Domain 4

Team Performance

1- At the iteration review meeting, several stakeholders are confused and concerned with the software being
demonstrated as it does not represent their expectations or priorities. Of the following, which is the most likely
cause of this situation?

A) The stakeholders not attending the daily standup meetings

B) The product owner not properly grooming the product backlog

C) The team not properly defining when a user story is done

D) The product owner not adequately defining the acceptance criteria

Answer: B

The product owner, as a proxy for the customer, is responsible for maintaining the product backlog so that it
always represents the customers changing business requirements and priority. The situation suggests that there
was a gap between the stakeholder’s expectation and what was developed and demonstrated at the iteration
review.

2- In order to enable osmotic communication, a project manager ensured that all team members who needed to
communicate often with each other were co-located. This worked well for the team until the technical lead
complained about the noise around him, preventing him from focusing on some difficult programming tasks.
The project manager suggested an idea where the technical lead should not be disturbed by the discussions of
his teammates. What was the project manager referring to?

A) Cave and common

B) Tacit knowledge

C) Adaptive communication

D) Bus-length communication

Answer: A

“Cave and common” refer to two different areas in a workplace. Common is the area where most of the work is
done most of the time by most of the team members. Caves are private quite spaces where the team members
can work on their own when they need to focus and want to avoid being distracted.

3- You have been assigned to lead a complex agile project at an organization with historically high employee
turnover rate. Give high turnover can be disruptive and result in a loss of critical project knowledge and
experience, what approach below is most likely to increase project knowledge across the team and thus
minimize the impact of such a loss due to turnover?
A) Set up more team building exercises

B) Contact the Human Resource department and determine the root cause of high employee turnover rate

C) Have the team co-located and developers work closely with the customer in developing user stories

D) Work with resource managers to add more team members

Answer: C

Having team members work together face-to-face will increase the familiarity with each other’s work. Having
developers work closely with customers when stories are developed will also increase project knowledge across
the team.

4- An agile team has moved past the pleasantries of being a new to its current state where many conflicts have
begun to arise. Tensions are running high and the dialogue has gotten harsh. Using Paul Hersey’s situational
leadership model, what actions should the team leader take in order to remove impediments while keeping the
team from imploding, so they can perform better as a team?

A) Share the decision making on how tasks should be accomplished and how to resolve the conflicts

B) Provide direction as well as support for the team to resolve the conflicts

C) Stay involved in decisions and monitor progress, while passing the responsibility and process to team concerning
how to resolve these conflicts

D) Provide clear and frequent directives to team members as to what, how, why, when and where to perform their
tasks and how to resolve these conflicts

Answer: B

This choice corresponds to the model Selling or Coaching Style or S2 (high directive/ high supportive).

5- An agile project manager is working on a hybrid project where her responsibilities include both acting as
project scrum master, and providing periodic performance reports to senior management. The project sponsor
has suggested that she track the individual velocity of each of the project team members rather than the team
as a whole to monitor project progress. What action should she take next?

A) Track and report both team velocity and individual velocity to monitor project team performance

B) Track and report only team velocity to monitor project team performance

C) Track only average individual velocity to monitor project team performance

D) Track either team velocity or individual velocity to monitor project team performance

Answer: B

Individuals should be given every incentive possible to work as a team. Team velocity should matter most ideally as
a team you operate better and more efficiently than as individuals.
6- Distributed members of an agile team preferred to use a physical task board. At least once a day, they sent
each other photos of the board. What should the project manager do about such a practice?

A) Do nothing, as it is up to the team to decide which method or tool to use

B) Encourage use of an electronic communication tool since the team is distributed

C) Resolve the issue with the product owner based on the rules agreed upon the strategy meeting

D) Call for a meeting with external and internal stakeholders to resolve this issue

Answer: A

Agile teams are self-organizing, and are empowered to make decisions about their own work.

7- Several team members seem disinterested in the daily standup meeting and are carrying on a side
conversation. What should an agile practitioner do first?

A) Inform their functional managers after the meeting

B) Address the issue on the spot since it is an interruption to the rest of the team

C) Ignore the issue and let the meeting continue

D) Let the team address the issue since they are self-managed

Answer: D

It is best for the team to uphold its own ground rules. If, however, the disruption continues for too long, an agile
leader should step in.

