PMI-ACP Practice Exam 1 — 20 Questions

Question 1

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.. A root cause analysis during a retrospective is the best way to uncover systemic issues.

Answer

Increase the WIP limit.

Answer

Fire the team lead.

Answer

Ignore it as minor fluctuations.

Question 2

During sprint planning, a team discovers that their velocity has decreased by 20% over the last two iterations. What should the team do first?

Accepted Answer

Review the retrospective notes from the last two sprints to identify systemic blockers.. The team should analyze the process, not just blame the velocity, to understand the root cause.

Answer

Increase the story point estimates to account for the decrease.

Answer

Reduce the team size to improve communication overhead.

Answer

Commit to the same number of story points to pressure the team to improve.

Question 3

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).. Product-based delivery focuses on outcomes, not the output of a specific project plan.

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 4

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.. Meaningful outcomes are achieved by focusing on customer feedback and testing hypotheses to ensure what is built actually delivers value.

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 5

A team member is consistently finishing their tasks early but other members are struggling. How should the team respond to optimize flow?

Accepted Answer

Encourage the team member to assist others with their tasks.. Agile teams succeed together; members should help others to ensure the whole team hits the sprint goal.

Answer

Assign them more tasks than anyone else.

Answer

Ignore the imbalance.

Answer

Ask them to start working on next sprint's items.

Question 6

A team is consistently missing sprint goals because they over-commit. What is the most Agile-aligned response?

Accepted Answer

Use historical velocity to guide future capacity planning.. Reflecting on velocity and capacity allows the team to adjust their commitment for future sprints, embodying the principle of regular reflection and adjustment.

Answer

Stop doing retrospectives to save time for coding.

Answer

Assign tasks to members by seniority to ensure speed.

Answer

Increase the sprint length to provide more time.

Question 7

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 the standard for ensuring stories are actionable.

Answer

The story must be at least 10 pages long.

Answer

The story must be approved by the CEO.

Answer

The story must be assigned to a specific developer.

Question 8

A stakeholder asks to change a completed feature. What is the correct response?

Accepted Answer

Evaluate the change's value and discuss the impact with the PO.. Welcoming change is an Agile principle, provided the change is evaluated for value and impact.

Answer

Tell them it's too late.

Answer

Charge the stakeholder for the rework.

Answer

Do the change immediately without question.

Question 9

Your team has high technical skill but lacks collaboration, with members working in silos. Which technique is most effective to foster a collaborative culture?

Accepted Answer

Introduce mob programming sessions for complex stories.. Mob programming or pair programming shifts the focus from individual tasks to collective ownership.

Answer

Set up a shared document repository for everyone to read.

Answer

Implement individual performance bonuses for the fastest developers.

Answer

Require daily status reports from every developer.

Question 10

Which THREE characteristics of a servant leader are most effective for an agile coach? (Choose THREE)

Accepted Answer

Stewardship to act in the best interests of the team and the organization.. Listening, empathy, and stewardship are hallmarks of a servant leader.

Answer

Rigidity to ensure the process is followed exactly as written.

Answer

Dominance to ensure the team follows instructions.

Question 11

During a retrospective, two senior team members disagree on the technical architecture for a new feature, leading to a standstill. How should you facilitate this?

Accepted Answer

Suggest a time-boxed experiment to test both approaches and compare outcomes.. A servant leader guides the team to reach a consensus or make a decision based on data, rather than imposing a solution.

Answer

Make the decision yourself to prevent further delay.

Answer

Ask the product owner to decide the architecture.

Answer

Vote on the approaches and go with the majority.

Question 12

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.. Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFD) visualize the work in progress across stages, highlighting exactly where work is accumulating.

Answer

Sprint burndown chart.

Answer

Throughput run chart.

Answer

Lead time distribution chart.

Answer

Cycle time scatterplot.

Question 13

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.. Coordination requires synchronization and shared understanding of priorities.

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 14

A team is using a WIP (Work In Progress) limit of 3 on their 'Testing' column. A developer moves a fourth item into 'Testing' because the current items are blocked by a third party. What is the most agile way to handle this?

Accepted Answer

Stop starting new work and assist the testers or address the block with the third party.. Adhering to WIP limits forces teams to address the root cause of the block (the third party) instead of starting new work.

Answer

Move the blocked items back to the 'Development' column.

Answer

Increase the WIP limit to 4 to accommodate the new item.

Answer

Ask the Product Owner to prioritize the next task for the developer.

Answer

Allow the fourth item to move into testing to keep developers busy.

Question 15

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.. WIP limits help teams focus on finishing current tasks before starting new ones, reducing 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 16

Which THREE techniques improve communication within distributed agile teams?

Accepted Answer

Shared digital collaboration boards (e.g., Kanban boards).. Video conferencing, collaborative digital boards, and structured asynchronous updates are essential for remote team communication.

Answer

Strictly communicating through email.

Answer

Forbidding instant messaging.

Question 17

Your team is failing to complete tasks due to frequent context switching. What is your role in resolving this?

Accepted Answer

Identify the sources of interruptions and coach the organization to protect the team's focus.. An agile leader acts as a firewall, removing external distractions so the team can focus.

Answer

Tell the team to just say 'no' to any incoming requests.

Answer

Instruct the team to work longer hours to finish.

Answer

Create a formal document requiring all requests to be approved by you.

Question 18

An organization is scaling agile across five teams working on a single product. To optimize the end-to-end delivery flow, the teams identify dependencies between them. Which approach best coordinates this cross-team delivery?

Accepted Answer

Implement a Scrum of Scrums meeting to discuss cross-team dependencies and integration blockers.. The Scrum of Scrums (SoS) is a standard technique for cross-team coordination, specifically focusing on dependencies and integration points.

Answer

Assign a dedicated project manager to track every individual task across all teams.

Answer

Combine all five teams into one large daily stand-up meeting.

Answer

Mandate that all teams use the same velocity reporting tool.

Answer

Request that teams ignore dependencies until the final integration sprint.

Question 19

You notice a high-performer is hoarding knowledge, creating a bottleneck. How do you handle this?

Accepted Answer

Quietly mentor the individual on the value of team collective ownership.. Addressing the behavior through the lens of team success and shared responsibility encourages a shift toward collaborative behavior.

Answer

Fire the individual.

Answer

Ignore it since the individual is productive.

Answer

Promote the high-performer to a lead role.

Question 20

A team is struggling with high levels of 'technical debt' that slow down new feature delivery. What should the team do?

Accepted Answer

Allocate a percentage of each sprint's capacity to address technical debt.. Technical debt must be managed and paid down incrementally to improve delivery speed.

Answer

Request a new budget to hire external experts.

Answer

Stop all new feature work for a year to fix everything.

Answer

Ignore the debt and continue adding features.