weak estimation and scheduling
practices. Will moving to Agile help address this risk?
A. Yes, because the plan would be reviewed at the end of each release in the release
retrospective.
B. Yes, because the plan would be reviewed at the end of every iteration.
C. No, because Agile teams are cross-functional and this would cause more confusion in
planning.
D. No, because Agile requires continuous re-factoring which would add to the estimates

Answer: B. The plan for Agile projects is reviewed at the end of every iteration, hence A is not
correct. By having frequent check points (at the end of each iteration) that allows the team to
inspect and adapt – the team may overcome some of the issues and eventually get better at
planning.

19. Which of the following is true about agile contracts?

A. They only work when the specs are fully defined.
B. They only work for time and materials agreements.
C. They can accommodate changes.
D. They cannot easily accommodate changes.

Answer: C

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 20. Your new team spends 10 minutes waiting for people to turn up for the daily stand-up
meeting, which then lasts 15 minutes. The stand-up meeting is then followed by another 5
minutes of the team discussing the hockey game last night, and yet another 5 minutes
brainstorming issues to solve. Calculate the total cycle time of this process (assuming that the
hockey discussion is not categorized as a value-adding activity).
A. 15 minutes
B. 20 minutes
C. 30 minutes
D. 35 minutes

Answer: D. Cycle time is sum of the time taken by all the activities. 10+15+5+5 = 35

21. You have been asked to outline the basics of agile contracting for your steering committee.
Which of the following statements best matches the recommended approach taken to
contracting on agile projects?
A. The contract is worded to allow for early completion of scope, and acceptance is based
on items matching the original specification.
B. The contract is worded to allow for reprioritization of scope, and acceptance is based on
items matching the original specification.
C. The contract is worded to allow for early completion of scope, and acceptance is based
on items being fit for business purpose.
D. The contract is worded to allow for reprioritization of scope, and acceptance is based on
items beings fit for business purpose.

Answer: D

22. Customers or business representatives are involved in the prioritization of work for which
primary benefit?
A. To proactively engage the business between acceptance testing cycles.
B. To answer business-related questions about the requirements.
C. To aid communications about when features will be delivered.
D. To better reflect the business needs and wants for the project.

Answer: D

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 23. Which of the definitions shown below best describes the agile concept of incremental
delivery?
A. The product is built and evaluated in chunks that are selected and develop by the
development team.
B. The product is built and evaluated in chunks that, by the end of the project, comprise
the complete product, including agreed upon change requests that arose during the
process.
C. The product is built and evaluated in chunks that, by the end of the project, comprise
the complete product, excluding agreed-upon change requests that arose during the
process.
D. The product is build and evaluated in agreed-upon increments that, by the end of the
project, comprise the complete product, factoring in the support demand that will be
required after delivery.

Answer: B

24. Your team on average had to wait 3 business days (24 business hours) to get approval to make
changes to their user acceptance environment. Making the changes usually takes about an
hour. Which of the answers below represent the correct process efficiency time, rounded to
one decimal place?
A. 4.0%
B. 4.1%
C. 4.2%
D. 4.3%

Answer: A

Process cycle efficiency = Total Value-add time / Total cycle time. Value add time is 1 hour. Total cycle
time is 24+1 = 25 hours. Hence 1 / 25 = 0.4 0r 4%.

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 25. The team is working on a project based on a Fixed price contract and is using Agile
methodologies. Midway through the project, the customer requested for a change. What
should you do?
A. Inform the customer that no changes are allowed on Fixed price contract.
B. Agile is about “customer collaboration over contract negotiation” – hence we accept the
change.
C. Find the best way to accommodate the change.
D. Defer the decision to the management of the organization.

Answer: C. If the customer requires a change, there is no point in telling him it is not possible. One
should try to work out a way in which it can be delivered. Deferring to management may be a tempting
option, but before doing so, it seems that the team would have to do some homework in compiling the
relevant information. There are many ways a change can be accommodated by an Agile team. For
example, the team can always substitute a feature with another as long as the team has not started
working on it. On the other hand, if a feature is already delivered or being worked on, then it cannot be
changed unless the customer agrees to extend the contract. So it does require the team to explore the
options available.

