200 Agile PMP

Your team is standing around a board with cards on it. Each person is answering these questions in a round robin fashion: "What did I complete since last time?" What am I planning to complete between now and next time? Is anything blocking me?" What is it your team is doing?

A daily stand-up During the daily stand-up in an Agile team, the team asks in a round-robin fashion: "What did I complete since the last time? What am I planning to complete between now and next time? Is anything blocking me?" They also often talk to the cards in-flight on the Kanban board.

As the lead on an Agile project, you have carefully cultivated an Agile team of "T" shaped people, or generalizing specialists. What does this mean?

A person with a wide range of general skills (i.e. design, development, testint) and one deep skill or knowledge area. A generalizing specialist is a person that has one deep knowledge area or skill, and a wide range of general interests or skills. An Agile team is ideally made up of generalizing specialities who can do more than one thing, but does their core role well.

You are working as an Agile project manager in a new team that is not familiar with Agile. The executives are not as comfortable using Agile in full just yet. You suggest using a hybrid approach to begin with, to help the organization meet their goals. What does this mean?

A tailored combination of predictive, iterative, incremental, and Agile approach. A hybrid project lifecycle approach incorporates parts of predictive (waterfall), iterative incremental and Agile. It allows the project manager to tailor the approach to

You are an Agile project manager, working with an Agile coach and planning the next sprint with the team. The Agile coach advises you to build in some "slack" for the sprint. What does this team?

Adding a card for refactoring code, that can be replaced in an emergency comes up. Building in slack is a way of giving some room in the allocated points for a team Sprint. The Agile project manager, coach, facilitator or lead does this by adding in cards for refactoring the code, then basing the team's velocity off that. Refactoring regularly ensures the code is clear and correct, and the refactoring card can be replaced in an emergency comes up.

You have been identified as a stakeholder on an Agile software development team. As you join the team stand-up, you are surprised that there are only eight people on the team and not more - after all the deliverable is quite large. Why is the team so small?

Agile methods recommend the delivery team to be 12 or fewer members. Agile methods recommend a team of 12 or fewer, typically between 3 and 9. This keeps the communication channels small and ensures information travels quickly for the team to do their work.

You are a project manager on an Agile project that requires an external third party to develop software for one of your features. You have worked with the project team to gather the requirements and backlog of product features. You begin working with your procurement department on a contract for the vendor. What will you do next?

Agile works with changing scope and cost as the product is completed incrementally, but is primarily a fixed schedule and quality. As you are working with the procurement department, you will need to ensure a contract accommodates changing requirements and scope.

You are working with the team on the team charter and have outlined the project vision, mission, agreed meeting times and accepted team behavior. What will you do next?

Agree on and include the "definition of done" for team features and tasks. The definition of "done" is an important part of the Team Charter, to ensure the team knows when a task is completed, when they can pull the next tasks, and so everyone agrees what success looks like. This could involve a card being defined, elaborated, developed, tested, reviewed and then released. The project sponsor may be included in the team charter, but does not need to sign off on it - it is an agreement amongst the team.

You are an Agile project manager leading a new software project. During the last retrospective there was very little engagement and feedback, and the team seem to be losing interest in the work. What will you do to improve the situation?

Align the project goals to each team members' personal goals. If a previous Retrospective did not elicit information, holding another one would be doing the same thing but expecting a different result. Finding out each team member's strengths and helping them do more of that work helps engagement, as does alignment to their goals to those of the project. When these things are aligned people naturally will work harder and care more.

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?

Ask the product owner, who continuously prioritizes the backlog. 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.

You are working as a project manager with an Agile project team. The project sponsor sits on another floor, and prefers to communicate by email only. What will you do next?

Ask the project sponsor to co-locate with the Agile team for a few days a week, to ensure face to face communication and access to the visual project information. An Agile project team aims to work in a co-located space, where ideas and information can flow freely. Face-to-face communication provides the best opportunity to ask questions, get immediate feedback, and understand body language in order to acknowledge agreement or clarify misunderstandings. Kanban boards and other visual tools are also in the team area.

There are certain core practices that are common amongst all the various Agile frameworks, and used within any team that calls themselves Agile. Which of the below is NOT a core Agile practice? A) Team Iteration Planning B) Collaborative User Story Creation between the business, customers, developers and testers C) Demonstrations and Reviews of the features developed. D) Autocratic Leadership, to ensure the work gets done.

Autocratic Leadership, to ensure the work gets done. The preferred style of leadership in an Agile team is Servant Leadership. Autocratic leadership typically is a one person affair, while servant leadership builds psychological safety for the whole team to engage and contribute. All other items listed are Agile core practices.

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?

Be sure the customers understand that lower priority features may drop off the project completely. 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 prioritized. A maintainable amount of work is required too - project managers must not overwork the project team to increase the pace of the project work.

