Agile and Leadership Practice Questions (1 -250)

Question 89: You have been hired to lead a new project team as an Agile project manager. As you come on board you learn that the organisation uses a hybrid model. What does this mean? The team is a hybrid of developers, designers and business users to get the best return on investment. The product you are developing will use both electricity and fuel for power. A combination of predictive (i.e. a project plan) and adaptive (iterations, backlogs, Kanban) project methods will be used. A hybrid team environment of physical and software reporting boards will be used.

A combination of predictive (i.e. a project plan) and adaptive (iterations, backlogs, Kanban) project methods will be used. (Correct) Explanation A hybrid project management lifecycle means using both predictive and adaptive methods. Predictive is your traditional waterfall approach, with pre-planned project plans, scope plans, quality, schedule and risk. Adaptive approaches will add a prioritised backlog of features to be delivered, a Kanban board to manage the work, iterations and retrospectives.

Question 13: You are working with your Agile team on your first iteration. The feature has been chosen by the product owner and the team breaks it down into user stories to work on. What is a user story? A piece of functionality small enough to be completed in one to three days. A description of the feature from the viewpoint of the customer. A story about the end-user so the team understands the feature completely. A prioritised backlog that the team can choose features from.

A piece of functionality small enough to be completed in one to three days. (Correct) Explanation A user story is the smallest unit of work in an Agile team - a task that can be completed in no more than three days. If a task will take longer, it is common to try and break it into two or more pieces to accommodate the user story rule.

Question 32: The Agile team is working through a particularly complex feature that is difficult for the team find a solution for. As the Agile lead, you recommend a spike. What is a spike? A shifting of the feature into another iteration. A time-boxed task to explore or investigate an issue. A short meeting at the beginning of the day to discuss tasks in progress. A demonstration of the feature to the product owner.

A time-boxed task to explore or investigate an issue. (Correct) Explanation A spike is a time-boxed task to explore or investigate an issue. It is separate from development work and only used if something needs to be figured out or investigated. It can be done at any time during a project.

You are in the middle of a sprint with your Agile team, and moving the project forward with daily stand-up meetings. What is a stand-up meeting? A project kick-off meeting where stakeholders must stand so everyone is alert. A project progress meeting where you see how proposed schedule stands up against the actual schedule. A very quick meeting time-boxed at 15 minutes or less, where the team say what they have accomplished and report any blockers. A team training meeting focused on continuous improvement of the team.

A very quick meeting time-boxed at 15 minutes or less, where the team say what they have accomplished and report any blockers. (Correct) Explanation The daily stand-up is a short meeting, usually around the Kanban board, where the team say what they accomplished since yesterday, what they will do today, and anything that is blocking their progress

Question 29: You are working through the backlog with the product owner and estimating the story cards with the development team. The team have never worked on a product like this before and are unsure if their estimates are accurate enough. What will you recommend they use? Affinity estimating, using actual effort from a similar feature on a different project. T-shirt sizing, using broad Small, Medium or Large sizes to accommodate variation. Three point estimating, where the team gives the average of an optimistic, pessimistic and most likely estimate. The product owner should estimate the story cards as they are getting the benefit of the delivered features.

Affinity estimating, using actual effort from a similar feature on a different project. (Correct) Explanation While most estimation methods will do, the best one in this case is Affinity estimating, using a similar example from a previous project. Agile estimating is most often done by breaking down the features into small tasks, then estimating on those tasks (bottom-up). Where that doesn't work, Affinity estimating will fill in the blanks.

Question 82: The twelve Agile clarifying principles also match up with the best advice for workflow and getting things done. Which of the below is a correct clarifying principle when it comes to project workflow? Agile does not use processes, as it prefers individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Agile processes engage and support the team by ensuring sponsors, developers and users all get what they want. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Agile processes help as much work get done as possible. When the team thinks they can't go any further, Agile pushes them to go the extra mile.

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. (Correct) Explanation Agile promotes sustainable development, where the team is not overburdened and is able to work at a constant pace indefinitely. Be wary of often switching tasks or pushing for too much work during each iteration - this will burn out individuals and ultimately slow down your progress

Question 28: You are in the forming stages of a new project team, and deciding on the way of work to use when operating as a team. What are some of the factors that will influence how you tailor the project lifecycle? The demand pattern for value or delivery: is it steady or sporadic? The rate of process improvement required by the team. Is more than one team is needed to build the product? All of the above.

All of the above. (Correct) Explanation Project lifecycles or ways of working can be influenced by many factors - in fact almost everything will impact this decision. The way the organisation works, whether the work is certain or uncertain, whether the features are subject to change, what has worked before and what the team is comfortable with all play a part.

You are an Agile project manager leading a project team who is used to a Waterfall way of work. The project sponsor wants to plan the entire project up front so they can see when the project will be delivered. You tell them that Agile uses adaptive planning. Why might this be a better alternative? Adaptive planning allows the project sponsor to adapt to the project plan over time. Adaptive planning allows the team to deliver usable features while continually reprioritising next pieces based on business value. Adaptive planning ensures that the users can adapt to the product delivered by the project team. Adaptive planning is stable after the prototype is complete.

Answer: Adaptive planning allows the team to deliver usable features while continually reprioritising next pieces based on business value. Explanation Adaptive planning allows the project sponsor to receive incremental value delivered as features, and for those features to be re-prioritised by the product owner throughout the life of the project. As the saying goes, many waterfall projects start out as predictive planned, and end up as adaptive planned (when schedule and cost projections are not met and they need to adjust).

Question 7: You are working with your project team in a way that ensures you Analyse the requirements, then Design, Build and Test for those requirements, repeating them until the product is correct, and adjusting your product or approach as necessary before releasing in one large feature. Which project lifecycle are you using? A Predictive project lifecycle approach. An Agile project lifecycle approach An Incremental project lifecycle approach An Iterative project lifecycle approach

Answer: An Iterative project lifecycle approach Explanation The iterative project lifecycle Analyses, Designs, Builds, Tests, and repeats these activities until it is correct, then delivers in one release. Incremental delivers small increments of value (i.e. features), Agile is a combination of Iterative and Incremental, and Predictive does one release only with little or no iterative feedback.

You are the Scrum Master and about to begin a new iteration in your Agile project. New features have been added to the backlog, and the team are unsure of which of those features to work on next. How will you guide the product owner and the team when analysing next priority? Analyse the value of each feature with the product owner, versus the effort and risk of each item with the Agile team. Focus on the shortest tasks first so you can deliver value quickly. Choose to deliver the entire project at the end so the project sponsor can see it all together. By asking the customers what they want delivered first.

Answer: Analyse the value of each feature with the product owner, versus the effort and risk of each item with the Agile team. (Correct) Explanation While value is typically determined by features that customers want, the priority is ultimately decided by the product owner, who represents the customer or the business and constantly refines and prioritises the backlog of features. Just as important is developing high risk items, and considering the development effort versus the benefit.

Question 12: While on an Agile project team, you prioritise the backlog of features with the product owner, and agree what you will work on first. Your project sponsor wants to know how long it will take to deliver some value. How will you estimate how long each of these features will take to complete? Break down the feature into tasks or user stories, then estimate how long those tasks will take to complete with the dev team. Take the total number of people in the team, multiplied by the hours worked, divided by the number of features in the backlog. Ask the sponsor how many iterations the project is funded for, then plan to complete the features by the end of that time. Find a similar feature delivered by another part of the organisation, and use that as your estimate.

Answer: Break down the feature into tasks or user stories, then estimate how long those tasks will take to complete with the dev team. (Correct) Explanation Agile favours a bottom-up approach to estimating, where the work is broken down to its lowest level, typically a user story, and estimated by the development team. This will give you an estimate of the effort and time required to complete the feature.

