PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
As an agile project manager, you want to empower the development team to self-organize. Which TWO practices would BEST support self-organization?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse 'empowering the team' with 'assigning tasks based on expertise' (Option A), thinking it leverages individual strengths, but this actually undermines the team's collective ownership and cross-functionality.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Protect the team from external interruptions and scope changes during the sprint
Options B and C are correct. Protecting the team from external interruptions and scope changes during the sprint (B) allows the team to maintain focus on their committed work, preserving their autonomy and enabling self-organization. Allowing the team to estimate their own work and plan the sprint backlog (C) empowers the team to take ownership of their commitments and encourages collective decision-making, which is fundamental to self-organization. Option A (assigning tasks based on expertise) undermines self-organization by imposing external control and reducing team ownership. Option D (monitoring hours) is micromanagement that hinders self-organization. Option E (defining technical solution in detail) restricts the team's creativity and ownership over the technical approach.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Assign specific tasks to team members based on their expertise
Why it's wrong here
Assigning specific tasks to individual team members undermines the core agile principle of self-organization. Empowered agile teams collectively decide how to best distribute work among themselves, leveraging their combined skills and current capacity. This fosters shared ownership, promotes cross-functional learning, and allows the team to adapt task assignments dynamically to achieve the sprint goal.
- ✓
Protect the team from external interruptions and scope changes during the sprint
Why this is correct
Protecting the team from external interruptions and scope changes during the sprint is a critical responsibility of an agile project manager, acting as a servant leader. This shielding creates a stable environment, allowing the development team to maintain focus on the sprint goal and manage their own workflow effectively. It prevents distractions that could derail progress, ensuring the team can deliver committed increments and sustain their self-organizing rhythm.
- ✓
Allow the team to estimate their own work and plan the sprint backlog
Why this is correct
Allowing the team to estimate their own work and plan the sprint backlog directly embodies the principle of self-organizing teams and fosters empowerment. The development team possesses the most detailed understanding of the technical work required and their collective capacity, leading to more realistic commitments. This ownership increases accountability, improves predictability, and ensures the sprint backlog reflects a shared understanding of what is achievable.
- ✗
Monitor each team member's hours to ensure productivity
Why it's wrong here
Monitoring each team member's hours to ensure productivity is a micromanagement practice that contradicts agile principles of trust and self-organization. Agile teams are empowered to manage their own work and are measured by delivered value and outcomes, not by individual time spent. This approach stifles transparency, discourages collective problem-solving, and undermines the team's autonomy to determine the most effective ways to achieve their goals.
- ✗
Define the technical solution in detail for the team to implement
Why it's wrong here
Defining the technical solution in detail for the team to implement significantly reduces their autonomy and stifles innovation, which is contrary to empowering an agile team. Empowered teams are trusted to determine the 'how' of implementation, leveraging their collective expertise to find the most efficient and effective technical approaches. Prescribing solutions prevents the team from owning the technical design and limits their problem-solving capabilities.
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