PMI-ACP Practice Test 13 — 15 Questions

Question 1

What does the 'P' in INVEST stand for?

Accepted Answer

The question contains a trick; P is not part of INVEST.. INVEST is an acronym for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable. The letter 'P' does not appear in INVEST, so the correct answer is that the question contains a trick. This is a knowledge-check question testing whether candidates actually know the acronym rather than guessing a plausible-sounding word.

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Prioritized.

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Precise.

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Productive.

Question 2

A team is experiencing frequent bottlenecks at the 'Quality Assurance' stage of their Kanban board. Which metric would provide the most insight into the nature of this bottleneck?

Accepted Answer

Cumulative Flow Diagram.. A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) plots the number of items in each workflow state over time, so a widening band at the 'Quality Assurance' stage visually reveals where work is accumulating — the bottleneck. It shows both the quantity of work-in-progress in QA and how long items are sitting there, giving the most direct insight into the nature and magnitude of the bottleneck.

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Sprint burndown chart.

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Throughput run chart.

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Lead time distribution chart.

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Cycle time scatterplot.

Question 3

Which THREE items should be in the Definition of Done (DoD)?

Accepted Answer

Code reviewed by a peer.. Option A is correct because peer code review is a standard quality gate in a Definition of Done, ensuring another developer inspects the change for defects, standards compliance, and maintainability before it is considered complete. Option D is correct because passing all automated tests verifies that the increment meets its acceptance criteria and has not broken existing functionality, which is a core DoD criterion. Option E is correct because updating documentation for the feature ensures knowledge transfer, maintainability, and supportability, all of which are typical DoD requirements. Option B does not belong because rewarding the team with a bonus is a management or HR matter, not a quality criterion for a completed increment. Option C does not belong because CEO sign-off on code is not a practical or standard DoD item; the Product Owner, not the CEO, typically accepts the increment.

Answer

The team has been rewarded with a bonus.

Answer

The CEO has signed off on the code.

Question 4

What is the purpose of a retrospective?

Accepted Answer

To inspect and adapt the team's process.. The purpose of a retrospective is to inspect and adapt the team's process, as defined in the Scrum Guide. It is a recurring event where the team reflects on how they worked together, identifies improvements, and creates an action plan for the next sprint. This continuous improvement loop is a core agile practice that distinguishes retrospectives from status meetings or code reviews.

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To complain about management.

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To review the code.

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To assign tasks.

Question 5

A team leader is doing all the task assignments. How do you transition them to a servant leader?

Accepted Answer

Coach them on the benefits of team self-organization and pulling work.. Transitioning from a directive task-assigner to a servant leader requires a mindset shift, not a sudden removal of authority. Coaching the leader on the benefits of self-organization and pull-based work helps them understand why empowering the team leads to higher engagement, better decisions, and faster delivery. This aligns with PMI-ACP's emphasis on servant leadership, where the leader supports the team's growth rather than controlling assignments. Simply telling them to stop or removing them would create a vacuum and likely harm the team's performance.

Answer

Let the team continue to be dependent.

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Tell them to stop doing it.

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Remove the leader from the team.

Question 6

A team member is constantly 'gold-plating' (adding features not asked for). How do you address this?

Accepted Answer

Explain the value of meeting the current goals and the 'Definition of Done'.. Gold-plating adds features not requested, which can increase complexity, risk, and cost without delivering value. The best approach is to explain the value of meeting current goals and adhering to the Definition of Done, which defines the scope of work for a user story. This aligns the team member with Agile's focus on delivering only what is needed.

Answer

Encourage them to do more gold-plating.

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Fire them.

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Ignore it.

Question 7

An organization is transitioning from project-based funding to product-based funding. How does this impact the Product Owner's role?

Accepted Answer

The Product Owner focuses on long-term product value rather than project milestones.. Moving from project-based to product-based funding shifts the Product Owner's focus from delivering against fixed project milestones and budgets to maximizing long-term product value and outcomes. Funding becomes continuous and tied to product strategy, so the PO prioritizes the backlog around value streams, customer outcomes, and lifecycle economics rather than one-time project completion.

Answer

The Product Owner is now responsible for the annual budget.

Answer

The Product Owner no longer manages the backlog.

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The Product Owner now reports to the finance department.

Question 8

A servant leader notices that team members are hesitant to share mistakes during the retrospective. What is the most effective way to foster psychological safety in this environment?

Accepted Answer

Acknowledge the team's successes and publicly share a personal failure to normalize learning from mistakes.. Psychological safety is built when leaders model vulnerability and reframe mistakes as learning opportunities. Publicly sharing a personal failure while acknowledging successes (C) signals that fallibility is acceptable and that the team will not be punished for candor. This directly addresses the hesitation to speak up in retrospectives by changing the perceived consequences of honesty.