You are working on the requirements for the next iteration and a decision needs to be made by the team. The product owner suggests using a show of hands to indicate whether team members are for or against the decision. As the Agile project manager, you object to this approach. Why?

By making their decisions visible, team members may be influenced by others in the team (especially executives) without the benefit of discussion. With just a "for" or "against" vote, there will be no discussion that might produce a better or alternative decision for the issue. By making the votes visible, team members are more easily influenced by others' decisions, especially if they report to them outside of the project environment.

You are working as a project manager in a team that is moving to an Agile way of work. You have previously engaged the team in a single weekly meeting, with email as the primary communication. What changes will you make in the new Agile team?

Co-locate the team where possible and focus on frequent face-to-face communications. Agile focuses on individuals and interaction, co-locating the team to gain information by osmosis, with face-to-face discussions being the recommended method of communication.

Dynamic Systems Delivery Method (DSDM) is one of the founding methods with an input into Agile, designed to add more rigor to the rising iterative methods of the 1990's. It is most known for its emphasis on:

Constraint - driven delivery which sets Cost, Quality and Time at the beginning, then uses formalized prioritization of scope to meet those constraints. Agile methods as we know them today work with a variable Scope, while cost, quality and schedule (time) are often set. This is the opposite to a predictive (waterfall) method, which Scope, Schedule and Cost up front.

You are on an Agile software implementation project with a very short deadline. How do Agile teams shorten the time between identifying a defect and resolving the defect?

Continuous integration Continuous integration aims to merge code and have a working build once a day, then executes automated tests quickly to see if anything is broken. This frequent checking ensures less time passes before a problem is identified.

You are an Agile project manager and your organization is moving away from waterfall to an Agile way of work. After reading the Agile manifesto, the functional manager you are working with mentions "individuals and interactions over processes and tools" and asks how you will do it. What do you tell them?

Create ceremonies such as the daily stand-up, iteration planning meeting, demos & reviews and retrospectives that encourage team interaction. Many Agile practices are based on a collaborative approach, which enables fast decisions and ownership of the work. One way to do this is co-locate the team, but others are the daily stand-up, team planning of the next iteration, and retrospectives to improve the way of work moving forward.

Crystal is designed to scale and realizes that each project may require a slight tailored set of practices based on size and complexity. What are some of the ways that Crystal scales?

Crystal clear, yellow or red, based on number of people involved. Crystal Clear, Yellow, Orange and Red are based on factors such as people involved (0 to 8, all the way up to 100 or more), money involved and the general comfort level of the project.

A team Charter is also a "social contract". Which of the below is NOT usually a part of an Agile Team Charter? A) Team values, such as sustainable pace and core hours. B) 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. C) Ground rules, such as one person talking in a meeting. D) Schedule performance index and cost performance index for the project. (PMBOK)

D) Schedule performance index and cost performance index for the project. (PMBOK) 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.

In Continuous Integration: configuration management, compilation, software build, deployment, and testing are wrapped into a single, automated, repeatable process. Defects in code are:

Detected more quickly because they constantly integrate their work, build and test. Continuous Integration merges code to a test environment using an automated process, including automated regression tests to ensure nothing is broken. This allows the team to find and fix defects in the code more quickly. Test Driven Development writes a test (which fails at first) then the code to ensure the test passes.

An Agile team in your organization would like to include Feature Driven Development practices into their way of work. You tell them that feature driven development activities are supported by a core set of software engineering best practices. What practices will the team start with?

Developing by feature, working in feature teams, visibility of progress and results. Feature Driven Development focuses on the core engineering set of best practices such as Developing by Feature, Feature teams, Inspections, Regular builds, Visibility of progress and results and more.

You are an Agile project manager tasked with evolving your part of the organization into Agile. What is NOT something you would do, when making this change? A) Treat the change as an Agile project, with its own backlog of changes that could be introduced by the team based on perceived value. B) Treat each of the changes as an experiment, tested for a short period of time to determine suitability or the need for further refinement. C) Use Kanban boards to track progress, showing new approaches in use as "done", and things being tried as "in progress". D) Direct

Direct the teams to take on Agile in one go, moving ahead without wavering. Agile is an incremental approach. Using a backlog of Agile methods the teams would like to use, treating them as an experiement, and using a Kanban board to track progress are all things you can do to use Agile with implementing Agile.

You are working on an Agile project as an Agile project manager. You have been working using Kanban to monitor the work and keep it visible for all to see. What is NOT a defining principle of Kanban? A) Start with current state and respect the current process. B) Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change. C) Lead at all levels. D) Directive leadership over wasteful team participation.

Directive leadership over wasteful team participation. Kanban, like Agile itself, encourages team participation over directive leadership. It keeps the work visible to make blockers clear so everyone can assist in removing them and keeping work flowing through the team.

