PMI-ACP Practice Test 15 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which TWO actions demonstrate servant leadership?

Accepted Answer

Protecting the team from external interruptions. Servant leadership in agile/Scrum contexts means the leader's primary role is to serve the team by clearing obstacles and shielding it from distractions so members can self-organize and deliver value. Option A (Protecting the team from external interruptions) is correct because a servant leader acts as a buffer, absorbing outside demands and noise so the team can maintain focus and flow. Option B (Removing impediments for the team) is correct because eliminating blockers is the canonical servant-leader behavior, enabling continuous progress rather than directing the work. Option C (Assigning tasks to team members) is not servant leadership because self-organizing teams pull work themselves; assignment is a command-and-control practice. Option D (Requiring status reports every hour) is not servant leadership because it imposes controlling, trust-eroding oversight rather than supporting the team. Option E (Dictating exactly how tasks should be done) is not servant leadership because it removes autonomy and micromanages instead of empowering the team.

Answer

Assigning tasks to team members

Answer

Requiring status reports every hour

Answer

Dictating exactly how tasks should be done

Question 2

A team is coordinating releases across three different scrum teams working on the same product. Which THREE practices should be utilized?

Accepted Answer

Assign a single Product Owner to maintain a unified product backlog.. Option B is correct because when multiple Scrum teams build one product, a single Product Owner with one unified product backlog keeps priorities, value ordering, and acceptance criteria consistent across teams, preventing divergent backlogs. Option D is correct because joint refinement (e.g., shared backlog refinement sessions) lets teams surface and clarify cross-team dependencies, interfaces, and shared acceptance criteria before Sprint Planning, reducing integration risk. Option E is correct because the Scrum of Scrums is the scaled-agile practice for synchronizing multiple teams, where delegates coordinate progress, impediments, and cross-team dependencies. Option A is wrong because reporting directly to a Portfolio Manager for daily tasks breaks Scrum's self-managing team model and the Product Owner's accountability for value. Option C is wrong because deliberately differing iteration lengths across teams on the same product increases synchronization and integration problems rather than avoiding them.

Answer

Require every team to report directly to the Portfolio Manager for daily tasks.

Answer

Mandate that each team has a different iteration length to avoid meeting conflicts.

Question 3

Which TWO of the following are effective ways to foster 'meaningful outcomes' rather than just 'output'?

Accepted Answer

Utilizing MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) to validate hypotheses with real users.. Option B is correct because using MVPs to validate hypotheses with real users shifts the focus from simply producing deliverables to learning whether the product actually solves a real problem, which is the essence of a meaningful outcome. Option D is correct because prioritizing high-value features based on customer feedback and data ties delivery directly to measurable customer and business value rather than mere activity. Options A, C, and E do not belong: A emphasizes rigid process compliance over value, C bases prioritization on developer preference rather than customer or business value, and E measures success by story count, which is an output metric rather than an outcome metric.

Answer

Ensuring the team follows the documented process perfectly every time.

Answer

Prioritizing tasks based solely on the developer's preference for new technology.

Answer

Defining success by the number of stories closed per sprint.

Question 4

Which TWO of the following indicate an 'agile' approach to documentation?

Accepted Answer

Writing only the documentation that is necessary. Option D is correct because agile documentation is intentionally 'just enough' — teams produce only the artifacts that deliver value, avoiding the waste of heavy, unused documents. Option E is correct because agile treats documentation as a living artifact that evolves with the product, so it is continuously reviewed and updated alongside changing requirements. Option A is wrong because never reviewing documentation contradicts agile's emphasis on continuous improvement and would let docs go stale. Option B is wrong because writing comprehensive documentation upfront is a plan-driven, waterfall-style practice that agile replaces with iterative, incremental documentation. Option C is wrong because mandatory management sign-off adds heavyweight approval gates and bureaucracy, which is contrary to agile's lightweight, collaborative approach.

Answer

Writing documentation once and never reviewing it

Answer

Creating comprehensive documentation before starting any work

Answer

Mandating that all documents be signed by management

Question 5

Which THREE of the following are essential for a good user story?

