PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
In your agile project, the team's velocity has been declining over the past three sprints from 30 to 25 to 20 story points. The team members report feeling overworked and demotivated. The daily standup meetings are running long, and the product owner is adding too many stories each sprint. What should the project manager do FIRST?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse a symptom (declining velocity) with a root cause and choose a direct corrective action (Option A or D) instead of facilitating the team's own problem-solving process through a retrospective.
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 correct first step is to facilitate a retrospective (Option B) because the team's declining velocity, overwork, and demotivation indicate systemic issues that require collaborative root-cause analysis. In agile, the retrospective is the primary mechanism for inspecting and adapting processes; jumping to solutions without understanding the underlying technical and workflow problems would violate the empirical process control principles of Scrum. The project manager must empower the team to identify impediments—such as excessive story churn from the product owner or inefficient standups—and co-create actionable improvements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ask the product owner to reduce the number of stories per sprint
Why it's wrong here
Asking the Product Owner to reduce the number of stories per sprint is a superficial response that addresses a symptom (workload) rather than the underlying causes of declining velocity. The Product Owner's primary role is to maximize product value, not to diagnose or fix team process inefficiencies. This action bypasses the team's self-organizing capabilities and the critical agile principle of continuous improvement through internal inspection.
- ✓
Facilitate a retrospective to identify root causes and collaboratively develop improvement actions
Why this is correct
Facilitating a retrospective is the most appropriate agile response, as it is the designated event for the team to inspect its past sprint and adapt its processes. This structured forum allows the entire team to collaboratively identify root causes for the declining velocity, such as technical debt, impediments, or process breakdowns. Developing improvement actions together fosters team ownership and commitment to sustainable solutions.
- ✗
Reduce the sprint length to create urgency and improve focus
Why it's wrong here
Reducing the sprint length when velocity is already declining is counterproductive and likely to exacerbate the problem. Shorter sprints increase the frequency of overhead activities like planning and review relative to development time, potentially fragmenting focus and increasing pressure on an already struggling team. This can lead to rushed work, decreased quality, and further demotivation, rather than creating genuine urgency or improving focus.
- ✗
Mandate that the team must increase velocity to 30 story points next sprint
Why it's wrong here
Mandating a specific velocity target directly contradicts fundamental agile principles of self-organization, sustainable pace, and continuous improvement. Velocity is an emergent measure of a team's capacity, not a performance metric to be dictated or used as a stick. Such a mandate can lead to artificial inflation of story points, decreased quality, burnout, and a significant drop in team morale and trust, ultimately undermining true agility and long-term productivity.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to the PMP Exam and Project Management Basics
Key term
Daily Standup
A short, time-boxed daily meeting where team members share progress, plans, and blockers to stay aligned.
Key term
Scrum Methodology
Scrum is a lightweight process framework that helps teams deliver complex projects in small, iterative chunks called sprints.
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