Domain I

Agile Principle and Mindset

1-Your team is beginning a new release, and things are progressing a little slower than they initially estimated.
As ScrumMaster, you are taking a servant leadership approach. Which of the following are you most likely to
do?

A) Create a high-level scope statement and estimates

B) Intervene in arguments about how to do the work

C) Demonstrate the system to senior executives

D) Do administrative activities for the team

Answer: D

In taking a servant leadership approach, you are most likely to take care of administrative activities for the team.
As implied by the team, the role of a servant leader is focused on serving the team. A servant leader recognizes
that the team members create the business value and does what is necessary to help the team be successful. Of
the choices presented, the action of doing administrative work best supports this goal.

2- As a member of a high-functioning agile team, which statement best describes how you work?

A) Your team leader transparently directs you and your teammates as you do the work

B) you and your teammates openly discuss your mistakes and failed experiments

C) You and your teammates almost always agree on how the work should be done

D) you and your teammates maintain a laser-like focus on continuously improving your velocity

Answer: B

High-functioning agile teams work in a safe environment in which they are encouraged to experiment and openly
discuss their issues and problems as well as their progress. Although the leader might use a directive approach
when the team is first forming, high-functioning agile teams self-directing. Also, to find the best solutions, agile
team members need to be constantly debating diverse opinions and different approaches. Agile teams focus on
delivering value rather than continuously improving their velocity (and velocity will naturally plateau as the project
progresses and increases in complexity)

3- Your team holds regular reviews and sprint retrospectives with the product owner. Which agile methodology
are you following?

A) Scrum

B) Kanban

C) Lean

D) Extreme Programming
Answer: A

The term “sprint reviews”, “sprint retrospectives” and “product owner” tell us that this is following the Scrum
methodology

4- You have been asked to coach a team that is just switching to agile, and they ask you whether it is true that
agile teams don t use plans. You explain that agile teams do prepare plans, but sticking to those plans is less
important than:

A) Keeping the customer happy

B) Responding to change

C) Delivering value

D) Continuously improving

Answer: B

Agile Manifesto Value 4 states that agile teams focus on “ responding to change over following a plan” . The other
choices are all important priorities for agile teams, but they are not relevant to this particular comparison.

5- You have been assigned to lead a team that has recently transitioned to agile, and you find that they are still
using Gantt chart for planning the work. You explain to them that agile considers a task board to be preferable
to a Gantt chart because --------------- .

A) A task board can be updated by anyone on the team, while a Gantt chart is usually updated by one or two
people

B) A task board is a better tool for planning, since a Gantt chart is more useful foe reporting progress

C) A task board makes it easier to estimate how long the task will take, while a Gantt chart is best for radiating
progress to stakeholders

D) A task board can be created online or on a whiteboard, while a Gantt chart can only be created online

Answer: A

An important agile leadership practice is enabling other people to act by sharing power, information, and
knowledge. Using a task board instead of a Gantt chart is one way to do this, since it allows everyone on the team
to be involved in updating the status of the work.

6- How do agile teams deal with the fact that it is difficult to define the details of a knowledge work product
upfront?

A) They only work with vendors and customers who are also using agile processes

B) They keep all their plans and contracts “ barely sufficient” and “just in time”

C) They try to remain flexible and adapt whenever the customer changes his mind

D) They spend more time documenting their processes rather than trying to nail down the product details
Answer: C

Because it is difficult to define a knowledge work product upfront, agile teams have to remain flexible and adapt
whenever the customer’s requirements change. This is the reason for Agile Manifesto value 3, which values
“customer collaboration over contract negotiation”. As a result of this adaptable approach, agile teams do rely on
plans that are “barely sufficient” and “just in time”. However, that doesn’t necessarily apply to agile contract,
which may need to include more specification for vendors or customers who aren’t using agile. Documenting
processes isn’t a valid alternative to defining the details of the product.

7- What is most important to focus on in putting together a new agile project?

A) How the team’s progress will be measured and tracked by management

B) the processes and tools that will be used, including the technology involved

C) A comprehensive description of the product to be built and how it will be used

D) The individual who will be involved, and how they will interact with each other

Answer: D

Based on agile Manifesto value 1 (“individuals and interactions over processes and tools”). Our first focus should
be on the people, since projects are people oriented. Project are done for people and by people; tools, processes,
and technology may be important assets, but they can’t be fully defined upfront, and the team will measure and
track their own progress.

