Mock 4

71. During a review of the XP team's list of core practices displayed on a wall, an agile practitioner noticed that one of the items in the list was an XP core value rather than a core practice. Which item did the agile practitioner notice? A. Simplicity B. Collective code ownership C. Pair programming D. Refactoring

A. Correct. Simplicity is one of the XP core values, rather than core practices, and therefore is the correct answer. Simplicity refers to the ability of the XP teams to "find the simplest thing that could probably work."

57. An agile coach notices that the team is not engaged in the daily standup meetings. Some seem disinterested, while others are checking their cell phones during the meetings. What should the agile coach do? A. Coach the team on the importance of the daily standup B. Escalate to the project sponsor C. Replace the unengaged team members D. Bring this issue up in the next daily standup meeting

A. Correct. Team members need to be educated on the importance of participating with their teammates during the daily standup meeting. This meeting allows others to gain a feel for their teammates' progress and the issues they might have encountered.

46. Several key stakeholders have been missing from iteration reviews. What is the best course of action for an agile practitioner? A. Coach the stakeholders on why their attendance is needed B. Continue holding reviews without the stakeholders C. Move the review meetings to a more convenient time for the stakeholders D. Ask the product owner to provide feedback as a proxy for the stakeholders

A. Correct. The agile practitioner should promote agile concepts, including coaching stakeholders as to why their attendance in iteration reviews is important.

16. A product owner missed the last two sprint reviews. What would an agile practitioner tell the product owner about attending this event? A. The product owner decides if the developed stories are acceptable B. The product owner can tell the team how to perform its processes better C. Attendance is optional provided an end user can take the product owner's place D. The product owner determines how much value was added by the development team

A. Correct. The product owner grants final acceptance of the completed stories during the sprint review.

73. Based on the velocities of previous sprints shown, what should a mature agile team estimate as their velocity for this sprint? A. 19 B. 20 C. There is not enough information presented to estimate velocity. D. 25

A. Correct. 19 (16 + 20 + 15 + 25) / 4 = 19

41. At one of their meetings, agile team members tell each other what they have done since their last meeting, what they are going to work on till the next meeting, and what issues stand in their way. A roadblock was mentioned by one of the team members. What should the team do next? A. Hold a re-planning or impediments removal session B. Implement the decisions made during the meeting C. Review the product increment developed up to this point D. Carry out a spike for the issues raised on the meeting

A. Correct. A roadblock was mentioned by one of the team members. Therefore, the team should hold a re-planning or impediments removal session to remove the roadblock and re-plan the daily work accordingly.

25. Which is the best approach to take for a distributed team? A. Video conferencing software B. An audio conferencing service C. Hold meetings at different times to include those from other time zones D. Co-locate the product owner and the project manager

A. Correct. Agile recommends face-to-face meetings to maximize communication. However, in place of trying to schedule face-to-face meetings, using video conferencing tools has become affordable and commonplace, and offers the next best thing to co-located face-to-face communication.

31. An agile team created a graph showing releases on the horizontal axis and the number of escaped defects per release on the vertical axis. How should the downward trend for the last 3 releases be interpreted on the graph? A. Fewer defects made it through quality control processes onto the final product. B. Quality control processes are catching fewer defects. C. Defect cycle time is reduced. D. The cost of the escaped defects is decreasing.

A. Correct. Agile teams want to avoid escaped defects or defects that end up on the final product.

66. A few days before the end of an iteration, agile team members have faced a technical issue. They requested their agile coach to help them resolve the issue, knowing that the coach had the required knowledge from their previous experience as a senior developer. What should the agile coach do first? A. Let the team resolve the issue B. Help the team resolve the issue C. Resolve the issue for the team D. Consult with the product owner

A. Correct. Applying agile servant leadership principles to this situation, the first thing the agile coach should do is to let the team resolve the issue be themselves in order for the team to own the decision and be accountable for the outcome.

60. A team has several costly risks which may soon arise on a project. What is the best way for the team to communicate these risks so they can be addressed as impediments to progress? A. Daily standup meetings B. Burndown charts C. Risk registers D. Risk management plan

A. Correct. During the daily standup meeting, each team member identifies obstacles that impede their work. These obstacles can include risks, and mentioning them in the daily meeting communicates that a risk has occurred and become an issue, an impediment that needs attention.

59. The product owner for an agile project has another project at the same time. As a result, the product owner spends very little time with the development team and the product is suffering. What should an agile practitioner on this team do first? A. Coach the product owner on the importance of participating in the team events B. Escalate the issue to the project sponsor C. Request a new product owner be assigned to the project D. Have the scrum master fill a dual role as Agile encourages generalizing specialists

A. Correct. The product owner needs to be educated on the importance of participating in the team's events. As the customer representative, the product owner needs to be involved to ensure success in the project.

20. Which of the following is an example of a sprint retrospective agenda? A. Discuss ways to improve process and increase productivity, prioritize action items B. Demonstrate the product, elicit customer feedback, discuss next iteration goals C. Discuss individual performance, discuss team performance, discuss process improvements D. Demonstrate the product, answer questions from stakeholders, provide project status reports

A. Correct. The purpose of the sprint retrospective is to discuss what went well and what did not during the last sprint. The team discusses ways to improve process and productivity. Any action items generated during the meeting are assigned ownership and prioritized.

14. A team member is not taking part in planning user stories. What should the coach do? A. Coach the team member B. Call the team member out in the planning meeting to get them to participate C. Meet privately after the planning meeting and factor in their opinions afterwards D. Ignore this team member's input

A. Correct. The team members need to be educated on the importance of participating with their teammates during planning meetings.

