PMI-ACP Practice Test 17 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which TWO things should a practitioner consider when setting WIP limits?

Accepted Answer

The identified bottlenecks in the workflow.. Option A is correct because WIP limits should be set with awareness of the workflow's identified bottlenecks: limiting work-in-progress upstream of a bottleneck prevents overwhelming the constrained step, while the bottleneck itself often needs a tighter limit to keep flow balanced. Option B is correct because WIP limits must reflect the total team capacity — the number of people, their availability, and how much work they can realistically handle at once — so limits are neither so high that work piles up nor so low that team members are starved of work. Options C, D, and E are not relevant: the number of managers, the total budget, and the number of project phases do not directly determine how much concurrent work a team can effectively process, so they are not primary considerations for setting WIP limits.

Answer

The number of managers.

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The total budget.

Answer

The number of project phases.

Question 2

Which THREE techniques improve communication within distributed agile teams?

Accepted Answer

Shared digital collaboration boards (e.g., Kanban boards).. Option A is correct because shared digital collaboration boards such as Kanban boards give distributed team members a single, visible source of truth for work items, status, and flow, which compensates for the lack of a physical task board in a co-located space. Option C is correct because structured asynchronous communication tools (e.g., threaded channels, wikis, or documented updates) let team members across time zones exchange information without requiring simultaneous availability, reducing delays and context loss. Option D is correct because high-quality video conferencing preserves nonverbal cues, enables richer discussion for ceremonies like sprint planning and retrospectives, and builds trust better than text-only channels. Option B is not appropriate because relying strictly on email is slow, poorly threaded, and lacks the immediacy and richness needed for agile collaboration. Option E is not appropriate because forbidding instant messaging removes a fast, low-friction channel that distributed teams often need for quick clarifications and informal coordination.

Answer

Strictly communicating through email.

Answer

Forbidding instant messaging.

Question 3

Which TWO approaches help an organization move from a 'Command and Control' mindset to an Agile mindset?

Accepted Answer

Decentralizing decision-making to the people closest to the work.. Option B is correct because decentralizing decision-making to the people closest to the work shifts authority away from a top-down command-and-control structure and empowers those with the most direct knowledge to make timely decisions, which is a core Agile principle. Option C is correct because encouraging self-organization and team autonomy lets teams manage their own work and adapt to change, directly countering the rigid control and micromanagement typical of a Command and Control mindset. Options A, D, and E are incorrect because standardizing all workflows for maximum control, enforcing a strict top-down hierarchy, and replacing project managers with external compliance auditors all reinforce centralized control and oversight rather than fostering the empowerment, trust, and flexibility that Agile requires.

Answer

Standardizing all workflows across the company to ensure maximum control.

Answer

Establishing a strict hierarchy where all decisions flow from the top down.

Answer

Replacing all project managers with external auditors to monitor compliance.

Question 4

Which THREE factors should influence the priority of a product backlog item?

Accepted Answer

Business value to the customer.. Option C (business value to the customer) is correct because backlog prioritization should maximize delivered value, so items that provide greater customer or business benefit are ranked higher. Option D (cost of development) is correct because the effort and resources required affect return on investment; a high-value item that is cheap to build may outrank an equally valuable but expensive one. Option E (technical risk or uncertainty) is correct because high-risk or uncertain items are often prioritized early to reduce unknowns, validate assumptions, and avoid costly late rework. Option A is not a valid factor because prioritization must be based on value and risk rather than developers' personal preferences, and Option B is irrelevant since the visual formatting of a story description has no bearing on its business importance.

Answer

The personal preference of the developers.

Answer

The font size of the story description.

Question 5

A team is consistently missing their sprint goals. What is the most effective way to empower the team to improve?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a root-cause analysis in the retrospective to identify process blockers.. The retrospective is the team's dedicated inspect-and-adapt ceremony, and root-cause analysis (such as the Five Whys or fishbone diagram) within it surfaces the systemic process blockers causing missed sprint goals. This empowers the team to own the improvement rather than having a fix imposed from outside. Velocity data and personnel changes do not address underlying process defects.

Answer

Assign a mentor to watch every task developers perform.

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Analyze the velocity data and set higher targets for the next sprint.

Answer

Replace the team members who are underperforming.

Question 6

An agile team is consistently failing to deliver the 'must-have' features by the release deadline. What should the Product Owner do?

Accepted Answer

Collaborate with stakeholders to re-negotiate scope or the release date.. When an agile team cannot deliver must-have features by the release deadline, the Product Owner's responsibility is to manage scope and stakeholder expectations, not to squeeze the team. Collaborating with stakeholders to re-negotiate scope or the release date respects the Agile principle of delivering value within sustainable pace and acknowledges that fixed scope, fixed date, and fixed quality cannot all be guaranteed simultaneously. This is the only option that addresses the root cause through transparent negotiation rather than coercion or quality compromise.

Answer

Remove the Scrum Master for not pushing the team harder.

Answer

Mandate mandatory weekend work for the team.

Answer

Lower the quality standards to get it done faster.

Question 7

A team is struggling with frequent context switching during their sprint. Which lean technique should the practitioner implement to optimize end-to-end flow?

Accepted Answer

Implement strict Work In Progress (WIP) limits on the Kanban board.. Implementing strict WIP limits on the Kanban board directly addresses context switching by constraining the number of items a team can work on simultaneously. When WIP limits are enforced, team members are forced to finish current work before pulling new tasks, which reduces multitasking and improves flow efficiency. This lean technique is grounded in Little's Law (Cycle Time = WIP / Throughput), meaning reducing WIP directly shortens cycle time and accelerates end-to-end delivery. Thus, WIP limits are the most effective lean tool for optimizing flow and eliminating the waste of context switching.

