CAPM Agile Frameworks and Methodologies Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A Scrum Master is coaching a team that is struggling with the Sprint Retrospective. The team often focuses only on what went wrong and leaves the meeting without concrete actions. Which two techniques should the Scrum Master suggest to improve the effectiveness of the retrospective? (Choose two.)

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Use a structured format like Start-Stop-Continue to guide discussion.. Using a structured format like Start-Stop-Continue and ending with at least one actionable improvement are both effective ways to make retrospectives more productive. They ensure balanced discussion and concrete outcomes. The other options either confuse process with product, shorten the meeting too much, or do not directly solve the problem of lacking actions.

Answer

Ensure the Product Owner prioritizes the retrospective items in the Product Backlog.

Answer

Assign a rotating facilitator to keep the meeting engaging.

Answer

Limit the retrospective to 15 minutes to keep it focused.

Question 2

A Scrum Team is halfway through a two-week Sprint when the Product Owner learns that a competitor has released a similar feature. The Product Owner wants to add several new Product Backlog items to the current Sprint to respond quickly. What should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Explain that the Sprint Goal should remain stable, and work with the Product Owner to refine and order the new items for the next Sprint or discuss whether the current Sprint Goal is still valid.. The Sprint Goal provides a fixed focus during the Sprint, and scope may be clarified or renegotiated with the Product Owner as more is learned. The Scrum Master should coach the Product Owner to refine and order new items for upcoming Sprints, or assess whether the new information truly makes the Sprint Goal obsolete. Protecting the Sprint Goal preserves empiricism.

Answer

Instruct the team to pause current work and immediately begin the new items, since the Product Owner owns prioritization.

Answer

Cancel the Sprint immediately and start a new Sprint with the updated priorities, because the market change makes the current Sprint obsolete.

Answer

Add the new items to the Sprint Backlog and let the Developers decide which current tasks to drop, since they self-manage their work.

Question 3

A Scrum team is midway through a two-week Sprint when the Product Owner introduces a new high-priority feature request from a key stakeholder. The team has already completed about 40% of the Sprint Backlog. According to Scrum, what should the team do?

Accepted Answer

Ask the Product Owner to add the new feature to the Product Backlog and let the team address it during the next Sprint Planning.. Scrum shields the Sprint from disruptive scope changes so the team can meet the Sprint Goal. New stakeholder requests belong in the Product Backlog, where the Product Owner orders them by value. The Developers then pull the highest-priority items during the next Sprint Planning, based on capacity. This preserves focus, protects quality, and keeps prioritization in the hands of the Product Owner.

Answer

Have the Developers work overtime to complete both the original Sprint work and the new feature within the same Sprint.

Answer

Add the new feature to the current Sprint Backlog and reprioritize, since the Product Owner owns the backlog.

Answer

Stop the Sprint, run Sprint Planning again, and start a new Sprint with the revised priorities.

Question 4

A team using Kanban has a policy that limits work in progress at the 'In Progress' column to three items. Despite this, the team frequently exceeds the limit, and the board shows many items stuck in 'In Progress' while 'Testing' is empty. Which action best addresses the root cause?

Accepted Answer

Analyze the workflow to identify the bottleneck and adjust policies or capacity accordingly.. The Kanban board shows a bottleneck: work piles up in 'In Progress' while 'Testing' is empty. The correct response is to analyze the workflow to find the constraint and adjust policies or capacity. Raising WIP limits, adding developers to the overloaded stage, or removing limits do not address the root cause and can worsen flow and lead time.

Answer

Remove the WIP limit temporarily to let the team clear the backlog of items.

Answer

Add more developers to the 'In Progress' stage to push work through faster.

Answer

Increase the WIP limit for 'In Progress' to five to match actual capacity.

Question 5

A Kanban team notices that their cumulative flow diagram (CFD) shows a widening band for the 'In Progress' column over several weeks, while the 'Done' band remains relatively flat. What is the most likely interpretation of this pattern?

Accepted Answer

The team is experiencing a bottleneck in the 'In Progress' stage, causing work to accumulate.. A cumulative flow diagram visualizes the amount of work in each stage over time. A widening 'In Progress' band with a flat 'Done' band means work is entering that stage faster than it is leaving, which is the classic signature of a bottleneck. The team should analyze the constraint and consider adjusting WIP limits or improving the process.

