PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
In a large-scale project, the project manager notices that sprint velocity has been declining over the last three sprints. The team is demotivated and blaming each other for missed commitments. What should the project manager do first?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often jump to a 'quick fix' like reassigning tasks or reducing scope, confusing symptom management with root cause resolution, which the PMP exam specifically tests by requiring a collaborative, process-oriented first step.
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
✓
Facilitate a retrospective to identify root causes and collaboratively develop improvement actions
The first step in addressing declining sprint velocity and team demotivation is to facilitate a retrospective. This aligns with the PMP's focus on servant leadership and collaborative problem-solving, allowing the team to identify root causes (e.g., technical debt, unclear requirements) and co-create improvement actions, which restores ownership and morale.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reassign tasks to the highest-performing team members
Why it's wrong here
Reassigning tasks to the highest-performing team members is a reactive, short-term fix that fails to address the underlying systemic issues or skill gaps within the team. This approach can lead to burnout for high performers, create single points of failure, and demotivate other team members by implying their contributions are insufficient, fostering an environment of blame rather than collaborative problem-solving. It circumvents the opportunity for team growth and process improvement.
- ✓
Facilitate a retrospective to identify root causes and collaboratively develop improvement actions
Why this is correct
Facilitating a retrospective is the most appropriate action as it embodies the principles of continuous improvement and team self-organization in Agile frameworks. This structured event allows the entire team to collaboratively inspect past performance, identify the true root causes of challenges, and collectively decide on actionable improvements for future sprints or iterations. It fosters a culture of transparency, learning, and shared ownership, leading to sustainable solutions and enhanced team effectiveness.
- ✗
Replace the Scrum Master with a more experienced one
Why it's wrong here
Replacing the Scrum Master is a drastic and premature action that often fails to address the actual underlying systemic or team-level issues. While a Scrum Master's experience is valuable, simply replacing them without understanding the root causes of project challenges can disrupt team stability, erode trust, and prevent the existing Scrum Master from learning and growing through coaching or feedback. This approach avoids critical analysis of team processes or organizational impediments.
- ✗
Meet with the product owner to reduce the scope of upcoming sprints
Why it's wrong here
Meeting with the Product Owner to reduce scope is a reactive measure that primarily addresses symptoms of potential underperformance rather than the root causes of team challenges. While scope adjustment can be necessary, doing so without first understanding and improving team dynamics, processes, or skill gaps means the underlying problems persist and will likely resurface in future sprints. This approach shifts the burden to the Product Owner and may lead to reduced value delivery without improving team capability.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to the PMP Exam and Project Management Basics
Key term
Scrum Methodology
Scrum is a lightweight process framework that helps teams deliver complex projects in small, iterative chunks called sprints.
Key term
Organizational Change Management
Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the structured approach to preparing, supporting, and guiding people through changes in an organization to ensure lasting success.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PMP practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PMP exam.