PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
Your agile project has been experiencing decreasing velocity over the last three sprints. The team is frustrated and morale is low. The product owner is pressuring for more features. What is the BEST action for the project manager to take?
⚠ Common exam trap
PMP agile questions often test whether candidates will choose a command-and-control fix (overtime, replacing people, changing cadence) instead of the servant-leader response of facilitating 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
✓
Conduct a retrospective to identify impediments and improvement actions.
Decreasing velocity combined with low morale is a systemic team issue, and the agile-correct response is to surface and address root causes through a retrospective. The retrospective is the team's dedicated inspect-and-adapt ceremony for identifying impediments, process problems, and improvement actions. The project manager should facilitate this rather than impose top-down fixes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Conduct a retrospective to identify impediments and improvement actions.
Why this is correct
In agile, a decreasing velocity signals a process or environmental issue, not necessarily a performance deficit. A retrospective is the prescribed event for the team to inspect its past sprint, identify root causes for the velocity drop (impediments), and collaboratively determine actionable improvements for the next sprint. This fosters continuous improvement and team ownership in adapting their working processes.
- ✗
Ask the team to work overtime to catch up on velocity.
Why it's wrong here
Forcing a team to work overtime is a detrimental anti-pattern in agile environments. While it might offer a temporary, unsustainable bump in output, it inevitably leads to increased burnout, reduced morale, decreased quality, and ultimately, a further decline in sustainable velocity. Agile emphasizes sustainable pace and predictable delivery, not heroic efforts.
- ✗
Replace the underperforming team members with new resources.
Why it's wrong here
Replacing team members is a drastic and premature action that contradicts agile principles of self-organizing teams and continuous improvement. A decrease in velocity is typically a systemic issue, not solely individual underperformance, and replacing members disrupts team dynamics, knowledge transfer, and trust, potentially worsening the problem rather than addressing root causes.
- ✗
Increase the sprint length to give the team more time.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the sprint length is an ineffective response to decreasing velocity because it merely extends the iteration without addressing the underlying impediments causing the slowdown. This action delays feedback cycles, postpones the identification of root causes, and can mask systemic issues, preventing the team from inspecting and adapting their process in a timely manner.
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Same concept, more angles
6 more ways this is tested on PMP
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. Your agile team has been experiencing a decrease in velocity over the last three sprints. During the daily standup, team members seem disengaged and mention they are unsure of the sprint goals. As the scrum master, what should you do FIRST?
easy- A.Add more user stories to the backlog to increase team motivation.
- B.Ask the product owner to speak with the team about the importance of the sprint goals.
- ✓ C.Facilitate a meeting with the team to review and clarify the sprint goal and ensure alignment.
- D.Report the velocity drop to senior management and ask for intervention.
Why C: The Scrum Master's first responsibility is to ensure the team understands and aligns on the sprint goal. The disengagement and confusion about sprint goals directly indicate a breakdown in shared understanding, which must be resolved through facilitation before any other action. Addressing this immediately restores focus and can prevent further velocity degradation.
Variation 2. During an agile project, the team's velocity has dropped for three consecutive sprints. The retrospective revealed that team members are spending too much time on unplanned support tasks. Which THREE actions should the project manager take?
easy- ✓ A.Facilitate a focused retrospective to identify specific root causes
- ✓ B.Work with the product owner to limit unplanned work from stakeholders
- ✓ C.Review the velocity trend and adjust the sprint backlog accordingly
- D.Reduce the sprint length to increase focus and delivery
- E.Require the team to work overtime to regain lost velocity
Why A: Option A is correct because a focused retrospective is the agile mechanism for surfacing and analyzing the specific root causes behind the velocity drop, such as which unplanned support tasks are consuming capacity and why. Option B is correct because the product owner owns the backlog and stakeholder communication, so working with them to shield the team from unplanned work restores the team's ability to commit to sprint goals and stabilizes velocity. Option C is correct because reviewing the velocity trend and adjusting the sprint backlog reflects empirical, data-driven planning that accounts for the reduced capacity rather than ignoring it. Option D is not appropriate because shortening sprints does not reduce unplanned support demand and can add overhead without addressing the root cause. Option E is incorrect because mandating overtime is unsustainable, harms quality and morale, and does not fix the underlying problem of unplanned work.