Agile Unified Process (AUP) is an auxiliary Agile method that focuses on performing more iterative cycles across seven key disciplines, and incorporating the associated feedback before formal delivery. Which is NOT one of the seven key disciplines within a release? A) Discipline of the high level model B) Discipline in managing stakeholders' C) Discipline in testing D) Discipline in configuration management

Discipline in testing Agile focuses on transparency to ensure the customer needs are met, not in specifically managing customer expectations

You are working on an Agile project, gathering requirements from the business stakeholders with the Product Owner. During the discussion, different people seem to have different understandings of what the feature will look like. What will you do next?

Draw a storyboard prototype of the requirement so all stakeholders can see it, adjust it and agree. Gaining consensus regarding the content and flow of a piece of software by developing a wireframe or story board will confirm everyone has a complete understanding of what the output is.

With all the different methods of testing either a software or product deliverable, when should the team determine the acceptance test criteria for the feature or story card?

During the estimation and elaboration of the card, with the product owner, business analysts and development team. Acceptance tests and criteria are designed before the development of a deliverable, and during elaboration, often in a "Given, When, then" scenario or an "As a,""I want,""So I can,"

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 "incremental' project management approach?

Dynamic requirements, performed once for a given increment, in frequent smaller deliveries. Incremental project management approach includes dynamic requirements, performed once for a given increment, with frequent smaller deliveries.

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. This is a description for an Agile approach

Dynamic requirements, repeated until correct, in frequent small deliveries.

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 single delivery. Iterative methods have dynamic requirements, repeated with feedback until they are correct, but delivered only once.

You are on a Agile team that includes many stakeholders who have not worked with an Agile project in the past. Several stakeholders have some valid concerns about some Agile methods. As a servant leader or project coach, what will you do to make them more comfortable with the process?

Educate stakeholders, address their concerns, and keep them engaged. A servant leader includes the team in decisions, and grows the team through educating and coaching.

The executive management in your organization has assembled a new team, and dictated that they will use Agile for their product development. As the project progresses, there is confusion about the product scope and the definition of what done looks like. As an Agile Project Manager, what will you recommend to the executive team?

Encourage a self-organizing team to form, including the people who ask the requirements and outcomes in the first place. Agile encourages self-organizing teams composed of the people who created the requirements and had the desired outcome in the first place. This gives a higher level of ownership and product expertise, that often cannot be bought.

You are an experienced project manager who is used to a directive leadership style where people do exactly what you say. Now you are working in an Agile team, where that style of leadership is not accepted. What is one thing you can change to move to a more servant leadership style?

Ensure the stakeholders collectively agree on and share decisions. Agile methods foster team empowerment, which increases stakeholders' need for effective decision making. There are two methods by which this can be accomplished: collective agreement, where the team agrees with the decision or approach, and a shared decision, which means the team and stakeholders arrive at a decision together.

You are an Agile project manager working closely with the Scrum Master and Agile team. The Scrum Master mentions that Agile works differently with risk compared to a traditional project. He sets a meeting with you and the team to talk through Agile risks. What will you do next?

Ensure the team notes and schedules high-risks activities early in the project so that they are mitigated quickly. An Agile team delivers in increments and iterates toward improvement. By prioritizing high-risks features first, future risks for the project are reduced.

You are in an Agile team area and notice it is different to other project areas you have worked on. The project manager tells you there are certain ways to ensure that stakeholders stay engaged. What is he talking about?

Ensuring visibility, transparency and progress of the work through charts and information in the common team area. Visible progress helps maintain team engagement, and is facilitated through the use of the information radiator - Kanban board, burndown chart, product backlog being clearly visible to all.

You are working on a project in the role of Scrum Master, and have set a meeting with the team and the product owner to refine the product backlog. What should the team do in this meeting?

Estimate and refine the work items The product owner adjusts the priority of product backlog items. The team is responsible for estimating and refining work items. Each time the team refines their estimates with a higher level of detail.

You are working with a new Agile project manager and explain that Agile favors value-based measurements instead of predictive measurements on a project. What is an example of value based measurements?

Feature burn-down chart (features delivered) and customer satisfaction. Agile works with value delivered as its primary measurement.

The team are planning their first upcoming sprint on an Agile project. They have worked with the product owner who has gathered a backlog of features in prioritized order. As an Agile project manager, what must you do to ensure you can plan future sprints correctly?

Find your team's velocity over the next few sprints so you can set a sustainable pace. An Agile sprint is based on the team's velocity. The team's velocity is the amount of points (or cards, or features, or whatever you choose) the team is able to complete on average during a regular sprint. You will need to complete at least one sprint to get an idea of velocity.

You are working with a seasoned Agile team who are very familiar with eXtreme Programming (XP) in their way of work. They walk through a set of principles that they frequently use. Which is NOT one of the primary practices of XP? A) Planning with user stories (iteration planning) B) Test-first programming (Test driven delivery) C) Incremental design D) First-in, best-dressed

First-in, best - dressed eXtreme Programming works with 12 primary principles, including Planning with User stories, Test - first programming, incremental design and more. All of these principles will align with the core principles of an Agile way of work, but first - in, best - dressed is not one of them.