26. One of the important attributes of leadership of Agile teams is “servant leadership”. What is
NOT implied by Servant leadership?
A. Helping team members grow in their careers
B. The manager puts the team’s needs ahead of everything else
C. Succession planning – developing future servant leaders
D. The manager takes instructions from the team and not the other way around

Answer: D. Servant leadership does NOT mean manager takes instructions from the team. All the other
statements are valid components of servant leadership.

27. You are the manager of an Agile project. You find that a particular stakeholder is proving to be a
major distraction to the team. He frequently calls the team to ask for status, get information,
provide suggestions and sometimes to request changes. What should you do about this?
A. Escalate the issue and keep the stakeholder off-limits.
B. Invite the stakeholder to the appropriate planning or review meetings and request him
to bring up his views at those meetings.
C. Listen to the stakeholder, but ignore his suggestions.
D. Tell the stakeholder directly not to disturb the team during the iteration.

Answer: B. Interest and involvement of the stakeholders is not a bad thing on its own, so it must not be
discouraged. Agile provides forums and platforms for listening to and accepting stakeholder input. The
skill of the manager lies in utilizing these forums to get positive involvement from the stakeholders while
protecting the team from distractions.

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 28. The definition of done is frequently discussed with stakeholders so that:
A. Functionality can be negotiated until the last responsible moment
B. Everyone has a clear understanding of what completion means
C. Team members get to improve their negotiation skills
D. Active listening reveals previously undiscussed requirements

Answer: B

29. You have been assigned to lead a geographically distributed agile team. To assist with
communication, the best option would be to:
A. Ask team members to send photos of themselves so you know what they look like
B. Choose a common language for project communications
C. Set up some initial face-to-face meetings for everyone to meet
D. Define common working hours so everyone can better communicate

Answer: C

30. What is most important in all Scrum projects? A) Self-organization; B) Clear hierarchies in the
company; C) Communication; D) Continuous improvement
A. A, B, C, D
B. A, C, D
C. A, D
D. A, B

Answer: B.

31. The means that information flows into the background hearing of members of the team, so that
they pick up relevant information is called:
A. Close communication.
B. Convection currents.
C. Continuous information flow.
D. Osmotic communication.

Answer: D

32. Which statement is least valid about Agile development Teams?

A. Generate value for customer, and build high quality product increment.
B. Chooses release date and content.
C. Cross functional and Self-organized.
D. Negotiate commitments with product owner.

Answer: B. Choosing a release date is a product owner responsibility. Rest of the statements about
development teams are correct.

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 33. You being asked to setup a team space for collocated agile team of 8 members. You created two
zones, a first portion as common team space to maximize information transfers and second
portion reserved for private tasks that require an isolated space. This concept refers as:
A. Common and Private.
B. Caves and Common.
C. Skunk Works Rooms.
D. Public and private.

Answer: B.

The phrase ‘caves and common’ refers to the creation of two zones in the room. The “common” area is
organized to maximize osmotic communication and information transfer. The “caves” portion of the
room is organized to give people a private place to do e-mail, make phone calls, and take care of their
need for separation. For the common area to work well, each team member should be working on one
and the same project.

34. Leadership team have couple of people in business who could be good product owner for new
agile team” what are some of qualities should favor in selecting a right product owner?
A. Committed, responsible, authorized, collaborative and knowledgeable.
B. Committed, reasonable, authorized, collaborative and knowledgeable.
C. Business-driven, organized, influencer, process-driven and problem solver.
D. Committed, responsible, accountable, cooperative, and knowledgeable.

Answer: A.

To select the effective product owner, CRACK qualities should be considered, as explained by by Lyssa
Adkins:

• Committed to the work and engaged in it fully, like any other team member
• Responsible for the outcome so that “skin in the game” is a reality
• Authorized by the person paying the bills to make decisions about the product under
development and to know which decisions can be made solo and which require consultation
with others Collaborative as a normal mode of interacting with people.
• Knowledgeable about the business purposes of the endeavor and the business domain itself.

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 35. Which of the following is NOT an effective behavior of the product Owner?
A. “How to do it” or “how much” it will take.
B. Challenge the team.
C. Get interested in building high performance team.
D. Practice business-value-driven-thinking.