8- During a sprint, the product owner tells the team the priority of the items in the product backlog needs to
change. What should the team do?

A) Groom the product backlog

B) Continue building the increment in the current sprint

C) Shift their effort to working on the higher-priority items

D) Initiate a discussion with the sponsor about whether it’s appropriate to reprioritize items in the product backlog
at this point

Answer: B

As a rule, the goal of a sprint isn’t change while it is in progress, so the team wouldn’t switch gears and start
working on other items. Also, that’s not what the product owner is asking for; they have only said that items in the
product backlog need to be reordered based on shifting priorities. This grooming of the product backlog is routine
on an agile project and is regularly done at the end of each sprint, during the sprint review; it doesn’t affect the
current sprint. So for now, the team should just continue building the increment.

9- Your Scrum team has just finished holding a daily Scrum meeting. What part of the Scrum process is your
team currently in?

A) You are conducting a sprint

B) You have finished the sprint planning effort

C) You are in the middle of an iteration

D) You are about to hold a sprint review

Answer: A

Daily Scrum meetings are held during the sprints. Although it’s true that a sprint begins with a sprint planning
effort and ends with a sprint review (and a sprint retrospective), that doesn’t tell us what part of the process the
team is in now which is the question. (Also, if you picked either of those options, notice that they are equally “sot
of” true, so neither of them is more right than the other.) Scrum teams use the term “sprint” instead of the term
“iteration”.

10- In the iteration retrospective, the team’s coach reminds the pair programming teams that everyone owns
the code, and its important that all of that knowledge be shared. Apparently, there were some inconsistencies in
the refactoring that was done between different teams, and as a result, there are some unnecessarily complex
structures that will need to be reworked and simplified. Someone suggests that the code standard should
updated once the differences are worked out, and you all nod your heads in agreement. What methodology is
your team using?

A) Lean

B) XP

C) Scrum-XP hybrid

D) Scrum

Answer: B

This scenario either mentions or implies key terms and core practices of the XP methodology: iteration, coach, pair
programming, collective code ownership, refactoring, simple design, and code standards. Although this team might
conceivably be using a Scrum-XP hybrid, there is nothing in the scenario to indicate that.

11- As an agile leader, you want to create a project environment in which the team members:

A) Find harmony and peace at work

B) Want to do what needs to be done

C) Can’t wait to come to work every day

D) Are empowered to take control of the project priorities

Answer: B

The goal of agile leadership is to create an empowered and motivating work environment in which people want to
do what needs to be done. Although we’d like people to want to come to work every day, that isn’t a primary goal
for the leader. Team empowerment doesn’t mean the team takes control of the project priorities; the customer or
product owner is responsible for setting priorities. And finally, although we might think that a harmonious and
peaceful work environment would be ideal, agile views conflict as not only inevitable but productive and necessary
for high-performing teams.

12- Evan thought your team leader isn’t officially called a “coach”, you can tell the team is following the XP
methodology because she:

A) Waits until “just in time” to finalize the project plans

B) Describes system metaphors on a white board

C) Ensures the team gets regular feedback from the product owner

D) Transparently explains the shared “definition of done”

Answer: B

The only choice here that is specifically characteristic of XP in comparison to other agile methods is the use of
metaphors to describe the system. A shared definition of done and regular customer feedback aren’t unique to XP,
and the use of the Scrum term “product owner” wouldn’t be a sign that you are on an XP team. Also, on both
generic agile teams and the most popular agile methodologies, it is the team members who create and finalize
plans, not the team leader.

13- Senior management at your company is evaluating whether to use a single agile methodology across all their
upcoming projects, and you’ve been asked to advise them. What do you tell them is the advantage of using
Crystal?

A) It uses a color-coded system to plan and control the essential and discretionary elements of the project.

B) It allows us to scale our approach based on the criticality of the project and the size of the team

C) It provides a framework for incorporating elements of traditional project management into an agile project

D) It offers a customized set of methodologies that we can adjust based on the project’s size and importance to the
organization

Answer: B

The Crystal framework is a family of situationally specific, customized methodologies that are coded by color
names. Each methodology is customized by criticality (the potential impact of a product defect) and team size. This
allows Crystal to cover a wide range of projects, from small team building a low-criticality system (crystal clear) to a
large team building a high-criticality system (crystal Magenta).