50. A junior team member new to agile has joined an existing team. How should an agile practitioner respond? A. Pair this person with a more senior team member B. Provide coaching on the expectations of agile team members C. Pair this person with another junior team member D. Assign this person some minor tasks before letting them take on work that is more important

B. Correct. Someone new to agile needs to be coached on its practices in order to help the team member contribute.

51. A brainstorming session was conducted during the iteration retrospective. The team invited the stakeholders to attend and give their opinions about the previous iteration. The team needs a method to prioritize those things that were discussed and identified to be improved. Which prioritization tool or approach would an agile practitioner suggest prioritizing the output of the team's retrospective? A. Ishikawa diagram B. Kano analysis C. Consult the product owner D. Decision spectrum

B. Correct. Someone new to agile needs to be coached on its practices in order to help the team member contribute.

89. After working together on many projects, an agile team's performance reached a very high level. The team members' relationships became very stable, and the team has achieved a state of harmony and consensus. However, as a result, the team is unable to see, perceive, or express other points of view. What should the team do when solving problems to continue being high performing? A. Support the sentiment and opinion of the majority B. Seek potential solutions outside the team C. Encourage and embrace groupthink D. Blindly trust in the team's capability t solve problems

B. Correct. Teams should consider sharing ideas with trusted parties; perhaps get an expert opinion or even at times, an external, more objective opinion.

7. What activity might an agile practitioner recommend to their distributed team for the project kickoff? A. Hold a video conference with the entire team B. Bring the team together for a face-to-face meeting C. Create and share a short biography about themselves on the project blog D. Make team member attendance optional as they are a self-organizing and empowered team

B. Correct. The preferred way for agile teams and stakeholders to communicate is through face-to-face interactions. This method of communicating has the highest bandwidth, transfers the most and richest form of information in a given period. It allows participants to convey their tone and non-verbal gestures.

87. At the iteration review meeting, several stakeholders are confused and concerned with the software being demonstrated as it does not represent their expectations or priorities. Of the following, which is the most likely cause of this situation? A. The stakeholders not attending the daily standup meetings B. The product owner not properly grooming the product backlog C. The team not properly defining when a user story is done D. The product owner not adequately defining the acceptance criteria

B. Correct. The product owner, as a proxy for the customer, is responsible for maintaining the product backlog so that it always represents the customers changing business requirements and priority. The situation suggests that there was a gap between the stakeholders expectation and what was developed and demonstrated at the iteration review.

27. Agile team members have determined the upper and lower control limits for the velocity required to meet their product release date. So far, the team performed somewhere around the mean, however, in the previous iteration the team's velocity went way below the lower control limit. What should the team do next? A. Explain to the product owner that they cannot make their release date B. Try their best to make better than average progress in subsequent iterations C. Decrease the number of story points to which they commit in each iteration D. Increase the amount of work in progress in the next iteration

B. Correct. The team must aim to do better on average so that they can achieve their goal.

42. A team is several months into a project when half of the team members quit. New team members are brought in to replace them. What would most likely happen? A. The new team will continue to operate at the same level of performance as the old team. B. The new team will be forming at first, but with the right coaching will reach the performing stage. C. The new team will be norming at first and will eventually get to the storming stage. D. The new team will perform better than the original team because they are better motivated.

B. Correct. The team will go back to the forming stage. This stage requires a high degree of guidance from the coach.

97. What would be a step backward in terms of team evolution? A. From Shu to Ha B. From disagreement to crusade C. From forming to storming D. From competent to proficient

B. Correct. There are different levels of conflict ranging from Level 1 to 5. From least to the greatest level of conflict, they are Problem to Solve, Disagreement, Contest, Crusade, and World War. Therefore, moving from Disagreement to Crusade represents an increase in conflict, which in turn typically indicates a step backward in terms of team evolution.

38. The product owner suspects that the iteration could be behind schedule and therefore pushes the team members to work overtime to ensure that they meet the deadline. What should the scrum master do in such situation? A. Discuss the product owner's concern at the next daily stand-up meeting B. Together with the product owner, review the information radiators C. Tell the product owner that the team will never work overtime D. Ask the team members to work overtime as requested

B. Correct. There is no evidence that the team is indeed behind schedule. It is just the product owner's concern. However, concerns should not be ignored. Therefore, the best course of action for the scrum master to confirm or reject the concern of the product owner is to review the information radiators together with the product owner and decide if any action should be taken.

23. It is recommended that the new project is executed as an agile project, but an organizational study indicates a company is not prepared to execute agile projects. What should an agile practitioner do in this situation? A. Begin an agile project so the organization can get used to agile methods B. Teach others in the organization about the benefits of agile methods C. Abandon adopting agile within the organization D. Use a hybrid of waterfall and agile methods

B. Correct. This choice is part of agile principles and mindset: to promote agile within the organization.

61. Members of a new scrum team are arguing over the meaning of timeboxing. As the discussion becomes heated, the scrum master steps in and helps the team with their dispute. The scrum master explains that the timeboxing concept is about: A. Limiting work in progress B. Delivering working product increments C. Keeping the project on schedule D. Responding to a change in a timely manner

B. Correct. Timeboxing allows agile teams to adjust the prioritized amount of work within a fixed timeframe to deliver working product increments in a predefined cadence of iterations/sprints. An iteration is a timeboxed cycle of development in which the work needed to deliver value is performed.

68. An agile team is developing a product for a customer. In the last few iterations, the team members spent extra hours creating product documentation and reviewing the contracts with the customer. How would the team's time been better spent? A. Reporting the extra hours in the company's time and attendance tools B. Building features according to the initial project management plan C. Creating the product increment and working with the product owner D. Developing functionality as requested by the project sponsor

C. Correct. "Creating the product increment and working with the product owner" is the best answer among the choices given, as it represents value to the customer and is aligned with the Agile Manifesto values of creating working software and collaborating with the customer (or with the product owner who is the voice of the customer).

81. Work has not yet started on an agile project that a company is about to undertake, yet the project stakeholders are already discussing its success. Which of the following collaboration games are the stakeholders engaged in to make this scenario possible? A. Project pre-mortem B. Project post-mortem C. Remember the future D. Back to the future

C. Correct. 'Remember the Future' is a collaboration game that aims to facilitate a discussion of what would have helped the project (or release, or iteration) to succeed.

62. There are still three more sprints to go until the final release of the product. The project team has just completed a sprint where no new features were added to the product. What should the team members discuss with the customer at the upcoming review? A. The code modifications to prove that they performed work B. Information radiators with the progress made up until now C. The use stories to include in the next sprint D. Nothing. The customer does not belong at this review.

C. Correct. A good review would include some product grooming. As long as the team and the customer are together, a review meeting is a great time to talk about prioritization of the product backlog for the upcoming sprint.

