PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
Your agile team is experiencing a drop in velocity over the last three sprints. During the retrospective, team members mention that they are spending too much time on unplanned work and context switching. As the project manager, what should you do?
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
✓
Work with the product owner to reduce the amount of unplanned work and protect the team from external interruptions
The root cause is unplanned work and context switching, so the best approach is to work with the product owner to minimize unplanned work and shield the team from external interruptions. Option A is wrong because overtime leads to burnout and reduced quality. Option B is wrong because adding more developers to a late project often slows it down further (Brooks' Law). Option C is wrong because increasing stand-up frequency would reduce productive time and does not address the cause of interruptions.
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 team to work overtime for the next sprint to catch up
Why it's wrong here
Asking the team to work overtime is a short-sighted and unsustainable solution that often exacerbates problems rather than resolving them. While it might offer a temporary boost, it inevitably leads to team burnout, decreased morale, and a significant drop in work quality and long-term productivity. This approach fails to identify or address the fundamental root causes of the velocity drop, such as technical debt, unclear requirements, or external impediments, making it an anti-pattern in agile environments.
- ✗
Add more developers to the team to increase capacity
Why it's wrong here
Adding more developers to an already struggling team, especially when velocity is dropping, often invokes Brooks's Law, stating that "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." New team members require significant ramp-up time, diverting existing team members' attention for training and onboarding. This increases communication overhead exponentially, disrupts established team dynamics, and can further decrease overall productivity and velocity before any potential benefits are realized.
- ✗
Increase the frequency of daily stand-ups to twice a day to improve coordination
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the frequency of daily stand-ups to twice a day is counterproductive and misinterprets the purpose of this agile event. The Daily Scrum is intended as a brief, focused synchronization point, not a problem-solving session or a mechanism to micromanage. Doubling its frequency consumes valuable development time, reduces the actual time available for work, and does not inherently address underlying issues like impediments, lack of focus, or excessive unplanned work that are likely contributing to the velocity drop.
- ✓
Work with the product owner to reduce the amount of unplanned work and protect the team from external interruptions
Why this is correct
Working with the Product Owner to reduce unplanned work and protect the team from external interruptions directly addresses common root causes of decreased velocity. This involves collaborating on backlog refinement to ensure clarity and readiness, prioritizing effectively, and empowering the Product Owner to shield the team from scope creep or ad-hoc requests. By limiting Work In Progress (WIP) and fostering a stable environment, the team can maintain focus, improve flow, and sustainably increase their delivery capacity, aligning perfectly with agile principles.
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