8- An agile coach has made sure to create a collaborative environment for her team members by co-locating
them and providing the opportunity for osmotic communication. She also made some private work spaces
available in case some team members wished to meet privately without distributing other team members. What
is the name of this co-located and collaborative environment where team members can perform osmotic
communication?

A) Common area

B) Co-located area

C) Cubicle area

D) Collaborative area

Answer: A

The ‘common ‘area is organized to maximize co-location, osmotic communication and information transfer. The
‘cave ‘portion of the room layout is organized to give people a private place to check e-mail, make phone calls,
take care of their need for separation, and deliver private updates to stakeholders who are external to the project
team
9- A junior team member new to agile has joined an existing team. How should an agile practitioner respond?

A) Pair this person with a more senior team member

B) Provide coaching on the expectations of agile team members

C) Pair this person with another junior team member

D) Assign this person some minor tasks before letting them on work that is more important

Answer: B

Someone new to agile needs to be coached on its practices in order to help the team member contribute.

10- An agile project sponsor has requested to see the impact of the scope changes requested by the customer
throughout the lifecycle of the project. What information radiator would an agile practitioner recommend to the
sponsor to look at?

A) Burndown chart

B) Burnup chart

C) Velocity chart

D) Scope baseline

Answer: B

Burnup charts allow one to see changes in scope. Typically, scope increase is represented by a step up in the
chart’s horizontal line representing the initial scope.

11- The members of an agile team have been very productive for the last four sprints. However, the current
sprint is much more complex. Two team members have spent days arguing over the best technical approach to
the product increment, while the rest of the team were quite and disinterested. Where is the team on
Tuckman’s ladder?

A) Swarming

B) Storming

C) Performing

D) Conflicting

Answer: B

In storming stage, the team begins to address the project work, technical decisions, and project management
approach. The environment can be counterproductive if the team is not collaborating with each other.

12- A stakeholder is new to Agile and asks a developer for an update on the project. How should the developer
respond?

A) Refer the stakeholder to the scrum master

B) Refer the stakeholder to burndown and burnup charts

C) Invite the stakeholder to a daily standup

D) Invite the stakeholder to the upcoming retrospective

Answer: B

‘Information radiator’ is an agile term for highly visible displays of information. These displays include large charts,
graphs, and other project data. Sometimes called ‘visual controls’, these tools are posted in high traffic areas to
inform stakeholders quickly about the project’s status. While burndown and burnup charts do not display the
whole project status, they are examples of the information radiators and therefore represent the best option
among the answer choices given.

13- When comparing two agile practitioners, the older one has less overall software development experience,
but the younger one has far more experience using a new technology. In their culture, older people are
customarily given utmost respect and authority. The younger practitioner has noticed some errors in the code
turned in by the more senior teammate. What should the agile practitioner do next?

A) Say nothing out of respect for the senior teammate culture

B) Set up a code review, where everyone reviews each other’s work

C) Write a respectful email to avoid engaging with the senior team mate directly

D) Request another team mate who is more or less the same age as the programmer to provide the feedback

Answer: B

A code review would be an equitable and respectful way to address the errors, where all members of the team can
help to improve each other’s code.

14- 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?

A) Request that another business expert to assigned, one who is welling to sit with the development team

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

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

D) Ask development team to document all their questions for the expert

Answer: C

The important point is for the expert to be in close communication and collaboration with the development team.
Sitting next to each other is one of many ways to achieve that goal.
15- A scrum master is tasked with removing impediments and resolving conflicts, which service as roadblocks for
the formed team. However, at the daily stand-up meetings, the team members avoid conflict altogether due to
lack of trust among them. What stage of Tuckman’s model is being extended in this situation, and what can the
scrum master do to help the team to move onto the next stage?

A) Storming, and the scrum master needs to help navigate the conflict towards high performance

B) Norming, and the scrum master needs to help teams put conflict aside as unhealthy and nonproductive

C) Performing, and the scrum master needs to ensure conflict is mitigated to keep the team on task at this stage

D) Forming, and the scrum master needs to help the team acknowledge that conflict is productive and necessary

Answer: D

The forming stage of team development is characterized by low level of trust and conflict avoidance among the
team members. Agile leaders should help the team members build trust and understand that conflict is a positive
thing that stimulates constructive disagreement and healthy decision making process.