30. An agile team released a new version of an application that was supposed to work on personal computers and mobile phones. However, after the release date, it was soon discovered that some basic features did not work on mobile phones. What should the team do next? A. Replace the team members who are responsible for testing these features B. Use automated tests on all platforms C. Get the team together for a retrospective D. Assess the financial impact of the defective feature

C. Correct. A retrospective allows the team to discuss what happened and figure out what to do next.

96. A stakeholder cannot attend the iteration review meeting. What should this stakeholder do? A. Join the meeting via a conference call B. Ask the team to reschedule the meeting C. Send a knowledgeable person to act as a proxy D. Ask a developer for a private demonstration

C. Correct. Agile prefers face-to-face communication, and when someone cannot attend a meeting, a knowledgeable substitute is a good option.

76. An agile coach has set up a meeting for the team to reflect and adapt. What is the purpose of this meeting? A. To demonstrate the product the product to the customer B. To select user stories for the next iteration C. To discuss the team progress and impediments D. To determine team's process improvements

D. Correct. Agile teams use sprint retrospective meetings where they reflect on the work processes used in the latest sprint and determine how to improve or adapt processes for the next sprint.

5. In the middle of an iteration, a developer realizes that the user story she has been working on was underestimated for its size. The developer understands that she cannot complete it within the current iteration. After further analysis, the developer realizes it is a compound user story. What should the developer do? A. Inform the team at the next daily standup B. Ask the teammates to swarm on the story C. Suggest splitting the user story D. Escalate the issue to the scrum master

C. Correct. If the story is compound or complex and cannot be completed within the time-box of one iteration, the story should be split. Whether the story should be replaced with another one, or should the developer consult with the team only or with the team and the product owner, whether the splitting should be done immediately or during the next iteration planning, is a different question. In the context of the current scenario, of the choices provided, this option is the best answer.

44. In a daily standup meeting, a team member indicates that they found a big risk that was previously unknown. How should the agile coach proceed? A. Ask to meet with the developer after the meeting to get more details B. Use the rest of the standup meeting to discuss this important issue C. Ask the affected team members to stay after the meeting to discuss the issue in more detail D. Plan a spike to resolve the risk

C. Correct. Issues that arise from the daily standup meeting are discussed immediately after the meeting. Keeping the discussion of the issue outside of the daily standup ensures that the pace of the daily standup is maintained and that all team members get their chance to speak.

49. In their first iteration, the agile team created a series of manuals for the product as part of the documentation requirements. The team is now finishing their fifth iteration. Since then, the product has undergone many changes, so the team has to redo most of the manuals which will result in a bulk of user stories to be deferred to the later iterations.What should the team have done differently to avoid this? A. Produce all the documentation in the last iteration B. Refuse to write any manuals since agile does not favor documentation C. Set time in each iteration to update the documents as needed D. Request the agile coach to create the documentation

C. Correct. It is a common agile practice to set time in each iteration to update the documents as needed to keep them in synch with the project.

90. An agile team has a new scrum master. The scrum master notices that the team members are guarded, do not trust each other, and have many conflicts. As the team starts to open up to the new scrum master, what is one way to help resolve conflict within the team? A. Keep the focus on individuals and not on the issues, as conflict is mainly a problem with people B. Avoid restating and rephrasing problems, as it can agitate issues even further C. Be assertive rather than submissive when setting the scene for conflict resolution D. Recognize that people can just be 'difficult' so at times it is best for the team to disengage from their work

C. Correct. It is best to be assertive rather than submissive when setting the scene for conflict resolution.

13. An agile leader facilitates a retrospective, where team members angrily blame each other for violating working agreements. What should the agile leader do first? A. Ignore the situation and continue the retrospective as planned B. Request that the team members discuss their feelings openly C. Be aware of their own personal emotions to keep them in check D. Do whatever is needed to make everyone at the meeting happy

C. Correct. Keeping his or her own emotional state and responses in check is the first thing for the agile leader to do in the scenario described. Being aware of their own personal emotions would allow the agile leader to thoughtfully analyze the situation and decide on the best course of action rather than respond with a "knee-jerk" reaction.

58. A team leader is not sure why the Kanban team's performance is getting worse. The team leader is concerned that the release plan could be in jeopardy. Which of the following would an experienced agile practitioner do in response to this situation? A. Increase the amount of WIP for cycle time to decrease B. Add additional team members to improve overall team output C. Decrease WIP to expose any bottlenecks D. Increase both To Do items and WIP limits

C. Correct. One approach used to determine the cause of a drop in the productivity of a team using Kanban is to lower the amount of WIP. A reduced WIP would expose any bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the processes.

54. The project stakeholders have approached the scrum master of a team working on their third sprint to ask why a certain feature was removed from the sprint, what features are planned to be delivered in the next sprint, and how and where the money is being spent. What would be the best course of action for the scrum master to take in this situation? A. Advise the project stakeholders to consult the project burndown chart B. Refer the project stakeholders to the team members to get the information C. Refer the project stakeholders to the product owner to get the information D. Present the required information at the upcoming iteration review meeting

C. Correct. Questions related to the direction of the project, project schedule, and project budget fall into the responsibility of the product owner, rather than the scrum master or the development team members.

75. In an agile project, when can user stories be estimated? A. As they are added to the backlog and at no other times B. As they are added to the backlog and during release planning C. Only during iteration planning D. As they are added to the backlog, during release planning, and during iteration planning

D. Correct. As they are added to the backlog, during release planning, and during iteration planning

34. Which Kanban key performance indicator allows teams to make reliable commitments about how long it takes them to deliver work? A. WIP B. Defects C. Velocity D. Cycle time

D. Correct. Cycle time is a team borrowed from lean manufacturing and refers to the time it takes for a work item to go through part of an overall process. Cycle time allows teams to make commitments how long it would take for the team to deliver work.

55. A project manager felt uncomfortable to control and monitor their first agile project without using the traditional tools and techniques, such as status meetings. Which tools and techniques would be the best for the project manager to use to monitor risks on their agile project? A. Wireframes, personas, and product roadmaps B. Risk-based spikes, iteration 'Zero', architectural spikes C. Task boards, risk burndown charts, and daily stand-up meetings D. Pair programming, continuous integration, and automated testing

C. Correct. Task boards and risk burndown charts are information radiators that help visualize work and show the current project status, thus revealing the current risks. Daily stand-up meetings contribute to the constant monitoring process by exposing potential risk triggers and new risks. Combined, these tools help agile project managers monitor project risks.

