ACP Quiz

During the last few iteration of the agile project, the developers found themselves with many completed tasks. One team member suggested imposing an upper limit on the amount of work that the team takes on at any point during an iteration. What should an agile practitioner advise ?

• The team should not set an upper limit on the work in progress because that would reduce the team’s velocity

• The team should set an upper limit on the work in progress to reduce waste

• Consult the customer before setting an upper limit on the work in progress as the project goal is to add value to the customer

• Only the sponsor can approve limits that lower resource utilization and may lead to wasting project funds

The product roadmap for a customized lodging software system consists of, on-line room reservations, payment system, customer reward program, employee on-line scheduling, and in-room checkout. They requested the reservation system up and running as soon as possible to bring in revenue. What advice should the agile practitioner offer in this situation?

• Ask the client to delay the opening until the team can finish developing all features

• Recommend the client purchasing pre-packaged off-the-shelf software instead of the customized one

• Coach and influence the product owner to reduce low value requirements and prioritize the reservation system to be up and running

• Hire more developers to have all features ready for the date required by the customer

During a sprint, the product owner tells the team the priority of the items in the product backlog needs to change. What should the team do ?

• Continue building the increment in the current sprint

• Groom the product backlog

• Shift their effort to working on the higher-priority items

• Initiate a discussion with the sponsor about whether it’s appropriate to reprioritize items in the product backlog at this point

As a project manager in an agile environment, you notice that the team is reluctant to try new approaches because they fear failure. What action would you take to create a safe environment for innovation and learning ?

• Avoid any changes to the current workflow to maintain consistency and reduce risks.

• Establish strict penalties for failed experiments to discourage mistakes.

• Implement mandatory, documented processes for all new ideas to ensure they are thoroughly vetted before being tried.

• Encourage team members by rewarding efforts to try new approaches, regardless of the outcome.

In the middle of a sprint halfway through the project, a competitor comes out with new functionality that clearly surpasses what the team is trying to achieve during the sprint. What should the ScrumMaster do ?

• Ask the product owner whether the goal of the sprint is still appropriate

• Cancel the sprint so the team can redefine the user stories guiding the work for that increment

• Try to identify why this new functionality was missed during the research leading up to the project

• Cancel the sprint so the team can redefine the user stories guiding the work for that increment

An agile team wants to experiment with new technology during their next sprint. They believe if this trial run were successful, the technology would produce a better product and increase efficiency in the long run. The product owner opposes this idea saying it will cause the sprint to fail and put the whole project at risk. What is the best course of action for the agile coach to take in this scenario ?

• Support the team in their endeavour

   

• Support the product owner in their argument

• Consult with the customer

• Escalate the issue to the project sponsor

Scrum team members are geographically distributed across the globe. The team was in a video conference discussing steps to troubleshoot a critical found in the customer production system. The discussion turned into a heated debate where the team members blamed each other for the defect. How should the scrum respond ?

• Have the development team members work together to resolve this issue on their own

• Request that all development team members be on site for these types of troubleshooting sessions

• Facilitate the team discussion to ensure that the problem is resolved collaboratively in a professional way

• Wait until the retrospective meeting and review the team working agreements with the team

An agile team is working to meet an aggressive release goal. The team leader has recently notice that the performance of one of the team members has dropped and the team member seems to be communicating less in group discussions. What should the team leader do ?

• Meet with the team member and try to determine what motivates them

• Backfill their work load using other more productive teammates

• Discuss ways to improve performance at team retrospective

• Look for a replacement because agile teams require the best people

As the leader of an agile team, what is one thing you will focus on to help create a productive project environment ?

• Model the behaviour you want the team to avoid

• Use communication tools to monitor performance

• Empower the team to engage with end users

• Enable the team to make decisions about the project work

An experienced scrum master is starting a new project and is currently meeting with her development team to explain that servant leadership is one of her primary responsibilities. Which of the following is the best explanation of servant leadership ?

• Servant leaders impede the team from developing software too quickly by ensuring roadblocks are in place.

• Servant leaders shield the team from interruptions and help to ensure that team members have what they need to be productive constantly throughout the project.

• Servant leaders ensure that roadblocks are identified and removed during the sprint retrospective meeting.

• Servant leaders coordinate shared resources and critical dependencies during the daily scrum meeting to prevent burnout by allowing individuals some down time between tasks.