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Quiz Session - Attempts With Random Questions

PMI-ACP Exam Questions

Page 6 of 25

101.

Agile methods prefer generalizing specialists to be part of the development team. What do individuals on the team need to have?

  • Cross-functional skills to move between roles

  • A high level of specialization in their fields

  • A high sense of ownership in the project  

  • Novice skills in their fields to grow into their new roles

Correct answer: Cross-functional skills to move between roles

In an Agile project, the development or delivery team is responsible for building and testing the increment after each sprint. Agile methods prefer generalizing specialists to be part of the team. The concept of generalizing specialists calls for resources with cross-functional skills so that they can move between roles within teams.

Generalizing specialists do not necessarily have to be novices or have a high level of specialization in their fields, but they can be.

A high sense of ownership is ideal within the team, but it is not encompassed in the concept of generalizing specialists.

102.

What are the three pillars of Scrum? 

  • Transparency, inspection, and adaptation

  • Openness, courage, and focus 

  • Transparency, openness, and respect 

  • Commitment, focus, and openness 

Correct answer: Transparency, inspection, and adaptation

The three pillars of Scrum are transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Transparency is about providing visibility to everyone; inspection is about measuring the progress towards the goal; and adaptation involves adjusting the work based on what is found in the inspection. The other options list some Scrum values, which are: 

  1. Courage
  2. Commitment
  3. Openness
  4. Focus
  5. Respect

103.

According to Herzberg’s theory of motivation, which of the following is a hygiene agent?

  • Paycheck

  • Recognition  

  • Appreciation

  • Higher responsibility

Correct answer: Paycheck

Herzberg’s theory of motivation has two types of agents that affect team motivation:

  • Hygiene agents: These factors need to exist as a foundation to have at least a low level of performance. Examples include job security, paycheck, good working conditions, and relationships.
  • Motivating agents: These factors help enhance performance. Examples include opportunities, responsibility, appreciation, and recognition.

In this scenario, the options are all motivating factors except a paycheck, which is a hygiene factor.

104.

Agile methods promote effective communication among stakeholders through various tools and mechanisms. Which of the following is not one of them?

  • Kano analysis

  • Co-location

  • Daily stand-up meetings

  • Planning workshops

Correct answer: Kano analysis

Examples of tools and mechanisms that promote effective stakeholder communication are co-location, daily stand-up meetings, and planning workshops.

Kano analysis is a technique to classify customer preferences into four categories: delighters/exciters, satisfiers, dissatisfiers, and indifferent.

105.

During iteration planning, a Scrum master suspects the estimates provided by one of the developers may be inflated. The Scrum master proceeds to ask further questions of the developer, finding thay the developer was adding activities that were not within the scope of the task. 

In what stage of the Dreyfus model of adult skill acquisition is the Scrum master?

  • Proficient

  • Novice

  • Competent

  • Advanced beginner

Correct answer: Proficient

The Dreyfus model of adult skill acquisition describes five stages to show how adults progress through their learning to acquire a new skill:

  1. Novice: Follows existing rules
  2. Advanced beginner: Still follows existing rules but begins to understand the context of the rules. A guideline is used rather than a rule
  3. Competent: Begins to decide which rules are optimal for each situation
  4. Proficient: Begins to build a strategy rather than focusing on the rules. Becomes more emotionally involved in the task
  5. Expert: Intuitive approach where on-the-spot alternatives can be selected

In this scenario, the Scrum master is in the proficient stage of the Dreyfus model, suspecting the estimates may be inflated. He then engages in questioning rather than accusation to understand where the developer is coming from.

106.

Which of the following is true about an Agile requirements hierarchy?

  • User stories can be subdivided into tasks.

  • Tasks can be subdivided into epics.

  • User stories can be subdivided into features.

  • Epics can be subdivided into tasks.

Correct answer: User stories can be subdivided into tasks.