Variation 3. In an agile project, the team's velocity has dropped for three consecutive sprints. The daily standup meetings are rushed, and team members often work in silos. What should the project manager do first?
hard- A.Increase the frequency of daily standups to twice per day
- B.Add more team members to increase capacity
- C.Assign a senior developer to monitor individual productivity
- ✓ D.Facilitate a retrospective to identify impediments and propose improvements
Why D: In agile, when velocity drops and team dysfunction appears (rushed standups, silos), the correct first action is to facilitate a retrospective so the team can inspect and adapt. The retrospective is the agile ceremony specifically designed to surface impediments and agree on improvements, and it empowers the team rather than imposing top-down fixes.
Variation 4. Your agile project is experiencing a drop in velocity for the third consecutive sprint. The team reports that they are spending too much time in unplanned meetings and dealing with frequent requirement changes. Which TWO actions should you take to address this?
medium- A.Encourage the team to work overtime to catch up.
- B.Add more team members to increase capacity.
- C.Increase the sprint duration to give the team more time.
- ✓ D.Implement a process to control scope changes during the sprint.
- ✓ E.Limit work-in-progress (WIP) to reduce multitasking.
Why D: Option D is correct because the team explicitly reports frequent requirement changes as a cause of lost velocity, so implementing a scope-change control process (e.g., protecting the sprint backlog and deferring changes to the next sprint or product backlog refinement) directly addresses that root cause and stabilizes the sprint goal. Option E is correct because unplanned meetings and context switching indicate multitasking and overloading; limiting work-in-progress (WIP) via a Kanban-style WIP limit reduces context switching, exposes bottlenecks, and improves flow and throughput, which restores velocity. Option A is not appropriate because overtime is unsustainable, degrades quality, and masks the underlying process problems rather than fixing them. Option B is not appropriate because adding team members mid-project (Brooks's Law) increases communication overhead and onboarding time, typically reducing short-term velocity. Option C is not appropriate because lengthening the sprint does not address the causes of the velocity drop and delays feedback, contrary to agile principles.
Variation 5. Your agile project has experienced a significant drop in velocity for two consecutive sprints. The team is blaming unclear requirements from the product owner, while the product owner claims the team is not collaborating enough. As the scrum master, which THREE actions should you take to address the situation?
hard- A.Add buffer time to the next sprint to account for uncertainty
- B.Mandate that the team must collaborate more by pairing on all tasks
- ✓ C.Coach the product owner on techniques for refining the product backlog and writing clear user stories
- ✓ D.Coach the team on self-organization and effective collaboration techniques
- ✓ E.Facilitate a retrospective focused on identifying root causes of the velocity drop
Why C: Option C is correct because the product owner's unclear requirements are a root cause of the velocity drop, and the scrum master should coach the product owner on backlog refinement and writing clear, INVEST-compliant user stories with acceptance criteria so the team can estimate and deliver effectively. Option D is correct because the scrum master serves the team by coaching it toward self-organization and improved collaboration, which directly addresses the product owner's complaint and helps the team resolve impediments without top-down mandates. Option E is correct because the sprint retrospective is the scrum event designed to inspect how the last sprint went and identify root causes of the velocity decline, enabling the team to create actionable improvement items. Option A is not appropriate because adding buffer time merely hides the problem and inflates estimates rather than addressing the underlying causes of reduced velocity. Option B is not appropriate because mandating pairing on all tasks removes the team's self-organization and autonomy, which is contrary to scrum principles and unlikely to fix the collaboration issue.
Variation 6. In an agile project, the team has missed their sprint commitment for the third consecutive sprint. During the retrospective, team members cite unclear requirements and frequent interruptions from stakeholders. As the project manager, what is the BEST action to take?
medium- A.Require the team to commit to fewer story points next sprint
- ✓ B.Work with the product owner to refine user stories and shield the team from external interruptions
- C.Add more developers to the team to increase velocity
- D.Increase the sprint duration to give the team more time
Why B: The best action is to address the root causes: unclear requirements and frequent interruptions. Working with the product owner to refine user stories ensures the team has clear, actionable work, and shielding the team from external interruptions allows them to focus during the sprint. This is a servant-leadership approach that removes impediments and improves the team's ability to meet commitments.
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official PMI exam blueprint
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