Answer: A.

The product owner should say “what” need to get done and “why it’s important. It is a team domain and
this behavior reflect micro management. Product Owner shouldn’t worry about HOW to do it or HOW
much it will take.

36. Which of the following is LEAST recommend practice while acquiring an agile project team
A. When negotiating a team member, provide the date and/or the percentage of time they
will needed on the project.
B. Save money by using co-located teams, which increase productivity associated with
miscommunication and communication lag time.
C. Negotiate for fully dedicated team members.
D. Create a cross-functional team where all members understand that they equally bear
responsibility for the delivery of the project.

Answer: A.

When negotiating a team member; provide the date and/or the percentage of time they will needed on
the project is a practice of traditional project management.

37. Other things being constant, what kind of workspace would you want to create for your Agile
team?

A. Open workspaces
B. Closed workspaces
C. Workspaces with provision for privacy and individual thinking
D. Distributed teams that can “follow the sun”

Answer: A. An Agile workspace should be designed in such a way as to facilitate open communication
between the team members. Ideally team members should be within earshot and in sight of each
other as far as possible.

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 38. A team has decided to migrate to the Agile way of working and is wondering where to start.
Which practice would you start right away while migrating to Agile?

A. Stand-up meetings
B. Iteration demo
C. Affinity estimations
D. Virtual teams
Answer: A.

A stand-up meeting is something the team can start immediately. In fact, many teams which don’t
even follow Agile find this practice useful, because it immediately instills a team feeling and
establishes a steady rhythm to the work. Iteration demo would require that the team first get into the
habit of planning and executing iterations. Affinity estimation requires user stories to be written first.
Whether a team is virtual or co-located is a broader decision that may or may not be related to the
methodology they use.

39. A team member wants to discuss a suggestion about the development processes of the team for
efficiency gains. Which is the best forum to talk about this?
A. Iteration Retrospective
B. Ad-hoc meeting
C. Iteration Review
D. Daily standup

Answer: A. The iteration retrospective is the forum which provides an opportunity to adapt the
procedures; hence it is the most appropriate forum to discuss this.

40. A team that has newly transitioned to Scrum. The Product Owner wants to know the level of
detail he needs to put in the stories so that the team can work with them. What guidance would
you give in this regard?
A. Stories should be as detailed as possible, so that there is no room for ambiguity.
B. It can be no more than 1 index card in length and the details given in a separate
document.
C. The level of detail should be worked out between the team and the product owner.
D. Stories can contain less detail, because Agile relies on working software over
comprehensive documentation.

Answer: C. Level of detail in the requirements should be “just enough” to ensure clarity. Beyond this,
finer level of guidance needs to be worked out by the team jointly with the Product owner. One should
not get “prescriptive” about this and let them work it out.

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 41. Though it is self-managed, an Agile team needs to keep in mind some basic principles to guide
its behavior. Which of the following is MOST important for the team?
A. Conforming to a plan.
B. Negotiate the contracts.
C. Enforce team discipline.
D. Adapt to change.

Answer: D. An Agile team should be adept at adapting to change, in keeping with the Agile manifesto’s
guidelines. Conforming to a plan is not a fundamental value in Agile, nor is contract negotiation or team
discipline.

42. You are working on a large project, that will be executed using Agile methodologies. How
would you determine the team size for this project?
A. It should be as small as possible, even if this means increasing the amount of time taken
to deliver.
B. Keep a small, but experienced team and try to maximize their output.
C. Ensure the team is sized correctly for the tasks required.
D. Have a large team, providing for buffers.

Answer: C. While it is true that Agile prefers smaller teams (7 +/- 2), the team size ought to be
determined by the complexity and nature of the project. A larger project can be handled by multiple
Agile teams working in parallel. Some methodologies like FDD can actually scale up to as high as 250
people.

43. Which statement best describes the term “Self-Organized” in Agile?

A. A team that has no external dependencies.
B. A team that can prioritize the backlog independently.
C. A team that is responsible for making and delivering on its commitments.
D. A team that does not need a manager to get along.