16- Due to a limited budget, the scrum technical lead is also acting as product owner. Before the first sprint, the
technical lead worked with senior management to develop user stories. At the product demonstration after the
first sprint, senior management was disappointed as the product was not as expected. What is the technical
lead’s best course of action in this situation?

A) Ask the scrum master to take over the product owner responsibilities since they have the most agile experience
on agile projects

B) Distribute the product owner responsibilities among the team members since this is an acceptable practice for
self-directing teams with generalizing specialists

C) Ask senior management to provide a dedicated product owner to reduce potential misunderstanding between
the development team and senior management

D) Continue to fill the role of product owner since this is an acceptable practice for self-directing teams to reduce
team size and bottlenecks

Answer: C

According to scrum best practices, the product owner role should be assigned to a dedicated individual. This
separation should reduce potential misunderstandings between the development team and senior management.

17- The technical leads on an agile team were heavily debating the best approach on what user stories from the
product backlog to develop first. One wanted early wins by leaving the most difficult code to the end, while the
other argued that complex stories should be developed as early as possible with the belief that even the team
would fail at first, these initial failures would make the team more resilient. In what order should the team
complete the user stories?

A) Should the easiest user stories first

B) Should the most difficult user stories first

C) Schedule the most difficult user stories first if the team is confident they can solve any related issues
D) Schedule the easiest user stories last

Answer: C

This option allows the team to reduce overall project risk sooner while balancing the need for early wins and pride-
in-accomplishment.

18- At the end of the sprint, the agile team has delivered four user stories estimated at a total of 28 story points
that were 100% complete per definition of done, while one user story estimated at 5 story points was 70%
complete. What is the team’s velocity for this sprint?

A) 33

B) 31.5

C) 28

D) 32

Answer: C

The team will only receive credit for the story points assigned to a user story if the user story is 100% complete
according to the definition of done at the end of the sprint. You may have thought that the development team’s
velocity for this sprint was 31.5 based on the fifth user story being 70% done. However, the development team
does not receive the 5 story points credits for the fifth user story since it was not 100% complete according to the
definition of done at the end of the sprint.

19- A product manager is talking to the human resource department staff about obtaining resources to create an
agile team to build what the organization aspires to be its bestselling product. What is the best approach to take
when creating this new agile team?

A) Hire 20 new members into the team

B) Hire virtual team to save money

C) Hire team members who are capable of working on tasks outside their formal job titles

D) Hire the best talent even if they will work on the project tasks only part time

Answer: C

Agile teams aim to have generalized specialists, so any team member can perform tasks outside their traditional
job title.

20- A distributed team has members living in different countries and time zones. They met in person at the start
of the project, but they 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?

A) Face-to-face communication
B) Oral communication

C) Osmotic communication

D) Written communication

Answer: C

Team members can only experience continuous osmotic communication when team members are co-located no
matter what digital tools are provided to the team.

21- Which of the following would be the most helpful in creating a collaborative work environment?

A) Physical co-location

B) Cave and common

C) Tacit knowledge

D) Cultural diversity

Answer: A

Physical co-location, when possible, is one of the most effective ways to create a collaborative work environment.
Physical co-location enables the face-to-face interaction among the team members, which contribute to a
collaborative work environment.

22- An experienced agile practitioner was explaining the benefits of empowered, self-organizing, and self-
directing teams. Some agile team members then complained that their manager is not very agile as
demonstrated by their very directive style of communication. How would the agile practitioner most likely
respond to this comment?

A) The team is still in the storming stage, which require a lot of direction

B) The team is already in the norming stage, which requires a lot of direction

C) The project has a very tight schedule and must be managed by directives

D) Theory is one thing, and real life is a totally different story

Answer: A

Teams in storming stage of their formation need a lot of support and direction from their managers.

23- A new coach on an agile completed a preliminary assessment, which indicates that with the exception of a
couple of members, the team appears ready and excited about this new project. What is the next logical step for
the agile coach to take to motivate each team member?

A) Remove the team members who do not appear to be ready to work

B) Plan an exciting kick-off meeting to increase project interest

C) Suggest that the team members that do not seem as interested or excited, not be given important or critical
roles on the project

D) Schedule and conduct one-on-one meetings with all team members all team members to elicit their interest and
thoughts about the project.