Dynamic Systems Delivery Method (DSDM) is one of the founding methods with an input into Agile, designed to add more rigor to the rising iterative methods of the 1990's. What are the principles from the Dynamic Systems Delivery Method (DSDM) Framework?

Focus on the business need and deliver on time. DSDM focuses on the business need and delivers on time. Scope is often variable and can change, as with all Agile frameworks. Schedule is often set however, so the features must be managed with the product owner and the backlog.

You are working on a project as an Agile Project Manager. The executive manager who will own the product you are delivering would like to focus primarily on set processes and tools to manage the project. What will you recommend to them instead?

Focus primarily on individuals and interactions involved The Agile manifesto recommends focusing on individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Projects are run by people, products are developed by people for people to use, and our interactions either make or break a project.

You are walking through the next feature with the product owner is an Agile team. He is new to Agile, and unsure of what Kanban really is. He lists a few things for you to check. Which of the below is NOT one of the core properties of Kanban? A) Visualize the workflow and limit work in progress. B) Manage Flow and Enable "Pull". C) Implement feedback loops and improve collaboratively. D) Follow procedures and don't deviate from the plan.

Follow procedures and don't deviate from the plan. Kanban is a method from the Toyota Production System, or Lean. It focuses on limiting the work in progress so work is work is focused, ensuring feedback loops are in place, and making the work visible so blockages are clear.

Behavior- driven development (BDD) allows a developer to focus on testing the code based on the expected behavior of the software and is a method of writing user stories. What is the correct description regarding BDD acceptance-based criteria?

Given, When, Then 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.

You are working as an Agile project manager in a new project team. Many project team members are despondent, and do not show up for the meetings and ceremonies you have set. What will you do next?

Have a coaching session with the team teaching the "what" and "why" behind Agile ceremonies, and ensure each meeting has a clear outcome, time and agenda. An Agile leader focuses on coaching the team, removing blockers and ensuring interaction. The key Agile ceremonies such as stand-ups, sprint reviews and retrospectives help support and improve the work and get the answers people need.

Agile projects have short iterations enabling the project team to receive early and continuous feedback as the project progresses. Agile teams can incorporate most new changes into the product and the development process. What is NOT one of the benefits of this approach? A) Avoiding requirements misunderstandings, which may not have been detected until later in the development cycle when they are most expensive to fix. B) Clarifying customer feature requests, making them available for customer use early. C) Discovering, isolating, and resolving quality problems early. D) Having one big release at the end of the project that everyone can celebrate

Having one big release at the end of the project that everyone can celebrate. Agile methods work with multiple features, releasing them in increments so the customer can use them and provide feedback, Having a single release is a waterfall approach.

You are working on a new project with an Agile product development team, who have self-formed and chosen a Scrum Master called Jeremy. Jeremy immediately sets a meeting with the team to explain and flesh out their Team Charter. What has made Jeremy a good choice for Scrum Master?

He shows servant leadership and engages the team in decisions. Jeremy shows the traits of servant leadership by engaging the team in team decisions, starting with the Team Charger and ground rules so everyone knows where they stand. By communicating the reasons for his decisions, he is a suitable Scrum Master and is less focused on command and control.

You are working on a project and the team have recently moved to an Agile way of work. One of the team members is confused about Scrum and what typically happens after the sprint review (Demo) . What will you tell them happens next?

Hold a sprint retrospective with the team. A sprint retrospective is held with the Whole Team, after a sprint but before the sprint planning meeting. We use it gather lessons learned and look for opportunities for improvement, and everyone has a voice for feedback and to implement improvements before the next sprint.

Your Agile team has been working with Feature Driven Development as a model for their Agile way of work for some time now, and are ready to add more FDD practices to things they do. What can they do next?

Incorporate configuration management and individual class ownership. More Feature Driven Development core engineering practices include: Configuration management (ensuring changes are known and tracked), individual class ownership (where parts of the code are assigned to a single owner) and domain object modeling (a conceptual model the domain showing both behavior and data)

There are multiple project life-cycles you can choose from, depending on the type of project, environment, deliverable and stakeholders. You are working on a project that requires features of an overall product to be delivered on a regular basis. What sort of project lifecycle will you choose to work with?

Incremental project lifecycle. While others may meet the criteria of regularly delivered features, an Iterative Life cycle specifically delivers features in "increments" or value over the life cycle of a project.

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. In that manifesto they valued:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. The Agile manifesto is made up of four core values, one of which values individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

Continuous Integration wraps software build, deployment, and testing into a single, automated, repeatable process. This merges all changes made to the software and:

Integrates all changed components regularly, at least once a day. Continuous integration is designed to merge all changes made to the software and test them automatically, discovering any defects or issues on a daily basis.