The Agile requirements hierarchy breaks down requirements in a hierarchy from broad to narrow. There are three ways to structure a requirements hierarchy:

1. Epics are subdivided into user stories, which are subdivided into tasks.

2. Epics are subdivided into features, then subdivided into user stories, and then subdivided into tasks.

3. Features are subdivided into epics, then subdivided into user stories, and then subdivided into tasks.

Tasks are always the lowest level in the hierarchy.

107.

A Scrum Master is plotting the team’s progress on a burnup chart. She notices that the scope since the last iteration has significantly increased. What could be a reason for this increase?

  • Scope creep   

  • Too many approved change requests 

  • Too many bugs identified in testing

  • Nice-to-have items that were implemented

Correct answer: Scope creep

Burnup charts show the amount of work completed over time. They start at zero and show how the team progresses through execution over time by increasing the story points completed until the work accepted is equal to the project scope. Burnup charts also show a flat curve to highlight the total project scope. The main advantage of this is that you can see when scope changes occur. In this scenario, the scope curve has significantly increased since the last iteration, as reflected in the burnup chart. From the options provided, the best answer is that the root cause could be scope creep.

Agile projects do not have a change request approval process. Bugs identified would not increase the scope of the project. Nice-to-have items would already be part of the product backlog and accounted for in the burnup chart; they would just have low priority or not be included at all.

108.

Which of the following is the best example of an empirical process? 

  • Adjusting diet and exercise plans on a monthly basis

  • Remodeling a bathroom 

  • Building a highway 

  • Reimaging a computer 

Correct answer: Adjusting diet and exercise plans on a monthly basis

Empirical processes are those that rely on observation and trial-and-error. These processes do not follow a standard recipe but rely on inspection and adaptation. Adjusting diet and exercise plans on a monthly basis is an example of measuring the fitness level of a person periodically and then adjusting diet and exercise for improved performance. The other options listed all have standard processes they follow and do not require observation and adaptation. All three are well-understood endeavors with discrete steps to completion.

109.

An Agile project manager and a developer are discussing some issues that the Development team found during testing. The Agile project manager advises approving the test in the report since the failure occurs in minor functionality that will probably not be used by the end customer and should not be visible during the upcoming sprint demo. The developer is torn between what to do. What Agile leadership principle does the project manager’s recommendation erode?

  • Practice and model ethical behavior

  • Provide safe environment for experimentation

  • Create a project vision to drive the team’s work

  • Deliver product functionality fast

Correct Answer: Practice and model ethical behavior

The project manager’s recommendation is unethical since this person is trying to cut corners at the expense of sprint success. If this functionality, even if minor, is being developed during the sprint, then it has been identified as high-priority and value-adding to the product by the Product Owner. Thus, approving the test when it actually fails would equate to misrepresenting progress.

110.

Laura is looking to compare the return of two projects. Project X has a present value (PV) of $200,000, and Project Z has a PV equal to $400,000. How should Laura go about determining which project will have the highest return?

  • Laura needs to choose the highest PV between the projects.

  • Laura needs to convert PV values into NPV values.

  • Laura needs to convert PV into FV.

  • Laura needs to subtract the original investment from the revenue.

Correct answer: Laura needs to choose the highest PV between the projects.

Present value (PV) calculates the worth of an amount of money in present terms. In this case, PV is already provided for each project, so Laura will just need to choose the project with the highest PV. Project Z will be the most profitable. 

The returns of each project have already been converted into present terms (probably from a future time when the cash inflows will start). Thus, there is no need to calculate future value (FV). There is no need to subtract the original investment to compare which project would have the highest return.

Net present value (NPV) would help calculate a more precise projection of the return since it calculates the project's present value over multiple periods and subtracts the total investment from the total (net) present value of cash inflows over some time. NPV requires that inflation and interest rates be projected. In this case, we do not have those numbers. Laura does have everything she needs to just use PV to determine which project will have the highest return.

111.

A stakeholder approaches the product owner to complain that the feature he requested will not be completed in the next sprint. The stakeholder threatens to escalate the issue if the feature is not added to the project plan for delivery in the next month. 

