Free Practice Questions for PMI PMI-ACP Exam

The team lead should work to resolve the conflict by negotiating with the project director. Since the lead developer cannot complete their work due to the request for a detailed testing plan, the team lead should seek to limit the scope of the documentation request. By negotiating for fewer details or a reduced scope of testing documentation, the team can continue their work on the iteration while still meeting the project director's needs. This approach balances the need to progress with development and address the request without causing significant delays.

The correct answer is C – Use class of service. In Kanban, the Class of Service (CoS) model is a key technique for prioritization and flow management. It helps teams decide which work items should be expedited, delayed, or treated as standard. Using CoS enables teams to handle tasks based on urgency, business value, and risk.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Classes of service define the rules by which work is selected, prioritized, and delivered. They help make prioritization policies explicit and transparent to stakeholders and team members.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.4 – Kanban and Flow-Based Approaches)

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“Class of service models—such as ‘Expedite’, ‘Fixed Delivery Date’, ‘Standard’, or ‘Intangible’—allow teams to prioritize tasks by business value, risk, and urgency. This is particularly useful in Kanban systems where items flow continuously.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery / Kanban Practices)

Option A (involving the product owner) is more applicable to Scrum teams; Kanban teams often have shared ownership of flow.

Option B (reviewing WIP limits) affects flow but doesn’t guide task prioritization.

Option D (measuring lead time) helps with process analysis but not immediate prioritization.

Answer: C

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Agile emphasizessustainable paceandcontinuous improvement, not overworking or overcommitting. The appropriate response is to identify why the team overcommitted, learn from it, andadjust future sprint planning. This aligns with thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.4: Sprint Planning and Velocity)andSection 5.6: Retrospectives, which recommend using retrospectives to address such issues.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)explains that over-committing leads to poor predictability, and inspecting root causes helps refine estimation and velocity in future sprints.

Option Cis correct: it supports learning and improves future planning.

Option Apromotes unsustainable practices.

Option Bmisunderstands velocity—it’s a measurement, not something to be increased by will.

Option Dundermines team stability and agile planning based on consistent team capacity.

The correct answer is D – Planning poker.

Planning poker is a consensus-based estimation technique commonly used in Agile projects. During this technique, team members discuss user stories, clarify details, and independently assign story points. The facilitator (often the Scrum Master) ensures balanced participation. This process encourages team collaboration and reduces estimation bias.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Planning poker is a common estimation technique where team members discuss the story, then individually provide estimates using a card deck, reaching consensus over multiple rounds.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Estimation Techniques)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“Planning poker is based on Wideband Delphi and allows teams to converge on estimates through discussion and consensus. It is particularly useful for relative estimation of story points.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Why other options are incorrect:

A (Lessons learned) applies to retrospective activities, not estimation.

B (Wideband Delphi) is the foundation of planning poker but is more formal and anonymous.

C (Formal point counting) is not a standard Agile estimation technique.

Answer: D

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According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2 Requirements and User Stories)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning),epics are large user storiesthat must be decomposed into smaller user stories for accurate planning and inclusion in sprints.

Thetwo main driversfor breaking down epics are:

Size– Epics are typically too large to be completed in a single iteration and must be divided to create manageable pieces of work.

Priority– High-priority epics are decomposed early to allow the team to work on the most valuable items first.

This makesOption Athe correct answer. The decision to decompose the epic is based on the need to fit it into sprint capacity and to align with backlog prioritization.

The principles of Extreme Programming (XP) focus on improving software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. The key principles include:

Rapid feedback: Getting feedback quickly from customers or stakeholders to ensure that the development process is on track.

Assume simplicity: Focusing on simplicity in the design and code to avoid overengineering and to ensure the software is easy to understand and modify.

Incremental change: Delivering software in small, manageable increments that can be easily adjusted based on feedback.

Embrace change: Being flexible and adaptable, especially in response to new requirements or changes in technology or business needs.

Quality work: Ensuring high-quality software by emphasizing practices such as automated testing, continuous integration, and refactoring.

The correct answer is B – Conduct story-mapping exercises to clarify deliverables and release priorities. Story mapping is a visual practice that aligns stakeholders and teams around a shared understanding of the product vision, user workflows, and incremental delivery plans.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Story mapping is a collaborative activity used to understand the user’s journey, prioritize features, and identify releases. It is highly effective for stakeholder alignment and promoting shared understanding.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.4 – Story Mapping)

Also supported by Mike Griffiths:

“Story mapping promotes visibility, alignment, and prioritization. It fosters collaboration between the team and stakeholders and helps translate business objectives into user stories.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Why other options fall short:

A reverts to heavy documentation, which agile discourages.

C is a one-time event and doesn’t sustain alignment.

D focuses on adherence to process rather than collaboration and planning clarity.

Value stream mapping is a key Lean technique used to visualize the sequence of steps involved in delivering value to customers. It maps out both the value-creating activities and the non-value-creating activities (waste), providing a clear view of the entire process. This helps identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement to optimize the flow of value.

The correct answer is C — Introduce agile principles and processes, then make the change an experiment to obtain buy-in.

Agile transformation succeeds when it is driven through team engagement and experimentation, not top-down enforcement. Experimentation aligns with the principle of “failing fast” and encourages teams to experience the value of agile themselves before full adoption.

PMI Agile Practice Guide explains:

“To support organizational change, leaders should create safe-to-fail experiments to allow teams to explore and adopt agile in a non-threatening way. Buy-in emerges through shared learning, not forced compliance.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.5 – Organizational Change and Culture)

Mike Griffiths reinforces:

“Effective agile leaders lead through influence and create an environment of experimentation and learning. Mandates create resistance, but pilots and feedback loops drive acceptance.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 1 – Agile Principles and Mindset)

Answer A speaks only to executive buy-in. Answer B is directive and not collaborative. Answer D imposes agile through training but skips experiential learning and feedback.

Answer: C

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Even if a team is high-performing and stable, theScrum Master’s role remains valuablein facilitating continuous improvement, removing impediments, and protecting agile principles. However, in mature teams, a Scrum Master cansupport other teams or initiativeswhile still offering guidance to the original team.

ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 3.3: Agile Roles)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance)both emphasize thatScrum Masters evolveinto more strategic, cross-team roles as teams mature.

Option Ais correct: it reflects astrategic redeployment of a seasoned Scrum Masterwhile maintaining light support to the current team.

Option Brisks losing agile momentum and undermines continuous improvement.

Option CandDconfuse roles—Scrum Master and Product Owner must remain distinct.