Answer: D

The coach should meet one-to one with all your team members, not just the ones who didn’t appear as interested
or excited about new project. Learning about each team member and their interests will give the agile coach the
best perspective with which to make recommendations and perhaps identify project tasks that individuals would
be passionate about executing.

24- A junior agile practitioner is learning that utilizes burnup charts to demonstrate the delivery of value. What
is a burnup chart and what does it show?

A) A list of features and tasks against the remaining story points in a product backlog

B) A graph that shows the accumulation of tested and working features over time

C) A chart that gives full credit to completed requirements, design, and coding

D) A diagram of integrated user stories prioritized by the cost, scope, and time

Answer: B

A burnup chart shows the accumulation of tested and working feature over time.

25- A senior developer on an agile team is very technically competent but he finds it very difficult to concentrate
in the war area where his co-located. His desk is also located near the break room area, which makes matters
worse, so he is getting very frustrated. The developer makes a request to the scrum master that he be allowed
to use a small isolated office, away from the rest of the team. What should the scrum master do?

A) Provide the developer with noise-canceling headphones and a “do not disturb” sign to be display at all time

B) Do nothing. The developer should understand that noise is a part of a team working environment on agile
projects

C) Suggest creating a working agreement where team members can use a “ do not disturb” sign and noise-
canceling headphones while working

D) Provide the developer with the private office away from the rest of the team to be used on occasion

Answer: D

A private office would isolate the developer from the rest of the team when the developer needs to focus. This is
referred to as a “cave” and is part of the caves and common agile practice.

26- A scrum team is working together on user stories for an iteration. Based on lessons learned from the last
iteration, the team intends to do more swarming in this iteration. How would their behavior change?
A) All team members would work on the same user story at the same time

B) The team would hold more team meetings

C) Each team member would be in charge of a user story and assign others to work on it

D) One or more team members would work on a user story until it is done

Answer: D

In swarming, the team members organize themselves into teamlets consisting of one or more members. The
teamlet focuses on the user story until it is done.

27- A new developer has joined an agile team in the middle of a project execution. During the tour of the work
area, the scrum master gave a brief overview of the agile practices used by the team and introduced the new
developer to the team members. What should the scrum master do next?

A) Set up a project kick-off meeting to introduce the new developer

B) Let the team members introduce the project to the new developer

C) Assign the new developer a project task that they can easily accomplish

D) Ask the new developer to read the team’s ground rules and processes

Answer: B

This opportunity empowers team members. It provides a leadership opportunity as well as a strong sense of
ownership for the project.

28- New complex technology is being used on an agile project. The constantly changing priorities, strict
deadlines, and the customer’s lack of familiarity with agile delivery methods have left the team members
stressed, exhausted, and frustrated. Many of them regularly came to see the team lead complaining about
issues. What should the team lead do first?

A) Resign from their position

B) Absorb the frustration of the team

C) Escalate the issue to management

D) Replace the team members with experienced practitioner who are familiar with the new technology

Answer: B

The team lead should use their emotional intelligence and absorb the frustration of the team members.

29- After completing three iterations, an agile team has determined that it will take 292 story points to complete
the remaining portion of the project. The average velocity of the team for the first three iterations was 30 story
points. How many additional iterations will it take for the team to complete the project?

A) 7 iterations
B) 8 iterations

C) 9 iterations

D) 10 iterations

Answer: D

The way to forecast velocity is to run an iteration (or two, or three) and then calculate the average velocity based
on the story points completed during each of the iterations. In this situation, the current project’s average velocity
is 30 story points. To calculate the number of iterations required to complete the remining portion of the project,
you need to divide the number of story points remaining to complete the project by the average velocity, as shown
below:

292/ 30 = 9.74 = 10 (rounded)

Please note, the result should be rounded to 10 not because of the math rules, but rather because there is no such
thing as half iteration, or quarter iteration (or any other portion of iteration). Therefore, even if the result was 9.1,
the answer would be the same: it will take 10 iterations for the team to complete the project.

30- A co-located agile team uses Kanban method to deliver their products. The team lead suspects that a recent
decline in the quality of the team’s deliverables is due to the depreciation of the team’s tacit knowledge. What
should the team do to prevent this depreciation?