Agile teams practice frequent verification and validation during and at the end of each iteration through demonstrations and reviews. Which of the following is NOT a benefit of this method? A) It enables the team to catch mistakes and mismatched customer expectations early. B) It keeps everyone busy and gives them something to do. C) It is easy to manage since there are multiple feedback loops. D) It reduces cost overruns as mistakes are found early prior to additional tasks being built upon a faulty foundation.

It keeps everyone busy and gives them something to do. Busy work does not add value to the project, and is not a benefit of Agile.

You are working with a team who would like to become Agile. The functional manager asks you what the difference between Kanban and Scrum is. What will you tell them?

Kanban teams employs a pull system. The main difference between Scrum and Kanban is that Kanban teams employ a pull system. This means when an item of work is completed, it triggers someone to "pull" the next item in the queue onto the board to work on. Kanban teams work off a Kanban board that displays each task, and have a limit to how much work in progress (WIP) can be in place.

Disciplined Agile is a process decision framework that blends various Agile techniques. Which of the following principles are from Disciplined Agile?

Learning - oriented, Goal - driven and Scalable Learning - oriented, goal driven and scaleable are all themes within Agile, and are key principles of the Disciplined Agile Framework.

As an Agile project manager, you understand the need to operate with openness and transparency with your team and stakeholders. How will you encourage knowledge sharing throughout the project?

Make key information visible in the team area, and ensure all impacted stakeholders are invited to the daily stand-up, retrospectives and even the iteration planning. An Agile team makes project information visible and accessible to all. Agile teams also prefer people and interactions over processes and tools.

Features are completed in an Agile project, usually in the form of multiple user stories. When a feature is complete, the team periodically demonstrates the working product to the customer, business representative and/or the product owner. These demonstrations or reviews:

Often occur at the end of an iteration, or when enough features have been completed into a set that is coherent. Agile "sprint reviews" or feature demonstrations, occur at the end of an iteration or when enough cards or features have been completed into a set that can be showcased.

Teams use daily stand-ups to micro-commit to each other, uncover and remove blockers, and ensure work flows smoothly through the team. What is NOT true about stand-ups? A) They are often time-boxed to 15 minutes B) The team walks through the Kanban or task board. C) The team facilitates or anyone in the team can facilitate. D) Only people in the project team can attend.

Only people in the project team can attend. Agile teams are open and transparent and encourage stakeholders to "pull" information or work when needed. Anyone can attend, to learn, watch or contribute. Stand-ups are time-boxed for 15 minutes, the team walks through the Kanban board, and anyone in the team can facilitate.

Introduced by Alexander Cockburn in his book "Crystal Clear" and created at IBM in 1991, Crystal is an Agile framework focusing on individuals and their interactions, as opposed to processes and tools ( the first Agile principle). It is not a set of process, but a guideline for team collaboration and communication. Which of the following is NOT one of its core beliefs? A) Technologies change techniques B) People change functions C) Cultures change norms D) Distances change communication

People change functions Crystal Clear describes the three core beliefs as Technologies changing techniques, cultures changing norms, and distances changing communications - all reasons behind the core practices of Agile such as stand-ups, collaborative user story creation, retrospectives and the whole team approach.

Crystal is one of the original frameworks that contributed to Agile. It is designed to scale and realizes that each project may require a slightly tailored set of practices based on size and complexity. Its core values include:

People, Interaction, and Community. Crystal's core values include People, Interaction, and Community.

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. A Predictive or Waterfall project management lifecycle focuses on fixed requirements performed once for the project for a single delivery.

You are the project manager of a new Agile project for your organization. You ask questions of your team to elicit their needs and help them problem solve issues as they arise. What role are you filling in the Agile team?

Project coach The project lead can be called many things in Agile but usually centers around servant leadership and a project coach role, who helps grow the team and remove blockers to their work.

You have been working in an Agile team for some time, and an executive from the business area asks how the team has been able to deliver value to consistently over the past year. You tell him you are using eXtreme Programming (XP). What are some of the primary practices of XP that contributed to the team's success?

Real customer involvement, team continuity, sustainable pace. The eXtreme Programming primary practices include Real Customer involvement, Team continuity, and working at a sustainable pace. Agile encourages all of these, through its stand-ups, backlog grooming with the product owner, and working to the team's velocity.

You are testing the product being delivered by an Agile team in increments. You notice that there have been no defects passed on to the end user. You also notice that they are working with an eXtreme Programming (XP) methodology for the team. What are the XP practices that led to this result?

Regular refactoring and daily deployment of an integrated code base. eXtreme Programming works with Continuous Integration - deploying a single code base on a daily basis and running automated regression tests to see if anything is broken. In this way defects are picked up quickly. Regular refactoring, or simplifying and cleaning the code also ensures it is easier to work with and easier to pick up and fix defects.

