Resource (Chapter 9)

Due to uncertain market requirements in the foreseeable future, a company transition from traditional to agile methods. To support the transition, the company allocates funds for the personal and professional development of its staff. The funds are to be distributed among the various projects and spent gradually as the project progress from one iteration to another.

What will indicate to the company’s management that the transition was successful?

• Team members obey the project managers’ orders

• The scope of future projects can be planned upfront

• The role of the project manager is no longer required

• Team members are capable of acting as servant leaders

A project to integrate hardware and software is in execution. The hardware requirements are well-defined with a detailed WBS. The software requirements, however are vague and frequently change, forcing the team to develop the product incrementally with short feedback loops. The team is frustrated by frequency of changes and the chaos that they create.

How should the project manager respond?

• Ignore the team’s frustration and focus on the project goals

• Absorb the team frustrations and demonstrate positivity

• Institute a strict change control process for software development

• Eliminate the short feedback loops to allow more flexibility

A conflict between the project manager and the team has been going on for a while, negatively impacting the team’s morale and jeopardizing the project’s goals. To find the appropriate conflict resolution technique, the project manager maps the desire to satisfy the parties’ concerns on chart. Based on the outcome of this mapping exercise, the project manager decides to seek a collaborative solution.

Given the map below, what letter most likely represents the project manager’s decision?

• A

• B

• C

• D

• E

An agile leader facilitates a retrospective, where team members angrily blame each other for violating working agreements.

What should the agile leader do first?

• Ignore the situation and continue the retrospective as planned

• Request that the team members discuss their feeling openly

• Be aware of their own personal emotions to keep them in check

• Do whatever is needed to make everyone at the meeting happy

A conflict between the project manager and the team has been going on for a while, negatively impacting the team’s morale and jeopardizing the project’s goals. To find the appropriate conflict resolution technique, the project manager maps the desire to satisfy the parties’ concerns on chart. Based on the outcome of this mapping exercise, the project manager decides to smooth the conflict.

Given the map below, what letter most likely represents the project manager’s decision?

• A

• B

• C

• D

• E

A project manager uses a bottom-up approach in creating estimates for the number of programmers with the appropriate skill set that will be required for the project. Once the team resources have been estimated, what should the project manager do next?

• Develop the resource management plan

• Update the requirements traceability matrix

• Assign the identified resources as risk owners

• Create the resource breakdown structure

While the first phase of a construction project was as success, one of the two lead architects suddenly had to resign from her position due to a conflict of interest within the company.

What should the project manager do immediately to manage the team composition?

• Write a work performance report to generate awareness of the lead architect’s departure

• Update the project organizational chart to reflect the team change

• Review the change management plan and submit a change request

• Use float on the critical path to prevent schedule slippage due to this new risk

An agile leader has been tasked with putting together a team for a complex software development project with an aggressive schedule planned to be completed in six months using an adaptive development approach.  Most of the team members will be hired externally, and the remaining members will be brought from within the performing organization

What hiring strategy will support the team’s and project’s adaptability and resiliency?

• Select individuals with broad skill sets as well as experts with knowledge in each required skill area

• Choose team members with extensive knowledge of change control processes and procedures

• Identify each required skill area and select the team member that has the best qualifications for that area

• Seek team members who will be able to complete the project in four instead of six months

A key team member returns from a scheduled vacation abroad just in time to begin developing a product increment planned for the current sprint. However, due to an epidemic that broke out at the vacation destination, the team member will need to be in quarantine for two weeks. Without this key resource, the sprint will likely fail

What is the best course of action for the project leader?

• Explore virtual options for the team collaboration

• Delay the project by two weeks until the key resource is out of quarantine

• Acquire a replacement for the key resource

• Have the remaining team members swarm on the key resource’s tasks

You are managing a project team that has recently been expanded by new team members working remotely from another country. Their roles have been outlined to form a preliminary team charter. Nevertheless, you have noticed a considerable lack of acceptance of cultural differences in the team, resulting in frequent conflicts

Which of the following techniques could help you in this situation? (Choose three)

• Focus groups

• Role definition

• Ground rules

• Ability tests

• Meetings