64. How should an agile team view failure? A. Failure represents a missed opportunity since it's sunk cost. B. Failure represents work yet to be done. C. Failure is better when it occurs early rather than late. D. Failure is acceptable at the last responsible moment.

C. Correct. Teams can take advantage of learning from failures if they occur early rather than late in the project timeline.

26. An agile team of a large organization decided to use earned value management (EVM) metrics to report to senior management and provided metrics at the iteration level. What could the team improve upon? A. Nothing. The agile team used EVM metrics appropriately. B. The agile team should avoid using EVM metrics. C. The agile team should avoid using EVM metrics at the iteration level. D. The agile team should provide metrics at the user story level.

C. Correct. The agile team should avoid using EVM metrics at the iteration level.

67. An agile team has successfully delivered the product to the customer who was very satisfied with the final result of the project. Which of the following most likely contributed to the project success? A. The team members worked in pairs during the development of the product. B. Refactoring and continuous integration were done as per agile best practices. C. The entire team was involved in the daily standups and owned the code collectively. D. Representatives of the customer were always available to answer the team questions.

D. Correct. Having representatives of the customer work closely with the team and be available to answer the team members' question are most likely the key factors that contributed to project's success and customer satisfaction. Frequent feedback from the customer helps the team build what the customer requested, which eventually leads to a higher customer satisfaction.

8. A senior software developer is demonstrating to a junior programmer how they use a Kanban board on their project to pull user stories through the system. What would be the typical order of the series of phases on their Kanban board? A. In development, in test, in requirements B. In test, in development, in requirements C. In requirements, in test, in development D. In requirements, in development, in test

D. Correct. In requirements, in development, in test

40. A small company can afford to make only two years' worth of investment in their new projects. The company is considering two agile projects. A and B, with Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 10% and 30% correspondingly. Project A requires 1 year of investment, project B requires 3 years of investment. Which project can the company undertake? A. Project B because it has higher IRR B. Project A because it requires only 1 year's worth of investment C. Project A because it is the only project the company can afford D. Either project A or B because 10% over 1year is the same as 30% over 3 years

C. Correct. The company can afford to make only two years' worth of investment. Therefore, the company can undertake projects that require two or less years of investment, regardless of their IRR. Between the two projects, A and B, only project A falls into this category.

92. When planning for the development of a new product, the product owner suggests that the team engage in an exercise called 'Prune the Product Tree'. This exercise helps the team do which of the following ? A. Consider value versus cost ranking B. Identity threats and opportunities C. Gather and shape requirements D. Set vision and elicit requirements

C. Correct. The goal of 'Pruning the Product Tree' collaboration game is to gather and shape product requirements.

94. Several team members seem disinterested in the daily standup meeting and are carrying on a side conversation. What should an agile practitioner do first? A. Inform their functional managers after the meeting B. Stop the meeting and dismiss the participants C. Ignore the issue and let the meeting continue D. Let the team uphold its own ground rules

D. Correct. It is best for the team to uphold its own ground rules. If, however, the disruption continues for too long, an agile leader should step in.

63. An automatic unit test written by the agile practitioner for their software code was failing repeatedly after every consecutive correction. Finally, the practitioner succeeded in modifying the code, and the test of the code was successful. What should the agile practitioner do next according to the testdriven development practices? A. Release the code into production environment for the user acceptance testing B. Carry out an architectural spike to ensure the code complies with the specifications C. Demonstrate the code to the team at the upcoming iteration review meeting D. Improve the internal structure of the code without altering its external behavior

D. Correct. Based on agile best practices, the next step after code passes an acceptance test, is code refactoring, or code cleanup, which is improving the internal structure of the code without altering its external behavior.

3. An agile team is working to meet an aggressive release goal. The team leader has recently noticed that the performance of one of the developers has dropped and the developer seems to be communicating less in group discussions. What should the team leader do? A. Backfill the developer's workload using other more productive teammates B. Discuss ways to improve the developer's performance at team retrospective C. Meet with the developer and try to determine what motivates this individual D. Look for a replacement because agile teams require the best people

C. Correct. Agile uses leadership instead of management to guide and govern. Leadership is about tapping into people's intrinsic motivations. As leaders, agile practitioners need to know what motivates the members of the team. Therefore, it is reasonable that the team leader meets with the developer and try to determine what motivates this individual.

56. Why would an agile team want to openly communicate to the project stakeholders the status of threats and issues that the team members are facing in their work? A. To eliminate risks B. To limit work in progress C. To provide transparency D. To reduce waste

C. Correct. Communicating the status of threats and issues to the project stakeholders may help the stakeholders make informed decisions regarding the project, for example it may help them to prioritize and incorporate risk-related user stories into the product backlog.

22. A business expert has unique and relevant knowledge for the project. An agile leader has asked a business expert to sit in the same area as the development team for the duration of the project. The manager of the business expert has refused since the business expert is also required to be elsewhere to perform other day-to-day duties.What should the agile leader do next? A. Request that another business expert be assigned, one who is wiling to sit with the development team B. Escalate this issue with the product owner and senior management since the team has to be collocate C. Engage the business expert to commit in regular, daily collaboration with the development team D. Ask development team to document all their questions for the expert

C. Correct. The important point is for the expert to be in close communication and collaboration with the development team. Sitting next to each other is one of many ways to achieve that goal.

43. A team is several months into a project when half of the team members quit. New team members are brought in to replace them. What would most likely happen? A. The new team will continue to operate at the same level of performance as the old team. B. The new team will be forming at first, but with the right coaching will reach the performing stage. C. The new team will be norming at first and will eventually get to the storming stage. D. The new team will perform better than the original team because they are better motivated.

C. Correct. The product owner has to provide the team with the information as to what the delivered product should look like so that the team can deliver the highest value to the end users. The product backlog for the next iteration would need to be groomed and updated to reflect the findings from the product demo and plan the next iteration accordingly.