14- Your team is closely following the XP methodology. What is one of their regular practices?

A) Developing by feature

B) Pair programming

C) Individual code ownership

D) Functional team

Answer: B

Of the options presented, pair programming is the only one that is an XP practice. The other choices are
distractors.

15- A developer on the agile team you’re leading is frustrated because the customer keeps asking for
enhancements to the increment being worked on during the current iteration. What should you do?

A) Remind the customer that the work for this iteration has already been planned, so any enhancements should be
added to the backlog to be considered in planning the next iteration.

B) Tell the developer that collaboration with the customer is critical to delivering a successful product, so they
should implement the changes

C) Explain to the customer that their suggestions will be implemented in the next iteration

D) Tell the developer to politely listen to the requests, and then ignore them.

Answer: A

Agile promotes a servant-leader model that includes shielding team member from interruptions and removing
impediments to progress. In this case, that would involve remaining the customer of the proper channels for
making changes. Any changes the customer wants should be added to the backlog and considered during planning
for the next iteration. Notice that the correct answer is not to simply tell the customer that the suggestions will be
implemented in the next iteration; when the next iteration is planned, the customer may realize that their
suggested enhancements are a lower priority than other items in the backlog.

16- You are a project leader in a company that follows a lean approach. Another project leader is impressed with
the work your two top programmers have done and has requested to “borrow” them for a tricky assignment on
her current project. According to lean, why is this not a good idea?

A) Switching from one project to another is a form of waste that decrease value delivered to the organization

B) She is obviously just trying to steal your programmer away. Good luck getting them back

C) Switching programmers between projects will increase the number of iterations required to complete both
projects

D) Moving team member around like this just throw both project teams back into the storming stage

Answer: A

While all of these answers sound quite plausible, only eliminating waste is a primary focus of lean. Task switching,
which occurs when people are assigned to multiple projects, is a form of waste that lean tries to avoid.

17- The product owner on your new project is new to the organization and hasn’t worked with an agile team
before. Early in the project, you send him an invitation to a high-level planning meeting. He e-mails you back,
“what will we talk about? I thought agile teams didn’t believe in planning” You respond that:
A) Agile planning is most helpful in the early stages, when it can make the most difference on the project

B) While agile teams don’t plan as much as traditional teams, they still need to stick with an initial plan that has
been vetted and approved

C) The agile approach is to make initial plans that we know flawed and then continuously adapt them as the work
progresses

D) While agile teams spend time on planning as traditional teams, they still need some kind of effort to kick off the
project

Answer: C

This question is based on Agile Manifesto value 4, which focuses on “responding to change” over “following a
plan”. Planning is important on any project. However, for projects in a rapidly changing environment, our initial
plans will be flawed since we don’t know much about the project yet. So we need to continuously replan in order
to effectively respond to changes and make sure we deliver value. As a result, agile teams actually end up spending
more time planning than traditional teams. It’s not true that planning is most helpful in the early stages of an agile
project or that agile teams need to stick with an approved plan.

18- Sara the customer, tells the team you’re leading that her staff needs a monthly reporting interface that can
be broken down by market segment, demographics, and geographic region. Afterward, you see that Doug, one
of your developer, has added a user story for weekly reports. You remind him that Sara didn’t ask for that, and
he says, “Sure, but you know she’ll want it later and it will be much easier if we include it upfront than if we
have to add it in later. “What do you say?

A) Okay, we’ll build it and show it to Sara and if she likes it

B) You’re right, if we have to add that feature later that would add unnecessary complexity to the product

C) Forget it, we’re not adding any unnecessary product features to the project

D) Don’t worry, Sara’s feature list has been approved; she won’t be able to add anything else

Answer: C

This question tests your understanding of Agile Manifesto principle10, which says that “Simplicity- the art of
maximizing the amount of work not done- is essential”. To keep things simple, agile teams don’t try to anticipate
functionality that the customer might possibly need later; they build the features that the customer needs and has
asked for now. Agile teams don’t build things “on spec” just to see if the customer will like them, and the customer
is able to change or add new features as needed at any time.

19- What does your Kanban team use their WIP limits to control?

A) How many work items can be in a given stage of the work

B) How many developers are working on unfinished items

C) How many work items can be pulled into the process at a time

D) How many work items can be started in each iteration

Answer: A

Kanban teams use their WIP limits to control the number of items that can be in a given stage of work at a time.
The other options might appear to be close in meaning, but they aren’t really. Also, Kanban teams typically don’t
use iterations.