Question 6: In 2001, a group of individuals, representing the most widely used lightweight software development methodologies, agreed on a common set of values and principles which became known as the Agile Manifesto. Which of the following is one of the Agile Manifesto's core values? Developer negotiation over feature collaboration Product owner interaction over Scrum Master delegation. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. Getting things right over getting the right things.

Answer: Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. Explanation The Agile manifesto is made up of four core values, one of which values Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.

Question 11: You are coaching some of the team members who are new to Agile, and someone asks what you mean when you say "time-box". What will you tell them? It is a period of time in which certain work is completed, such as an iteration. It is the time spent on a retrospective in order to box out new issues. It is the time taken to complete the project, with the box representing the finished product. It is the effort assigned to a story card so the team knows how long it might take.

Answer: It is a period of time in which certain work is completed, such as an iteration. Explanation While effort or time on a story card may be time-boxed, the best example is that of an Agile iteration. Usually around 2 weeks, an iteration is a time-box that often delivers a feature, or part of a feature and the customer can see, feel and touch.

You are working on a project with clear procedures based on past projects. The product is clear and the risks are fairly well known as the organisation has done this before. Which is true from the below? It is definable work, you can choose a predictive project lifecycle. It is definable work, you can choose an Agile project lifecycle. It is high-uncertainty work, you can choose an incremental project lifecycle. It is high-uncertainty work, you can choose an iterative project lifecycle.

Answer: It is definable work, you can choose a predictive project lifecycle. Explanation When the situation is fairly definable and well known, and the risks are also fairly well known, you can choose a predictive project lifecycle that plans most of the project up-front and delivers in one release. Agile, Incremental and Iterative lifecycles are used for high uncertainty work.

Question 4: You are showing the project sponsor around the team area for your Agile project and see the burndown chart next to the team Kanban board. The project sponsor asks what the chart tells you. What will you say? It shows how many team members are moving on and off the project. It shows the remaining tasks versus what was planned for a given iteration. It shows the automated tests run as part of continuous integration. It shows the return on investment for the delivered features.

Answer: It shows the remaining tasks versus what was planned for a given iteration. Explanation A burndown chart is a line chart showing the iteration tasks completed versus what was planned over the iteration. The same idea can be used for features over the life of a project, or even risks with the project itself, and can be measured in any way you choose - by hours, tasks, cards or stories completed and more.

Question 3: You are leading an Agile team that has members in various locations around the country. You have arranged daily stand-ups via phone, with electronic Kanban and backlogs, but the team is not able to meet face to face. What else will you do to increase the team working together and getting to know each other? Have a team board with their backgrounds and pictures. Swap roles throughout the team so each member gets a feel for what others do. Pair up team members to work on tasks, and rotate the pairs for each feature. Have a virtual lunch and learn where team members share something about themselves.

Answer: Pair up team members to work on tasks, and rotate the pairs for each feature. Explanation Pair programming is a common technique in Agile and can be used for most tasks. Pairing up team members on a task or iteration gives them the opportunity to talk and work with each other one-on-one

You are working through the feature backlog with the functional manager of the organisation, who is the product owner for your Agile team. They ask about the velocity chart that is hanging in the team area. What do you tell them it is? The number of points, tasks or features completed by the team in each given iteration. The number of team members working on the Agile project over the life of the project. How fast each team member completes their work each day. The speed with which the project budget is being used up.

Answer: The number of points, tasks or features completed by the team in each given iteration. Explanation Team velocity is the amount of work a team can complete in a given iteration, whether it's measured by points, hours, story cards, tasks, or features themselves. A velocity chart therefore shows the number of whatever unit of measure you choose per iteration.

Question 2: You are working with an Agile team who are not co-located. They are in various locations around the country. As the Agile lead, how will you get the benefit of Agile without a co-located team? Utilise group messaging software, daily teleconference stand-ups, an electronic Kanban and backlog. Ask the organisation to re-locate the team to ensure everyone is in the same place. Hire or find new team members from within the organisation who are in the same place so you can co-locate. Remove all meetings so people can focus on their work without distraction.

Answer: Utilise group messaging software, daily teleconference stand-ups, an electronic Kanban and backlog. Explanation It may not be feasible to move entire teams, or hire new ones. Utilising the many electronic options so your team can still get the benefit of frequent contact and communication is the most cost-effective approach.

Question 1: You have joined a new project team and are moving to an Agile way of work. Part of this is co-locating the team to gain the benefit of osmotic communication. Your project sponsor asks what this means. What do you tell them? The team is able to meet more frequently when co-located. It is easier to hand off work to someone if it meets their strengths. It is a written process made available to everyone in the team for transparency. The team will overhear conversations and information in the common area that will help them solve future problems.

Answer:The team will overhear conversations and information in the common area that will help them solve future problems. Explanation Osmotic communication is the accidental overhearing of background information that may later end up being important - part of the benefit to co-locating a team in Agile.

Question 31: Your Agile team is estimating story cards using planning poker. For one of the larger features, some of the team has estimated three points, while the others have estimated eight points. How will you guide the team to come to an estimate? Ask them to average out the points and assign that value to the card. Change the method of estimating to accommodate the team decision. Change the feature to make it easier to estimate on. Ask the high and low estimates to discuss their reasons, and the team to estimate again until a consensus is reached or more information is needed.

Ask the high and low estimates to discuss their reasons, and the team to estimate again until a consensus is reached or more information is needed. (Correct) Explanation In Planning Poker, if estimates are different, the high and low estimators share their reasons. Once shared, the team estimates again. The poker planning process is repeated until consensus is achieved or until the team decides to gather more information.

Question 99: You are working on an Agile project and the project team have just finished an iteration. All tasks for the iteration have been completed, and you are ready to move to the next iteration, but are not sure what the team should work on. What will you do next? Follow the project plan developed early in the project Follow the PMO, who has already determined how the project should progress Ask the product owner, who continuously prioritizes the backlog Ask the project coach or team leader to determine the next iteration

Ask the product owner, who continuously prioritizes the backlog (Correct) Explanation The product owner represents the customer, who you are delivering business value to. The team works through the list of items that have identifiable value and have been prioritized by the customer.

Question 76: You are the Agile project manager working through the product requirements for the product owner and executive project sponsor. The project sponsor raises concerns that the development team do not fully understand the requirements. What will you do next? Show them the project management plan, which will have the scope statement listed in the scope baseline. Ask the team to create a high-level prototype of the requirements, then discuss and review with all stakeholders. Show them the project schedule, outlining each feature and their delivery dates. Hold a retrospective with the team to gather feedback and improve.

Ask the team to create a high-level prototype of the requirements, then discuss and review with all stakeholders. (Correct) Explanation Agile uses fast visual mock-ups or prototypes such as storyboards, wireframes, or models, to get a quick understanding of the requirements and consensus from all stakeholders.

Question 100: While meeting with the customers or business owners, they introduce several pieces of new functionality into the product backlog list. The deadline for the product cannot be changed. What will you do next? Tell the team to work overtime in order to deliver the project Stand by your team and tell the customers the project will not be delivered on time Be sure the customers understand that lower priority features may not be completed at all Place the new features in a "parking lot" that can be completed if time allows

Be sure the customers understand that lower priority features may not be completed at all (Correct) Explanation An Agile project can accept changes even late in development. But while the competing constraints of cost, quality and schedule are often fixed, in Agile the scope can vary. This means some features may need to drop off, as others become prioritised. A maintainable pace of work is required too - project managers must not overwork the project team to increase the pace of the project work.

Question 34: The organisation you are working in has decided to move towards an Agile way of work and project lifecycle approach. Which of the below is how you would describe an Agile project lifecycle? Both iterative and incremental, to refine work items and deliver frequently. Both iterative and predictive, to refine work items and deliver in one go. Both fast and furious, designed to deliver the most bang for your buck. Both predictive and incremental, to plan carefully and deliver smaller features.

Both iterative and incremental, to refine work items and deliver frequently. (Correct) Explanation The Agile project lifecycle is a combination of Iterative (where we gather feedback to improve) and Incremental project lifecycles (where we deliver smaller usable features of value to our customer).