Accepted Answer

It is independent of other stories.. Option B is correct because good user stories should be independent, meaning they can be developed, tested, and delivered without being tightly coupled to other stories, which supports flexible prioritization and reduces dependencies. Option D is correct because a user story must deliver clear value to the user or customer; this is the core purpose of a story and ensures the work is meaningful rather than purely technical. Option E is correct because a good user story should be small enough to be completed within a single sprint, aligning with the INVEST criteria's 'Small' principle and enabling reliable iteration planning. Option A is incorrect because user stories should be written in plain, business-oriented language rather than complex technical jargon, so that stakeholders and developers can understand them. Option C is incorrect because user stories should be concise and short, not thousands of pages long; excessive length indicates poor decomposition and defeats the purpose of a lightweight requirements artifact.

Answer

It is written in complex technical jargon.

Answer

It is thousands of pages long.

Question 6

A cross-functional team is experiencing long lead times for feature delivery. Which TWO actions would help optimize the end-to-end flow?

Accepted Answer

Map the value stream to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities.. Option B is correct because mapping the value stream makes all steps, handoffs, and delays in the end-to-end flow visible, allowing the team to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities (waste) that inflate lead time. Option E is correct because enforcing a strict Work-In-Progress (WIP) limit constrains the amount of work in the system, reduces multitasking and queue buildup, and improves flow efficiency and throughput, which directly shortens lead times. Outsourcing testing (A) may add coordination overhead and handoff delays rather than optimize flow, and it does not address the root causes of long lead times. Adding a QA gate at the end (C) inserts an additional approval/verification step that can increase wait time and batch size, worsening flow. Doubling daily stand-ups (D) increases meeting overhead without removing the systemic bottlenecks that cause long lead times.

Answer

Outsource the testing phase to a specialized third-party vendor.

Answer

Add a quality assurance gate at the end of the development lifecycle.

Answer

Increase the frequency of daily stand-ups to two times per day.

Question 7

Which TWO of the following behaviors best demonstrate the Agile mindset regarding 'Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation'?

Accepted Answer

Inviting customers to provide feedback during sprint reviews.. Option A is correct because inviting customers to provide feedback during sprint reviews embodies collaboration: the sprint review is the inspect-and-adapt event where the team demonstrates the increment and works with the customer to shape the backlog, rather than hiding behind contractual deliverables. Option B is correct because treating the customer as a partner to solve problems together directly reflects the Agile value of collaboration over negotiation—shared ownership of outcomes replaces adversarial bargaining. Option C is not correct because outsourcing communication to legal makes the relationship transactional and contract-centric, the opposite of collaboration. Option D is not correct because rigidly adhering to the original contract to avoid extra work prioritizes the contract over responding to customer needs. Option E is not correct because limiting customer interaction to prevent scope creep reduces collaboration and treats the customer as an adversary rather than a partner.

Answer

Outsourcing all communication to the legal department.

Answer

Strictly adhering to the original contract to avoid extra work.

Answer

Limiting customer interaction to prevent scope creep.

Question 8

The team is struggling with 'decision paralysis'. What approach should the practitioner take?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate time-boxed decision-making sessions to drive consensus.. Time-boxed decision-making sessions, such as those using consent-based or fist-of-five techniques, help teams overcome decision paralysis by imposing a deadline and a structured process. This empowers the team to reach a decision without endless debate, aligning with agile principles of self-organization and incremental delivery. The practitioner facilitates rather than dictates, ensuring the team retains ownership.

Answer

Remove the team members involved.

Answer

Make all decisions for the team.

Answer

Delay the decision indefinitely.

Question 9

What is the purpose of a 'Daily Stand-up'?

Accepted Answer

To synchronize team efforts and surface blockers.. The Daily Stand-up is a time-boxed event where team members synchronize their work, discuss progress toward the Sprint Goal, and surface any impediments. Its primary purpose is to inspect progress and adapt the plan, not to report status to a manager or assign tasks.

Answer

To assign tasks to team members.

Answer

To perform a technical design review.

Answer

To update the project manager on status.

Question 10

Your team is constantly arguing about how to handle technical debt. How do you facilitate?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion on the impact of technical debt on velocity and quality, and help them define a sustainable approach.. An agile leader facilitates rather than dictates. By guiding the team to discuss how technical debt affects velocity and quality, the leader helps them own the problem and co-create a sustainable approach, which aligns with self-organization and continuous improvement.

Answer

Ask the stakeholders to decide which technical tasks are important.

Answer

Ignore the debt and focus on new features.