Answer: C. A team being self-organized does not mean there are no external dependencies (A). It still
requires the Product Owner to prioritize the backlog (B). It also does not obviate the need for a manager
(D). What it does mean is that the team is able to make commitments and accept responsibility and
accountability for delivering the commitments.

44. Which of the following is NOT an essential attribute of an Agile Team?

A. Self-Managing
B. Cross-functional
C. Co-located
D. Capable of delivering a potentially shippable product

Answer: C. A Scrum team need not be co-located. Scrum works with virtual teams as well. All the others
are required characteristics of a Scrum team.

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 45. ___________________ is the agile name given to undocumented information supported
through team communications
A. Unwritten knowledge
B. Tribal knowledge
C. Tacit knowledge
D. Common knowledge

Answer: C

46. Self-organizing teams are most readily characterized by their ability to:
A. Do their own filing
B. Sit where they like
C. Make local decisions
D. Make project-based decisions

Answer: C

47. High-performing teams feature which of the following sets of characteristics?

A. Consensus- driven, empowered, low trust
B. Self-organizing, plan-driven, empowered
C. Consensus-driven, empowered, plan- driven
D. Constructive disagreement, empowered, self-organizing

Answer: D

48. The three questions answered in a daily stand-up meetings aim to:
A. Identify problems, discuss accomplishments
B. Identify opportunities, discuss accomplishments
C. Fix problems, discuss accomplishments
D. Fix problems, discuss work planned

Answer: A

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 49. Another project manager of an agile project in your project in your organization comes to you
for advice. She is having trouble getting her team to take ownership of the project and get
comfortable selecting the work to be done. She keeps finding herself making the decisions and
directing their work. What advice can you offer her?
A. Play round – robin at stand up meetings, assigning a different person each day as the
decision maker to get them comfortable in the role
B. Implement an incentive plan and officially report any lack of participation to team members’
functional managers
C. Meet them halfway and work with their functional managers to align each team members’
goals with the project objectives
D. Explain to them that agile teams self-select their work and tell them to get on with it

Answer: C. Please revise literature.

50. Your team velocity is 8 story points. Following are the product backlog items ordered by its
business value. You are now in a sprint planning meeting and need to commit a User Stories for
next iteration. Which of the following stories you will select for next iteration?

Story 1 = 3 Story Points

Story 2 = 4 Story Points
Story 3 = 2 Story Points
Story 4 = 1 Story Points

A. Story 1, 2, & 3.
B. Story 1, 2, & 4.
C. Story 1 and 2.
D. Story 2, 3, & 4.

Answer: B.

During the second half of the sprint planning meeting, the team meets separately to discuss what they
heard and decide how much they can commit to during the coming sprint. Conceptually, the team starts
at the top of the prioritized product backlog list and draws a line after the lowest of the high priority
tasks they feel they can complete. In practice it is not unusual to see a team select, for example, the top
five items and then two items from lower on the list that are associated with the initial five. In some
cases there will be negotiation with the product owner, but it will always be up to the team to
determine how much they can commit to completing.

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 51. At the end of first iteration, team finish user story A, B and 50% of C. what is the team velocity?
Story A = 5 Points
Story B = 4 Points
Story C = 2 Points
Story D = 2 Points

A. 10
B. 9
C. 11
D. 7

Answer: B.

Stories are either done or not done. There is no concept of an unfinished story or 50% complete. At the
end of a sprint, you either completed the design, implemented, tested, integrated and presented it to
the customer for sign-off, at which point it was moved out of the backlog. The product owner doesn’t
get any value from undone items, so velocity does not include the size numbers of partially completed
PBIs.

52. In a sprint planning meeting, who is responsible for selecting the number of items for the sprint
from the product Backlog?
A. Product Owner
B. Development Team
C. Scrum Master
D. Customer

Answer: B.

The number of items selected from the Product Backlog for the Sprint is solely up to the Development
Team. Only the Development Team can assess what it can accomplish over the upcoming Sprint.
Product Owner is responsible for prioritize/rank according to business value.

53. The team size is 4 and iteration length is 1 week. How many iterations will it take for team to
complete a project of 27 story points if team velocity is 4 story points?
A. 7 Weeks.
B. 8 Weeks.
C. 9 Weeks.
D. 10 Weeks.