Question 72: The Agile manifesto has twelve clarifying principles added to it to help projects and teams understand the Agile values. Which of the below is a correct clarifying principle? Build projects around a core idea, then brainstorm frequently to get the job done. Find the right executive support and ensure they tell you the product requirements. Deliver frequently whether an item has been tested or not, as quality is everyone's responsibility. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done.

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done. (Correct) Explanation Agile is about building projects around motivated individuals - the cross functional and "T-shaped" team members, giving them the support needed by removing blockers and ensuring a flow of work.

Question 71: The Agile manifesto has twelve clarifying principles added to it to help projects and teams understand the Agile values. Which of the below is a correct clarifying principle? Business people should dictate to the development team what to do and how to do it. Developers can code and release products at a schedule that suits them, for complete autonomy. Business people and developers mustn't work together, but they can chat about their work over lunch. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. (Correct) Explanation As you will know form the various Agile approaches, "Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project" is one of the twelve Agile clarifying principles.

Question 57: You are the product owner in an Agile team and have a list of features in a backlog that need to be developed. Each feature is assigned a dollar value, representing the return on investment. You would like it to be a risk-adjusted backlog. What will you do next? Note the risk impacts in dollars against the return in dollars, then reprioritise the backlog. Adjust the backlog to focus on the largest features first. Capture known risks for each feature, then place cards to control those risks and prioritise in the backlog. Create a risk register for the project, then have it signed off by the risk owners .

Capture known risks for each feature, then place cards to control those risks and prioritise in the backlog. (Correct) Explanation The risk-adjusted backlog is a sprint or release backlog containing risk response tasks for actionable risks. These will be prioritised against the normal features, also in the backlog, to adjust for risk.

Question 42: Skipped Your Agile team has been working with Scrum for some time now and have become quite familiar with its events and ceremonies. You are asked to explain this to other stakeholders within the organisation. What is NOT an example of a Scrum event or ceremony? Sprint Planning, where the Scrum team selects the highest priority items. Daily Scrum, where the team meets to walk through project tasks, often on a Kanban board. Sprint Review, where the development team gives a demo on the product to the product owner for sign-off or change. Change Control Board, where all proposed changes are reviewed before adding to the backlog.

Change Control Board, where all proposed changes are reviewed before adding to the backlog. (Correct) Explanation The Change Control Board is a typical part of a predictive or Waterfall project lifecycle, not an Agile or Scrum way of work. It has key stakeholders review any changes to the pre-assigned scope, schedule or cost, and approve or decline as the project works towards completion.

Question 36: You are working through a sprint planning meeting with your team. The team have sized up the cards and prioritised the backlog. What will you do next to determine how much work can be done during this iteration? Count up the user stories that the product owner wants completed by the end of the iteration. Check the team's velocity against the number of points for the story cards you want to complete. Ask the Scrum Master to allocate work to each team member in the fairest manner possible. Look at other teams and what they did in the last iteration to give the best idea for your team.

Check the team's velocity against the number of points for the story cards you want to complete. (Correct) Explanation Velocity is the amount of work (measured by points, hours, cards or anything you wish) a team completes on average in a given sprint. By checking the total points for the cards you wish to complete against what is possible via the team velocity, you will know what is possible and can adjust as necessary

Question 67: Feedback in many different forms is one of the most important parts of a successful Agile product delivery. Which of the below is an Agile method for gathering and using feedback to improve? Having a once-weekly working group meting with project stakeholders Conducting sprint reviews or demonstrations that include all stakeholders. Sending out project reports to project stakeholders to view. Asking stakeholders for feedback only development is blocked.

Conducting sprint reviews or demonstrations that include all stakeholders. (Correct) Explanation Demonstrating the usable increment developed during an iteration to the customer or product owner ensures feedback is gathered more quickly than only at the end of a project. Retrospectives are another method for feedback on the team process.

Question 83: The twelve Agile clarifying principles also match up with the best advice for quality in a project. Which of the below is a correct Agile clarifying principle when it comes to project quality? Continuous flow ensures work is done at a reasonable pace and defects are caught. Testing is done at all levels, from unit testing to end to end testing. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances quality. Quality is everyone's responsibility in an Agile team, meaning everyone will test the product.

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances quality. (Correct) Explanation While some of these answers match up with the Agile principles in general, only "Continuous Attention to technical excellence and good design enhances quality" is a clarifying principle from this list.

Question 50: You are checking in with the quality tester in your Agile team, and they advise you that there are a number of escaped defects in the most recently completed feature. What are they referring to? A feature that was not completed by the end of the iteration. Code that needs to be refactored before the next iteration can begin. Defects that have made it through testing and quality assurance. Team members who did not attend the daily stand-up this iteration.

Defects that have made it through testing and quality assurance. (Correct) Explanation Defects that make it through testing and into a release are called escaped defects. The cost and risk increases for defects the closer they are to a live environment, making these the most expensive type of defect to fix.

Question 70: The Agile manifesto has twelve clarifying principles added to it to help projects and teams understand the Agile values. Which of the below is a correct clarifying principle? Tailor the project approach to suit the project and the team. Ensure executive buy-in by reporting frequently to your managers. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. Ensure complete planning for your product and release once tested thoroughly.

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. (Correct) Explanation "Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale," is one of the twelve Agile clarifying principles.

Question 24: You are an Agile team leader and talking through the process for your first retrospective. The team is curious as to what they should do. What is the way a team retrospective would normally work? Discuss what was successful, what could be improved, and incorporate those into future iterations. Discuss what the team liked about working with each other. Discuss what went wrong, and make sure the team knows who is to blame. Discuss the validity of the features being developed.

Discuss what was successful, what could be improved, and incorporate those into future iterations. (Correct) Explanation A team retrospective enables the team to answer questions that improve their team process and way of work, such as "What went well," "What could be improved," and "What still puzzles me."

Question 94: Every project has characteristics around requirements, delivery, change and goals. Understanding the different types of life cycle will allow you to choose the right one for the circumstances of your project. What is the correct description for an "Iterative" project approach? Dynamic requirements, repeated until correct, in multiple deliveries. Dynamic requirements, repeated until correct, in a single delivery. Fixed requirements, repeated until incorrect, in a single delivery. Fixed requirements, performed once for a given increment, in a single delivery. Explanation Iterative methods have dynamic requirements, repeated with feedback until they are correct, but delivered only once. The Agile Practice Guide (2017), p18, Table 3-1.

Dynamic requirements, repeated until correct, in a single delivery. (Correct) Explanation Iterative methods have dynamic requirements, repeated with feedback until they are correct, but delivered only once. The Agile Practice Guide (2017), p18, Table 3-1.

Question 52: You have been part of an Agile team for some time, working on the aspects of servant leadership to improve the results of your team. What is NOT one of those characteristics of a servant leader? Coaching versus controlling. Promoting safety, respect, and trust. Promoting the energy and intelligence of others. Ensuring the team does what you say.

Ensuring the team does what you say. (Correct) Explanation The servant leader in Agile coaches the team, promoting psychological safety and trust, and promoting the energy and intelligence of others. The approach does not include directive leadership, or forcing others to do what you say.

Question 20: The business partner or product owner continuously refines, or grooms, the product backlog. This includes adding new stories, reprioritizing stories, and removing stories when needed. What role does the development team take during this process? Developing the cards as soon as they are added to ensure maximum value. Removing cards from the backlog that do not make sense to complete. Estimating the work needed for each card so the product owner can prioritise based on value and effort. Coming to daily stand-ups to report on what was done yesterday and what will be done today. Explanation

Estimating the work needed for each card so the product owner can prioritise based on value and effort. (Correct) Explanation During backlog grooming the development team is responsible for sizing or estimating the work. This allows the product owner, business representative or customer to prioritise effectively, based on value and time to delivery.