Answer

Order the team to dedicate 50% of every sprint to technical debt.

Question 11

Which TWO of the following are primary objectives of sprint/iteration planning?

Accepted Answer

Defining the sprint goal for the iteration.. Sprint/iteration planning is the Scrum event where the team determines what can be delivered in the upcoming sprint and how that work will be achieved. Option C is correct because defining the sprint goal is a core output of the planning session — it gives the iteration a single, shared objective that guides the team's decisions and provides focus. Option E is correct because selecting the appropriate product backlog items and decomposing them into a workable plan (tasks, estimates, approach) is precisely the purpose of the second half of sprint planning. Option A is incorrect because budgeting for a quarter is a portfolio or financial planning activity, not part of sprint planning. Option B is incorrect because sprint planning produces a plan, not a rigid assignment of every individual task to specific people for the whole sprint; task ownership typically emerges during the sprint and is self-managed by the team. Option D is incorrect because ROI calculation is a post-project or business-case activity, not an objective of sprint planning.

Answer

Negotiating the budget for the upcoming quarter.

Answer

Assigning individual tasks to specific team members for the entire sprint.

Answer

Calculating the final ROI for the completed project.

Question 12

Which TWO of the following are core Agile values?

Accepted Answer

Working software over comprehensive documentation. Option B is correct because the Agile Manifesto explicitly states 'Working software over comprehensive documentation,' meaning functioning deliverables are valued more highly than exhaustive documentation. Option E is correct because the first value in the Agile Manifesto is 'Individuals and interactions over processes and tools,' emphasizing people and communication over rigid methodologies. Option A is incorrect because the Agile Manifesto values 'Responding to change over following a plan,' which is the reverse of what is stated. Option C is incorrect because Agile values 'Customer collaboration over contract negotiation,' again the opposite of the option. Option D is incorrect because Agile favors team flexibility and adaptability, not rigid processes.

Answer

Following a plan over responding to change

Answer

Contract negotiation over customer collaboration

Answer

Rigid processes over team flexibility

Question 13

Which THREE are common pitfalls in product backlog management?

Accepted Answer

Having a backlog that is too large to navigate.. Option A is correct because an excessively large backlog becomes unnavigable, obscuring priorities and making it hard for the Product Owner to keep the most valuable items at the top for the team. Option C is correct because without regular backlog refinement (grooming), items grow stale, estimates become unreliable, and the team loses shared understanding of upcoming work. Option E is correct because deferring technical debt until it causes failures is a classic backlog-management pitfall that eventually cripples velocity and product stability. Option B does not belong because involving the team in planning is a recommended agile practice, not a pitfall. Option D does not belong because a clear, prioritized backlog is the desired state of good backlog management, not a pitfall.

Answer

Involving the team in the planning process.

Answer

Having a clear and prioritized backlog.

Question 14

A team's cycle time has significantly increased over three sprints. What is the most appropriate first step to identify the root cause?

Accepted Answer

Discuss the trend during the next team retrospective.. When cycle time trends upward over multiple sprints, the team needs a structured forum to inspect the data and surface root causes — the retrospective is exactly that venue. Discussing the trend there lets the team analyze the data collaboratively, identify systemic issues, and agree on experiments to improve flow. This aligns with agile's inspect-and-adapt principle and keeps ownership with the team.

Answer

Increase the WIP limit.

Answer

Fire the team lead.

Answer

Ignore it as minor fluctuations.

Question 15

You are a Scrum Master observing a team that relies heavily on a single senior developer to make all technical decisions. How should you apply servant leadership to improve team dynamics?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a session on collaborative decision-making techniques to encourage input from all team members.. Servant leadership in Scrum means the Scrum Master removes impediments and coaches the team toward self-organization, not directing work or making personnel decisions. Facilitating a collaborative decision-making session directly addresses the root cause — the team's over-reliance on one voice — by building the skills and psychological safety needed for shared ownership. This aligns with the PMI-ACP Agile Principles of self-organizing teams and the Scrum Master's role as a servant-leader who grows the team's capability rather than solving the problem for them.

Answer

Ask the Product Owner to assign tasks directly to team members to bypass the senior developer.

Answer

Instruct the senior developer to continue making decisions to ensure project speed.

Answer

Remove the senior developer from the project to force others to lead.