20- As a servant leader to an agile team, what isn’t part of your job?

A) Tidy up after facilitating team meetings

B) Make sure the team gets recognition and rewards for its hard work

C) Protect the team from disruptive stakeholders

D) Clear up issues that might keep the team from moving forward

Answer: A

The only one of these options that wouldn’t be performed by an agile servant leader is cleaning up after the team
meetings. Being a servant leader doesn’t mean taking over team’s responsibility for cleaning up after themselves.
All the other options are valid servant leader functions.

21- You are a member of a typical XP delivery team. Which statement about you and your teammates is true?

A) You decide which user stories to include in the product

B) You follow a test-drive planning process

C) You write and test the code for the user stories

D) You aim for quality above all else

Answer: C

The primary responsibility of the members of an XP delivery teams is to write and test the code for the user
stories. The other statements are incorrect.

22- Your team has just decided to start using agile practices and want to take it slow at first. What should you
focus on the most?

A) Making sure you are using the practice correctly

B) Understanding why each of the practices is important

C) Deciding which practices, you want to try first

D) Learning how each practice applies to your project

Answer: B

This question addresses the difference between “being agile” and “doing agile”. Although the exam might not
mention this concept directly, it is one of the unstated assumptions of agile that you should know about. To adopt
agile practices successfully, you need to understand why each of the practices is important in other words, how it
fits into the agile mindset. If you simply learn the practices and implement them without understanding them, your
agile “experiment” isn’t likely to go well.

23- You’ve been asked to serve as the coach of a team that is just switching to agile. In introducing them to key
agile key agile concepts, you explain that the most effective way of conveying information between
stakeholders is:

A) Barely sufficient documentation

B) Information sharing

C) Face-to-face conversation

D) Osmotic communication

Answer: C

Agile Manifesto principle 6 states that face-to-face conversation is the most effective way of conveying information
to and within the development team. The other option also has a role in agile, but they aren’t the answer to this
question

24- You’ve been asked to explain the concept of a sprint retrospective meeting to a stakeholder who has never
worked with a Scrum team before. You say, “It’s a meeting where we -------------“.

A) Refine and update the product backlog, based on input from the product owner

B) Show the product owner the product increments we’ve just built and get feedback

C) Discuss what will be delivered in the sprint and how that work will be achieved

D) Reflect on what happened in the sprint, gather lesson learned, and look for improvements

Answer: D

The sprint retrospective is where the team reflect on the sprint and looks for opportunities for improvements. It is
not focused on the product owner and the backlog, planning the next sprint, or only inspecting the increment built.

25- The business representative for your lean team hasn’t been available for a few weeks due to a crisis in a
foreign subsidiary. Fortunately, the team has a good sense of the backlog priorities and has been able to
continue making progress in her absence. However, there are now two work packages that haven’t been
approved yet and at the end of this week there will be three. The team can keep going for a while, but the
longer they have to wait for feedback and approval the more likely it is that they will get off track. What is this
an example of?

A) Iterative development

B) Pull system

C) Task switching
D) Waste

Answer: D

In the lean approach, waiting (for reviews, approvals, etc.) is considered to a form of waste. The other options
aren’t supposed by the information given in the scenario for example, we can’t tell whether this team is using a
pull system or iterative development has switched to another focus, that isn’t the main point being illustrated
here.

26- You’ve been assigned the ScrumMaster of a team of engineers who some Scrum practices on their last
project but ran into problems. In hiring you, the sponsor mentioned that he didn’t think they really knew what
Scrum was. In your first meeting with your new team, they proudly explain that after they finish each piece of
work, they update that step in their 20-page Scrum process document. How do you respond to this information?

A) It’s very helpful that you’re detail-oriented enough to document everything you’re doing
B) you don’t need that much detail; 5 to 10 pages should be enough and won’t slow down the development
process
C) There’s no point in documenting our process until the project is completed; until then; the documentation will
just keep changing
D) Scrum teams only need “barely sufficient” documentation; our goal is to deliver value, and documentation has
less value

Answer: D
Based on Agile Manifesto value 2, “working software (systems) over comprehensive documentation”.
Organizations undertake projects because they need working systems, not documentation. Although
documentation can play an important role on a project, our focus should be on delivering value, not documenting
the process. The fact that the team is using the scrum methodology isn’t relevant to answering the question.