Answer

Add more team members to distribute the workload.

Answer

Conduct a daily stand-up meeting for longer durations.

Answer

Increase the sprint duration to allow more time for tasks.

Question 8

Which of the following is a key component of psychological safety?

Accepted Answer

Being able to take risks without fear of punishment.. Psychological safety, as defined by Amy Edmondson, is the shared belief that team members can take interpersonal risks—speaking up, admitting mistakes, asking questions, proposing ideas—without fear of punishment or humiliation. Being able to take risks without fear of punishment is the core component that enables learning, innovation, and honest communication in Agile teams.

Answer

Having clear instructions.

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Working in a quiet environment.

Answer

Having high pay.

Question 9

Which TWO actions support a team in becoming more self-organizing? (Choose TWO)

Accepted Answer

Allowing the team to choose how they complete their work.. Option D is correct because self-organizing teams are granted autonomy over how they accomplish their work, meaning the team—not an external manager—decides the technical approach, task breakdown, and execution methods within agreed boundaries. Option E is correct because true self-organization includes owning process improvements; when the team inspects and adapts its own way of working (for example, in a retrospective), it builds the accountability and shared ownership that self-organization requires. Options A, B, and C do not belong: ignoring the team's issues (A) is abdication rather than empowerment and removes the coaching/servant-leadership support a growing team needs, while requiring all technical decisions to go through you (B) and directing every step of day-to-day work (C) are command-and-control behaviors that strip the team of autonomy and decision-making authority, directly preventing self-organization.

Answer

Ignoring the team's issues to let them learn on their own.

Answer

Requiring all technical decisions to go through you.

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Directing every step of the team's day-to-day work.

Question 10

An enterprise organization is struggling to coordinate agile delivery across global time zones. What is the most effective approach?

Accepted Answer

Schedule core overlapping hours for synchronization and use asynchronous communication tools.. In globally distributed agile teams, the most effective coordination strategy is to establish a shared window of overlapping working hours for synchronous ceremonies (daily standups, sprint planning, retrospectives) while relying on asynchronous tools (wikis, boards, recorded demos, chat threads) for the rest of the work. This preserves real-time collaboration where it adds the most value without forcing unsustainable schedules on any single region. It aligns with PMI-ACP principles of adaptive communication planning and team empowerment.

Answer

Stop all collaboration.

Answer

Only work with teams in the same time zone.

Answer

Force all teams to work the same hours.

Question 11

A product vision has become outdated due to market shifts. How should the Product Owner proceed?

Accepted Answer

Collaborate with stakeholders to revise the product vision.. The product vision is owned by the Product Owner but shaped with stakeholders, so when market shifts invalidate it, the Product Owner should collaborate with stakeholders to revise it. This keeps the vision aligned with business value and customer needs while preserving stakeholder buy-in. The Product Owner remains accountable for the vision, but revising it is a collaborative, not unilateral, act.

Answer

Allow developers to decide the new vision.

Answer

Wait until the end of the project to change the vision.

Answer

Ignore the shift and continue with the original plan.

Question 12

An organization is moving from project-based to product-based funding. How should the agile practitioner advise the team to measure success?

Accepted Answer

Utilize value-based metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).. Moving from project-based to product-based funding shifts the focus from output and budget adherence to delivered customer and business value. Value-based metrics such as Net Promoter Score and Customer Acquisition Cost directly measure whether the product is achieving meaningful outcomes for users and the business. This aligns with the product mindset's emphasis on outcomes over outputs.

Answer

Report primarily on task completion percentages from the Jira dashboard.

Answer

Track the number of features delivered per quarter.

Answer

Focus on budget adherence and total project spend.

Question 13

What does a 'Definition of Done' ensure in an agile delivery?

Accepted Answer

A common understanding of quality and readiness criteria for increments.. The Definition of Done (DoD) is a shared, explicit checklist that describes the quality attributes and completion criteria every increment must satisfy before it can be considered 'done.' It creates a common understanding across the team, PO, and stakeholders of what 'done' actually means, preventing the ambiguity that leads to hidden technical debt and rework.

Answer

That the project budget is not exceeded.

Answer

That the team is working the required number of hours.

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That all requirements have been met regardless of effort.

Question 14

A team is struggling to maintain focus due to 'firefighting' requests from the business. How do you coach them?

Accepted Answer

Work with the Product Owner to create a clear backlog policy for incoming requests and protect the sprint.. Working with the Product Owner to establish a clear backlog policy for incoming requests and protecting the sprint is the correct coaching action because it addresses the root cause: unmanaged work entering the team's workflow. The Product Owner is responsible for backlog prioritization, so collaborating with them ensures that firefighting requests are evaluated against sprint goals rather than disrupting the team ad hoc. This preserves the team's focus and maintains the integrity of the sprint commitment.

Answer

Suggest the team work on these requests at night.

Answer

Ask the team to switch to a Kanban approach.

Answer

Tell the team to stop accepting any outside work.

Question 15

Two developers are arguing about a design choice. How do you intervene?

Accepted Answer

Ask them to prototype both options to see which works best.. In Agile, empirical decision-making is preferred over opinion-based conflict resolution. Prototyping both options lets the team gather real data on feasibility, performance, and maintainability before committing, which aligns with the Agile principle of 'working software over comprehensive documentation' and short feedback loops. This converts a subjective argument into an evidence-based decision the whole team can support.

Answer

Force them to compromise on a sub-optimal design.

Answer

Choose the design you prefer.

Answer

Tell them to flip a coin.