Agile has certain core practices that are used within any team working in an Agile way. Which of the following is NOT a core practice of Agile? A) The whole team approach, where any person needed is brought into the project team. B) Early and frequent feedback, to ensure a common understanding of the product. C) Daily stand-ups, to report on progress and raise blockers. D) Reporting to executives, to ensure they are happy with your project.

Reporting to executives, to ensure they are happy with your project. While reporting to executives has its place when running a project, in Agile it would rather be done by including them in other Agile core practices, such as demonstrations or reviews of the product, showing the product burn-down chart in the team area, and the backlog of work. All other items are Agile core practices.

You are the project manager on a Agile project that is half way through. The project sponsor is starting to raise concerns that the project will not be completed in time. What will you do to gather the information necessary to answer the project sponsor?

Review the team velocity, product burn down chart and other key performance indicators Agile Key Performance Indicators include team velocity (rate of progress) and remaining work. These can ben shown visually as well, such as on a burn down chart. Reviewing these KPI's will give you the most reliable answer.

Enterprise Scrum is a framework designed to apply the Scrum method at an organizational level, not just within a single product development effort. What is NOT part of leadership within Enterprise Scrum? A) Extending the use of Scrum across all aspects of the organization. B) Role playing the role of the scrum master before the first iteration. C) Generalizing the Scrum techniques to apply easily at those various levels. D) Scaling the Scrum method with supplemental techniques as necessary.

Role playing the role of scrum master before the first iteration. While you may choose to do this, it is not part of Enterprise Scrum, which is designed to use this method across teams, as well as within teams.

You are leading a coaching session with your project team on the additional Agile and Lean frameworks that have contributed to the Agile way of work. What frameworks will you share with the team?

Scaled Agile Framework, Large Scale Scrum Agile and lean frameworks include Scaled Agile Framework, Large Scale Scrum, Scrum of Scrums, Dynamic Systems Development Method, along with more common Kanban, eXtreme programming and Scrum.

Disciplined Agile (DA) is a process decision framework that blends various Agile techniques. Which of the following principles are NOT part of DA?

Self promotion: working to improve your own personal brand. Agile works transparently for all and with all stakeholders in mind. Self promotion is not a part of the Agile way. Instead, the team serves each other. ensures blockers are removed and information is freely available.

You are an experienced functional manager who has been asked to lead an Agile project team. Your executive manager is calling it the "project coach" or scrum master role. you know that Agile leadership might be different to what you are used to. What sort of leadership style will you embody.

Servant leadership, where you will lead the team by serving their needs, growing their skills, and removing blockers. An Agile leader is primarily a servant leader, a project coach. The focus is on removing blockers for the team, helping them problem solve and growing their skills where needed.

You are at the beginning of a new iteration and about to plan and decide what gets worked on in the upcoming sprint. You decide to invite all project stakeholders to the planning meeting to decide what to work on next. Why is it important that all stakeholders are involved in decision-making?

So the project stakeholders don't reject a decision that wasn't theirs. Giving ownership of decisions to the team and stakeholders is one way to gain their buy-in. If stakeholders are involved in decision-making, they will be more commited to any decision made and to the project.

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 are for product demonstrations. Sprint retrospectives are for lessons learned. (at the end of each iteration)

You are managing a project as an Agile project manager and a business representative for the product you are delivering asks you how many defects were found in the latest round of testing. You don't know the answer, what should you do?

Take him into the team area, where the "information radiator" with project information is displayed. A core component of Agile is Visual Management and transparency. Part of this are the various parts of the project information radiator (often physical, but can be tech-driven) This includes things such as the team velocity, Kanban board, the product backlog, burndown chart, the latest test results and issues, and results of retrospectives.

You are working at 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 the business owner or representative to constantly prioritize delivered value. 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 is better than reading requirements, documents, e-mails, or even a conference call.

The Agile team for which you are the project manager has determined several key features to deliver to the customer. How should these tasks be tackled by the team?

The features should be prioritized, tested, and delivered incrementally. Agile is a combination of incremental delivery and iterative development. That means business value is continuously and iteratively improved and prioritized, while also being delivered in increments that the customer can see, feel and touch. The features should be completed, and quality is everyone's responsibility.

For Kanban or "Flow based" Agile, iterations follow the number of story cards in the Work in Progress limit, shown on the visual or virtual board. The team pulls cards from the backlog column on the Kanban board based on their capacity. These story cards provide an increment of value and are:

The primary measure of progress. The key to Kanban is making progress visible. Progress naturally improves team engagement (no one likes being stuck, and blockers are clear for people to see and assist with).

You are running an Agile project and meet with the team for the next sprint planning meeting. What will you do next?