27- Your Kanban team has been struggling to stay productive, and you’re concerned that the key product
functionality won’t be ready when the customer needs it. As the team lead, what should you do?

A) Ask the team to analyze the flow of the work through the system, identify issues, and come up with some
solutions

B) Use the team’s Kanban board to visualize their the flow of work through the system and manage it more closely

C) Gather the team and explain the changes that will be made, explicitly addressing any concerns they have

D) Study what is holding up progress, develop some solutions to be tested, and explain them transparently to the
team

Answer: A

The five principles of Kanban emphasize team empowerment and collective ownership of their processes.
Therefore, the best answer is having the team analyze the situation, identify issues, and come up with solutions.

28- What is one of the key things your lean team will have to do to be productive and successful?

A) Identify the best technical approach early in the project

B) maintain strong personal relationships during the project

C) Make local decisions about how to build the product

D) Make firm delivery commitments and stick to them

Answer: C

This question could be a bit tricky since a team could benefit from any of these actions. The PMI-ACP exam will
include many questions where multiple answer options appear to be correct. In that case, read the question
carefully to see which answer addresses it most specifically and rule out any options that are clearly wrong. Here
we are looking for a “key thing” that a “lean team” will need to do in other words, something that is particularly
highlighted in lean. Choice stands out as most apt: empowering the team to make local decisions about how to
build the product. Although the choices about that refer to identifying the technological approach and making firm
delivery commitments sound good, they are actually at odds with the lean approach, which focuses on maintaining
flexibility as far into the project as possible.

29- When you are working with a Scrum team, who is primarily responsible for ensuring that value is delivered
by the project?

A) Testers

B) ScrumMaster

C) Development team

D) Product owner

Answer: D

The product owner has the primary responsibility for ensuring that value is delivered by a Scrum project. They do
this by managing the product backlog and making sure the team has a correct understanding of the project vision,
the project goals, and the product requirements.

30- How would you describe your Scrum team?

A) We are responsible for managing the backlog

B) We are self-organizing and self-managing

C) We are empowered to remove any impediments to our progress

D) We are empowered to manage our own work

Answer: D

A Scrum development team is self-organizing meaning that they are empowered to manage their own work but
that isn’t the same as being self-managing. It is the ScrumMaster who is responsible for removing impediments to
progress and the product owner who is responsible for managing the backlog.

31- The sponsor is asking for more comprehensive documentation of the project. You explain to her that agile
teams prepare “just enough” documentation so they can spend more time focusing on:
A) Delivering working product

B) Collaboration and teamwork

C) Building trust with the customer

D) Responding to change

Answer: A

Agile Manifesto value 2 states that working software (i.e., product) is valued more than comprehensive
documentation. The other choices are also important to agile team, but they aren’t the answer to this question

32- Three team members are arguing over the best approach to building a product component that they’re
working on together. As the team’s coach, what should you do about this?

A) Ask the PMO if there are any existing processes the team can use

B) Tell the team to stop arguing, and just try all three approaches to see which works best

C) Let them continue to debate the best approach

D) Suggest that the team members come up with a list of the pros and cons of each choice to help them make the
decision

Answer: C

Agile’s servant leadership model recognize that healthy discussion and debate help team members think through
issues and find the best approach together. So an agile leader will first try to let the team work out the answer for
themselves, and only step in if the conflict becomes obstructive. One of the reasons why servant leaders focus on
communicating the project vision is to keep the team aligned toward a common goal in an environment of healthy
debate and constructive disagreement.

33- You’ve found a more efficient way to analyze the lab test results that you and your teammates are
evaluating in the current spike. What is the most efficient way to share this information with the other
developers?

A) Post it on the project WIKI

B) Put a sticky note on the Kanban Board

C) Tell them in person

D) Document it in an e-mail

Answer: C

Agile Manifesto 6 states that the most efficient way of conveying information within a development team is a face-
to -face conversation. This method includes instant two-way feedback and conveys nonverbal information. So the
BEST way to sharer information is to tell the other developers in person.
34- You’ve been asked to coach a team that is just switching to agile. In introducing them to key agile concepts,
you explain that:

A) Agile teams try to avoid negotiating with their customers

B) Agile teams focus more on collaborating with their customers than writing detailed contracts

C) Agile teams rely on following a plan rather than negotiated contracts

D) Agile teams prefer to use negotiated contracts rather than detailed documentation

Answer: B

Agile Manifesto value 3 advises teams to focus on “customer collaboration over contract negotiation”. The other
choices are not core concepts of agile.

