ACP Prep-Cast Random #1

A stakeholder approaches a developer asking for the status of the project. How should the developer respond?

• Refer the stakeholder to the scrum master

• Refer the stakeholder to burndown and burnup charts

• Invite the stakeholder to a daily standup

• Invite the stakeholder to the upcoming retrospective

All of the following are true about how user stories should be prioritized and delivered except for?

• User stories are prioritized based on financial benefits, costs, risk, innovation, and knowledge.

• Prioritization would be easier if user stories are independent of one another.

• Prioritization of user stories can be altered in between iterations.

• User stories are delivered based on the order set by the product owner in the beginning of the project.

An agile project manager has contracted with another party to develop some of the work required for the project. The external contractor is also using agile project management. How should the progress of the contractor be assessed?

• Review the weekly progress reports from the contractor

• Review the contractor's release plans and attending the contractors daily stand up meetings

• Review the contractor's iteration plans

• Review released versions of the work

A distributed team has members living in different countries and time zones. They met in person at the start of the project, but they have primarily used video conferencing since the first meeting.

Which type of communication can the team only experience when co-located, no matter how much time and effort the team is willing to invest?

• Tacit communication

• Osmotic communication

• Oral communication

• Written communication

The product owner wants to assign users stories for the next iteration. The customer tells the product owner which user stories hold the highest value, while the product owner indicates which have the highest risk level and dependencies on other user stories. By the end of the meeting, they have a prioritized list of user stories in the product backlog, the most important of which will be discussed in the next iteration planning meeting. What process have the product owner and the customer just performed?

• Backlog filtering

• Kano analysis

• Backlog refinement

• Minimum viable product

A member of an agile project team gathered data about the project and discovered an opportunity for improvement. What is the best way for the team member to implement the change?

• Make the change, see what happens, then report the results during the retrospective meeting

• Ask the scrum master for permission to make the change and then report the results during a post-mortem

• Send an email to the manager to report the observation and ask for permission to make the change

• Inform the team of the opportunity for improvement and then make the change once the team supports it

During an estimation meeting, the team was unable to reach consensus about the level of effort required to implement a high priority very complex feature with many technical unknowns.

What is the best way to handle this situation?

• Remove the feature from the product backlog until it can be discussed with the product owner

• Assign the feature the highest value of story points identified in a planning poker session

• Allow time for a spike to be performed

• Have the team leader estimate the effort for the feature

A newly formed, collocated agile team was debating whether it would be best to use an electronic or a physical Kanban board for their new software development project. The team members do not fully understand their needs yet, but they know they want a place where stakeholders can gather around, discuss the status, and easily make changes. What is the best course of action for the team under these circumstances?

• Use a physical board since in Agile high-touch low-tech tools are always the best solution for any project

• Use an electronic board since the team will be working on a software development project

• Use any type of board as long as the team and the stakeholders can gather around and make changes

• Schedule a meeting with all project stakeholders each time there is a need for a discussion

A business expert has unique and relevant knowledge for the project. An agile leader has asked a business expert to sit in the same area as the development team for the duration of the project. The manager of the business expert has refused since the business expert is also required to be elsewhere to perform other day-to-day duties. What should the agile leader do next?

• Request that another business expert be assigned, one who is willing to sit with the development team

• Escalate this issue with the product owner and senior management since the team has to be collocated

• Engage the business expert to commit in regular, daily collaboration with the development team

• Ask development team to document all their questions for the expert

An XP development team discusses the size of the software release to be delivered in each iteration by their new project. What advice should an agile practitioner give to the team?

• Deliver small releases to demonstrate progress to the customer and stakeholders

• Deliver large releases to provide as much value to the customer as possible in one iteration

• For small projects deliver small releases, for big projects use large ones

• For small teams deliver small releases, for large teams use large ones