Answer: A. With a velocity of 4, it will take team 7 iterations to finish 27 story points.

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 54. Consider the following four choices, select the BEST option that describe the proper timing of
conducting a review meeting in an Agile project.
A. Before iteration retrospective meeting.
B. Before the next iteration planning meeting.
C. After the release planning meeting.
D. During the iteration retrospective meeting.

Answer: A.

Following is the sequence of meeting:

• Iteration Planning Meeting

• Daily Meetings
• Iteration Review
• Iteration Retrospective

Keeping this sequence in mind, A is the correct answer as review meeting is just before the iteration
retrospective.

And, the same cycle repeat for subsequent iterations.

55. _______ refers to smallest set of functionality that provides value to customer.
A. Minimally Marketable Feature (MMF)
B. EPIC
C. Theme
D. Story point

Answer: A. Minimum Releasable Features (MRFs)

The smallest or minimum set of functionality related to a feature that must be delivered for the
customer to perceive value (for it to be marketable).

• The minimum set of features that must be present in a release to make it viable—useful enough
to end customers such that they want it and would be willing to pay for it.
• Features composed from a collection of minimum marketable features. Synonymous with must-
have features.

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 56. All of the following are valid about Agile estimates EXCEPT
A. Expending more time and effort to arrive at an estimate does not necessarily increase
the accuracy of the estimate.
B. The amount of effort put into an estimate should be determined by the purpose of that
estimate.
C. The best initial estimates are recommended to be prepared by business.
D. On an agile team we do not know who will do the work in advance. Therefore,
estimating should be a collaborative activity for the team.

Answer: A.

Expending more time and effort to arrive at an estimate does not necessarily increase the accuracy of
the estimate. The amount of effort put into an estimate should be determined by the purpose of that
estimate.

57. Who selects the work that will be performed during a sprint?
A. Product Owner
B. ScrumMaster
C. Team
D. Project Manager

Answer: C. Product Owner prioritizes the work but the team selects the work they will perform during a
sprint. Naturally they are expected to select from among the top priority items.

58. The amount of value team delivers in iteration is called?

A. Productivity
B. Performance
C. Velocity
D. Increment

Answer: C.

Team’s velocity is the amount of value it delivers in each iteration, measured in story points, ideal days,
or hours. Generally, only completed stories are included in the velocity. Velocity is helpful to the
business in planning for future features and releases. Agile teams use their velocity for the previous
iteration to help determine the amount of work they can take on in the next iteration.

An increment, is an increment in business functionality. The Increment is the sum of all the Product
Backlog items completed during a Sprint and all previous Sprints. At the end of a Sprint, the new
Increment must be “Done,” which means it must be in useable condition and meet the Scrum Team’s
Definition of “Done.” It must be in useable condition regardless of whether the Product Owner decides
to actually release it.

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 59. Agile teams use multiple levels of planning, which is the right order? Considering high level to
low.
A. Product vision, product road-map, release plan, iteration plan, daily plan.
B. Release plan, iterations plan, sprint Plan, daily plan, task plan.
C. Business case, product road-map, release plan, iteration plan, daily plan, task backlog.
D. Project charter, product vision, release backlog, iteration backlog, daily backlog, task
board.

Answer: A.

B is incorrect as it is highlighted both iteration plan and sprint plan.

In option C, product vision is missing and there is no term called task backlog.

In option D, there is no term called daily backlog.

60. During iteration planning, a team committed to implement 10 stories. Coding has been
completed and basic regression tests are passing. There are 12 bugs pending. Some of them are
blocking few tests that execute some of the paths in the story. The fixes for these bugs were
checked in on the last day of the iteration, but they have not been tested. In such a scenario, the
iteration is:
A. Successful, because the basic functionality is implemented and is working
B. Unsuccessful, because the tests have not all passed and few tests are still blocked
C. Successful or unsuccessful depending upon the “done criterion” decided by the team
D. Successful if the customer accepts it

Answer: B. The code at the end of each iteration should be of “near releasable” quality. This has not
happened or has not been validated yet, so the iteration cannot be termed as successful.