35- When it is time to sit down and refine the backlog for your Scrum project, who is in the room?

A) The development team and the product owner

B) The sponsor, the product owner, and the ScrumMaster

C) The development team and any interested stakeholders

D) The customer, the team coach, and the delivery team

Answer: A

Backlog refinement is done by the development team and the product owner working together. The team estimate
the work items, and product owner prioritizes them. The ScrumMaster will also be in the room, but there is no
option that lists those three roles

36- in the middle of a sprint halfway through the project, a competitor comes out with new functionality that
clearly surpasses what the team is trying to achieve during the sprint. What should the ScrumMaster do?

A) Cancel the sprint so the team can redefine the user stories guiding the work for that increment

B) Dedicate the rest of the sprint to determining whether the new functionality is something the team should be
building for the project

C) Try to identify why this new functionality was missed during the research leading up to the project

D) Ask the product owner whether the goal of the sprint is still appropriate

Answer: D

The ScrumMaster cannot cancel a sprint or change its focus-only the product owner can do this. If the product
owner determines that the goal of the sprint has become obsolete, they might then move to cancel the sprint. So
the correct answer is to ask the product owner whether the goal of the sprint is still appropriate. Trying to figure
out why no one was aware of the potential new functionality might be appropriate for a retrospective, but it’s not
the best course of action for the immediate situation
37- Your team is following a lean approach. What is least likely to be a concern you would focus on?

A) Decreasing the time, a team member has to wait before getting started on an activity because another team
member has to first finish their portion of the work

B) Keeping the big picture in mind as they do their work

C) Delivering value quickly

D) Making decisions regarding their work as early as possible so they have time to implement them

Answer: D

Eliminating waste (like delays in handoffs), delivering fast, and keeping the big picture of the project in mind are all
core values of lean. Lean also values deferring decisions and commitments until as late as possible; so making
decisions early is not likely to be a concern of a team using a lean approach.

38- During the daily scrum, Luca mentions that he hasn’t completed as much as had hoped since the last
meeting because he’s run into a problem. Janna says she had the same problem last week and offers to explain
how to fix it. What should the ScrumMaster do?

A) Have Janna explain how to fix the problem, since this will be available information for the entire team to have

B) Ask Luca to predict how the delay will impact the work of this team members

C) Ask Luca and Janna to discuss the problem after the meeting so they don’t hold things up

D) Record Luca’s problem in the project issue log

Answer: C

The daily scrum should address only three questions for each team member: “What have they done since the last
scrum?” “What do they plan to do today?” and “Are there any impediments to their progress?” Any additional
discussion should be conducted outside of the meeting.

39- As the leader of an agile team, what is one thing you will focus on to help create a productive project
environment?

A) Enable the team to make decisions about the project work

B) Model the behavior you want the team to avoid

C) Use communication tools to monitor performance

D) Empower the team to engage with end users

Answer: A

Agile leaders can help create a productive environment by enabling the team to make decision about the project
work and take actions needed to move it forward. They should model the positive behaviors they want the team to
follow, not those they want the team to avoid. The team will monitor its own performance by using tracking tools,
not communication tools. Although on some agile projects it might be helpful for the team to engage with end
users, that isn’t a general goal of agile leadership (and such engagement might be a distraction from the team’s
primary duty of building the product increment).

40- As an agile coach, what would be the best way to help maximize your team’s performance?

A) Set the goal and organize the work for each iteration so the team can focus on completing the work

B) Frequently remind the team of what project is aiming to achieve and find ways to reinforce that vision

C) Help the team develop processes to guide their workflow

D) Measure and discuss progress regularly with the team members

Answer: B

Agile’s servant leader model emphasize communicating and re-communicating the project vision to keep the team
members aligned toward achieving their common goal. Agile doesn’t place as much emphasis on discussing
progress or developing processes. Determining iteration goals is done by the development team. Agile team
members are empowered to organize their work for each iteration.

41- Midway through the project, your Kanban has just completed the development of a work item. What will
you do next?

