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

The correct answer is C – Ensure that members begin to self-organize as small teams with efficiently distributed skills.

Agile emphasizes self-organizing teams. When teams are too large, splitting into smaller teams is a good practice (Scrum recommends 5–9 members per team). However, rather than top-down assignment, the Scrum Master should enable and support self-organization. Teams should be encouraged to form organically while ensuring knowledge-sharing and cross-functional capabilities.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile leaders support team self-organization by creating an environment of trust and encouraging the team to determine how best to accomplish their work.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Team Composition)

Mike Griffiths writes:

“Agile teams are self-organizing, and the role of the leader is to facilitate the conditions for that to occur, not to direct assignments.”

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

Why other options are less appropriate:

A suggests command-and-control behavior, which is contrary to Agile values.

B makes assumptions about comfort levels and may ignore skill diversity.

D disregards team input and imposes a solution, limiting buy-in and trust.

Answer: C

══════════════════════════════════════════════════

Retrospectives are meant to driveincremental, continuous improvement. Implementing too many changes at once can be overwhelming. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.6 Retrospectives)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 7: Continuous Improvement)recommend that teamsselect a manageable number of actionable improvementsand follow through in the next iteration.

This supports sustainable improvement and encourages follow-up.

Option Cis correct: start with one or two improvements to implement immediately.

Option Abypasses action.

Option Brisks overwhelming the team.

Option Dprioritizes complexity over practicality.

Before the workshop, the team members should read and identify relevant user stories from the product backlog that directly contribute to the goal of developing the feature for receiving and resolving customer complaints. This ensures that the stories being worked on are well-understood and aligned with the release goal.

The team should also consider the possible risks associated with each selected user story, such as technical challenges or dependencies. Additionally, they should evaluate the value each story adds to the final user (customer), ensuring that the team focuses on delivering maximum value in the release.

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

—

The correct answer is B – The customer changed requirements. Agile teams embrace change, especially when it improves the product’s value. Customer-driven changes to requirements are the most common and legitimate reason for adjusting project plans in agile, supported by rolling wave planning and continuous backlog refinement.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile projects anticipate changes in requirements. The product backlog is continuously updated to reflect new insights and customer needs.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Rolling Wave Planning)

Mike Griffiths emphasizes:

“In agile, planning is dynamic. The most common source of change is evolving customer requirements, which lead to changes in scope and prioritization.”

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

Incorrect options:

A is unrelated and unrealistic.

C is useful but doesn’t directly alter the project plan.

D is ambiguous and doesn’t reflect business-driven change.

Answer: B

────────────────────────────────────

The correct answer is D – Work with the team to ensure that acceptance criteria is being properly defined and understood.

Incomplete work that fails to meet stakeholder expectations often results from unclear or misunderstood acceptance criteria. Clarifying the definition of “done” and ensuring alignment between the Product Owner and development team can drastically reduce rework and defects.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Clear and testable acceptance criteria help ensure shared understanding. Quality issues frequently stem from misaligned expectations or vague requirements.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Definition of Done and Acceptance Criteria)

Mike Griffiths writes:

“Teams must understand what success looks like for each story. Poorly defined or misunderstood acceptance criteria are a major cause of defects and missed expectations.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Other options explained:

A (spike) is used for research or uncertainty—not fixing misunderstood requirements.

B (burndown chart) helps track progress, not resolve defects.

C may help indirectly but doesn't address the core problem of unclear requirements.

Answer: D

══════════════════════════════════════════════════

The best approach for the agile coach would be to address the root cause of the concern immediately and help the team reflect on their current processes to identify ways to improve. This can be achieved by engaging the team in a discussion that focuses on understanding the issues related to the technical design and the definition of done (DoD).

This will allow the team to openly discuss and identify specific areas of the technical designs that do not meet the DoD. By understanding the underlying issues, the coach can help the team find solutions and ensure that future work aligns with the agreed-upon quality standards and expectations.

When the client needs to release the product earlier than planned to start receiving revenue, the best way to accommodate this request is by focusing on delivering a minimum viable product (MVP). The MVP allows the team to prioritize the most essential features that provide value to the customer, ensuring that the product can be launched quickly, while still addressing the core needs of the business.

By focusing on the MVP, the product can still be launched on time, and the client can start receiving revenue sooner without waiting for the full product to be completed. This aligns with agile principles of delivering valuable, incremental releases.

The goal of each iteration in Agile is to deliver working software frequently, typically at the end of each iteration. This allows the team to gather feedback early and make improvements quickly. The emphasis is on delivering usable software that provides value to the customer, rather than just completing tasks or preparing timelines. This approach aligns with the Agile principle of delivering working software frequently to ensure continuous progress and customer satisfaction.

To prevent the prioritization meeting from turning into a brainstorming session, the product owner should ensure that user stories are well-defined before they are added to the backlog. By reviewing the items with the product owner’s teammates (or stakeholders) beforehand, the product owner can clarify the details of the stories and ensure they are properly defined. This allows the team to focus on prioritization during the meeting, rather than spending time clarifying vague requests. This proactive approach improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the prioritization process.