The answer is removing obstacles that impede the team's progress, along with providing clear goals and boundaries and trusting the team to determine how to achieve them. These three practices are correct because they directly support the core agile principle of empowering self-organizing agile teams: the team cannot self-organize effectively if blockers are not cleared, if they lack a clear sprint goal or Definition of Done, or if they are micromanaged on how to execute their work. On the PMP exam, this question tests your understanding of the servant leadership role of a project manager in agile environments, often appearing in the "Agile Practices" domain. A common trap is selecting "assigning tasks to specific team members" or "monitoring individual performance," which contradict self-organization. Memory tip: think of the three C's—Clear goals, Clear obstacles, and Choice of how to work.
PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
This PMP practice question tests your understanding of people — leading projects. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
As a project manager in an agile environment, you need to empower the development team to self-organize. Which THREE practices support this goal? (Choose three)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Provide the team with clear goals and boundaries, then trust them to deliver
Option C is correct because empowering a self-organizing team in agile requires providing clear goals and boundaries (e.g., sprint goals and Definition of Done) and then trusting the team to determine the best way to achieve them. This aligns with the Agile Manifesto's principle of 'build projects around motivated individuals' and the Scrum Guide's emphasis on self-management, where the team decides how to accomplish its work within the sprint.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Make all final decisions on technical approaches to maintain control
Why it's wrong here
Making decisions for the team undermines self-organization.
✗
Assign specific tasks to each team member to ensure efficiency
Why it's wrong here
Assigning tasks is a top-down approach that reduces autonomy.
✓
Provide the team with clear goals and boundaries, then trust them to deliver
Why this is correct
Clear goals with autonomy empower the team.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Allow the team to decide how to accomplish the sprint goals
Why this is correct
Self-organization means the team chooses how to do the work.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Remove obstacles that impede the team's progress
Why this is correct
A servant leader removes impediments to enable the team.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'empowering the team' with 'maintaining control' or 'assigning tasks for efficiency,' but the PMP exam tests the agile principle that self-organization requires trust and removing impediments, not direct management of tasks or technical decisions.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In Scrum, the development team is self-managing, meaning they decide internally who works on which tasks and how to meet the sprint goal, while the product owner sets the 'what' and the Scrum Master facilitates the process. Real-world scenarios show that when a project manager assigns tasks, it reduces ownership and can lead to bottlenecks, whereas allowing the team to pull work from the backlog (e.g., via Kanban or sprint planning) improves flow and accountability. The Scrum Guide explicitly states that 'the development team is self-organizing' and 'no one (not even the Scrum Master) tells the development team how to turn product backlog items into increments of potentially releasable functionality.'
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A security administrator must allow nursing staff to reach a patient records server while blocking access from the guest Wi-Fi VLAN. After applying an extended ACL, traffic is still blocked from nursing workstations. The ACL was applied outbound instead of inbound on the wrong interface. Questions like this test ACL direction and placement rules.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this PMP question in full detail.
People — Leading Projects — This question tests People — Leading Projects — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Provide the team with clear goals and boundaries, then trust them to deliver — Option C is correct because empowering a self-organizing team in agile requires providing clear goals and boundaries (e.g., sprint goals and Definition of Done) and then trusting the team to determine the best way to achieve them. This aligns with the Agile Manifesto's principle of 'build projects around motivated individuals' and the Scrum Guide's emphasis on self-management, where the team decides how to accomplish its work within the sprint.
What should I do if I get this PMP question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. As an agile project manager, you want to empower the development team to self-organize. Which TWO practices would BEST support self-organization?
easy
A.Assign specific tasks to team members based on their expertise
✓ B.Protect the team from external interruptions and scope changes during the sprint
✓ C.Allow the team to estimate their own work and plan the sprint backlog
D.Monitor each team member's hours to ensure productivity
E.Define the technical solution in detail for the team to implement
Why B: Option B is correct because protecting the team from external interruptions and scope changes during the sprint is a core agile practice that enables self-organization. Without this protection, the team cannot maintain focus on their committed work, and external pressures undermine their autonomy to manage their own process. This aligns with the Scrum principle of a stable sprint backlog and the product owner's role in shielding the team.
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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