Question 61: You are rearranging a current Agile team, and you know that Agile teams are cross-functional. What sort of team members will you select as you rearrange the team? Generalising specialists, with one focus speciality and a wide range of experience in other skills. Team leaders, with a speciality in leadership so everyone can lead in the Agile team. Risk specialists, because there is a higher risk in Agile team delivery. Don't add team members - you should shrink the team in accordance with the XP principles.

Generalising specialists, with one focus speciality and a wide range of experience in other skills. (Correct) Explanation An Agile team is made up of generalising specialists, or "T-shaped" people with one deep knowledge area and a wide range or experience in other areas. The whole team is responsible for Risk in an Agile team. Shrinking Teams is only applicable for mature teams who are performing well and can reduce time and effort.

Question 61: You are rearranging a current Agile team, and you know that Agile teams are cross-functional. What sort of team members will you select as you rearrange the team? Generalising specialists, with one focus speciality and a wide range of experience in other skills. Team leaders, with a speciality in leadership so everyone can lead in the Agile team. Risk specialists, because there is a higher risk in Agile team delivery. Don't add team members - you should shrink the team in accordance with the XP principles.

Generalising specialists, with one focus speciality and a wide range of experience in other skills. (Correct) Explanation An Agile team is made up of generalising specialists, or "T-shaped" people with one deep knowledge area and a wide range or experience in other areas. The whole team is responsible for Risk in an Agile team. Shrinking Teams is only applicable for mature teams who are performing well and can reduce time and effort.

Question 92: Behaviour-driven development (BDD) allows a developer to focus on testing the code based on the expected behaviour of the software and is a method of writing user stories. What is the correct description regarding BDD acceptance-based criteria? Make, Buy, Do Tell, Show, Repeat Find, Create, Perform Given, When, Then

Given, When, Then (Correct) Explanation Given, When, Then is the way BDD is used, particularly when outlining user Story Cards for your iteration. It highlights "Given" a certain situation, "When" something happens, "Then" we want this to happen.

Question 87: You are working in an Agile team and the business representative would like to get an idea of the risk associated with a particular feature. What will you do next? Show the risk management plan from your project management plan to the business rep. Ask the development team if they like the feature. Hold a pre-mortem, where each team member writes reasons they think the task or feature might fail so these can be discussed. Check your gut-feel for the feature, and if it doesn't feel right look into it more deeply.

Hold a pre-mortem, where each team member writes reasons they think the task or feature might fail so these can be discussed. (Correct) Explanation A pre-mortem looks at reasons for failure before they happen, and is a great way to brainstorm risks for a card or feature. Typically, team members write their reasons down then discuss in a round-robin style, as some people may come up with the same idea.

Question 75: You are new to your Agile project, and the team are working through the forming stages. How do you help the team improve as the project progresses? Ensure the team holds a project post-mortem and captures the lessons learned at the end of the project. Hold a retrospective with the whole team at the end of each iteration and build those lessons learned into each new iteration. Ask the product owner to show the team where they can improve to deliver the features they want. Rotate tasks and roles amongst the team during each new iteration.

Hold a retrospective with the whole team at the end of each iteration and build those lessons learned into each new iteration. (Correct)Explanation Agile uses retrospectives at the end of each iteration with the whole team, to ask "What went well?" "What did not go well?" What did I learn?" and "What still puzzles me?" The lessons from this session are actioned and built back into future iterations to improve quickly.

Question 49: You are an Agile project manager working with your Agile team and talking through the defects raised in the project so far. To get a more accurate view of effort per card, you ask the quality tester to begin tracking the defect cycle time. What will they report back on? How many defects were discovered in that iteration. How long it took to fix a defect from the time it was found to the time it was fixed. How many cycles it takes to raise a defect for the developers. The number of features in the backlog that have experienced defects.

How long it took to fix a defect from the time it was found to the time it was fixed. (Correct) Explanation Cycle time is the measure of time of a smaller increment, often a story card, from start to finish. Therefore, defect cycle time is the measurement of how long it took to fix a single defect once it was discovered.

Question 86: The Scrum Master in the Agile team has asked the team to do a team self-assessment. What is the focus of this of this assessment? How often the team meets during the week. How many story cards the team have completed during this iteration. How much yearly bonus the team should receive. How the team performs and delivers together.

How the team performs and delivers together. (Correct) Explanation The team self-assessment is used to gauge the team members performance together, with the results helping to identify what is working well and where improvements can be made. The team then meets to problem solve improvements and to celebrate what is working well.

Question 55: You have delivered half of the features in the backlog for your Agile project. You've noticed there is quite a difference in the number of defects over the last three iterations, and you ask the team to investigate both common cause and special cause variation. What will they investigate? Issues that arose from normal operations, and issues that arose from a unique or new condition. Issues caused by the common area, and issues caused by the special software. Issues found in the last release, and issues found in this release. Issues caused by continuous integration, and issues caused by no integration.

Issues that arose from normal operations, and issues that arose from a unique or new condition. (Correct) Explanation Variation in Lean is separated into common cause, which is caused by normal operations, and special cause, which is caused by special or new factors.

Question 35: There are four main lifecycle approaches to managing a project, with variations in between. What is one of the characteristics of an "Iterative" lifecycle approach? It does not need feedback for work in progress to reduce that work in progress. It allows feedback for unfinished work to improve and modify that work. It focuses on delivery, not feedback. It plans the project up front and delivers in one go.

It allows feedback for unfinished work to improve and modify that work. (Correct) Explanation An Iterative project lifecycle "iterates" towards success. It uses prototypes and unreleased versions of the product to gather feedback and improve before releasing it.

Question 78: When working in an Agile team it is common to use prototypes, demonstrations and reviews, wireframes and storyboards to elicit feedback from the customer or product owner. What is the benefit of using these tools? So the development team don't have to create the real thing. So the team can get together and have another meeting. It allows users to create new forms that will be required for the new system. It allows the product owner to discuss and agree on requirements with their stakeholders.

It allows the product owner to discuss and agree on requirements with their stakeholders. (Correct) Explanation Prototypes, wireframes and storyboards are important ways to gather feedback, and that feedback allows all stakeholders to discuss and agree on the requirements and product features before money is spent on actual development.

Question 25: The 12th principle of Agile is "At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly." In practice, this is a Retrospective. But what is the practical reason for including Retrospectives in an Agile team? It reduces the communication time between the project sponsor and the developers. It ensures features are released on schedule and on budget. It helps the team learn about and improve their process over time. It keeps the team focused on the main feature to deliver the most business value.

It helps the team learn about and improve their process over time. (Correct) Explanation Agile retrospectives help the team learn about their process and improve it over time, through regular and structured feedback given and used as a team.

Question 45: Your team are about to proceed with the development of a new product for the organisation you work in. Depending on the product, stakeholders, risk appetite, need for value and more, the lifecycle or way of work will change. Which of the below represents an "Incremental" lifecycle approach? It provides unfinished deliverables that the customer can review for feedback. It provides value in one release after thorough risk, quality, schedule and scope planning. It provides multiple finished deliverables that the customer can use immediately. It provides a way for the team to do less with more, by releasing only a small feature.

It provides multiple finished deliverables that the customer can use immediately. (Correct) Explanation An Incremental project lifecycle or way of work delivers small increments that a customer can use immediately, gain value from, and provide feedback on.

Question 79: You are finishing up the first iteration on your Agile project and have set a retrospective meeting for the whole team. One member of the team asks why we have this meeting and if they really need to go. What will you tell them? It helps the team prioritise product features for the next iteration. It allows the team to blame others when things go wrong. It's an opportunity for the whole team to look at their way of work and improve. It showcases a part of the product so everyone can see what was delivered.

It's an opportunity for the whole team to look at their way of work and improve. (Correct) Explanation Retrospectives are a set meeting at the end of each sprint that actively ask for feedback with certain questions: What went well, what didn't go well, what still puzzles me? The actions from these questions are built back into the team in future iterations.