The product owner shares the updated backlog, and the team discusses it to ensure a shared understanding. The product owner should share the updated backlog items to ensure the entire team has a good understanding of how to move forward.

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? A) The backlog is the ordered list of all the work, presented in "story" form, for a team. B) The project coach encourages the team to work alone, so no one bothers them. C) The facilitator encourages the team to work in triads of a developer, tester, product owner/business analyst. D) 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. A, C and D are correct in describing Backlog Preparation for the Iteration Process

Poor specifications are often a major reason for project failure. In Agile development, user stories are written with the developers, testers, and business representatives, with frequent reviews to ensure they are right. Which of the following is NOT correct regarding Collaborative User Story Creation? A) A user story addresses both functional and non-functional requirements. B) The project sponsor must sign off on all user stories in advance. C) A user story includes acceptance criteria for the feature to be developed. D) Characteristics for acceptance criteria must be: Estimable, Small, and Testable.

The project sponsor must sign off on all user stories in advance While it is common for the developers, testers and business representatives to agree on the story card criteria, it is not signed off by the project sponsor directly. The product owner, representing the business and/or the customer, grooms the feature backlog work so they always know that business value is being delivered.

You are an Agile project manager working with the Product Owner of the Agile team. There are several key deliverables that have been identified and listed in the product backlog. What will the Agile team do next?

The tasks should be prioritized, developed and tested incrementally. Agile develops and delivers in features or increments. This means prioritizing for each increment, developing and testing for each increment. Even though we want to deliver quickly, quality testing is still important, and quality is everyone's responsibility.

Your Agile team leader works through servant leadership to the team, and has built a safe environment for disagreement. How has this empowered the team to move forward without obstacles?

The team is encouraged to participate in discussion and disagreement in order to make better decisions. Constructive discussion and disagreement is encouraged to ensure risks and alternative ideas are found. This is only maintainable in a team with high psychological safety.

You are working on a complex software project but see that the team uses a whiteboard, and writes tasks on cards or sticky notes. The business representative seems put off by the use of these low-tech tools on such a high profile technology project. What will you tell them?

The team is using the principle the principle of visual management, and by using a physical board it is transparent to anyone who needs the information. Visual Management is a Lean principle borrowed into Agile, where we make key pieces of information as accessible as possible. Often found in the team area and often physical, it means anyone can walk through the area and see what they need at a glance. Kanban is an example of low-tech / high touch tool.

You have just come on board an Agile team and a decision needs to be made about product requirements. The scrum master asks the team to show either thumbs up, down or sideways. What does a thumb sideways mean?

The team member has a concern or conflict that needs further discussion. When voting in an Agile team, members who vote with a thumb sideways have a concern or conflict with the decision and would like to discuss it further.

New projects go through the Tuckman Model of forming, storming, and performing. You have just taken the lead of a new project with a newly formed team, but are surprised to find little conflict and that the forming stage has gone so quickly. Which of the following might be the reason?

The team members have worked together on previous projects and are following the same Agile ceremonies and methods. It is important to be aware of the Tuckman model on a new project. Using the existing Agile methodology and ceremonies can help smooth the process of coming together, as can having a team who have worked together on other projects before.

You are working with an Agile team who use Kanban to manage the flow of work through the team. The Scrum Master or Agile lead mentions the concept of "pull", which helps them manage the work. What does this team

The team pulls work only when they are ready, instead of work in progress constantly building up. Kanban allows team members to pull new work onto the Kanban board when they are reading the limits the amount of work on that board, and encourages an optimal flow of work.

You are planning the next iteration in your Agile team, as the Agile lead. The team is going to select user stories from the prioritized release backlog, elaborate the user stories, and estimate the work needed for each user story. The number of stories selected is based on:

The teams "Velocity", which is the rate at which a team can complete work. An Agile team's velocity is the amount of work they complete (on average) in a given iteration. This can be measured in points, cards, features, stories, T-shirt sizings or any other method that works for you. The number of points in a sprint, however, is based on the average velocity of points from previous iterations.

You are working on a project as an Agile project manager. You look at the product backlog and ensure several features, or minimum viable products (MVPs) can be scheduled for delivery throughout the duration of the project. Why is this a good idea?

To enable the business to get value quickly, as features are delivered Minimum Viable Products are usable features in their own right that are delivered incrementally. This allows for business value to be gained more quickly, while gathering feedback on the use of these features.

You are working on a Agile project with stakeholders who are keen to know: Why is it so important to incorporate multiple touch points with them before, during, and after iterations

To raise and manage changes, and identify potential risks and issues. Frequent touch points in Agile are there to ensure the features are reviewed and meet stakeholders' expectations and risks are addressed. It allows changes to be raised early. Quality is everyone's responsibility on an Agile team.

A team new to Agile has worked closely with the product owner and has identified the highest value features of the project. What is one reason to break those features down into increments and deliver them as soon as possible?