A) Create a knowledge base to share among the team members

B) Encourage wider usage of the social media tools

C) Increase the team size to store less knowledge per team member

D) Reduce the amount of work in progress (WIP)

Answer: D

Tacit knowledge depreciates with time. Therefore, the shorter the lead time to deliver product increment, the less
likely that tacit knowledge would depreciate. Reducing WIP would result in shorter lead time, which would
eventually help retain tacit knowledge.

31- Based on this iteration’s burndown chart, what can be said about this iteration?
A) It is on track to be completed as planned

B) It is ahead of schedule

C) It is in jeopardy of not being completed as planned

D) It should be abandoned

Answer: C

From the burndown shown, one can see very little progress being made for several days of the iteration. As a
result, the team is behind the predicted velocity and therefore the iteration is in jeopardy of not being completed
as planned.

32- An important key performance indicator (KPI) used in Agile to measure the performance of the team’s
progress is velocity. Which of the following metrics is most often used to measure an agile team’s performance
in terms of velocity?

A) The number of user story points completed per day

B) The number of user story points completed per iteration

C) The number of iteration plans completed per release

D) The number of user stories completed per iteration

Answer: B

Velocity is a measure of a team’s rate of progress and is calculated by summing the number of story points
assigned to each user story that the team completed during the iteration. If a team completed 10 story points of
work last iteration, our best guess is that they will complete 10 story points this iteration. Because story points are
estimates of relative size, this will be true whether they work on two five-point stories. If we sum the story-point
estimates for all desired features, we come up with a total size estimate for the project. If we know the team’s
velocity, we can divide size by velocity to arrive at an estimated number of iterations for the remainder of the
project.

33- An agile project leader is managing a distributed project team. Which of the following tools is the most
effective for the project team to use to maximize virtual co-location?

A) Video conferencing

B) Email

C) Team collaborative tools

D) Teleconferencing

Answer: A

Video conferencing is the most useful tool when trying to create a virtually co-located team because it allows
participants to capture more of the subtleties of communication. Facial expression and high-fidelity
communication is a benefit of video conferencing.

34- Based on the below burndown chart, what should the agile team do next?
A) Keep user stories as is

B) Add user stories

C) Re-prioritize user stories

D) Remove user stories

Answer: A

The graph shows that the amount of time to complete the initial user stories is higher than expected. The team has
made a commitment to try to complete this set of user stories, so the team has to act, adjust and adapt in order to
attain their sprint goals.

35- During a strategic planning meeting at the beginning of a new agile project, the attendees create a visual
depiction of the product release and the functionality to be completed and available for each release. Who owns
this artifact and works with others to maintain and update it?

A) Product owner

B) Project sponsor

C) Scrum master

D) Development team member

Answer: A

The product owner works with the project sponsor and stakeholders to determine and prioritize the product
features to be delivered in each release and sets the product release dates. The result of this interaction is a
product roadmap, which is the artifact referred to in this question.

36- Due to organizational constraints, some of the agile team members are co-located in the same building,
while others are located in other parts of the country. What agile techniques can the team implement to help
increase communication among the team members?

A) Set up a meeting for the team to determine team ground rules

B) Have developers sit near each other

C) Set up a war room with video conferencing capability

D) Use information radiators extensively

Answer: C

Agile teams thrive on co-location and having video conferencing for distributed members enables face-to-face
communication without incurring travel or relocation expenses.

37- Some agile project stakeholders are scrutinizing the amount of story points that the team have completed in
each iteration, thereby placing pressure on team member to perform better. In the next iteration, the team took
steps that resulted in higher velocity without actually completing more work than what was originally planned.
What has the team most likely done?

A) Increased their velocity

B) Inflated their point estimates

C) Reduced the project risk

D) Completed more of complex stories

Answer: B

One of the undesired side effects of too much scrutiny from the stakeholders on the amount of story points
completed in each iteration, is the story point inflation effect. Trying to reduce the pressure put upon them, the
team members are inflating their story point estimates to make it appear like the velocity targets are met to calm
down the worried stakeholders.

38- A team member is not taking part in planning user stories. What should the coach do?

A) Coach the team member

B) Call the team member out in the planning meeting to get them to participate

C) Meet privately after the planning meeting and factor in their opinions afterwards

D) Ignore this team member’s input

Answer: A

The team members need to be educated on the importance of participating with their teammates during planning
meetings.

