PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
In a Scrum project, the team's velocity has been dropping over the last three sprints. The team members seem demotivated and are complaining about too many meetings and unclear priorities. As the agile project manager, what should you do FIRST?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse 'reducing meetings' (Option C) with process improvement, but the PMP exam tests the principle that the team must first diagnose the problem collaboratively through a retrospective before making any changes, rather than unilaterally cutting ceremonies.
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 implement improvements
The first step in addressing a drop in velocity and team demotivation is to facilitate a retrospective, which is a core Scrum ceremony designed to inspect and adapt the team's process. This allows the team to collaboratively identify root causes—such as excessive meetings or unclear priorities—and implement improvements, aligning with the agile principle of continuous improvement and the PMP's focus on leading the team through servant leadership.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set a higher sprint goal to challenge the team to improve
Why it's wrong here
Setting a higher sprint goal when velocity is dropping is counterproductive, as it places undue pressure on a potentially struggling or demotivated team. Velocity is an outcome of the team's sustainable pace and capacity, not a target to be dictated. Forcing an unrealistic goal without addressing underlying issues can lead to burnout, decreased quality, and further erosion of team morale, directly contradicting agile principles of sustainable pace and psychological safety.
- ✗
Add more developers to the team to increase capacity
Why it's wrong here
Adding more developers to a team experiencing a velocity drop without first understanding the root causes often exacerbates the problem, a phenomenon known as Brooks's Law. New team members require significant ramp-up time, knowledge transfer, and integration into team dynamics, which initially decreases overall team productivity and increases communication overhead. This intervention is premature and can further disrupt a team already struggling with performance or morale issues.
- ✗
Reduce the number of meetings by canceling the daily standup
Why it's wrong here
Canceling the Daily Scrum (standup) is detrimental as it removes a critical event for daily inspection and adaptation within the Sprint. This meeting is essential for team members to synchronize, identify impediments, and collaboratively adjust their plan toward the Sprint Goal. Eliminating it without team consensus or understanding its value undermines transparency, communication, and the team's ability to self-organize, potentially worsening the very issues contributing to the velocity drop.
- ✓
Facilitate a retrospective to identify root causes and collaboratively implement improvements
Why this is correct
Facilitating a Sprint Retrospective is the most appropriate action because it empowers the Scrum Team to collaboratively inspect its processes, tools, and interactions. This dedicated event allows the team to identify the specific root causes behind the dropping velocity, whether they are technical debt, external dependencies, process inefficiencies, or morale issues. By collaboratively devising and committing to actionable improvements, the team fosters continuous improvement and self-management, aligning perfectly with agile principles.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to the PMP Exam and Project Management Basics
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.
Key term
Project Management Plan
A formal, approved document that defines how a project is executed, monitored, controlled, and closed, serving as the single source of truth for the project team.
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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.