Question 16: You are working on a project where the organisation wants to move towards an Agile way of work. Which two project lifecycles combine to create an Agile environment? Iterative and Predictive lifecycles. Incremental and Predictive lifecycles. Iterative and Incremental lifecycles. Predictive and Agile lifecycles.

Iterative and Incremental lifecycles. (Correct) Explanation An Agile project environment is created by combining Incremental project approaches, where smaller features are released more regularly, and iterative project approaches, where the product improves through iterations and is released after the feedback.

Question 69: You are working on a traditional waterfall project and the organisation wants to move to an Agile way of work. The functional manager wants to get the benefit of certain Agile tools they have heard about that are used to uncover potential problems before they occur. What will you do next? Write the change into your project management plan and circulate it with project stakeholders. Set a weekly working group meeting with your project stakeholders to discuss the project. Iteration planning Make the product backlog, iteration Kanban board, and velocity chart all visible in a co-located team area. .

Make the product backlog, iteration Kanban board, and velocity chart all visible in a co-located team area. (Correct) Explanation There are many Agile tools to detect and prevent problems, and Visual Management is one of them. By making the Kanban visible to all, along with the backlog and velocity chart, everyone can clearly see what the team is up to, if things are going off course, and if there are any blockers. Co-location, Daily Stand-ups, team iteration planning, retrospectives, demos and reviews, are all designed to discover problems and solve them early.

Question 53: The Twelve Clarifying Principles in Agile were designed to give more clarity to the Agile manifesto core values. Which of the following is one of the twelve clarifying principles? Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Our highest priority is to ensure executive buy-in by delivering high value items. Our highest priority is to reduce the impact of change by keeping information to a minimum. Our highest priority is to plan thoroughly and execute with discipline.

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. (Correct) Explanation Agile focuses on early and continuous delivery of value - most often in a software environment but also in any knowledge work, such as design.

Question 88: You are the Agile team leader and are working through a team retrospective when an issue experienced by the team is raised. What will you do next? Perform fishbone analysis Perform Kano analysis Perform regression analysis Perform multi-vari chart analysis

Perform fishbone analysis (Correct) Explanation When an issue is raised the best course of action is to get to the root cause of the issue. Of the items presented, fishbone or Ishikawa analysis is the best tool for root cause analysis.

You are the Agile project manager working on a software project, and the development team have identified a major risk for the delivery of a certain feature. That feature is not scheduled until very late in the project. What will you do next? Wait until later in the project, as the problem may be fixed by other features going in. Ask the developers to find a way to proceed without that feature. Plan a spike around the risk, identify a solution then prioritise that feature earlier in development. Remove all other story cards from the current sprint so the team can swarm around the issue and fix it.

Plan a spike around the risk, identify a solution then prioritise that feature earlier in development. (Correct) Explanation Agile risks are prioritised early in development, to reduce and remove those risks. Discovery work is typically done with a spike card, but does not need to be done by the whole team. Allocate a certain amount of time to it, then prioritise the risk early so it is taken care of and you know what you are dealing with.

Question 93: Every project has characteristics around requirements, delivery, change and goals. Understanding the different types of life cycle, you can choose the right one for the circumstances of your project. What is the correct description for a "Waterfall" approach? Predictive - Fixed requirements, performed once for the entire project, in a single delivery. Predictive - Fixed requirements, performed multiple times for the entire project, in multiple deliveries. Predictive - Variable requirements, performed once for the entire project in a single delivery. Predictive - Variable requirements, performed multiple times for the entire project, in multiple deliveries.

Predictive - Fixed requirements, performed once for the entire project, in a single delivery. (Correct) Explanation A Predictive or Waterfall project management lifecycle focuses on fixed requirements, performed once for the project for a single delivery.

Question 18: You are working as a project manager in an Agile team. Which of the below are NOT examples of execution practices you will see in Agile? Test at all levels, where the team applies end-to-end testing and unit testing (of an individual story or feature). Agile teams prefer automated tests. Test-Driven Development, where the team writes automated tests before writing the product code to help mistake-proof the product. Spikes, which are time-boxed research or experiments and useful for estimation, acceptance criteria definition, or learning some critical technical or functional element. Project management plan, where the project is planned is detail up front to avoid misunderstanding by project stakeholders.

Project management plan, where the project is planned is detail up front to avoid misunderstanding by project stakeholders. (Correct) Explanation A project management plan is a key artefact in a predictive or waterfall project approach. Test at all levels, Test driven development and Spikes are all Agile practices you will see.

Question 51: Agile approaches emphasise Servant Leadership to empower teams. Servant leadership is the practice of leading through service to the team, understanding and addressing the needs and development of the team members to enable the highest performance possible. Servant leaders approach project work in this order: Purpose, People, Process. People, Systems, Technology. Information, Reporting, Process. Plant, People, Machine.

Purpose, People, Process. (Correct) Explanation The Servant Leader approaches work starting with the purpose or "why" behind the work, then works with growing and developing people, and finally ensures a solid process for making the work happen.

Question 65: You are working through the iteration with your Agile team, and are having trouble completing one of the story cards in the sprint. It is dependant on something else being done and the contact is away. What will you do next? Raise a blocker at the next daily stand-up (or before) so the team can swarm around the problem and solve it quickly. Bring the piece of work in-house so you don't have to worry anymore. Ask the product owner to remove that feature for now, you can revisit it later. Add cost to the budget and find a third party to complete the work.

Raise a blocker at the next daily stand-up (or before) so the team can swarm around the problem and solve it quickly. (Correct) Explanation Problem solving is done with the Agile team. Blockers are raised as soon as possible - at least during a daily stand-up, so the team can swarm around the problem, get help from any experts needed, and move on.

Question 44: Servant leadership is one of the key foundations to an Agile team, where leadership and team participation and openness are encouraged. Which of the below is NOT one of the characteristics of a servant leader? Promoting self-awareness and helping people grow. Listening to others more than speaking yourself. Serving those on the team by removing blockers. Reporting on low-performers to ensure the team is streamlined.

Reporting on low-performers to ensure the team is streamlined. (Correct) Explanation Agile and Servant Leadership work by building towards psychological safety, openness, growth and ensuring work is free from blockers. It starts with the Scrum Master or Agile coach/leader role, but expands to the whole team.

In 2001, a group of individuals, representing the most widely used lightweight software development methodologies, agreed on a common set of values and principles which became known as the Agile Manifesto. Which of the following is one of the Agile Manifesto's core values? Developing as much as possible to see what gets the best result. Finding a product owner over finding a development team. Cross functional team members over executive buy-in. Responding to change over following a plan.

Responding to change over following a plan. (Correct) Explanation The Agile manifesto is made up of four core values, one of which values "Responding to change over following a plan".

Question 43: Scrum is a single-team framework for managing product development. There are certain events, ceremonies and roles and responsibilities within a Scrum team. Which of the below is NOT a role or responsibility in a Scrum team? Product Owner, representing the customer and responsible for maximising the value of the product. Development Team, developing and testing the product, cross functional, self-organising with all the roles needed to deliver the product. Scrum Master, ensuring the Scrum processes such as stand-ups and retrospectives, coaching the team and removing blockers. Risk Manager, capturing and reviewing risks and ensuring each one has an assigned owner.

Risk Manager, capturing and reviewing risks and ensuring each one has an assigned owner. (Correct) Explanation Risk and Quality are the responsibility of the whole team in an Agile way of work, and so typically a single person is not responsible for it. The product owner ensures the right features are delivered, the development team ensures the code is refactored regularly, the Scrum Master ensures the team process is improved over time, and the Quality tester ensures features are free of defects.

Question 95: A Team Charter is also a "social contract". Which of the below is NOT usually a part of an Agile Team Charter? Team values, such as sustainable pace and core hours. Working agreements, such as what "ready" means so the team can take in work, and what "done" means so the team can judge completeness consistently. Ground rules, such as one person talking in a meeting. Schedule performance index and cost performance index for the project.