Answer

The team has too few items in the backlog and should pull more work into the system.

Answer

The team is delivering value at a steady rate and should maintain the current process.

Answer

The team is effectively limiting WIP and should continue as is.

Question 6

A Scrum Team is struggling with its Daily Scrum. Team members give detailed status updates to the Scrum Master, and the meeting often runs 30 minutes. The Scrum Master wants to improve the event. Which action best aligns with Scrum?

Accepted Answer

Coach the Developers to focus on progress toward the Sprint Goal and re-plan the day's work, keeping the event to 15 minutes.. The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog. The Scrum Master should coach the team to focus on the Sprint Goal, self-manage the event, and avoid status reporting. This improves collaboration and keeps the event within its time-box.

Answer

Ask each team member to prepare a detailed report for the Scrum Master to review after the Daily Scrum.

Answer

Extend the Daily Scrum to 30 minutes officially so the team can cover all details without feeling rushed.

Answer

Have the Scrum Master collect written status updates before the meeting and share them, cancelling the Daily Scrum.

Question 7

A Scrum team's Sprint Retrospective keeps producing the same three improvement actions every Sprint, and none of them get implemented. The Scrum Master wants the team to actually finish improvements. Which approach best fits Scrum practice?

Accepted Answer

Limit the team to one or two improvement items per Sprint, add them to the Sprint Backlog, and review their status at the next Retrospective.. Scrum's Retrospective exists to produce concrete adaptation, not a recurring list of intentions. Choosing a small number of improvements and pulling them into the Sprint Backlog makes them visible, sized like other work, and reviewable at the next Retrospective. This creates a closed feedback loop where the team inspects the effect of its own change, which is the essence of empirical process control.

Answer

Stop holding Retrospectives until the team demonstrates it can complete the existing improvement actions.

Answer

Escalate the recurring actions to the Product Owner and ask that they be added to the Product Backlog as product features.

Answer

Have the Scrum Master personally implement all improvement actions between Sprints so the team can stay focused on delivery.

Question 8

A team adopting Kanban wants to visualize its workflow and identify bottlenecks. Which Kanban practice should the team implement first?

Accepted Answer

Create a board that maps the team's actual process steps from start to finish.. Kanban begins with visualizing the workflow so the team can see how work actually moves. Mapping real process steps reveals queues, handoffs, and delays that cause bottlenecks. Once the workflow is visible, the team can apply WIP limits, manage flow, and make policies explicit. Jumping to limits or role changes before mapping the process would optimize a workflow the team does not yet understand.

Answer

Set a work-in-progress limit on every column immediately, using a fixed number like five.

Answer

Replace the team's existing roles and meetings with a continuous flow model before starting.

Answer

Assign a dedicated Kanban manager to move cards between columns for the team.

Question 9

In Extreme Programming (XP), which practice involves a customer representative working closely with the team to define and prioritize features, providing continuous feedback throughout the project?

Accepted Answer

On-site customer. In XP, the on-site customer practice embeds a real customer within the team to define and prioritize features, answer questions, and provide continuous feedback. This practice ensures that the team has immediate access to business expertise and can adapt quickly to changing requirements. The other practices listed are technical or team-focused and do not fulfill this customer-facing role.

Answer

Test-driven development

Answer

Continuous integration

Answer

Pair programming

Question 10

A Scrum Team has been delivering increments every Sprint, but the Product Owner complains that the increments do not provide value to users. The Developers argue that they meet the Definition of Done. What should the Scrum Master do first?

Accepted Answer

Facilitate a discussion between the Product Owner and Developers to inspect whether the Definition of Done aligns with the product's quality and value expectations.. When increments meet the Definition of Done but do not deliver expected value, the team should inspect whether the Definition of Done truly supports value. The Scrum Master facilitates collaboration between the Product Owner and Developers to refine the Definition of Done and align on quality and value expectations, enabling better outcomes in future Sprints.

Answer

Instruct the Developers to work overtime to add extra features that the Product Owner wants, since value is missing.

Answer

Recommend that the team abandon Scrum and adopt a different framework that focuses on value delivery.

Answer

Tell the Product Owner that the Definition of Done is non-negotiable and that they must accept the increments as valuable.