61. You are starting a new project with a new Agile team. Which would NOT be a good approach to
develop an initial estimation of the team’s velocity?
A. Take a GUESS
B. Run a couple of initial iterations and extrapolate the data
C. Use the management’s desired velocity as a starting point and go from there
D. Use historical data

Answer: C.

A, B and D are all legitimate ways of determining the initial velocity of the team. The management’s
notion about the desired velocity of the team is a poor starting point because it is completely un-
correlated with the inherent capabilities of the team.

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 62. You are the ScrumMaster of an agile team. Six new members joined and total team size become
15. The daily meeting is getting noisy and exceeding 15 minutes time-box. What is the most
effective way you select to address this situation?
A. Divide team into two with minimum dependency and have two separate daily stands-
up.
B. It is alright if the team exceeds by a few minutes in daily stand up meetings.
C. Ask the team members to only inform on the blockades and highlight on the important
ones out of them.
D. Increase the time-box for stand up meeting to 30 minutes.

Answer: A.

The real problem in this question is a team size and best way to address is to split the teams with
minimal interdependencies and conduct two separate stand-up meetings.

63. You are a member of an agile team. The team velocity is suffering for many reasons. Team
decided to take actionable steps to improve the velocity. Which of the following is LEAST
effective way to improve team velocity?
A. Pay down technical debt.
B. Protect team from distractions.
C. Improve customer involvement.
D. Increase duration of iterations.

Answer: D.

Agile generally don’t recommend increasing duration of iteration. James Shore recommends 5 ways to
improve the velocity:

➢ Pay down technical debt,

➢ Improve customer involvement,
➢ Offload programmer duties,
➢ Provide needed resources, and
➢ Add programmers (carefully).

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 64. While developing a story during the iteration, team discovered new tasks that were not
identified earlier. A newly discovered task will take long enough that team cannot be completed
during the iterations. What is the MOST appropriate action team should perform?
A. Discuss the situation with the product owner and see if there is still a way to meet the
iteration goals, may need to reduce the functionality of a story or drop one entirely.
B. Discuss the situation with Scrum Master and see if there is still a way to meet the
iteration goals, may need to reduce the functionality of a story or drop one entirely.
C. Drop user story entirely and inform the product owner that it will be delivered in the
next iteration.
D. Discuss the situation with the product owner during the review meeting.

Answer: A.

A team that is committed to delivering the functionality described by a user story will try to complete
the new tasks as well. A team that committed to only an identified list of tasks may not. In either case, it
is possible that the newly discovered tasks will take long enough that they cannot be completed during
the iteration. In that case, the team will need to discuss the situation with the product owner and see
if there is still a way to meet the iteration goal; they may need to reduce the functionality of a story or
drop one entirely.

65. Vikas is assigned as a Scrum Master to the newly launched agile team. He is being asked to
provide the list of metrics to measure the progress. Which metric she will provide as a primary
measure of progress?
A. Velocity
B. Team Satisfaction.
C. Working software
D. Customer satisfaction

Answer: C.

According to agile manifesto principles, “working software is the primary measure of progress”.

66. All of the following are valid about acceptance criteria EXCEPT:
A. Define the boundaries for an item.
B. Help programmers and testers to drive tests.
C. Help programmers to know when to stop adding more functionality.
D. Team writes acceptance criteria for every item prior to the sprint/iterative planning.

Answer: D.

Writing acceptance criteria are a product owner responsibility.

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 67. A team is wondering whether they should use off-the-shelf components, share-ware or free-
ware components instead of developing them from scratch. What technique in Agile project
management will be useful to make that determination?
A. De-Bono’s 6 thinking hats
B. Planning Poker
C. Make-or-buy-analysis
D. Wide-band Delphi technique

Answer: C. Make-or-buy analysis is used to determine what components should be developed in-house
and what should be procured.

68. Which of the following BEST explain the terms “Lead time” and “Cycle time” in Lean
methodologies?
A. Lead time is the amount of time it takes for a unit of work to proceed from start to
finish. Cycle time is the amount of time between two successive deliveries.
B. Lead time is the waiting time between processes. Cycle time is the total time spent in
processing.
C. Lead time is the amount of waiting time before a process can start. Cycle time is the
total time spent in processing.
D. Lead time and cycle time mean the same thing.