39- A newly-formed agile team has yet determined the ideal iteration length, and two of the team members are
having an argument about it. One team member advocates for an iteration length of two weeks, while the other
advocates for an iteration length of one week. Which of the following would be the proper action for a scrum
master in this situation?

A) Remove themselves from the process and let the two team members come to a consensus on the most
appropriate iteration length

B) Facilitate the discussion between the two team members so they can come to a consensus on the most
appropriate iteration length

C) Isolate the two team members from the rest of the team while they settle their dispute

D) Make the decision for the team to break the impasse before relationships are damaged

Answer: B

When an argument reaches an impasse, and a positive outcome is unlike, the scrum master should facilitate the
discussion between the two team members so they can reach an agreement.
40- While building a working area for an agile team, which of the following approaches will ensure that the team
space will be conducive to effective team collaboration and communication, where team members can work in a
quite environment for a short period of times, and allow project stakeholders who are not members of the team
to check project performance status on a regular basis?

A) Agile modeling

B) Cave and common

C) Co-location

D) War room

Answer: B

Caves and common is an Agile concept referring to the team’s workspace design approach that creates a common
area that fosters co-location, face-to face and osmotic communication, as well as “cave” where the team members
can work in a quite environment for a short period of times, or where one-to-one meetings or confidential project
issues can be discussed in private.

41- An agile project team has been working together in the building and have enjoyed the benefits of high-
touch/low-tech methods of team interaction. The company has hired a group of developers that will be working
in another city, who will be joining the team to work on a new project. An agile practitioner has been tasked
with bringing this team together and fostering healthy team interaction. What would be the most effective first
action for the agile practitioner to take?

A) Provide an opportunity for face-to-face meeting through a kickoff or group activity if the budget allows it

B) Set up everyone with a text-based instant messenger so they can stay in touch

C) Convert as many information radiators to online versions in order to maximize virtual communication

D) Insist that everyone make use of email in order to establish a trackable communication thread for all
conversations

Answer: A

The most effective method is having a face-to-face meeting at the beginning of the project, as well as periodically
throughout the life cycle of the project, if the budget allows it. However, but if the budget is limited, then plan for
a virtual meeting with activities with the same goal of allowing the team to get to know each other, and to
reinforce team spirit and team building.

42- based on the velocities of previous sprints shown, what should the team estimate as their velocity for this
sprint?

Sprint Velocity
1 16
2 20
3 15
4 25
A) 19

B) 20

C) There is not enough information presented to estimate velocity

D) 25

Answer: A

(16+ 20 + 15 + 25)/ 4 = 76 / 4 = 19

A mature team should be able to predict its velocity, the number of story points completed over an iteration. A
simple average is all that is needed to calculate an estimated velocity based on past performance. In this case, sum
up the individual velocities and divide the result by the number of sprint.

43- An agile team had been successful in delivering features; however, the team members got burned out to the
aggressive deadlines. In a retrospective, the team lead thought that some fun was in order before the next
deadlines were set. Unfortunately, the team failed to meet their objectives for the following iteration. What
action by the team lead most likely caused the team to miss their iteration goal?

A) Used fun to distract team from this sensitive topic

B) Had a fun night out with the team to relieve burnout

C) Made productive work more enjoyable by using collaborative games

D) Celebrated the success with a fun team activity

Answer: A

Fun should not be used to deflect or avoid dealing with a sensitive topic such as a burn out of the team members
due to the aggressive deadlines.

44- A product owner on a scrum team represents the interests of an external customer. After the sprint review
meeting, a key stakeholder takes the product owner aside and suggests an improvement to one of the report
screens that the stakeholder insists will make it easier for the user to navigate the application. What is the
product owner’s next logical step?

A) Implement the stakeholder’s request in the next sprint because it will enhance the customer experience and
provide customer value

B) Meet with the customer as soon as possible to decide if and when the stakeholder’s request will be
implemented

C) Create a user story for the stakeholder’s request and place it at the very bottom of the product backlog

D) Discuss the stakeholder’s request in the daily scrum meeting and let the team decide if and when the request
will be implemented

Answer: B
As the product owner working on a project for an external customer, they must meet with the customer to
determine first ‘if’ the customer wants to implement this new requirement.

