PMI PMI-ACP - PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

In Kanban, lead time is a key performance indicator (KPI) that should be regularly monitored. Lead time measures the amount of time it takes for a work item to move from the start of the process to its completion. By monitoring lead time, the team lead can assess how efficiently work is flowing through the system and identify areas where bottlenecks or delays may be occurring. Reducing lead time is one of the primary goals in Kanban to improve overall process efficiency and delivery speed.

When the team is not confident that the solution will work, delivering the minimum marketable feature (MMF) to customers for feedback is the best approach. The MMF represents the smallest, functional version of the product that can provide value to customers. By delivering this early and obtaining feedback, the team can validate assumptions, identify potential issues, and make necessary adjustments before committing to further development. This approach allows for early course correction and ensures the solution aligns with customer expectations and business needs.

The correct answer is B – Discuss the issue with the team in the daily stand-up meetings. Agile emphasizes transparency, collaboration, and self-organization. The daily stand-up is an appropriate forum to raise and discuss workload distribution so the team can adjust and support each other.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Daily stand-ups are a tool for fostering open communication, uncovering impediments, and adjusting the plan for the day. It enables the team to help each other balance workloads and remove bottlenecks.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Daily Stand-Ups)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“Team members should use stand-ups to discuss challenges. If someone is overloaded, the team can identify ways to redistribute work to maintain balance and avoid burnout.”

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

Incorrect options:

A escalates the issue unnecessarily and bypasses team self-management.

C is too narrow and private for a team-based issue.

D adds administrative burden without solving the underlying problem.

Answer: B

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The correct answer is B – Evaluate the impact of the change request and let the team and Product Owner decide and reprioritize based on value. Agile allows for mid-iteration changes only in exceptional cases where business value is at risk. Such changes must be evaluated collaboratively.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams may allow scope changes mid-iteration if the benefit clearly outweighs the cost. In such cases, the Product Owner and team collaboratively assess and decide whether to accommodate the change.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Iteration Planning and Scope Flexibility)

Mike Griffiths also explains:

“While mid-iteration changes are discouraged, if the change is critical to business value, the team and Product Owner may replan collaboratively. Agile encourages flexibility with customer-focused decision-making.”

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

Incorrect options:

A and D bypass collaborative evaluation.

C is too extreme for a small but valuable change.

Answer: B

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

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

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

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

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

Mike Griffiths adds:

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

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

Why the other options are incorrect:

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

B avoids organizational improvement by isolating the team.

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

Answer: C

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The correct answer is B — Hold regular retrospectives and have team members commit to specific actions.

Regular retrospectives enable the team to continuously reflect and adapt their processes and product based on new challenges or insights. Commitment to specific action items ensures accountability and fosters a culture of learning and responsiveness.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Teams should hold regular retrospectives to identify areas for improvement and define concrete actions. These actions are tracked and reviewed in subsequent iterations.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.8 – Retrospectives)

Mike Griffiths:

“Continuous improvement is a core agile value. Retrospectives allow teams to evaluate their performance and commit to actionable improvements.”

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

Incorrect options:

A is a waterfall mindset.

C lacks structured reflection and accountability.

D is a poor coding practice and anti-pattern.

Answer: B

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The correct answer is C – Work with product owners and turn product backlog items into potentially shippable product increments.

Agile is grounded in the principle of delivering value early and often. Agile teams deliver value by continuously converting high-priority product backlog items into working software or product increments. These increments are potentially shippable, meaning they meet the Definition of Done and could be released at any point if the business chooses. Collaboration with the product owner ensures that the most valuable features are prioritized and refined before development begins.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams focus on delivering small, valuable, and potentially shippable increments of working product on a regular basis. This allows for frequent feedback and ensures that teams are always working on the most valuable features.”

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

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“Working software is the primary measure of progress in agile projects. Agile teams collaborate with product owners to break down backlog items into increments that can be developed, tested, and delivered within a single iteration.”

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

Option A contradicts agile principles, which emphasize cross-functional teams capable of analysis, development, and testing.

Option B is a supporting activity but does not directly increase value delivery.

Option D reflects traditional project management thinking and does not align with the iterative, adaptive nature of agile.

Answer: C

Velocity is a tool forinternal team improvement and forecasting, not external benchmarking. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.4: Velocity and Estimation)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance), tracking velocity over time helps teams assess theimpact of process changes, refine estimates, and validate theircontinuous improvement efforts.

Option Cis correct: it focuses onteam-level improvement.

Option Auses velocity inappropriately for performance review, which goes against agile principles.

Option Bpromotes unhealthy comparisons across teams.

Option Dis partially true, but stakeholder communication is secondary to internal use.

The correct answer is C – Low-risk and low-value. Agile teams prioritize features that deliver the highest value earliest while also addressing risk. Features with low business value and low risk can be deferred as they contribute the least to business objectives and present no urgency.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams maximize value by focusing on delivering high-value and high-risk features early. Low-value, low-risk items are often deferred or dropped entirely if they don’t contribute meaningfully to customer outcomes.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.4 – Prioritization Techniques)

Mike Griffiths supports this:

“Features should be prioritized by value and risk. Items with low value and low risk are the lowest priority. Delivering high-value features quickly enables feedback and learning.”

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

Incorrect options:

A should be prioritized early to mitigate risk and deliver value.

B are non-critical and risky—often avoided or discarded.

D delivers value, and therefore should be prioritized above low-value items.

Answer: C

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In this case, the risk description for "Incomplete requirements specification" has been identified as a high likelihood and high impact risk. To mitigate this, the most appropriate strategy would be to conduct thorough requirements analysis and validation. This ensures that the integration of the new tool with the customer relationship management system aligns with the business objectives and avoids misunderstandings or gaps in the product requirements, which could cause delays or rework later in the project. This step addresses the core challenge of ensuring the product meets the business needs and integrates smoothly with existing systems.