Answer: a Lead time is the amount of time it takes for processing one work item from start to finish.
Cycle time is the time between two outputs/deliveries to come out of the system.

69. For the last three iterations, a team completed the development tasks for the planned stories,
but the testing was lagging behind. What is the best thing you can do?
A. Add more testers to the team
B. Encourage the team to be more cross-functional
C. Reduce the developers on the team
D. Plan for testing to lag development by one iteration

Answer: B. We must make sure that the team is doing everything it can to help remove the bottlenecks
and help each other out. The team should collectively deliver the near releasable product at the end of
the release – if necessary by helping each other out, and clearly that does not seem to be happening.
Options A, C and D are all trying to mask or work around the problem, whereas the issue needs to be
addressed directly.

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 70. At the end of the iteration, a team which committed to delivering 68 Story Points ended up
not delivering anything. What could be the MOST LIKELY cause of this?
A. Most of the team members went on vacation.
B. The team was not self-organized.
C. The Scrum Master did not manage the team well.
D. The definition of done defined by the team was too stringent.

Answer: D. If the team was going on vacation, it would likely have known this beforehand, hence they
would not have made the commitment. The Scrum Master in any case does not manage or drive the
team, so that is also unlikely to be the cause. Self-organization is a desirable feature of an Agile team,
but the lack of it does not seem likely to cause a drastic failure to deliver even a single story point. What
is more likely is that the definition of done (the criteria to decide whether to accept a story or not) was
so stringent that the team under-estimated what was required to be done.

71. Trends in project data are useful since they can offer insights and are what type of indicator?
A. Lagging metrics
B. Leading metrics
C. Lead times
D. Little’s Law

Answer: B

72. A short period of proof-of-concept work is known as:

A. Risk stops
B. Spikes of iteration
C. Risk-based spike
D. Test-first design

Answer: C

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 73. Since the Agile Coach focuses on being the guardian of quality and performance for the team,
the Agile Coach pays keen attention throughout the sprint. While observing, the coach keeps
the purpose of the retrospective in mind. Which of the following statement BEST described the
purpose of retrospective.
A. Inspect and adapt, look back at what team has produced not how the work got done,
and archive learning data.
B. Identify what went poorly and what went well so you can repeat it in next project.
C. Identify the 3-5 things that most contributed to the success to the project and the 3-5
things that could have gone better. These results should be shared with the organization
in a Lessons Learned repository.
D. Inspect and adapt, look back at how the work got done not what team
produced, AND do (even) better next time.

Answer: D.

Explanation: The purpose of the retrospective is:

➢ Inspect and adapt: The retrospective calls for a stop in the action, allowing the team to
take a breather and get curious about what happened during the sprint.
➢ Look back at how, not what: The team considers how the work got done—not only
what they produced and how good it is but how they worked together to produce it.
➢ Do (even) better next time: The team commits to a handful of things they will do
differently next sprint to become even better. Becoming better can be anything that
has meaning for the team: getting faster, producing higher-quality products, or truly
feeling a whole-team commitment. Strengthening any of these things helps them
improve their velocity or improve something else that is as important as velocity, such
as quality.

Remember:

A is incorrect, the primary purpose of retrospective is not archiving learning Data.

B is incorrect, can be correct if written ‘repeat in next iteration’.
C is incorrect, again if you read carefully, it is written contributed to project.

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 74. As a Scrum Master, how would you ensure that the goals agreed upon during a retrospective
would be met?
A. Identify small goals
B. Scrum master tracks the goals
C. Assign owners to each goal
D. Help the team prioritize the goals and make sure they are clear to all

Answer: D. The Scrum Master should not have to track the goals (the team should do it on its own). The
goals identified need not always be small (that would be restricting the team from bringing about
improvements that it wants to make). Assigning owners is a good idea, but the team should self-assign
owners, the Scrum Master shouldn’t have to do it. So the Scrum master essentially should be helping
the team achieving a prioritized list of improvements and getting clarity about what is intended.