Schedule performance index and cost performance index for the project. Explanation The Agile Team Charter focuses on the vision (the "Why") and the team way of work. SPI and CPI are earned value management metrics from a predictive project methodology, and not part of an Agile Team Charter.

Question 58: You are the Agile project manager analysing the risk for each feature in your backlog by assigning a probability and an impact score to each risk, then multiplying them to calculate risk severity. How will the Agile team handle items with the highest risk? Change the requirements to remove the risk. Schedule them later in the project so you can deliver maximum value first. Schedule them earlier in the project to reduce the risk impact over time. Place all the high-risk items in a "risk iteration" where the focus is on reducing risk.

Schedule them earlier in the project to reduce the risk impact over time. (Correct) Explanation Risk is highest early in the project before items have been completed. By completing the high-risk items first, you are significantly reducing those risks and the threat of unknowns later on in the project.

Question 56: You are working in a new Agile team and have reviewed the team velocity over the past three iterations. The maximum number of points completed was 35, and the fewest was 25. What will you do next? Push the team to complete five more than the maximum, and roll over any incomplete cards to the next iteration. Set 35 as the Work in Progress (WIP) limit, and adjust it during future iterations if the team is able to pull more work than assigned. Add more people to the team to complete the work, because 35 is not enough. Reduce the number of features in the product backlog to suit the team velocity.

Set 35 as the Work in Progress (WIP) limit, and adjust it during future iterations if the team is able to pull more work than assigned. (Correct) Explanation Agile works on continuous, sustainable delivery. Pushing the team beyond their known limits is not a part of Agile practice. Once the team Velocity is known it is good practice to set a WIP limit for future iterations so as to not overburden the team. Team members can still pull in new cards to work on if they finish existing work, and at that time you can review the team velocity.

Question 68: You are working on an Agile project where the product business representative is pushing for more and more features to be delivered in each iteration. You know what they are asking is not possible, based on your team's current velocity. What will you do next? Show them the team velocity chart and the points allotted to cards in the backlog, and ask them to prioritise the features at the next sprint planning. Add more members to the team so you can get the work they want done. Ask for another business representative who understands technology better. Remove some of the features yourself and see if anyone notices.

Show them the team velocity chart and the points allotted to cards in the backlog, and ask them to prioritise the features at the next sprint planning. (Correct) Explanation An Agile team ultimately serves the customer, and in many cases the customer is the business owner or representative. If they are not also the product owner (or familiar with that way of work), you should show them the team velocity versus how many points are currently allotted, and invite them to prioritise the features they want next. This gives them control over the value delivered while not overburdening the team.

Question 84: The twelve Agile clarifying principles also match up with the best advice for keeping things simple in a project. Which of the below is a correct Agile clarifying principle? Simplicity is only possible when the team first understands how complex the system is. Simplicity is part of every project, everyone naturally simplifies the work as part of their role. Simplicity reduces cost in a project, ensuring executives are always simplifying the process and the system. Simplicity - the art of maximising the amount of work not done - is essential.

Simplicity - the art of maximising the amount of work not done - is essential. (Correct) Explanation The correct answer here is "Simplicity - the art of maximising the amount of work not done - is essential" being an Agile clarifying principle.

Question 66: The product owner representing the business on your Agile project is used to a more dictator-style of leadership. You explain that servant leadership is used in Agile to ensure a safe and open environment. Why is this important to product development? So the Agile team lead knows who to blame when things go wrong. So the team can accurately count the defects and mistakes. So the team feels free to ask for help, admit to problems or failures and improve. So the entire team can push work on to each other if they know they have time.

So the team feels free to ask for help, admit to problems or failures and improve. (Correct) Explanation Psychological safety is one of the most important parts of a high-functioning team, which means having the safety to be vulnerable, admit problems, ask for help and improve. It starts with the leader, and servant leadership contributes to this.

Question 19: The product owner has worked with the development team to list all work to be done, write up user stories for each feature and place them in the product backlog. What will you do next? Refine the backlog to ensure only important items are being worked on. Create the schedule management plan to ensure you know when each item can be delivered. Sort the items by business priority, place them in an iteration, complete the items then remove them from the backlog. Move the items into the requirements traceability matrix so you can report on their progress.

Sort the items by business priority, place them in an iteration, complete the items then remove them from the backlog. (Correct) Explanation Managing the project requirements via the product backlog is a fundamental Agile practice. The product backlog is the source of truth, and is continuously re-prioritised as the work gets done to ensure maximum value is delivered first.

Question 96: You are working with a team that is new to Agile and are using Scrum to manage the project. The business representative is confused about the difference between a sprint review and a sprint retrospective. What will you tell them? Sprint reviews demonstrate the work completed in the sprint. Sprint retrospectives look at all the work completed in the project. Sprint reviews discuss what is worked on in the sprint. Sprint retrospectives are done at the end of the project for a lessons learned opportunity. Sprint reviews review the lessons learned. Sprint retrospectives look at the history of the product retrospectively. Sprint reviews are for product demonstrations. Sprint retrospectives are for lessons learned.

Sprint reviews are for product demonstrations. Sprint retrospectives are for lessons learned. (Correct) Explanation Sprint Reviews are for product demonstrations. Sprint Retrospectives are for lessons learned, where we ask "What went well, what didn't go well, what did I learn?"

Question 41: Your Agile project team is using Scrum to manage the work and deliverables for your project. Which of the below is not one of the Scrum events or artefacts? Product Backlog, where the product owner manages a prioritized list of planned product items which evolves from sprint to sprint. Sprint Backlog, which are the items selected in Sprint Planning for the upcoming sprint. Increments, or Features, which are all the Product Backlog items completed during a Sprint and a step toward the main vision. Team Area, which is where the co-located team sits for fast collaboration.

Team Area, which is where the co-located team sits for fast collaboration. (Correct) Explanation Scrum works with a Product or Feature Backlog, a Sprint Backlog, and delivers in increments or features. Agile teams are typically recommended to work in a co-located space to ensure fast collaboration, however this is not one of the events or artefacts or Scrum itself.

Question 63: You are having trouble selecting team members for your new Agile team in a new organisation. What is NOT true about the cross functional team member in the Whole Team Approach? Cross functional teams consist of team members with all the skills necessary to produce a working product. Teams do not need to use visual management because they are already good at what they do. In software development, cross functional teams are comprised of designers, developers, testers, and any other required roles. Cross Functional team members are critical because they can deliver finished work in the shortest possible time, with higher quality, without external dependencies.

Teams do not need to use visual management because they are already good at what they do. (Correct) Explanation Agile teams will use visual management no matter how good they are. Methods like Kanban, Stan-ups, Retrospectives, Burn-down charts are used to increase better team working, regardless of skill.

Question 46: You are working with your Agile team to size the story cards and place them in upcoming iterations. You notice that the points allocated to story cards are getting bigger and bigger with each release. Why might this be happening? The product owner keeps adding scope to the project Technical debt is being built on from previous releases Team members are not working their full allotted hours Team members are working too hard and being burnt out

Technical debt is being built on from previous releases (Correct) Explanation Agile accommodates for changing scope, and should find a regular rhythm of velocity, ruling out A and D. The best answer is technical debt, where code may be rushed to production without being simplified or refactored. With each subsequent release it creates more work to build on and work around disorganised code.

Question 22: You are an Agile project manager and talking through the iteration with the product owner. They have created the list of items in the product backlog, but there is confusion in the team about who should perform the process of story card sizing. What will you tell them? The Product Owner works through the backlog to size the story cards. The Agile team work together to size the story cards, relying mostly on information from the developers and testers. The Agile team leader or scrum master works to size the story cards for the team. The customer sizes the story cards to ensure maximum value.