45- The new V.P. of Product Development for the company approaches the scrum master asks her to provide
him with a report him with a report that shows the progress of the work remaining on the project at both the
sprint level and the release level. Which of the following would be most appropriate to provide him?

A) Burndown chart

B) Product roadmap

C) Burnup chart

D) Project roadmap

Answer: A

The burndown chart is an information radiator in graph form that represents the team’s remaining work, and can
be reported at the sprint level or release level.

46- An agile practitioner has to follow a lot of rules and guidelines, which at times becomes overwhelming. As
time goes by, the practitioner becomes more experienced in deciding on which rules fit each situation, thus
making the practitioner feel more personally responsible for the choices they make. Which stage in the Dreyfus
model of adult skill acquisition has the practitioner reached?

A) Novice

B) Proficient

C) Advanced beginner

D) Competent

Answer: D

Competent is the third stage of the Dreyfus model. At this stage, an agile practitioner understands that a number
of rules and guidelines they need to follow sometimes becomes overwhelming, so the practitioner is becoming
experienced in deciding which rules best fit each individual situation.

47- At the kick-off, a product data sheet (PDS) was completed, but the sponsor did not provide a user proxy.
What words of advice should an experienced agile coach offer to the project sponsor about adding a user proxy
to the team?

A) An agile project does not need a user proxy

B) A development manager would have to be called on to act as a user proxy

C) The agile coach has enough business experience to answer questions, therefore there is no need for a user
proxy

D) Do not start project until the project sponsor assigns a user proxy
Answer: D

The user proxy is an important role and is necessary for a successful project. One or more user proxies need to
represent the user’s needs.

48- An agile team is working on a software release with a backlog of 720 story points. The following burn down
chart represents the progress the team has made so far. Which of the following might be a valid interpretation
of this chart?

A) If the scope was unchanged, the project team made no progress during the first to fourth iterations since they
did not get any user stories to a complete status

B) The project team will not be able to complete the release on time

C) The project team made progress in the second to fourth iteration but was only able to keep up with the scope
added during these iterations

D) The project is progressing more quickly than originally planned

Answer: C

The team completed originally planned user stories, but due to new user stories that were added during those
iterations, the burndown chart looked like no progress was made.

49- Which is the best approach to take for a distributed team?

A) Video conferencing software

B) An audio conferencing service

C) Hold meeting at different times to include those from other time zones

D) Co-locate the product owner and the project manager

Answer: A
Agile recommends face-to-face meetings to maximize communication. However, in place of trying to schedule
face-to-face meetings, using video conferencing tools has become affordable and commonplace, and offers the
next thing to co-located face-to-face communication.

50- An agile project will be using a new technology. At the release planning meeting, the project manager insisted
on getting a forecast for the release’s completion date despite team members protesting that they need to run a
few iterations first to provide an estimate. What should an agile practitioner do in this situation?

A) Recommend using historical values of velocity from previous projects to make a forecast

B) Support the project manager’s demand and force the team to provide a forecast

C) Recommend using the cone of uncertainty to calculate a velocity and make a forecast based on this

D) Support the team’s response to run a few iterations first before providing a forecast

Answer: D

No comparable historical velocity value exists because a new technology is being used. In these situations, the best
approach is to run a few iterations to establish an actual velocity using this new technology. Once an actual
velocity has established, the team can provide a meaningful forecast to the project manager.

51- An agile is conducting an iteration review after missing their iteration goal. One team member indicates that
tactics that may have worked well for other types of projects were not effective for the current project. Of the
following options, what most likely caused the team to miss their iteration goal?

A) Created their team norms and working agreements

B) Made local decisions regarding their work

C) Executed work as directed by the scrum master

D) Created emergent leaders to lead different initiatives

Answer: C

A scrum master’s role is to facilitate the team’s work and act as a servant leader, rather than to manage the team
in a command-and-control fashion by directing the work of the team members.

52- A newly appointed program manager, who came from an organization where traditional project
management practices were used to track the actual project performance against its planned baselines,
requested regular updates on the overall progress of a high priority agile project. The program manager cannot
spend more than five minutes per week on project updates and does not intended to micromanage the project
team’s work. Assuming that the project is executed using weekly sprints, what is the most appropriate response
to the program manager’s request?