33 Based on customer suggestions, a product manager requests product improvements that are then developed by an agile team. When the team demonstrates the product, the product manager is highly critical and demands to know who requested such pointless new features. What would have been the best course of action for the team to prevent this situation? A. Stop inviting the product manager to product demonstrations B. Validate the feature with the product manager as soon as it is built C. Validate the feature with the product manager right before it is to be built D. Validate the feature with the project sponsor right before it is to be built

C. Correct. To avoid the gulf of evaluation (or the gap between what the customer wants the product to deliver vs. what the product actually delivers), it would be best to get the feedback from the product manager who has the voice of the customer.

93. A scrum team together with the other project stakeholders are holding a half-day release planning meeting to determine the number of sprints required to release an initial product that will contain a subset of the highest value user stories. Which of the following must the project have to achieve the stated goal of the meeting? A. A story map B. A consensus among all stakeholders C. A prioritized list of user stories D. The target date for the release

C. Correct. To determine the number of sprints required to meet the release goal, a prioritized list of user stories, regardless of how priority is determined, is essential to any subsequent release or sprint planning.

45. An agile team wants to use a quick method using relative size to estimate the user stories. Which metric should they use? A. Ideal time B. Real Time C. Velocity D. Story points

D. Correct. A story point is s an arbitrary measure used by Scrum teams. It is used to measure the effort required to implement a story. In simple terms, it is a number that tells the team how difficult the story is. Level of difficulty could be related to complexity, the number of unknowns or effort required. A story point value is defined on a relative range of values.

36. An agile coach joined a team that has been working on a project for the last few months. The coach noticed that the team members were struggling to remove impediments, did not have a discipline around time-boxed events, and were not using information radiators to display the project status. What is the best course of action for the agile coach to take? A. Do nothing, since all the issues are minor B. Help the team deal with impediments, remind of the importance of time-boxing, and force the team to use information radiators C. Tell the team to deal with impediments, remind of the importance of time-boxing, and suggest the team to use information radiators D. Help the team to deal with impediments, remind of the importance of time-boxing, and suggest the team to use information radiators

D. Correct. Of the choices provided, this answer represents the best course of action for the agile coach to take.

12. A company wants to be first to market with its new product. A stakeholder who is unfamiliar with agile methods does not understand why the initial release of the product is to include only a few basic features. How should an agile practitioner respond to the stakeholder? A. In a basic product the defects are kept to a minimum B. Keeping the product simple would reduce technical debt C. Building a few basic features would avoid team burnout D. A basic release provides the customer with a valuable MVP

D. Correct. One way to be first to market with the new product is to deliver an initial product release that includes only a few basic features that provide customers with something that is useful and valuable. MVP, or minimal viable product, is the initial release with only a few basic features highly valuable by the customer.

37. A scrum team has just begun developing user stories for their current iteration. Based on the lessons learned at the previous iteration retrospective, the team should do more swarming in this iteration. How would the behavior of the team members change? A. All team members would work on the same user story at the same time. B. The team would hold more meetings with the project stakeholders. C. Each team member would be in charge of a user story and assign others to work on it. D. Two or more team members would work on a user story until it is done.

D. Correct. Swarming is a technique in which multiple team members focus collectively on resolving a specific impediment. In swarming, two or more team members organize themselves into teamlets (a "mini-team", a team within a team). The teamlet focuses on the development of the user story or resolving an impediment until the work is done.

83. A co-located agile team uses Kanban method to deliver their products. The team lead suspects that a recent decline in the quality of the team's deliverables is due to the depreciation of the team's tacit knowledge. What should the team do to prevent this depreciation? A. Create a knowledge base to share among the team members B. Encourage wider usage of the social media tools C. Increase the team size to store less knowledge per team member D. Reduce the amount of work in progress (WIP)

D. Correct. Tacit knowledge depreciates with time. Therefore, the shorter the lead time to deliver product increment, the less likely that tacit knowledge would depreciate. ReducingWIP would result in shorter lead times, which would eventually help retain tacit knowledge.

2. An engineering team works closely with the marketing team on a project. Midway through an iteration, a new feature is introduced by the product owner that requires a big architectural change in the code. What should the team do first? A. Meet with the engineering team B. Meet with the marketing team C. Approve the change D. Save this item for the next iteration

D. Correct. The "contract" between the product owner and the team says that there will be no changes to the iteration backlog unless absolutely necessary. A change to the current iteration is a very rare occurrence.

17. At the kick-off, a product data sheet (PDS) was completed, but the sponsor did not provide a user proxy. What words of advice should an experienced agile coach offer to the project sponsor about adding a user proxy to the team? A. An agile project does not need a user proxy. B. A development manager would have to be called on to act as a user proxy. C. The agile coach has enough business experience to answer questions, therefore there is no need for a user proxy. D. Do not start the project until the project sponsor assigns a user proxy.

D. Correct. The user proxy is an important role and is necessary for a successful project. One or more user proxies need to represent the user's needs.

99. During a meeting where the entire agile team is in attendance, a team member is about to speak. What should the rest of the team do? A. Pay particular attention to the word choices of the speaker B. Focus attention only to the speaker and no one and nothing else C. Be efficient and multi-task while listening D. Listen to both the verbal and non-verbal cues from the speaker and the rest of the audience

D. Correct. This choice describes "global listening", where the listener has a higher level of awareness of both verbal and non-verbal cues of the audience as well as the speaker.

21. Halfway through an iteration, a product owner receives a request for a new feature from a key stakeholder that would save the company a lot of money. The product owner asks the team to incorporate this feature in the current iteration. What should the team do first? A. Incorporate the new feature immediately B. Ask the agile leader for direction C. Talk directly to the stakeholder to confirm that the feature will indeed save a lot of money D. Tell the product owner that other features would not be developed by including this new feature

D. Correct. Typically, changes are not incorporated halfway through an iteration. However, as an exception, under unusual circumstances, the scope may be clarified and re-negotiated between the product owner and the development team. However, the team should not incorporate the new feature right away, but rather indicate to the product owner that other features would not be developed by including this new feature.

29. All of the following are true about how user stories should be prioritized and delivered except for? A. User stories are prioritized based on financial benefits, costs, risk, innovation, and knowledge. B. Prioritization would be easier if user stories are independent of one another. C. Prioritization of user stories can be altered in between iterations. D. User stories are delivered based on the order set by the product owner in the beginning of the project.

D. False, therefore correct. User stories as well as their priority may change from how the product owner laid them out at the beginning of the project.