The Agile team work together to size the story cards, relying mostly on information from the developers and testers. (Correct) Explanation The story point sizing process is performed by the Agile team, primarily estimated by developers and testers who will be doing the work.

Question 90: You are working in a company that is moving from a Waterfall methodology to Agile. You mention to the business unit manager that the team will be better prepared to respond to change and meet the customer needs. Why is this? The Agile team works directly with a business owner or representative to constantly prioritise delivered value The Agile team delivers the product all in one go The Agile team is for developers only, so development will improve The business representatives ask for feature recommendations

The Agile team works directly with a business owner or representative to constantly prioritise delivered value (Correct) Explanation Working with business partners or someone who represents the customer almost daily is a key part of Agile. The team hears what the business would like the results to be, and meeting face to-face gets faster answers than reading documents, e-mails, or even having conference calls.

Question 54: You have built an experienced Agile team and have delivered constantly for your organisation. The product owner who has been with you since the beginning has taken another job, and a new team mate joins the team - one with very little experience. Which of the below will you NOT tell them regarding the Product Owner role? The Product Owner represents the customer and generates, maintains, and prioritizes the product backlog to ensure the highest business value without creating waste. The Product Owner must have previous experience in Agile to work in the team. The Product Owner may work with stakeholders, customers, and the teams to define the product direction, and rank the work based on its business value. Product owners typically have a business background and bring deep subject matter expertise to the decisions.

The Product Owner must have previous experience in Agile to work in the team. (Correct) Explanation The product owner role represents the customer or the area gaining the benefit of the value delivered by the Agile team. Because of this, they often have deep knowledge of that area and know what will bring the most value, and are able to prioritise work items efficiently

Question 60: The Whole Team Approach in Agile is an important part of creating the right cross-functional team. The team facilitator is a key member within the whole team. What is NOT correct regarding the Team Facilitator role? The Team Facilitator, or servant leader, can be called a project manager, scrum master, project team lead, team coach, or a portfolio manager. The Team Facilitator must have a degree in business to be sufficiently respected. All Agile teams need servant leadership on the team. Team members should build up their own servant leadership skills of facilitation, coaching, and removing blockers.

The Team Facilitator must have a degree in business to be sufficiently respected. (Correct) Explanation The Team facilitator role, or Scrum Master, servant leader, project lead, helps grow team members into their own leadership skills and all Agile teams need this on their team. It also can be performed by anyone in the team if there is no specific role for it. You do not need a degree in business, but you do need to remove blockers and facilitate problem solving.

Question 47: The project sponsor of your Agile team is quite familiar with Lean and Agile terms and methods. She has asked you for the average Cycle time and average Lead time for the project so far. What will you give her? The average time for team leave, and the average time for team attendance. The average time to complete stand-ups, and the average time to complete retrospectives. The average time to complete story cards, and the average time to complete features. The average team downtime, and the average time to complete releases.

The average time to complete story cards, and the average time to complete features. (Correct) Explanation Cycle time is the time for shorter tasks - most often story cards in an Agile environment. Those story cards make up a feature. Lead time measures the time to complete a feature (multiple story cards) from beginning to end.

Question 17: You have come on board a new project team and have been advised that the project works with a predictive style project lifecycle. How will you know you are working in a "Predictive" or Waterfall style approach? The bulk of planning is done up front, then executed in a single, sequential process. The bulk of the planning is done up front, then prototypes are created to gather feedback before releasing in one go. A product roadmap is created and smaller features are designed and released as part of the whole. The project uses feature sprints, Kanban boards and retrospectives to manage their work.

The bulk of planning is done up front, then executed in a single, sequential process. (Correct) Explanation A predictive or waterfall project lifecycle is defined by doing all the planning up front, and executing in a sequential process. It is ideal for definable work or products where the risk is well known.

Question 98: The Agile team for which you are the project manager has determined several key features to deliver to the customer. How should the team handle these feature ideas? The features should be prioritized, developed, tested and delivered incrementally The features should be delivered quickly, whether or not they are complete, to gather feedback The features should be delivered according to the project plan All features should be delivered at the end of the project

The features should be prioritized, developed, tested and delivered incrementally (Correct) Explanation Agile is a combination of Incremental delivery and Iterative development. That means business value is continuously and iteratively improved and prioritised, while also being delivered in increments that the customer can see, feel and touch. The features should be complete, tested, and quality is everyone's responsibility.

Question 73: The twelve Agile clarifying principles also match up with the best advice for projects, leadership and communication. Which of the below is a correct clarifying principle when it comes to project communication? The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face to face conversation. Communication is always done in writing to ensure you have ongoing proof the communication occurred. Agile teams ensure downward communication only so the executive in charge directs the product features and work. When communicating ensure to use various forms such as telephone, writing, face-to-face, and ensure variety.

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face to face conversation. (Correct) Explanation An Agile team knows that communicating close in person, place and time is the most efficient and effective way - often in a co-located team area so other members can pick up information by osmosis.

Question 30: You are delivering features through your Agile project and the project sponsor and product owner are happy with the progress. Your project sponsor raises a concern about future items and what that development looks like. What will you show them? The Project Management Plan, that has outlined the project delivery in full. The product backlog, that has the list of features the team will deliver. The product roadmap, that shows planned future features and their approximate dates, similarly to a Gantt Chart. The team velocity chart, that shows how much the team completes each iteration.

The product roadmap, that shows planned future features and their approximate dates, similarly to a Gantt Chart. (Correct) Explanation A product roadmap is a visual display of the product releases, similar to a Gantt Chart or project schedule but based around Agile feature releases. It is a high level view and revised as necessary.

Question 48: You are going over the velocity of your Agile team and notice it has increased over the last two iterations. What might be the reason for this? The productivity of one team member has increased. The team no longer tests each card because they already know it works. The team estimated the story cards more accurately. The product owner removed some features from the backlog of work.

The productivity of one team member has increased. (Correct) Explanation Velocity and throughput are similar concepts. Typically velocity is the work completed by the entire team, however if the productivity of one team member increases that will have an affect on the whole team's velocity.

Question 91: For Agile life-cycles, two kinds of planning occur, release planning and iteration planning. In release planning, business representatives establish and prioritize the user stories for the release, in collaboration with the team, refining larger user stories into a collection of smaller stories. What is the INCORRECT description below regarding iteration planning and backlog preparation? The backlog is the ordered list of all the work, presented in "story" form, for a team. The project coach encourages the team to work alone, so no one bothers them. The facilitator encourages the team to work in triads of a developer, tester, and product owner/business analyst. The triad discuss, write, and then place enough stories into an iteration, and enough features for a first release.

The project coach encourages the team to work alone, so no one bothers them. (Correct) Explanation Answers A, C and D are correct in describing Backlog Preparation for Iteration Planning. The Agile Practice Guide (2017), p53, 5.2.3

Question 33: You have been completing small, usable increments of value as part of your Agile team. When reporting back to the project sponsor of this project, the last iteration is referred to as a "fast failure." What does this mean? The iteration did not complete all the story cards in the allotted time. The project team found a bug in the code before delivery. The proof-of-concept for that iteration did not have the intended outcome. The product backlog was not groomed in time to start the next iteration.

The proof-of-concept for that iteration did not have the intended outcome. (Correct) Explanation Agile operates on the concept of delivering increments of value. Fast failure means that particular feature or proof-of-concept effort was not successful. By failing fast and in small increments, the project team is able to learn and adjust quickly and at a much lower cost.

Question 23: You have been estimating story cards with your Agile project team, but the effort captured has not been matching the time it ends up taking to complete. What is the most likely reason for this occurring? The team have not included sick days in the estimate. The team have not included testing or refactoring in the estimate. The team have not included time to merge the code for continuous integration. The team have not included the time it takes for the daily stand-up.

The team have not included testing or refactoring in the estimate. (Correct) Explanation Estimates for story cards should include all known activities required to complete that card, including testing and refactoring, complexity and risk.