What should the product owner do? 

  • Meet with the stakeholder to show him the product backlog and explain the prioritization schemes used in this project.

  • Increase the priority to the feature the stakeholder requested so it gets done in the upcoming sprint.

  • Let the stakeholder escalate the issue so that this can be resolved at higher levels.

  • Send the project plan to the stakeholder to review at their leisure.

Correct answer: Meet with the stakeholder to show him the product backlog and explain the prioritization schemes used in this project.

The stakeholder does not know why the feature requested did not make the next sprint. The stakeholder needs to be educated on how feature requests are added to the backlog and the team's prioritization schemes. This will help him understand why the feature is not included in the next iteration.

The fact that a stakeholder wants a feature done ASAP does not mean that the Product Owner should do it. If this were the case, almost everything in the backlog would have a high priority, making it difficult for the team to discern the most valuable to deliver. Higher organizational levels will not resolve this issue in a truly Agile environment. Agile’s first priority is delivering value to the customer as soon as possible, which is what the prioritized backlog attempts to do. There is probably no project plan to send for review since Agile favors working software over documentation, as stated in the second Agile value, per the Agile Manifesto.

112.

Daniela is looking at the present value of two projects and trying to conclude which project is the most profitable to undertake. Project X is projected to earn the organization $300,000 in two years, and Project Z $500,000 in three years. Daniela calculates the present value (PV) of both projects as $220,000 for  Project X and $350,000 for Project Z. 

Which project is the most profitable to undertake? 

  • Project Z 

  • Both projects  

  • Neither project

  • Project X 

Correct answer: Project Z 

Present value (PV) calculates the worth of an amount of money in the future in present terms. If we compare the present values for both projects, we can see that Project Z has the highest value. Daniela should choose to undertake this project.

113.

A new tester in the team is doing ad-hoc, un-scripted testing of the features recently completed by the Development team. The tester is capturing notes on what’s being tested and the results of what he observes as he goes. What kind of testing is this tester doing?

  • Exploratory testing

  • Test-driven development

  • Unit testing

  • Refactoring

Correct answer: Exploratory testing

Exploratory testing lets the tester take any direction he/she desires, providing a more ad-hoc and spontaneous way of testing the product. The tester will often pursue different “what if” scenarios and explore different functionalities to look for improvements. This type of testing is complementary to automated testing, which follows a defined script.

Test-driven development is the practice of writing tests before the code is written. The idea is that developers need to think about how the functionality should be used and, thus, tested before they think about writing the code. The tests will initially fail because the code has not yet been written. Refactoring is an activity to streamline the code base without changing the functionality. Unit testing allows for more granular testing of the code being built, so that as the code expands, it can continue to catch any issues.

114.

An Agile project manager has set up five consecutive sprints for the team to build the product and one final sprint for testing and code clean-up before the final release of the product. What is a major issue with this approach?

  • Delaying testing and clean-up activities increases technical debt which can cause rework.

  • Performing code clean-up and testing at the same time can cause issues in the final product.

  • Delaying testing and clean-up activities causes the cost of change to be lower as the release approaches.

  • Performing code clean-up and testing should be done in more than one sprint since any issues in these activities could be disastrous.

Correct answer: Delaying testing and clean-up activities increases technical debt which can cause rework.

Technical debt is a backlog or list of work that should be done in the project while the product is being built but was not done. This technical debt increases the cost of development in the future because we are delaying what we should really be doing as we build the product. Examples of technical debt are software code clean-up, maintenance, and standardization.

In this scenario, testing and code clean-up are delayed right before the product is released. This causes an increase in technical debt which increases the cost of development, which can cause rework. The team should be doing testing and code clean-up as they are building the product in each sprint, not all at the end.

115.

The Scrum team has been working on an Agile project for over a year. They have become very effective in completing work with high quality and on time for the last few iterations. The Scrum Master has plotted the team’s velocity for all iterations in a chart. What would the velocity chart likely show?

  • The velocity curve has started to plateau in the last iterations.