88. An agile team had been successful in delivering features; however, the team members got burned out due to the aggressive deadlines. In a retrospective, the team lead thought that some fun was in order before the next deadlines were set. Unfortunately, the team failed to meet their objectives for the following iteration.What action by the team lead most likely caused the team to miss their iteration goal? A. User fun to distract the team from this sensitive topic B. Had a fun night out with the team to relieve burnout C. Made productive work more enjoyable by using collaborative games D. Celebrated the success with a fun team activity

A. Correct. Fun should not be used to deflect or avoid dealing with a sensitive topic such as a burn out of the team members due to the aggressive deadlines.

6. An agile practitioner explains to the team the concept of value-driven delivery, which aims to maximize the amount of work not done, avoid building unnecessary features, minimize waste, and reduce risk early in development. Which of the following runs contrary to these principles? A. Gold-plating the project deliverables B. Welcoming change requests C. Minimizing work in progress D. Creating comprehensive documentation

A. Correct. Gold plating is a term used to describe the development of features or functionality that was not required by the customer but believed by the development team as being valued by the customer. Gold plating also means that the team puts more effort than necessary or required do develop a particular part of the product.

32. An agile team is conducting an iteration review after missing their iteration goal. The team identified an issue as the inability to sustain a steady and reliable velocity with team members being redirected to resolve some production issues unexpectedly. Among the choices below, what most likely caused the team to miss their iteration goal? A. Addressed the root causes of the problems immediately B. Asked the product owner to triage any complaints about production issues C. Deferred non-urgent fixes to address production issues for the next iteration D. Created buffers to allow for unplanned events such as production issues

A. Correct. It is not always advisable or feasible to address the root cause of a problem immediately. At times, a stopgap measure may be in order. Fixing root causes of minor issues may not be urgent or important.

15. An agile team has a spike and decides on a new technology. One of the team members indicates that another agile team uses the same technology. What should the agile practitioner do? A. Ask a member of the other team to share their knowledge B. Inform the other team that both teams have selected the same technology C. Request weekly status reports from the other team D. Give weekly reports to the other team

A. Correct. Knowledge sharing is a core agile practice. The knowledge gained by the other team's efforts should be shared for the greater good of the organization.

10 An agile coach notices that the team is losing motivation as the project goes on. The coach decides to address the issue using the ideas formulated in Herzberg's motivation theory. What will the agile coach most likely do? A. Encourage the team members to take up more challenging tasks and responsibilities B. Provide each team member with a small raise on top of their current hourly rate C. Suggest that team members work additional hours and weekends to bond better D. Hire additional members for the team to increase the velocity of the team

A. Correct. One category of factors in Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory includes motivators, such as personal achievement, status, recognition, the challenge of the work itself, and opportunity for advancement. More challenging tasks and responsibilities fall under the motivators category, which will likely (and hopefully ) increase team members' motivation.

19. A large agile project is being carried out by multiple teams located in different areas of the country. The organization is concerned that the risk of a natural disaster may negatively affect the project schedule. What response should an agile practitioner recommend to this risk? A. Adding project buffers to accommodate for uncertainty B. Communicating about the risk at daily standup meetings C. Increasing velocity to get more work done before the risk occurs D. Adding another team in a different location in the country

A. Correct. When the project schedule is at risk, buffers can be used to account for uncertainty. Buffers are a way to trade off uncertainty (risk) with time. This practice is acceptable on both traditional and agile projects.

78. Agile project stakeholders are discussing the success criteria of the new product to be developed by the project for their customer. They disagree on whether meeting the customer requirements, or product architectural requirements, or the profitability requirements of the internal stakeholders determine the product's success. Meeting which of the following will achieve the product's and project's success? A. The expectations and requirements of the customer and key project stakeholders B. The customer requirements, which are the most important criteria C. The profitability requirements of the internal stakeholders D. The requirements of the customer and all project stakeholders

A. Correct. While it is not always easy to meet the stakeholders' expectations as they are intangible, meeting both requirements and expectations of key project stakeholders is the best way to increase the chances of the product's and project's success.

84. A product owner has approached the agile team lead with their concerns. Progress has been slow and the product owner suspects that the team members are burnt out judging by their tired looks and low energy in recent stand-up meetings. What is the best action for the team lead to take in this situation? A. Ask the product owner to resolve the issue B. Bring the issue up with the team to discuss C. Take the team on a fun day to help recharge D. Brainstorm on this subject with the HR manager

B. Correct. Agile teams are self-organizing. The agile team leader should raise these concerns with the team, so the team can confirm that there is indeed an issue. The team lead should refrain from resolving issues for the team. The team lead, however can facilitate team discussion as needed.

28. An accountant is concerned about how costs and returns are to be monitored on a newly initiated agile project. What words of advice could an agile practitioner give to the accountant? A. Accounting in agile and traditional projects is the same. B. In agile projects, ROI could be generated while executing the project. C. ROI is always higher in agile projects than in traditional ones. D. In agile projects, the cost is not a concern since it is fixed.

B. Correct. Agile teams tend to deliver minimal viable products (MVP) quickly, bringing in the first revenue early. Later product increments allow for subsequent influx of revenue through the rest of the project.

86. The product owner on an agile team used to be a developer and has set ideas on how things should be done. What should the product owner do for the team? A. Provide detailed technical instructions so the team can do things right the first time B. Allow the team the freedom to decide how to organize, plan, and solve technical issues C. Conduct daily inspections of the working product D. Empower the team to prioritize the work

B. Correct. Allow the team the freedom to decide how to organize, plan, and solve technical issues

1. Towards the end of the sprint, some of the user stories developed by the team are waiting for testing. What do these user stories represent? A. Extra processes B. Partially done work C. Extra features D. Task switching

B. Correct. An example of partially done work in software development can be completed requirements waiting for design and coding, or code waiting for testing. Code waiting for testing is the situation described in the question. Therefore, this option is the best answer choice.

18. Before the start of the first iteration, the team held the final discussion in the series of meetings intended to select a technical approach among many suggested approaches for the product development. The meeting has been running late and eventually got stuck as the meeting participants did not seem to agree on anything.What is the best action for the team lead to take in this situation? A. Encourage the discussion until a consensus is reached B. Select a technical approach and make a decision C. Set another meeting, but this time with external experts D. Suggest an architectural spike to explore each approach

B. Correct. Based on the information described in the question, there is no point to continue the debate. This technical meeting is supposed to be the last meeting in the series, it was time to make a decision. While not ideal, this answer is the best option among the choices given.