A) Demo the finished product to the customer

B) Refine your estimates based on how long it took to complete that item

C) Pull another work item into the development effort

D) Plan the next iteration

Answer: C

This question tests whether you understand that Kanban relies on “pull system” to move work through the
development process. Each time a Kanban team completes a work item, it triggers a “pull” to bring in the next item
they will work on. This approach typically means that they don’t work in timeboxed iterations. The team wouldn’t
be ready to demo the finished product since they’re only midway through the project. And because of the pull
system, Kanban has much less emphasis on creating and refining estimates.

42- Drew has just finished developing user story 2.2. Instead of starting work on the next user story that is ready
for development, he helps out with testing user stories 2.0 and 2.1, which were developed by Mandy. Why is he
doing this?

A) The team has specialized work assignments, so another developer will need to do the next user story

B) The team is using WIP limits and the testing queue is full, so Drew pitches in to help clear it

C) The team is using a pull system that draws work all the way through the cycle before another work item can be
started

D) The team is using live deployments into a test environment instead of iterations
Answer: B

In a pull system, work is drawn into each stage of the project rather than all the way through the development
cycle. The options that mention specialized work assignments and deployments into a test environment don’t help
to explain this scenario. The correct answer is that this team is using WIP limits and the testing queue is full, so
Drew pitches in to help clear it. (If Drew had developed the stories in the testing queue, he wouldn’t be the best
person to help test them.)

43- When does your XP (Extreme Programming) team sit down with the customer to discuss what functionality
the business would like to see in the next increment of the product?

A) Release planning

B) Iteration planning

C) Daily scrum

D) Sprint retrospective

Answer: B

In release planning, the customer and team discuss the high-level functionality that should be included in the
release. However, for discussion of desired functionality takes place during iteration planning. The other two
options are Scrum terms, not XP terms; but they wouldn’t be correct even if the team was using that terminology.
The sprint retrospective is where the development team gathers lessons learned from the previous sprint and
looks for areas of improvement. The daily stand-up meeting is where team members identify what they have
worked on and will be working on and report any impediments to their progress for the ScrumMaster to resolve.

44- As the leader of an agile project team, what kind of approach would you take?

A) Directive approach

B) Interpersonal approach

C) Quantitative approach

D) Intuitive approach

Answer: B

Leaders on agile project should take an interpersonal approach rather than directive approach because agile teams
are empowered to organize and direct their own work. The other options are distractors.

45- During a sprint review, the product owner complains that the increment that was built doesn’t do what it
was supposed to do. What most likely happened?

A) The team and the product owner failed to agree upon a definition of done before the team started working on
the increment.

B) The product owner didn’t understand what was asking the team to include in the increment
C) The team decided to improve the functionality with goldplating

D) the product owner changed his mind about the desired functionality

Answer: A

Before the team starts building an increment, the team and the product owner should discuss and agree upon
what “done” will look like. This will help ensure that the increment will be what the product owner is looking for.

46- When will your team demonstrate the increment they have built during a sprint?

A) During the next sprint review

B) At the next sprint retrospective

C) In the next modeling session

D) Before the start of the next sprint

Answer: A

During the sprint review, the team demonstrates what they’ve built in the previous sprint to the product owner
inspects the work and determines whether it is “done” or requires any changes.

47- A team decides to transition to agile, but after one project they conclude it isn’t right for them and return to
a traditional approach. What’s the most likely reason they gave up on agile?

A) They used agile practices without understanding what were designed to accomplish

B) The constant stand-up and iteration meetings distracted them from completing their work

C) Their customers become overly involved in the project, making it difficult to get any work done

D) They limited their work in progress, and as a result, fell behind schedule.

Answer: A

Teams who adopt agile practices without internalizing the agile mindset often run into problems. This is the
difference between “being agile” and “doing agile”. “Stand-up meetings and iteration planning help focus the team
on getting the work done. Restricting the amount of work in progress actually improves productivity by increasing
the visibility of issues and bottlenecks that may be slowing work down. And the agile mindset embraces the idea
that the customer plays an important role in developing the project.

48- On your team, the people who write code are always looking for the most uncomplicated approach that
might be workable. Which agile methodology does it sound like this team is using? Which core value or principle
of that methodology are they following?

A) Scrum; adaptation

B) Lean; optimize the whole

C) Kanban; improve collaboratively

D) Extreme Programming; simplicity

Answer: D

This scenario is a good example of the emphasis that XP teams place on simplicity, a core value of that team
methodology. The other options only apply to the scenario in a much more general way, if at all.