To reduce the risk of the feature no longer providing value for the customer. The longer a feature takes to deliver, the higher the risk is that the feature will no longer provide the value it was intended to provide. Value driven delivery priority features by highest value and delivers them quickly for maximum customer benefit.

You are working through an Agile project with your team, meeting daily in a daily stand-up. What is NOT one of the reasons agile teams use daily stand-ups? A) To micro commit to the team B) To uncover and remove blockers C) To ensure work flows freely through the team D) To report to the executive team

To report to the executive team Stand-ups are used to micro-commit to each other, uncover blockers. and ensure work flows freely through the team. While

eXtreme Programming or (XP) is a software development method based on frequent cycles. It is known for popularizing a holistic set of 12 primary practices (later expended to other secondary practices). It outlines requirements such as:

To sit together in a whole team approach, in an informative workplace. Agile core practices include the whole team approach, and an informative workplace (such as visual management using Kanban, Burn-down charts, Backlogs.) This should give you a hint at the answer for eXtreme programming, a core part of Agile.

You are a project manager working on an Agile project, and want your team to maximize the value they bring to the customer .What can you eliminate in order to maximize project value?

Unnecessary features In addition to eliminating the introduction of unnecessary features, value can be maximized by eliminating partially done work, delays, extra processes and features, task switching, waiting, moving information or a deliverable, defects or rework, and handoffs.

You are attending the kick-off meeting with the Agile team and the business owners. The Scrum Master recommends using MoSCoW to help prioritize the work with the product / business owners. How does MoSCoW prioritize the product backlog?

Using must have, should have, could have, will not have. The MoSCoW method of prioritization labels tasks as must have, should have, could have and will not have ( or would like to have). Other prioritization techniques are multi-voting with dots, monopoly money, Kano analysis, and fist of five.

Agile teams use different methods to manage work in progress (WIP). The Business sponsor believes that removing limits to work in progress will help the team take on more work and get their product delivered faster. What will you tell them?

WIP Limits ensure the team focuses on one main thing at a time, and avoids the time cost of switching tasks. In Agile, work is taken on based on the team velocity or rate of work. The Kanban board shows the WIP and who is working on what. Knowing the velocity allows you to ensure enough work is taken on, but not too much. Research has proven that multitasking and switching tasks actually reduces effectiveness as the team gets up to speed again.

You are working in an Agile team and preparing the Agile team charter. You work with the Agile team to ensure the team charter answers these four questions: Why are we doing this project? Who benefits and how?

What does "DONE" mean for the project? How are we going to work together? An Agile team charter typically covers Why are we doing the project. Who benefits and how. What does done look like, and how are we going to work together.

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?

What is the business value? Agile projects center 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.

You are working with the developers in an Agile team, who are using the test-driven development approach. They ask you whether they should operate using something called Red-Green-refactor. What are they referring to?

Where a test is written first that fails, then passes once the solution is developed, and can then be refactored or streamlined. The process of writing a test that initially fails, adding code until the test passes, then refactoring the code is part of test D

Kanban translates to "visual sign" or card, in Japanese. It is a form of visual management taken from Lean Manufacturing, for monitoring...

Work in Progress and enabling "Pull" and "Flow" Kanban is a framework from the Toyota Production System, utilized in software development and knowledge work. It focuses on the Kanban board, which shows and limits current work in progress.

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 value?

Working software over comprehensive documentation. The Agile Manifesto focuses on four core value statements, one of which is "working software over comprehensive documentation"

You are an Agile project manager working with the project sponsor in the beginning stages of an Agile project. The project sponsor mentions that they would like help creating the Project Charter. you tell them you will also do a Team Charter for your Agile team, that will include the project sponsor. What does this mean?

You will capture the Team values, Communication guidelines and Decision-making process separately to the project purpose, requirements and summary schedule. An Agile project manager charters both the project and the team. A project charter focuses on the business case, project purpose, high level requirements, stakeholders and risks. A Team Charter focuses on the agreements in how the team will operate is created as a team.

An executive in your organization approaches you about working in an Agile team. They have heard about Feature Driven Development and would like to try it as a "test and learn" in your team. What do they mean by this?

Your team will trial developing an overall model, then planning, designing, and building by those features. Agile Feature Driven Development starts with an overall feature model, then plans, designs and builds by those features. Once a feature is complete, the process can begin again, complete with any learning from the previous feature.

You are working in a project team who would like to add a few key Agile processes to their way of work in their quest to become more Agile. The project manager mentions performing root cause analysis when problems appear, focusing on features that bring in the most revenue with "pay per use", and daily stand-ups. What Agile method is she most likely referring to?

eXtreme Programming eXtreme Programming has 14 secondary practices a team can focus on, including root cause analysis when problems appear, focusing on features that bring in the most revenue with "pay per use", daily stand - ups, shrinking teams caused by improvements over time, and more.