You are an Agile project manager working on the next feature of your product. The product owner has asked you for an estimate on how long the remainder of the features may take to complete. You look to the team's velocity chart. Why is this? The team's average velocity across previous iterations is the best predictor of future iterations. The velocity ensures the team will never work harder than they have to. The scrum master has the final say over team velocity to ensure the work gets done. The velocity chart shows how quickly new items are picked up by the team.

The team's average velocity across previous iterations is the best predictor of future iterations. (Correct) Explanation The average velocity, or work completed during each iteration, is the best predictor of future velocity, because previous iterations typically include all tasks and pitfalls that may impact their work.

Question 80: You are in the beginning stages of a new project, where the organisation would like to use an Agile approach to managing the project work. The executive manager asks you how the team will make quality everyone's responsibility, leverage the various skill sets within the team, and remove reliance on external inputs. What Agile method is she describing Servant Leadership. Sprint planning. The daily stand-up. The whole team approach.

The whole team approach. (Correct) Explanation The whole team approach aims to bring all necessary people into the project team, ideally in a co-located space. It involves cross-functional team members who specialise in one skill and are fluent enough in a wide range of other skills.

Question 85: You are going through a retrospective with your team at the end of the sprint, where the team have raised an issue that is slowing down their work. The scrum master guides the team to go through an exercise called the Five Whys. What is the purpose of this? To ask who, what, where and when to find the cause of the problem. To ask why the issue happened, then why for each reason after that, until the cause is found. To ask why the team is working on each feature, to give the team purpose. To allocate five whys to each story card to ensure the team knows the reason for working on in.

To ask why the issue happened, then why for each reason after that, until the cause is found. (Correct) Explanation The Five Whys is a problem solving technique from Lean or the Toyota Production System that asks "why" a problem occurred. For each answer, the team asks "why" again, until they get to the real cause of the issue.

Question 21: You are working with your Agile project team to estimate each task and how long they might take. The team is finding it difficult to give an exact figure, and worries that it might impact project delivery. What can you show them, to estimate more accurately? Ask them to estimate by whole iteration to give a little room for variation. Estimate the cards in full days instead of effort per card. Use comparative estimates or relative sizing such as T-shirt sizing or story points. Prioritise the backlog based on customer value.

Use comparative estimates or relative sizing such as T-shirt sizing or story points. (Correct) Explanation A common Agile practice is to rely on relative sizing such as story points or "T-Shirt sizing." Team velocity is then measured using those same methods as the team completes a certain amount of points per iteration. This is easier than trying to predict an exact time period.

Question 77: The scrum master on your Agile project has asked you for the total lead time of a particular feature. You add up the cycle time of all the cards that contributed to that feature. What other two factors must you take into consideration when calculating total lead time? Time for testing the code and time for merging the code. Meeting times and lunch times Value-added time and non-value added time Testing and documenting

Value-added time and non-value added time (Correct) Explanation Lead time is a concept from Lean and the Toyota Production System. Whenever you are calculating Cycle time (smaller items such as processes, story cards, or an iteration in a larger project) or Lead time (larger items such as features or the project itself) you must take into consideration both value-added time (that directly contributes to the customer outcome) and non-value-added time (that does not directly contribute to the customer outcome).

Question 97: You are working on an Agile project as a team member, and begin gathering the product requirements. What is the overall first question that you should ask and use as a guide for your work? How long will the project last? What is the business value? How much is in the budget? How many team members will participate?

What is the business value? (Correct) Explanation Agile projects centre around delivering business value, and working closely with the customers and business representatives to ensure that the value is always correct. Business risk and the impact of not undertaking the project must also be considered.

Question 26: Retrospectives are typically held at the end of an iteration, but an Agile team can also hold retrospectives at any other time. What is NOT a time that an Agile team might hold a retrospective? When the team completes or ships something new. When more than a few weeks have passed since the previous retrospective. When the team appears to be stuck and completed work is not flowing. When the feature backlog has not been created and work is yet to begin.

When the feature backlog has not been created and work is yet to begin. (Correct) Explanation A team retrospective is there to gather feedback and improve on the team process once that process is in place. It iterates towards improvement. It is typically not held before the work or process has begun, as there is nothing to gather feedback on yet.

Question 27: You are in a new project team and working through which project lifecycle or way of work to use in order to deliver the products to your customer, and how far to modify it. What are some of the project factors that will influence your tailoring decisions to use Agile or other methods? Which project lifecycle the customer wants to use. What the latest lifecycle is - the latest one must be the best and will be most interesting to upper management. Whether the flow of work is often interrupted by various delays or impediments, and is easily definable or highly uncertain. Project approaches should never be tailored - we should follow one approach to the letter so we make no mistakes.

Whether the flow of work is often interrupted by various delays or impediments, and is easily definable or highly uncertain. (Correct) Explanation Project lifecycles and how much you tailor them depend on many factors. Having definable work or high uncertainty work are two common factors that move you toward more Predictive or Incremental workflows, as is the team's existing experience.

You are the Agile lead or Scrum Master for your Agile team and planning for the next iteration is about to begin. What will you do first? Break down the features into user stories. Write the story card acceptance criteria with the team. Choose which stories the team will work on in the iteration. Work with the product owner to prioritises the highest value ones to work on.

Work with the product owner to prioritises the highest value ones to work on. (Correct) Explanation During iteration planning the team should have already broken down features into story cards. Now is the time to reprioritise the cards that can be done based on the business value and the team velocity (what can be completed).

Question 81: You have been working on an Agile project for some time and have been blocked by the need for expertise in another team. You need to overcome organisational silos. What will you do? Work with the various managers of team members you need and have them dedicate the necessary individuals to the cross-functional team. Raise a change request for review by the project Change Control Board as the work will be delayed. Raise an issue in the issue log for review and management by the project team. Work with the risk team to raise a project risk, assign it to an owner and create controls for those risks.

Work with the various managers of team members you need and have them dedicate the necessary individuals to the cross-functional team. (Correct) Explanation This is describing the Whole Team Approach, where all the necessary team members and their skills are brought into the project team.

Question 74: The Agile manifesto has twelve clarifying principles added to it to help projects and teams understand the Agile values. Which of the below is a correct clarifying principle? Union attendance is the best measure of team happiness. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Finding risks is the only way to avoid failure. Learning new things keeps a team engaged.

Working software is the primary measure of progress. (Correct) Explanation In an Agile team, working software is the primary measure of progress.

Question 59: The Scrum master tells you that Agile builds problem solving into its process in a number of ways, using transparency tools and ceremonies. Which of the following is NOT something that is designed to reveal and solve problems? Retrospectives Writing user stories Iteration demonstrations and reviews Raising blockers in the daily-stand-up

Writing user stories (Correct) Explanation Retrospectives, Sprint reviews and daily stand-ups all serve to reveal and solve problems that arise during product delivery. Writing user stories is a useful task, but is not itself designed for revealing problems.

Question 14: You have begun a new project in a new organisation, and the project team mentions you are working in an iterative project environment. How do you know you are working within an iterative project life cycle? The team iterates around one idea to make sure that idea is right. You are improving the product or result through successive prototypes or proofs of concept. The project sponsor says that the project lifecycle is iterative. You are using Agile sprints or iterations to manage your work.

You are improving the product or result through successive prototypes or proofs of concept. (Correct) Explanation An Iterative project lifecycle uses successive prototypes or proofs of concept to gather feedback, then release the product in one go.

Question 64: There are three main types of role in an Agile team. The Agile team includes representatives for the Product Owner, cross functional team members, and: the Team Creator the Team Facilitator the Team Runner the Team Enabler

the Team Facilitator (Correct) Explanation The Team Facilitator, also known as the Scrum Master, Team Coach, Iteration Manager, Project Manager, Servant Leader and many other names. Their role is to help raise and remove blockers for the team, ensure an active flow of work, and problem solve with the team when needed.