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

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

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

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

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

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

Mike Griffiths highlights:

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

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

Incorrect options:

A may solve bandwidth issues but not focus or ownership.

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

D tolerates a harmful practice that contradicts agile team stability.

Answer: C

The project manager should engage in a constructive conversation with the team member to understand the reasons behind the performance dip. Instead of focusing on blame, it’s important to discuss the specifics of the project deliverables and identify any challenges or factors that may be affecting the team member ' s performance. Providing constructive feedback helps the team member understand the areas of improvement while maintaining a supportive environment. This approach encourages open communication, identifies potential solutions, and can lead to a positive outcome for both the team member and the project.

The correct answer is B – Conduct story-mapping exercises to clarify deliverables and release priorities. Story mapping is a visual practice that aligns stakeholders and teams around a shared understanding of the product vision, user workflows, and incremental delivery plans.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Story mapping is a collaborative activity used to understand the user’s journey, prioritize features, and identify releases. It is highly effective for stakeholder alignment and promoting shared understanding.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.4 – Story Mapping)

Also supported by Mike Griffiths:

“Story mapping promotes visibility, alignment, and prioritization. It fosters collaboration between the team and stakeholders and helps translate business objectives into user stories.”

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

Why other options fall short:

A reverts to heavy documentation, which agile discourages.

C is a one-time event and doesn’t sustain alignment.

D focuses on adherence to process rather than collaboration and planning clarity.

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

The product owner should ensure that the stakeholder has easy access to relevant project data by utilizing the information radiator. An information radiator is a visual display of important project information, such as progress, financials, and key metrics. By giving the stakeholder access to this information, they can get the data they need without disrupting the team ' s workflow or waiting for specific requests. The scrum master can help facilitate this process by making sure the relevant data is readily available and visible.

The correct answer is B – Meet face to face at regular intervals to enhance shared understanding.

While Agile favors colocation, it acknowledges that distributed teams are common. The Agile approach encourages face-to-face communication as the most effective means of information sharing. When colocation isn’t possible, periodic in-person meetings help establish team trust and understanding.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Even with distributed teams, periodic face-to-face interactions are recommended to foster team cohesion and alignment. This is especially important during team formation and key planning activities.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 2.3 – Communication and Collaboration)

Mike Griffiths also advises:

“Remote teams benefit significantly from occasional in-person meetings. This improves relationships, shared understanding, and effectiveness in virtual collaboration.”

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

Why other options fall short:

A is about external support and not core to working agreements.

C undermines team transparency and agile principles of shared communication.

D could encourage fragmentation instead of collaboration.

Answer: B

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A developer is unable to work on their tasks within an iteration, because senior management is constantly pulling them into production incident analyses.

This is a blocker because the developer is unable to work on tasks within the iteration due to external interruptions (senior management pulling them into production incident analyses), preventing the team from progressing.

The offshore testing team is pulled away at the last minute from a high-profile initiative and testing cannot be resumed until a new testing team is assigned.

This is also a blocker because the offshore testing team has been pulled away at the last minute, causing a halt in testing until a new team is assigned. This delay impedes progress and prevents the team from moving forward with their work.

The correct answer is C — Update current user stories.

Acceptance criteria are part of a user story’s definition and describe the specific conditions under which the story is considered complete. As user stories evolve and more clarity is gained, acceptance criteria must be updated within the user story itself to ensure mutual understanding of scope and expectations between the product owner and the development team.

According to PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Acceptance criteria are detailed during backlog refinement and are commonly added to user stories to define the done conditions. These are updated throughout the lifecycle of the story as more details emerge.”

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

Mike Griffiths reinforces this:

“Acceptance criteria serve as the test conditions for confirming user stories. They are not fixed and can be elaborated collaboratively during grooming or development, and are updated directly in the user story.”

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

Other options:

A refers to adding more stories, not updating existing ones.

B (retrospectives) are used for process improvement, not for editing user stories.

D (project plan) reflects a traditional mindset and not applicable in Agile.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is B — Set the velocity to the delivered story points of the last sprint.

Agile velocity is a historical measure, not a target. It represents the amount of work a team actually completed in a previous sprint and should be used to help guide future sprint planning. Teams should not inflate, manipulate, or " game " their velocity; instead, they should use it as a basis for realistic planning.

PMI Agile Practice Guide states:

“Velocity is calculated by totaling the points for all fully completed stories. It is a measure of what the team can complete—not what it hopes to complete—and should be used as an empirical baseline for planning.”

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

Mike Griffiths further explains:

“Velocity should be based on historical data from previous sprints. Teams should not artificially inflate velocity by changing estimation practices or slicing stories merely to appear more productive.”

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

Incorrect options:

A promotes splitting for manipulation, not for clarity.

C suggests altering estimation practices for the sake of metrics.

D implies gaming the system to falsely increase velocity.

Answer: B

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The correct answer is C – Encourage the team to more frequently interact with all stakeholders. When an agile team is struggling to meet commitments, one key cause is often a lack of communication or feedback from key stakeholders. Increasing interaction helps align the team ' s priorities, clarify requirements, and improve ownership and accountability.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Teams that engage in regular, open communication with stakeholders are better able to align with the evolving needs of the business and take ownership of their commitments. Agile coaches support this behavior by facilitating frequent interactions and improving team dynamics.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement and 6.2 – Coaching the Agile Team)

Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book reinforces this:

“Encouraging frequent stakeholder interaction fosters a sense of ownership in the team. Agile coaches guide teams to seek clarity through communication rather than rely on assumptions.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 4 – Team Performance and Coaching)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A – Involving the sponsor in team-level performance issues may undermine team self-organization.

B – Providing a list of deliverables doesn’t address the root cause (lack of communication or clarity).

D – Upfront product design goes against agile principles and does not improve team ownership or delivery capability.

Answer: C