PMI-ACP Leadership — 20 Questions

Question 1

How can a leader best promote self-organization within an agile team?

Accepted Answer

Define the objective and let the team decide how to achieve it.. Providing clear goals but leaving the 'how' to the team is the essence of empowerment.

Answer

Attend every technical meeting to provide guidance.

Answer

Require all decisions to be approved by the leadership team.

Answer

Create detailed task lists for every team member.

Question 2

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.. Private, empathetic conversation is the first step in addressing behavioral issues.

Answer

Ignore the behavior, as it will resolve itself.

Answer

Call them out during the daily stand-up.

Answer

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

Question 3

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.. Empowerment comes from allowing the team to inspect their own performance and own their process improvements.

Answer

Assign a mentor to watch every task developers perform.

Answer

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

Answer

Replace the team members who are underperforming.

Question 4

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 5

A stakeholder requests a major change to the sprint backlog mid-sprint. How do you respond as an agile leader?

Accepted Answer

Ask the Product Owner to discuss the impact with the stakeholder and evaluate if the goal can still be met.. The agile leader protects the sprint goal while ensuring transparency regarding the impact of changes.

Answer

Ask the developers to work overtime to accommodate the request.

Answer

Reject the request immediately as it violates the sprint commitment.

Answer

Add the work to the sprint backlog immediately.

Question 6

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 7

You are coaching a team that is moving from a traditional command-and-control environment to agile. A stakeholder keeps bypassing the Product Owner to assign tasks directly to developers. What is your best course of action?

Accepted Answer

Discuss with the stakeholder how the Product Owner manages the backlog and why direct assignments disrupt flow.. Protecting the team's focus and the Product Owner's authority is a key responsibility of an agile leader.

Answer

Update the Scrum Guide to include strict penalties for stakeholders.

Answer

Instruct the developers to ignore the stakeholder's requests.

Answer

Have the developers log the work as 'technical debt' to keep track of it.

Question 8

A team is struggling with frequent interpersonal conflict during daily stand-ups. As an agile leader, what is your primary role in facilitating this?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a session to help the team establish team norms and communication protocols.. The servant leader role focuses on creating an environment where the team can resolve their own conflicts.

Answer

Cancel the daily stand-up until the team matures.

Answer

Report the conflict to the functional manager to handle disciplinary action.

Answer

Force the individuals to move to different squads.

Question 9

The team's velocity is highly inconsistent, causing frustration for the Product Owner. How should you address this as a coach?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion on what factors are influencing the variance and how to manage them.. The leader should facilitate a conversation about stability, not force a specific velocity.

Answer

Mandate that the team increase their velocity by 20% next sprint.

Answer

Change the story point estimation technique to something faster.

Answer

Ask the team to stop using story points.

Question 10

A new team member is hesitant to speak during meetings. How do you coach them?

Accepted Answer

Create small, safe opportunities for them to contribute and acknowledge their input.. Building psychological safety is key to encouraging participation.

Answer

Force them to present every week.

Answer

Ask them in front of the group why they are so quiet.

Answer

Ignore them until they are ready to participate.

Question 11

A team is struggling with 'groupthink' during planning. How can you facilitate better decision-making?

Accepted Answer

Use techniques like 'Silent Brainstorming' (e.g., 1-2-4-All) to gather diverse perspectives.. Techniques like silent brainstorming ensure all voices are heard before a consensus is reached.

Answer

Tell the team to be more vocal.

Answer

Ask the team to vote by a show of hands.

Answer

Call on each person one by one to give their opinion.

Question 12

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 13

A stakeholder asks you to prioritize a feature for the next release. What is your response?

Accepted Answer

Refer the stakeholder to the Product Owner to discuss priority.. The agile leader redirects the stakeholder to the Product Owner to maintain the integrity of the backlog.

Answer

Tell the stakeholder that you are the decision-maker for features.

Answer

Ask the team to add it to the current sprint.

Answer

Agree to add the feature if it seems simple.

Question 14

An agile team is having trouble getting feedback from a remote stakeholder. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a session to find a collaborative tool or meeting time that works for everyone.. Improving the communication channel is the responsibility of the agile leader to ensure transparency.

Answer

Stop the project until the stakeholder is available.

Answer

Send the stakeholder a daily summary of the work.

Answer

Assume the stakeholder is not interested and proceed without them.

Question 15

A team member is consistently late to the daily stand-up, disrupting the meeting. How do you handle this?

Accepted Answer

Encourage the team to discuss the impact of lateness on their collaboration during a retrospective.. The team should own its norms, including punctuality; the leader facilitates this realization.

Answer

Issue a formal warning to the team member.

Answer

Change the stand-up time to suit that member's schedule.

Answer

Stop the stand-up whenever they are late.

Question 16

The organization is pressuring the team to commit to a date for a major release that the team feels is impossible. What is your role?

Accepted Answer

Help the team explain the trade-offs (scope, quality, or time) based on their current velocity to the stakeholders.. The leader acts as the bridge, explaining the agile process and the risks of fixed-date delivery.

Answer

Tell management that the team will work hard to make it happen.

Answer

Tell the team to stop providing estimates to management.

Answer

Accept the date to avoid conflict with management.

Question 17

How do you handle a scenario where two teams have a dependency that is slowing both of them down?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a joint session for the two teams to map the dependency and negotiate a timeline for resolution.. Cross-team coordination requires facilitation to ensure transparency and agreement.

Answer

Merge the two teams into one large team.

Answer

Assign a single manager to oversee both teams.

Answer

Tell the teams to stop relying on each other.

Question 18

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.. Aligning the team and the PO is a core responsibility of the agile leader.

Answer

Create your own vision for the team.

Answer

Ask the developers to interview the customers themselves.

Answer

Tell the team to just focus on completing their tasks.

Question 19

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.. The leader helps the team find a balance between delivering features and maintaining quality.

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 20

How can you best support a newly formed agile team in developing trust?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate team-building activities and retrospectives that focus on openness and safety.. Trust is built through vulnerability, shared experiences, and psychological safety.

Answer

Monitor their work constantly to ensure everyone is working.

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Assign them complex work immediately to see who excels.

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Create a formal document outlining everyone's roles and responsibilities.