49- You mention in a meeting that agile teams focus on people rather than processes and tools. The product
owner responds, “I’m confused, what do you mean by that?” You answer that it means:

A) If we get the right people on the team, the processes and tools they are using won’t matter

B) having an empowered team is more important for project success than the processes and tools being used.

C) It is harder to find people and keep them happy than it is to develop processes and tools

D) A project’s chances of success are heavily dependent on whether we can get the best people on the team

Answer: B

Agile team follow agile Manifesto value 1, “individual and interactions over processes and tools” because
experience has shown that having an empowered team is more important to the success of an agile project than
the processes and tools they choose to use.

50- As the leader of a lean team, what is one thing that you will focus on?

A) Optimizing and organizing the pieces of the project

B) Analyzing and documenting the source of waste

C) Making decisions quickly and efficiently

D) Assuring quality throughout the development process

Answer: D

While any of the items listed here might be helpful based on the specific circumstances of the project, only one of
them is a core concept of the lean approach “building in” quality throughout the development process. Lean
optimizes the whole, not the pieces; defers decisions rather than making them quickly; and focuses on
documenting it. (Although root cause analysis could be a helpful tool in reducing waste, the tool itself isn’t a focus
of the lean approach.)

51- You are a member of a typical Scrum development team. Which statement about you and your teammates is
true?

A) You determine the definition of done

B) You have cross-functional skills

C) You accept or reject the product increment

D) You remove impediments to your progress

Answer: B

Scrum teams have cross-functional skill (i.e., they can take on many roles on the project). The other statements are
incorrect. The team must work with the product owner to determine the definition of done, and it is the product
owner’s responsibility to accept or reject the product increment. Impediments to the team’s progress are resolved
by the ScrumMaster.

52- You are introducing you team to the idea of WIP limits. What isn’t a reason why a team would want to limit
their work in progress?

A) To make it easier to see where issues are causing a slowdown in the workflow

B) To increase the team’s productivity and reduce their cycle time

C) To Evenly distribute work to team members to ensure their time is being used most efficiently

D) To make sure there’s a steady flow of development work being done

Answer: C

Limiting WIP improve productivity, reduce cycle time, increase the visibility of issues and bottlenecks that are
slowing the workflow, and ensure a steady flow of work through the development effort. However, it doesn’t aim
to distribute work evenly across the team; maintaining this steady workflow could even lead to downtime for some
workers.

53- In the next iteration, you’d like to try a new approach to testing the user stories. If the new approach is
successful, it will save time throughout the project. If it’s not successful, you will lose all the time you invested in
trying the new approach, and the tests for that iteration won’t be completed. What should you do?

A) Follow your usual testing process for now, but set some time to experiment with the new approach after the
project is completed

B) Ask the product owner for permission to proceed with the new approach

C) Write up a process for the new approach and have the ScrumMaster review it and decide if the risk is worth
taking

D) Try out the new approach in the next iteration

Answer: D

Agile leaders should ensure that the team is working in a safe environment that encourages experimenting with
new techniques and processes. Because iterations are short in length, they provide a great opportunity to
experiment to see which new practices work and should be adopted, and which don’t work well and should be
dropped.

54- As A servant leader to your agile team, what isn’t something that you would be doing?

A) Fending off requests for nonproject work

B) Creating project plan

C) Maintaining a shared vision of what needs to be done

D) Providing encouragement and support

Answer: B

On agile projects, the team works together to create the project plans; this isn’t done by the team leader on their
own. However, a servant leader does maintain a shared vision of what needs to be done, fend off requests for
nonproject work, and provide encouragement and support.

55- You are the coach of a team that is following the XP methodology. Lars, a programmer on your team, asks to
become involved in testing in the upcoming iteration. How do you respond?

A) Sure, we could really use the help

B) May be, but I’ll have to run it by the sponsor

C) No, I don’t think your skills are transferable

D) Sorry, you were hired to do programming

Answer: A

In every agile methodology, cross-trained generalizing specialists are preferred and XP is no exception. It is
common for XP programmers to help out with testing the code whenever there is a need. It is unlikely that an XP
programmer’s skills would not be transferable to testing, since XP programmers write the tests for their code and
use automated testing tools.