24. At a meeting, a scrum team set the stage for the discussion, created a shared picture of what happened during the last time-boxed event, evaluated the data generated in the previous step, and decided what to do about the problems identified during the discussion. What is the next step in this meeting? A. Implement the decisions B. Close the meeting C. Call in the scrum master D. Dismiss the participants

B. Correct. Based on the situation described in the scenario, the team is holding a retrospective meeting. Retrospective meetings consist of five steps. The question describes four steps. The next (and the last) step of the retrospective should be closing the retrospective.

82. An agile team is using rolling wave planning and progressive elaboration to plan work on their new project. Which of the following choices aligns with this method of planning? A. Building wireframes and prototypes B. Planning at multiple levels C. Creating a work breakdown structure D. Reviewing product increments

B. Correct. By planning at multiple levels (release, iteration, day), agile teams implement the concepts of the rolling wave planning and progressive elaboration approach to plan their work on upcoming projects.

95. At the end of the iteration, the team used a burn up chart with time spent on all tasks for the iteration in order to show the team's progress to the stakeholders. The team placed the number of hours spent on tasks on the vertical axis and the iterations on the horizontal axis. According to agile best practice, what would be most appropriate improvement on how the team created or used this chart? A. The number of hours should be used on the horizontal axis. B. The number of story points earned should be used on the vertical axis. C. The business value of the feature should be used on the vertical axis. D. A burn down chart should be used instead of a burn up chart.

B. Correct. Completed story points represent progress and real value to the customer, whereas hours worked on tasks do not. The team does not get credit for time spent on incomplete user stories in this iteration.

65. An agile team is arguing about backlog prioritization. How should an agile practitioner respond? A. Stop the conflict as conflicts are considered antipatterns and typically hinder team performance B. Remind the team that the backlog is prioritized by the product owner throughout the project life cycle C. Indicate that backlog prioritization is the sole responsibility of the customer who provides the requirements D. Suggest holding a user story workshop where the team members can collaborate on the backlog prioritization

B. Correct. During the lifecycle of an agile project, a user story may move up or down in priority in relation to other stories that may have been introduced. Changing business may also drive re-prioritization. As a result, the backlog is groomed throughout the life of the project. Backlog prioritization is the main responsibility of the product owner.

70. What is the purpose of Earned Value Management (EVM) metrics on an agile project? A. To assess the value of potential projects B. To track the progress and status of a project C. To use the same tools that are used in traditional projects D. To make agile project accounting more accurate

B. Correct. EVM tracks actual vs. planned performance (typically scope, cost, and schedule) over time in order to monitor the progress and status of a project.

69. A new team member thinks a new process would save the team a lot of time. How should an agile practitioner handle this? A. Introduce the new process to the team since it would save time B. Meet with the team to ask how they feel about the change C. Discuss the new process in the next sprint review meeting D. Ignore the suggestion since the team member is new

B. Correct. Even if this new process were to save the team a lot of time, it is up to the team to agree to their own processes. Thus, the team would need to be consulted before implementing this change.

35. An XP team is looking to replace one of its programmers who left to take another position. Which of the following characteristic should the team consider most important in new applicants for the position? A. Expert coder who works well with others B. Diverse skill set to be able to play many roles C. Excellent development experience on a wide range of products D. New to agile and easily trainable as they do not have any bad agile habits

B. Correct. Extreme Programming (XP) emphasizes the idea or whole team and generalizing specialists. Often those most valuable on an XP team are members who can develop, test, and play other roles, and can switch responsibilities and tasks as the need arises. A team of generalizing specialists has less loss of information and rarely has anyone waiting or idle.

74. An agile team is struggling with practicing agile in an organization that operates in a highly regulated industry that requires projects to use waterfall methodologies. What approach should the team adopt in this situation? A. Comply with the organizational requirements and abandon the team's existing agile practices B. Factor the organizational requirements into the team's existing agile practices C. Continue practicing agile methods but have the changes reviewed by the change control board D. Persuade the organization's senior management to transition to agile practices

B. Correct. If the team believes they could increase the value delivered by projects using agile practices without compromising the organization's requirements, they should factor organizational requirements into the team's existing agile practices.

80. An agile practitioner just finished creating plans and documents for an agile project. What is their next step? A. Proceed as planned since avoiding wasted time is against agile principles B. Meet with the customer to verify the plans C. Check the plans against the requirements to ensure they are covered D. Consider this documentation step as wasted time since agile projects do not produce documentation

B. Correct. It is important to get feedback from the customer who is potentially represented by the product owner as soon as possible, therefore meeting the customer is the most appropriate next step.

77. Agile teams are more apt to deliver true business value when they are focused on: A. Predefined requirements B. Customer collaboration C. Working product D. Responding to change

C. Correct. Delivering a working product is what represents business value for the customer. Conversely, a non-working product delivers no business value to the customer regardless of how much customer collaboration was involved in creating it. Therefore, when the teams are focused on the outcome of their work, that being a working product, they are more apt to deliver true business value.

9. During a retrospective, the team finds that in the past, they had set upon courses of action, which was expedient at that time. In hindsight, they now realize that their decisions were sub-optimal and detrimental to overall product quality. What should the team do differently when they face an issue? A. The team should always agree on everything. B. The team should go down the path of least resistance. C. The team should consider a divergence of ideas before converging on a path of action. D. The product owner should decide the best course of action.

C. Correct. Divergence allows for a variety of paths to be considered before agreeing on which one to take.

91. Which of the following best describes what takes place in a retrospective? A. The team discusses the velocities of individual team members. B. The product owner provides insight into the team's performance. C. The team may use Five Whys. D. Customer accepts the product

C. Correct. During the team retrospective, when the development team discusses what did not go well in the past, they often perform a root cause analysis. The team may use the Five Whys tool to iteratively explore cause/effect relationships.

