CAPM Agile Frameworks and Methodologies — 15 Questions

Question 1

A team is using Scrum and notices that the Product Owner frequently changes priorities during the Sprint, causing the team to rework tasks. What should the Scrum Master do first?

Accepted Answer

Coach the Product Owner on the Sprint Backlog rule and the impact of changes.. Option A is correct because the Scrum Master's primary responsibility is to ensure Scrum is understood and enacted. The Product Owner is violating the Sprint Backlog rule, which states that once a Sprint starts, the Product Owner cannot change the Sprint Backlog items; only the team can modify the Sprint Backlog to meet the Sprint Goal. By coaching the Product Owner on this rule and the impact of changes (e.g., rework, loss of focus, and potential Sprint Goal failure), the Scrum Master addresses the root cause without disrupting the team's workflow.

Answer

Shorten the Sprint duration to minimize rework.

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Ask the team to be flexible and accept the changes.

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Escalate to the project sponsor for resolution.

Question 2

In Kanban, the team is experiencing frequent bottlenecks at the testing stage. Which practice should they adopt to improve flow?

Accepted Answer

Limit the WIP at each stage, especially testing.. In Kanban, limiting Work in Progress (WIP) at each stage is a core practice to expose bottlenecks and improve flow. By capping the number of items allowed in testing, the team prevents work from piling up, forcing them to finish existing tasks before pulling new ones. This directly addresses the frequent bottlenecks by making the constraint visible and actionable, enabling the team to focus on completing testing rather than starting more work.

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Increase the batch size of work items.

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Conduct daily stand-up meetings.

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Add more testers to the testing phase.

Question 3

A distributed Scrum team is having difficulty with communication across time zones. The Daily Scrum is scheduled at 9 AM in the US, which is midnight in India. What is the best approach to resolve this?

Accepted Answer

Rotate the time of the Daily Scrum so that no one is always inconvenienced.. Option C is correct because rotating the Daily Scrum time shares the inconvenience of time zone differences equitably across the distributed team, preserving the event's purpose of daily synchronization and inspection. The Scrum Guide requires the Daily Scrum to be held at the same time and place each day, but for distributed teams, rotating the time is an acceptable adaptation that maintains the event's time-boxed, collaborative nature without breaking the inspect-and-adapt cycle.

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Record the Daily Scrum for the India team to watch later.

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Replace the Daily Scrum with asynchronous updates.

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Hold two separate Daily Scrums for each location.

Question 4

During Sprint Planning, the Product Owner proposes a user story that is too large to fit in one Sprint. What should the team do?

Accepted Answer

Collaboratively break down the story into smaller, sprint-sized stories.. In Scrum, user stories that are too large (often called 'epics') must be decomposed into smaller, sprint-sized stories during Sprint Planning. The Product Owner and Development Team collaboratively break down the story to ensure each piece can be completed within a single Sprint, maintaining the Sprint Goal and timebox. This aligns with the Agile principle of sustainable pace and the Scrum Guide's emphasis on the Development Team's self-organization to determine how to deliver the Product Backlog items.

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Reject the story and ask for a smaller one.

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Accept the story and work overtime to complete it.

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Accept the story and commit to completing it in the Sprint.

Question 5

A team is new to Agile and wants to implement a framework that emphasizes iterative development, time-boxed iterations, and a prioritized backlog. Which framework should they adopt?

Accepted Answer

Scrum. Scrum is the correct framework because it explicitly prescribes time-boxed iterations (sprints), a prioritized backlog (Product Backlog), and iterative development through defined events like Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective. This aligns directly with the team's requirements for a structured Agile framework that enforces these core practices.

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Kanban

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Lean

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Extreme Programming (XP)

Question 6

Which TWO of the following are responsibilities of the Product Owner in Scrum?

Accepted Answer

Prioritizing the Product Backlog items.. The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team. This includes clearly expressing Product Backlog items and ordering them to best achieve goals and missions, which is prioritizing the Product Backlog. Managing the Product Backlog, which encompasses ensuring its visibility, transparency, and understanding, is also a core responsibility of the Product Owner as defined in the Scrum Guide.

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Facilitating the Daily Scrum.

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Removing impediments for the team.

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Enforcing timeboxes for Sprint events.

Question 7

Which THREE of the following are core values of the Agile Manifesto?

Accepted Answer

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.. Option A is correct because the Agile Manifesto explicitly values 'Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.' This means that while processes and tools are important, the people doing the work and how they communicate take precedence. The Manifesto emphasizes that collaboration and human factors drive project success more than rigid adherence to prescribed procedures.

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Following a plan over responding to change.

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Contract negotiation over customer collaboration.

Question 8

During Sprint Planning, the team realizes the password reset story involves a third-party email service that has not been integrated yet. The team has no experience with that service. What is the best action?