75. A team is going through a retrospective meeting. They discussed potential improvements for
the next iteration. The Scrum master noted 15 improvement related action items that the
team wanted to work on. What should be done next?
A. The team should ask the manager for their feedback.
B. The Product Owner should be asked for backlog items for the next iteration.
C. The team should start fixing the bugs found in the previous iteration.
D. The team should identify the top priority action items and focus on improving those in
the next iteration.

Answer: D.

The retrospective is a meeting for the team and feedback should come from the team (not the manager-
A or the product owner-B). The retrospective is a meeting to discuss lessons learnt, not to start working
on pending items. Ideally the team should identify the top few actions and focus on addressing those,
rather than take on too many and lose focus. It is a best practice to prioritize even improvement actions
and implement them in the “Agile way”.

76. The concept of knowledge sharing on an agile project is best characterized as:
A. Encouraged where possible and where the team shows an interest
B. Central to many of the practices undertaken
C. Undertaken if there is time left at the end of an iteration
D. Undertaken principally through stand-up meetings

Answer: B

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 77. When adapting a new agile practice, the general recommendations are to:
A. Develop the new approach yourself, try out the practice on local projects, inspect and
review the finding early
B. Investigate the claims yourself, try out the practice on local projects, inspect and review the
findings early
C. Investigate the claims yourself, try out the practice in small doses, inspect and review the
findings early
D. Develop the new approach yourself, try out the practice in small doses, inspect and review
the findings early

Answer: C

78. Information exchange in agile methods are designed to:

A. Facilitate knowledge sharing
B. Leverage electronic knowledge-sharing tools
C. Maximize resource utilization
D. Generate stable specifications

Answer A

79. You are leading a project to develop a new web application. Together with your project team
you reprioritize the product backlog, determine velocity for the past iterations, and adapt your
work plans accordingly. Additionally, you facilitate retrospectives every two weeks. Which of the
following processes describes the work you are performing?
A. Monitor Risks
B. Manage Quality
C. Control Schedule
D. Develop Schedule

Answer: C. Control Schedule. This question is about relating PMBOK® Guide Knowledge Areas with Agile.
PMI says that all Knowledge Areas can be mapped to Agile. All the processes of each Knowledge Area
are applied when we perform a Sprint or Iteration.

Adaptive life cycles, such as the agile approach, use short cycles to undertake work, review the results,
and adapt as necessary. These cycles provide rapid feedback on the approaches and suitability of
deliverables, and generally involve iterative scheduling.

The project described in the scenario is using an agile approach as evidenced by the use of the
retrospectives, backlog, and iterations.

When an agile approach is used, Control Schedule is concerned with conducting retrospectives to
correct and improve processes, reprioritizing the backlog, determining the velocity in the current
iteration, and adjusting the plans accordingly.

Therefore, of the choices provided, the work you are performing is best described by the Control
Schedule process.

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 80. You are part of a cross-functional organizational development team, piloting an adaptive
approach to project management in an organization that has traditionally used a predictive
approach. You realize that you have to tailor the template of the schedule management plan.
Which of the following components of the template are you likely to tailor the most?
A. The rules of performance measurement, the summary milestones, and the key
deliverables
B. The organizational procedures links, the units of measure, and the project organization
charts
C. The schedule model development, the release and iteration length, and the reporting
formats
D. The project schedule model maintenance, the level of accuracy, and the level of
precision

Answer: C. The schedule model development, the release and iteration length, and the reporting
formats. This question is also about relating PMBOK® Guide Knowledge Areas with Agile.

The question suggests you are carrying out the Plan Schedule Management process.

The schedule management plan is the primary output of this process. The schedule management plan
establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.

Of the choices presented, only the schedule model development, the release and iteration length, and
the reporting formats are components of the schedule management plan. All three of these
components would merit significant tailoring to reflect an adaptive approach to project management.

The project schedule model development specifies the scheduling methodology and the scheduling tool
used to develop the schedule model.

REMEMBER: For adaptive approach, the schedule model will be a selected series of activities needed
to complete a high-priority subset of the project scope that can deliver value quickly. The release and
iteration length determine the time-boxed events that must be completed and how long it will take to
release the iteration. The reporting formats will be driven by the adaptive schedule model and the
iteration length.

The other answer choices contain components that are not part of the schedule management plan.

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