PMP Question

You are working on an agile project where there are vastly differing levels of product knowledge within your team. The scrum master suggests that you try to gain knowledge by osmosis, because the project information may be lost when only communicating by email. What will you do next?

• Co-locate the team to capture the benefit of each person's tacit knowledge.

• Refer to the organizational process assets to capture the team's explicit knowledge.

• Refer to the project's knowledge management system to capture the project's explicit knowledge.

• create a process to capture the team's tacit knowledge.

Answer explanation

Learning by Osmosis is capturing information from the immediate surroundings, such as co-locating the team. Tacit knowledge is information that is not straight forward, such as experience, insights, and practical knowledge or skill. Explicit knowledge can be readily codified using words, a process, pictures.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p77, "Explicit and tacit knowledge"

You are working as a Product Owner, and have placed high level information about the product in the product backlog, and the highest priority feature at the top. Senior users informing the project are unable to clearly articulate their requirements, and are concerned that the product will not truly meet their needs. What will you do next?

• Proceed with the highest priority item during the first sprint.

• Work with the customer to create mock-ups and prototypes to discover what works for them.

• Ask your stakeholders to submit a change request and update the project scope accordingly.

• Begin breaking the work down into user stories to place in the sprint

Answer explanation

On projects that do not have clearly defined requirements prototypes, demonstrations, storyboards and mock-ups can be used to evolve the requirements. In these situations, Stakeholders are more likely to take an "II know it when I see it" approach.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p83, "Evolving and discovering requirements."

You are gathering requirements for a new feature in a customer management system. The product owner has given a user interface feature as the next highest priority, and you are co-located with the team receiving the benefits. What will you do next?

• Show the customer team how the new user interface will look, as they will be using it.

• Communicate the requirements to developers with a coherent, logical flow of ideas.

• Elicit requirements into user stories using acceptance criteria that is clear, verifiable and traceable.

• Show the mock up or prototype to the developers and ask them to develop based on that.

Answer explanation

Elicitation means to draw out. Well-documented requirements are Clear, Concise, Verifiable, Consistent, Complete and Traceable. A prototype úseful but may need more information for developers to turn into a product. Clear purpose, coherent ideas, controlling flow, concise expression and correct grammar are part of the Five C's of communication.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p83, "Requirements Elicitation"

You are working in an agile team who are trying to break down the project requirements and scope. They have created a scope statement and work breakdown structure, but are not sure how it will work now that they are using sprints and user stories. What will you do next?

• Assign activities to each of the scope items in the WBS, and place them on a Gantt Chart.

• Create a product roadmap with the team, using the lowest, most detailed part of the WBS.

• Group the work by large themes of customer value, shown as Epics, then break them down into smaller user stories to complete in each sprint.

• Ask the team to trace the requirements properly using a Requirements traceability Matrix.

Answer explanation

One way to identify scope is identifying the themes of customer value, associated by a common factor such as functionality, data source or security level. These are shown as Epics, which are too big to complete in a sprint, and have smaller user stories within them.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p84, "Scope decomposition."

Your project team are trialling an agile way of work. The Product Owner has a clear vision for the product. There is confusion in the team as to how much work should be done on a user story before it is taken to the sprint review, and how they will know a story is complete. What will you do next?

• Refer to the user story acceptance criteria and your team's Definition of Done.

• Review the user story with multiple customers and senior users to ensure it is correct.

• Ask the product owner to sign off on the completed user story.

• Ensure quality testing on the user story is completed and passed.

Answer explanation

Different ways to describe component completion include acceptance or completion criteria, technical performance measures, and Definition of Done. Quality testing will be done to the acceptance criteria, as will

Product Owner sign off.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p85, "Completion of deliverables"

You have been working closely with the quality manager of your project, planning the budget for the project phase that is due to begin in the next two months. They mention the need to budget for appraisal costs, to avoid quality issues in the future. What will you do next?

• Ensure there is enough for training the staff to reduce the number of errors.

• Ensure there is enough for a quality tester to verify the deliverables against agreed specifications.

• Ensure there is enough to create a quality assurance plan.

• Ensure there is enough to allow for rework or rectification when defects are found.

Answer explanation

This question is on the Cost of Quality. Prevention costs are training or quality planning. Appraisal costs are verification or audits. Internal failure is waste, defects, rework. External failure is customer complaints, repairs and servicing, warranty claims.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p89, "Cost of Quality"

Your agile project has recently had multiple quality issues. Project features have been prioritised by the Product Owner, and broken down into user stories. What will you do to help reduce the cost of quality issues the most?

• Quality test each user story according to its acceptance criteria before release.

• Advise the team that any quality defects will come out of their bonus.

• Perform testing all in one go at the end, to reduce the cost of testing resources.

• Ensure a "triad" of developer, tester and customer is involved during requirements and design.

Answer explanation

This question is about the Cost of Change. The cost is least during requirements and design, is 20x during build, 50 during test, and 150x if a defect has to be rectified in production. If the requirements, design, and acceptance criteria is incorrect, extra quality testing will not help.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p90, "Cost of Change"

You are working in an agile team where executives in the team you are delivering to are asking for a large display of reports to be created every two weeks, showing how the project is tracking and updating them on the cost and benefits. What will you do next?

• Collect the planned value versus earned value to show the executives any variance in the plan.

• Co-locate the team with the executives so they can answer any questions as they arise.

• Suggest a demonstration of the feature developed during each sprint instead, and a burndown chart of future product features.

• Create the desired reports for the executives to keep them happy.

Answer explanation

The value of measurements is not in the collection and dissemination of the data, but is in how to use the data to take appropriate action. Agile projects demonstrate usable value and features delivered and use live information radiators instead of large reports to stakeholders.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p94, "Measurement Performance Domain"

Multiple features have been released, but they are not having the effect the product owner believes they should. Your team are using some Key Performance Indicators to track performance, and you agree to move to more Leading indicators. What could you use as examples of Leading indicators for your project?

• An increase in customer usage once the feature is released, such as sales and repeat purchasing.

• Stakeholders who are not engaged and lack of a risk management process.

• Velocity of the work completed each sprint and cycle time of user stories.

• Variance in the schedule between planned and actual time taken.

Answer explanation

There are two types of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Leading and Lagging. Leading predict changes or trends in the project, and include Lack of a risk management process, stakeholders who are not engaged, poorly defined project success criteria. Lagging indicators include work completed or schedule variance.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p96, "Leading Indicators"

You are working in an agile project team that has increased in size and complexity since the project began. In reviewing the throughput of work with your team, you notice fewer and fewer user stories being completed, and the roadmap of features scheduled to go live is being pushed out. What will you do next?

• Place a limit on the work in progress and work with the team to reduce the cycle time.

• Increase meetings with the team so everyone can collaborate together.

• Ask the team to work overtime until the number of features reduces.

• Put a Pull system in place, where the team can pull work only when they are ready.

Answer explanation

With more work, different tasks and increased complexity, the team are likely context switching between too many different things. Kanban aims to limit the work in progress to avoid multi-tasking. Other things we can use are reducing queue size and batch sizes, and reviewing process efficiency.

(PMBOK Guide) - Seventh Edition, 2021, p99, "What to measure: Delivery"