A) Invite the program manager to attend the iteration review meeting in the project team’s common space

B) Have the program manager view the release burndown chart in the project team’s common space

C) Have the program manager view the iteration burndown chart in the project team’s common space
D) have the program manager view the release burnup chart in the project team’s common space

Answer: D

The release burnup chart has the same information displayed as the release burndown chart, however, instead of
displaying work remaining, it displays work completed. The big advantage of the burnup charts vs. burndown
charts is that they can clearly show changes in scope.

53- A facilitator for a sprint retrospective meeting is currently setting the stage for the meeting. She decides to
use the Focus On/Focus Off activity in order to prepare the agile project team for the work they will be
performing during the retrospective meeting. On a blank flip chart, she writes down the four phrases that will be
used during the Focus On/ Focus Off activity. Which of the following should be listed on the activity flip chart?

A) Debate rather than dialogue

B) Argument rather than conversation

C) Understanding rather than defending

D) Advocacy rather than inquiry

Answer: C

During a sprint retrospective, participants should seek to understand other points of view as opposed to defending
one’s own point of view.

54- After about two months of work, an agile team has just completed their fourth iteration out of eight. The
release burndown chart shows that for the three iterations, the curve representing the actual completed work is
approximately 40 points above the straight descending line of the projected work. Given the fact that team’s
velocity is 20, which conclusion can be drawn at this stage?

A) The team is ahead of schedule

B) The team is behind schedule and work will be finished two weeks later than originally planned

C) The team is behind schedule and work will be finished four weeks later than originally planned

D) The team is behind schedule

Answer: D

A release burndown chart shows the number of story points remaining to be completed in the release. When the
curve representing the actual completed work is above the straight descending line of the projected work, the
team completed less work than originally planned and therefore is behind schedule. This is the only conclusion
that can be drawn at this stage. One can argue that based on the velocity of 20 story points per iteration and the
gap of 40 story points the work will be finished four weeks later than originally planned (assuming the iteration
length is two weeks). If this is what you answered, then please take a closer look at the wording of the question.
There are no exact numbers. Rather, the question uses language such as “about two months”, “approximately 40
points”, meaning an accurate estimation for the work to be completed cannot be provided. The team is in the
middle of the release and cannot predict yet what could happen towards its end.
55- An Agile team’s first iteration included daily standups that lasted over 30 minutes. During the retrospective
meeting, the team agreed to use the Shu-Ha-Ri model to make future daily standup meetings more focused and
reduce their duration. During the second iteration, the team was able to focus on the three basic questions,
followed the agenda, and ensured that no daily standup meetings lasted more than 15 minutes. Which level of
the Shu-Ha-Ri model had the team completed by the end of the second iteration?

A) The Ri level

B) The Ha level

C) The Shu level

D) The pre-Shu level

Answer: C

Shu is the first stage of the Shu-Ha-Ri model. At this stage, the team learn to follow the rules. As described in the
scenario, by the end of the second iteration the team was able to focus on the three basic questions, follow the
agenda, and ensure that no daily standup meetings lasted more than 15 minutes. This means the team has
reached the Shu level.

56- You have been assigned to lead a complex agile project at an organization with historically high employee
turnover rate. Given high turnover can be disruptive and result in a loss of critical project knowledge and
experience, what approach below is most likely to increase project knowledge across the team and thus
minimize the impact of such a loss due to turnover?

A) Set up more team building exercises

B) Contact the Human Resource department and determine the root cause of high employee turnover rate

C) Have the team co-located and developers work closely with the customer in developing user stories

D) Work with resource managers to add more team members

Answer: C

Having team members work together face-to-face will increase the familiarity with each other’s work. Having
developers work closely with customers when user stories are developed will also increase project knowledge
across the team.

57- An agile team has been working together for a month. A new team member who has just joined the team,
observes that some team members dominate discussions and make technical decisions independently. Two
team members express that they feel left out. Which stage of Tuckman’s ladder is the team currently on?

A) Swarming

B) Storming

C) Forming

D) Conflicting

Answer: C
This is a tricky question as it describes the team in the storming stage, but the addition of the new member puts
them into the forming stage again. Forming stage is a period when the team members team about each other and
their roles and responsibilities.