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Require team members to submit anonymous reports about other members' performance.

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Implement a public performance tracking dashboard to identify who makes the most errors.

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Schedule individual meetings to discipline those who caused the project delays.

Question 9

A team is struggling to understand the Product Owner's vision. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a visioning workshop where the PO presents the product roadmap and goals to the team.. When the team doesn't understand the PO's vision, the root cause is usually a communication gap, not a lack of capability, so the right move is to create a structured forum where the PO can articulate the roadmap and goals directly. A visioning workshop aligns everyone on purpose and priorities while keeping the PO as the authoritative source of product direction.

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Create your own vision for the team.

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Ask the developers to interview the customers themselves.

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Tell the team to just focus on completing their tasks.

Question 10

A product owner needs to show the long-term product roadmap to the board. What is the most appropriate format?

Accepted Answer

A high-level view showing themes and time horizons.. An Agile product roadmap is a high-level, outcome-oriented view that communicates themes, epics, and time horizons (e.g., now/next/later or quarterly) rather than fixed dates and tasks. For a board audience, this format conveys strategic direction and adaptability while avoiding false precision. It aligns with Agile's empirical approach and allows for re-planning as market conditions change.

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A detailed Gantt chart with fixed dates for every task.

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A list of all team members and their assignments.

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A printout of the entire product backlog.

Question 11

Which TWO of the following reflect the Agile focus on quality?

Accepted Answer

Continuous feedback loops to improve the product. Option D is correct because Agile quality relies on continuous feedback loops—short iterations, frequent demos, and retrospectives—that let teams detect defects and adjust requirements early, rather than waiting for a final inspection. Option E is correct because Agile builds quality into the product from the start through practices such as test-driven development, definition of done, continuous integration, and refactoring, so defects are prevented rather than merely detected later. Options A and B are incorrect because skipping testing or lowering standards directly undermines quality and contradicts Agile values of sustainable pace and technical excellence. Option C is incorrect because deferring all quality checks to the very end reflects a waterfall-style phase-gate approach, whereas Agile verifies quality continuously throughout each iteration.

Answer

Avoiding testing to speed up delivery

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Lowering standards to meet deadlines

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Quality is checked only at the very end of the project

Question 12

A project is experiencing significant scope creep. How should the practitioner handle this to protect the team's delivery capacity?

Accepted Answer

Ask the Product Owner to evaluate and prioritize requests against the current sprint goal.. In agile/Scrum, the Product Owner is the single point of accountability for backlog prioritization and scope decisions. When scope creep threatens the sprint, the correct response is to route new requests through the Product Owner so they can be evaluated against the sprint goal and either deferred, split, or swapped for existing work. This protects the team's sustainable pace and preserves the sprint commitment without the team unilaterally absorbing extra work.

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Add more hours to the work week for the team.

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Delete the backlog to force a restart.

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Accept all new requests to please stakeholders.

Question 13

A stakeholder is unhappy with the product's progress. How do you address this?

Accepted Answer

Invite them to the next sprint review to see the progress and discuss the product roadmap.. Inviting the stakeholder to the sprint review lets them see working product increment and discuss the roadmap directly with the team. This provides transparency, builds trust, and gives the stakeholder accurate information rather than filtered reports. It is the agile-correct way to address dissatisfaction with progress.

Answer

Show them a more optimistic report.

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Stop the project.

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Tell them the team is doing their best.

Question 14

A team member is consistently negative during meetings. As a leader, what is your first step?

Accepted Answer

Discuss the behavior with them privately to understand the root cause.. Negativity in meetings is usually a symptom of an underlying issue — unclear priorities, unresolved conflict, burnout, or feeling unheard — so the leader's first step is a private conversation to understand the root cause before taking any corrective action. Addressing it privately preserves the team member's dignity and gives the leader real information rather than reacting to surface behavior.

Answer

Ignore the behavior, as it will resolve itself.

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Call them out during the daily stand-up.

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Ask the team to vote on whether to keep them in the squad.

Question 15

When writing user stories, which criteria ensure the story is ready for the development team to estimate?

Accepted Answer

The story must meet the Definition of Ready.. The Definition of Ready (DoR) is an agile team's explicit checklist that a user story must satisfy before it can be pulled into a sprint for estimation and development. It typically covers INVEST criteria (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable), acceptance criteria being defined, dependencies identified, and the story being small enough to complete in one iteration. Meeting the DoR is the agreed signal that the team has enough shared understanding to size the work reliably.

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The story must be at least 10 pages long.

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The story must be approved by the CEO.

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The story must be assigned to a specific developer.