Accepted Answer

Create a time-boxed spike to research the integration.. The team has no experience with the third-party email service, and integrating it involves unknown technical risks. A time-boxed spike (Option B) is the best action because it allows the team to research the integration within a defined timebox, reducing uncertainty before committing to the story in a Sprint. This aligns with the Scrum principle of managing risk through validated learning, not through guesswork or scope changes.

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Accept the story and figure it out during the Sprint.

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Add more developers to the team for this Sprint.

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Remove the story from the Product Backlog.

Question 9

The team notices that work is piling up in the Testing column. The WIP limit for Testing is 3, but currently there are 5 items. What should the team do first?

Accepted Answer

Focus the team on completing testing items until the WIP limit is met.. Option D is correct because when a WIP limit is exceeded, the team should swarm on the bottleneck to complete the items in that column, thereby reducing work-in-progress and restoring flow. In Kanban, exceeding a WIP limit signals a constraint that must be resolved by finishing existing work, not by adding more. This aligns with the core principle of limiting WIP to improve throughput and cycle time.

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Move items from Backlog to To Do to increase throughput.

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Ignore the WIP limit and continue as is.

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Move some testing items back to In Progress.

Question 10

A startup is adopting Scrum for the first time. During the Sprint Review, stakeholders request many changes to the product increment. What is the best way for the Scrum Master to handle this?

Accepted Answer

Ask the Product Owner to add the changes to the Product Backlog for prioritization in future Sprints.. In Scrum, the Sprint Review is a time for stakeholders to inspect the increment and provide feedback, but changes cannot be made to the current Sprint as the Sprint Goal and scope are fixed. The Product Owner is responsible for managing the Product Backlog, so the best action is to capture these change requests and have the Product Owner add them to the Product Backlog for future prioritization. This ensures the Development Team remains focused on the current Sprint Goal and that changes are evaluated against business value and priority in upcoming Sprints.

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Let the Development Team decide which changes to implement immediately.

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Add the changes to the current Sprint Backlog immediately.

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Ignore the feedback since the Sprint is complete.

Question 11

In a Kanban system, the team notices that work items are spending too much time in the 'In Progress' column. Which practice should the team adopt to improve flow?

Accepted Answer

Set a strict WIP limit for the 'In Progress' column.. Setting a strict Work In Progress (WIP) limit for the 'In Progress' column directly addresses the bottleneck by capping the number of items the team can work on simultaneously. This forces the team to finish existing work before pulling new items, reducing multitasking and cycle time. In Kanban, WIP limits are the primary mechanism to expose flow inefficiencies and improve throughput.

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Use longer development cycles.

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Increase the number of items allowed in the 'In Progress' column.

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Remove the 'In Progress' column to simplify the board.

Question 12

A Scrum team has five members. During a Sprint, two members are pulled to work on a critical production issue. The remaining three are unable to complete all committed stories. What should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Let the Development Team decide how to adjust the Sprint Backlog.. In Scrum, the Development Team is self-organizing and responsible for managing its own work within the Sprint. When two members are pulled to a critical production issue, the remaining three team members have the authority to decide how to adjust the Sprint Backlog to reflect their reduced capacity. The Scrum Master should facilitate this self-management rather than imposing a solution, as option C respects the team's autonomy and the Scrum principle of self-organization.

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Extend the Sprint by one week to complete the remaining work.

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Ask the Product Owner to remove work from the Sprint Backlog.

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Remove the least valuable stories from the Sprint Backlog.

Question 13

An XP team is practicing pair programming. A new developer feels uncomfortable because the partner frequently corrects their code. What is the best way to foster a positive pairing experience?

Accepted Answer

Encourage the pair to set expectations and rotate roles (driver/navigator) regularly.. Option D is correct because setting expectations and rotating roles (driver/navigator) is a core XP practice that fosters collaboration, psychological safety, and skill transfer. In pair programming, the driver writes code while the navigator reviews and suggests improvements; rotating roles ensures both developers contribute equally and learn from each other, reducing the new developer's discomfort by making corrections a shared, constructive process rather than a one-sided critique.

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Ask the senior developer to only observe and not comment.

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Have the new developer work alone until they gain more confidence.

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Discontinue pair programming for that pair.

Question 14

Which TWO are Scrum artifacts? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Product Backlog. The Product Backlog is a Scrum artifact because it is an ordered list of everything that is known to be needed in the product, serving as the single source of requirements for any changes to be made. The Sprint Backlog is also a Scrum artifact, as it comprises the Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint plus a plan for delivering the product Increment and realizing the Sprint Goal. Both are explicitly defined in the Scrum Guide as the three artifacts (along with the Increment).

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Kanban Board

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User Story

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Gantt Chart

Question 15

Which THREE are principles of the Agile Manifesto? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Deliver working software frequently, with a preference to the shorter timescale.. Option A is correct because the Agile Manifesto explicitly states 'Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.' This principle emphasizes iterative delivery and rapid feedback cycles, which are core to Agile frameworks like Scrum and XP.

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Use pair programming for all production code.

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Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.