Question 11

A Scrum Team is preparing for its first Sprint. The Product Owner has a prioritized Product Backlog, and the team is defining its Definition of Done. Which two characteristics are essential for a useful Definition of Done? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

It is a shared understanding among the Scrum Team.. A useful Definition of Done is a shared understanding across the Scrum Team and includes the quality criteria the Increment must meet. It is not created solely by the Product Owner, is not kept confidential from stakeholders, and is not an unchangeable document. These characteristics ensure transparency, alignment, and consistent quality.

Answer

It is created solely by the Product Owner without team input.

Answer

It is a fixed document that cannot be changed once the Sprint begins.

Answer

It is kept confidential from stakeholders to avoid scope creep.

Question 12

A team new to Kanban maps its workflow and discovers that work sits in a 'Code Review' column for many days. The team wants to improve flow without changing its process policies yet. Which Kanban practice should the team apply first to expose the problem and drive improvement?

Accepted Answer

Set an explicit WIP limit on the Code Review column and make blocked or aging items visible on the board.. Kanban starts with visualizing the workflow and then making policies explicit, including WIP limits that constrain how much work can be in each state. Applying a limit to the Code Review column prevents new items from entering when review capacity is saturated, which surfaces the bottleneck and encourages the team to finish work already in progress. Aging visibility then supplies evidence for the next policy change.

Answer

Move the Code Review step after deployment so that review delays no longer block the delivery of working software.

Answer

Increase the number of developers assigned to review so that more reviews can be completed in parallel each day.

Answer

Add a dedicated 'Waiting for Review' column so that items in review are separated from items actually being reviewed.

Question 13

A Scrum Team's Sprint Review is consistently a one-way presentation where the Product Owner demos completed features to stakeholders. Stakeholder feedback rarely changes the Product Backlog, and the team feels the event adds little value. What should the Scrum Master do?

Accepted Answer

Coach the team and Product Owner to make the Sprint Review a working session where stakeholders explore the Increment and discuss what to do next.. The Sprint Review should be an interactive working session where the team and stakeholders inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog. When it becomes a one-way demo, feedback and adaptation disappear. The Scrum Master serves the team by coaching participants to collaborate, explore the product, and decide what to do next, restoring the event's empirical purpose without changing its timebox or attendance.

Answer

Invite only the Product Owner and the Developers to the Sprint Review to keep it focused.

Answer

Extend the Sprint Review to three hours so the Product Owner can present every completed item in detail.

Answer

Cancel the Sprint Review and replace it with a written status report emailed to stakeholders.

Question 14

A Scrum team is in the middle of a Sprint when a critical production bug is discovered. The Product Owner wants the team to fix it immediately, but the team is concerned about disrupting the Sprint Goal. What is the most appropriate action according to Scrum?

Accepted Answer

The team should collaborate with the Product Owner to decide whether to fix the bug within the Sprint or add it to the Product Backlog for prioritization.. Scrum encourages collaboration between the Product Owner and the Developers to handle emergent issues. The Product Owner prioritizes the bug in the Product Backlog, and the team assesses the impact on the Sprint Goal. Together, they decide whether to fix it within the Sprint or defer it. This balances responsiveness with the commitment to the Sprint Goal.

Answer

The team should ignore the bug until the Sprint Review, as scope cannot change during a Sprint.

Answer

The team must immediately stop all other work and fix the bug, regardless of the Sprint Goal.

Answer

The Product Owner should cancel the Sprint and call for a new Sprint Planning session to address the bug.

Question 15

A Scrum Team is preparing for its Sprint Retrospective. The Scrum Master wants to ensure the event is effective. Which two actions should the Scrum Master take to support a productive retrospective? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Ensure the retrospective is held after the Sprint Review and before the next Sprint Planning.. The Sprint Retrospective is the final event of the Sprint, held after the Sprint Review and before the next Sprint Planning. The Scrum Master facilitates it to help the team inspect its processes and identify improvements. It is an internal team event, not a stakeholder session or a backlog refinement meeting, and the team self-manages the resulting actions.

Answer

Invite all stakeholders to the retrospective so they can provide feedback on the team's performance.

Answer

Use the retrospective to review and update the product backlog priorities for the next Sprint.

Answer

Assign specific improvements to each team member and follow up to ensure they are completed by the next day.