  • The velocity curve is decreasing over time.

  • The velocity curve is increasing over time.

  • The projected and actual velocity curves are diverging significantly.

Correct answer: The velocity curve has started to plateau in the last iterations.

Velocity is the measure of a team’s capacity per iteration. A velocity chart would show the story points completed per iteration over the iterations. When a team is first formed, the velocity chart will usually vary quite significantly in the first iterations. However, the team will start becoming very effective at working with each other and with the way the team and project operate. Eventually, this will be reflected in the velocity chart, stabilizing until it reaches a plateau.

116.

Empowered teams share which two characteristics?

  • Self-directing and self-organizing

  • Self-directing and self-regulating

  • Self-organizing and self-norming

  • Self-regulating and self-adjusting

Correct answer: Self-directing and self-organizing

Empowered teams are characterized by the following:

  • Self-organizing: The team can decide how to accomplish its work and adjust its inner workings as it sees fit.
  • Self-directing: The team is free from command-and-control management and is enabled to determine how to implement its work best.

Self-regulating, self-norming, and self-adjusting are not terms used in Agile. 

117.

Lee is an Agile project manager who is guiding the team through the Scrum approach. The team has completed the sprint review successfully and the Product Owner has indicated the definition of done has been fulfilled. The development team is not sure what the next step should be. What should be Lee's advice? 

  • The team should perform a sprint retrospective.

  • The team should move to plan the next sprint.

  • The team should move to groom the product backlog.

  • The team should start the next sprint as soon as possible.

Correct answer: The team should perform a sprint retrospective.

After the sprint review has concluded at the end of each sprint, a sprint retrospective needs to take place to review and discuss what worked and did not work well in the last sprint. This needs to be done before moving on to any planning activities for the next sprint so that lessons can be incorporated in future iterations. 

118.

Ariana has collected some metrics on the Agile project she is facilitating. The team has chosen to do four-week iterations. On average, the team completes 80 story points per iteration. The backlog has 400 story points remaining. Ariana would like to know what the projected completion date is for her project. How should she go about calculating the completion date?

  • Divide the story points remaining by the number of story points per iteration

  • Divide the story points remaining by the iteration length and subtract the story points per iteration

  • Divide the story points per iteration by the iteration length, and then divide that number from the number of story points remaining in the backlog

  • Multiply the story points per iteration by the iteration length, and then divide that number from the number of story points remaining in the backlog

Correct answer: Divide the story points remaining by the number of story points per iteration

To calculate the project’s completion date, Ariana will need to take the number of story points remaining in the backlog (400) and divide it by the number of story points per iteration (80). This will result in 5 iterations left to complete the project.

The remaining answers do not provide valid results.

119.

A Scrum Master observed that there was conflict among team members. Using the conflict resolution framework developed by Speed B. Leas, the project manager determined they were dealing with a Level 2 conflict. What should the Scrum Master do then, using this framework?

  • Give the team a chance to fix the conflict themselves

  • Help each party to compromise to reach a consensus

  • Intervene immediately to deescalate the issue

  • Report it to an immediate manager to force the team to fix it

Correct answer: Give the team a chance to fix the conflict themselves

Using the conflict resolution framework developed by Speed B. Leas, conflict identified at Levels 1 through 3 should be left to the team to fix directly. This provides a way for the team to learn to reach a consensus through discomfort. At the end of the day, the team will be stronger if it is able to resolve its differences together. If the situation does not improve, the project manager will need to get involved to deescalate the situation.

120.

Elisa is attending the daily stand-up meeting remotely while also completing a report for another project she is part of. What example of lean waste is this? 

  • Task switching 

  • Motion

  • Extra features

  • Defects 

Correct answer: Task switching 

Task switching is one of the seven lean wastes. These wastes include team members not performing one task at a time but hopping between activities, which can create low-quality and partially done work. The other six lean waste types are:

  • Waiting
  • Defects
  • Extra features
  • Extra processes
  • Motion
  • Partially done work
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