52. What happens during the daily stand up that aids the team in problem detection and resolution? A. Using root cause analysis B. Resolving conflicts C. Communicating impediments D. Narrating what has been accomplished since the last meeting

C. Correct. Every team member communicates what roadblocks or impediments they are facing as part of one of the three questions to answer during the daily stand-up. These roadblocks or impediments are problems that will be addressed after the daily stand-up.

4. Based on this iteration's burndown chart, what can be said about this iteration? A. It is on track to be completed as planned. B. It is ahead of schedule. C. It is in jeopardy of not being completed as planned. D. It should be abandoned.

C. Correct. From the burndown shown, one can see very little progress being made for several days of the iteration. As a result, the team is behind the predicted velocity and therefore the iteration is in jeopardy of not being complete as planned.

53. A newly formed, collocated agile team was debating whether it would be best to use an electronic or a physical Kanban board for their new software development project. The team members do not fully understand their needs yet, but they know they want a place where stakeholders can gather around, discuss the status, and easily make changes.What is the best course of action for the team under these circumstances? A. Use a physical board since in Agile high-touch low-tech tools are always the best solution for any project B. Use an electronic board since the team will be working on a software development project C. Use any type of board as long as the team and the stakeholders can gather around and make changes D. Schedule a meeting with all project stakeholders each time there is a need for a discussion

C. Correct. The team is new, and the team members are not fully aware of their needs yet. Therefore, they can select any type of board, either physical or electronic, to experiment with. Later on, the team will adapt based on their needs.

47. An agile team worked with the product owner through three sprints to build a perfect wireframe. What should the team have done differently? A. Involve other stakeholders in reviewing the wireframe B. Provide better estimates on how long it takes to create a wireframe C. Spend less time building the wireframe D. Test the wireframe more thoroughly to confirm it is perfect

C. Correct. The team should understand that the wireframe is a quick mock-up and they should not lose sight of creating the final shippable product.

98. The team's velocity has fallen over the past three iterations. How should an agile leader address this situation? A. Individual coaching with each team member B. Assign more difficult stories to the more senior developers C. Discuss the issue in the next retrospective D. Discuss the issue with the project manager

C. Correct. The team's retrospective is designed to address such issues as falling velocity. Velocity is expected to improve and stabilize as iterations pass.

79. An agile team has been working together for a month. A new team member who has just joined the team, observes that some team members dominate discussions and make technical decisions independently. Two team members express that they feel left out. Which stage of Tuckman's ladder is the team currently on? A. Swarming B. Storming C. Forming D. Conflicting

C. Correct. This is a tricky question as it describes the team in the storming stage, but the addition of the new team member puts them into the forming stage again. Forming stage is a period when the team members learn about each other and their roles and responsibilities.

72. The customer satisfaction would typically be higher if the product delivered to them is: A. Timeboxed and simple B. Developed and integrated C. Tested and refactored D. Reliable and adaptable

D. Correct. A reliable product means the product works today. An adaptable product means the product is easy to enhance and extend in the future. It's reasonable to assume that customers would be satisfied with a reliable and adaptable product. Therefore, of the choices given, this choice is the best answer.

48. An agile practitioner was hired to analyze and improve processes used by the organization on their projects. The practitioner recommends for the organization to get rid of non-value added activities in its methodologies. A senior manager wondered what process should be used to use to identify and remove non-value added activities.What is the best answer for the agile practitioner to give to the senior manager? A. Review the methodology with the people directly affected by it. Then, use Highsmith's decision spectrum voting technique to gather information and reach consensus among the participants. B. Require a review and replacement of all company's procedure or process. C. Schedule a meeting with the affected stakeholders and a Lean product development expert. Then, build a value stream mapping based on the methodology and identify waste in the process. D. Setup an Agile Project Management Office in the company. Then, let the office establish new processes and procedures for all upcomong agile projects based on the PMI best practices.

C. Correct. Using value stream mapping to determine those activities that do not contribute to value and productivity is a logical and perfectly acceptable agile practice.

39. During an iteration, a team member realizes that they do not know enough about a user story to be able to code it. What should the team member do? A. Postpone the user story until the next iteration B. Have the team storm to resolve the issue C. Perform a spike D. Discuss the issue with the product owner

D. Correct. The product owner needs to be aware that the team cannot complete the user story according to what was agreed in the beginning of the iteration since the team does not know enough about a user story to be able to code it. A discussion would allow for discussion on how best to handle this matter.

100. During the last few sprints, the scrum team has been unable to complete any of its sprint goals due to the defects coming from previous releases, unexpected calls with the salespeople, and work requested by the team members' functional managers. The scrum master approaches the sponsor requesting help. The sponsor replies that the situation is unlikely to change. What is the best course of action for the scrum master going forward? A. Capture all interruptions in the issue log and present it to the sponsor at the end of the project B. Decline all work requests that are not related to the current project C. Accept all requests since the project sponsor informed that the situation is unlikely to change D. Allocate place holder user stories to account for interruptions

D. Correct. The scenario suggests that the interruptions have a repetitive nature and are unlikely to halt. Even through the team does not know what and how many interruptions they will experience, the team members know the interruptions are most likely to come. Thus the team can account for this work in advance by allocating a particular amount of story points in their upcoming sprints.

85. A scrum team is midway into the current sprint when a stakeholder approaches the scrum master and requests that a new, urgent, and potentially complex mandatory compliance-related requirement be added immediately to the current sprint backlog. Which of the following would be the scrum master's best response? A. Inform the stakeholder that new requirements cannot be added to the sprint in progress without approval from the sponsor B. Add the new requirement to the current sprint backlog and direct the team to start working on it immediately C. Add the new requirement to the product backlog and request the product owner to review the requirement after the sprint is over D. Discuss the new requirement with the product owner, and let them make a decision, including sprint cancellation

D. Correct. The scrum master should discuss the new requirement with the product owner who, together with the team, may decide to cancel the sprint. In that case, the product owner and the team will have to re-plan the work for this and future sprints.

11. An agile project manager has contracted with another party to develop some of the work required for the project. The external contractor is also using agile project management. How should the progress of the contractor be assessed? A. Review the weekly progress reports from the contractor B. Review the contractor's release plans and attending the contractors daily stand up meetings C. Review the contractor's iteration plans D. Review released versions of the work

D. Correct. The seventh guiding principle of the agile manifesto indicates, "Working software is the primary measure of progress."