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Practice Test 5

Q 1. The agile team uses a data gathering facilitation technique to gather data in an iteration retrospective. The team creates a graph to provide a visual picture of the status of their satisfaction in any particular area. Choose the correct name for this technique.

1. Team Radar
2. Satisfaction Histogram
3. Color Code Dots
4. Triple Nickles

Answer: B. Satisfaction Histogram 

Satisfaction histogram is a technique in which the team creates a graph to provide a visual picture of the status of their satisfaction in any particular area. Therefore, it is the correct option.

Q 2. You are an agile practitioner and have recently been assigned to handle an ongoing Agile project. During the sprint retrospective, the project manager asked all the team members to put sticky dots on the project timeline to display the events where the emotions ran high or low. Choose the option that represents this activity.

1. Pareto Charts
2. Affinity Diagrams
3. Color Code Dots
4. Triple Nickles

Answer: C. Color Code Dots

Color Code Dots is a technique where sticky dots are used by team members to show the items or events where emotions run high or low.   Items with more dots have higher priority than items with fewer dots. The technique is frequently used during the sprint retrospective activity.

Q 3. During a retrospective, an agile team defines the desired state required to achieve. Small groups work for the identification of the factors that could drive the changes they want. They note down the factors and then the group checks the strength of each supporting factor with respect to other factors. Then the team repeats this process for inhibiting factors. Name the technique the team is using.

1. Brainstorming
2. Fishbone Analysis
3. Working Agreements
4. Force Field Analysis

Answer: D. Force Field Analysis 

The team is using force field analysis technique. In this technique, all the factors involved in the change are identified and the strength of all supporting and inhibiting factors is evaluated to check the feasibility of the change.

Q 4. An agile team is working on a software development project. During a retrospective, the team reveals its concerns regarding quality management processes. About 1% of the produced deliverables had some minor defects, so rework is required. What should the team do to bring the future performance of the project to meet the expected quality standards?

1. Find the root cause with critical chain diagram
2. Investigate the root cause using the fishbone diagram
3. Investigate the root cause with tornado diagram
4. Don’t do anything, ignore the minor defects

Answer: B. Investigate the root cause using the fishbone diagram

Fishbone diagram is a diagrammatic tool which is used to find the root cause of the problem. In this diagram, different causes of a problem are further divided into different branches to reach the root cause.

Q 5. You are an agile coach leading a complex knowledge work project in an organization. To document and share the knowledge work created by the project, you have to select a tool. There are a number of options, and as the agile coach, you considered two options that seem equally good. What will you do next to select the final right tool?

1. Organize a planning poker event and study both the options to choose the best one
2. Use a fishbone diagram to find the best tool out of the two options
3. Organize a spike event and study both the options to choose the best one
4. Schedule a meeting with the product owner to make the final decision

Answer: C. Organize a spike event and study both the options to choose the best one

The agile coach should organize a spike event and study both the options to choose the best one.

Q 6. John is a scrum master/coach for an agile team. During a design discussion meeting, he was acting as the facilitator. He noticed that the team has made the wrong design choice. John tried to correct them by dropping some hints in the form of questions but these go unnoticed. This incorrect design choice might cause some extra work for the team. What John should do next?

1. John should continue dropping hints until team understands what he is trying to highlight
2. John should tell the team to change the design option. John can also explain the reasoning if required
3. John should share his view about design option but leave the final decision on the team
4. Do nothing. Let the team learn from mistakes

Answer: D. Do nothing. Let the team learn from mistakes 

Choice D is correct since as a scrum master he does nothing. The team can learn from their mistakes if any and come back fast.

Q 7. In iteration planning, the team committed for 3 stories. The story point estimate for these stories were – 5 points, 4 points, and zero points. The team was able to successfully deliver all of these stories. The story worth 5 points took 5 ideal days. The story worth 4 points took 3 ideal days. The story worth zero points took very little effort (hardly 1-2 hours). What should be the velocity based on this data?

1. 3 stories.
2. 8 story points.
3. A number between 8 and 9 story points.
4. 9 story points.

Answer: D. 9 story points. 

Total story points worth work delivered = 5 + 4 + 0 = 9 story points.

Q 8. An agile team is planning for its 9th iteration. So far, the velocity has been: Lowest= 12 story points; Average=18 story points; Highest=24. Following are the user stories in the backlog in descending order of priority?

Story 1-5 points

Story 2-7 points

Story 3-9 points

Story 4-5 points

Story 5-3 points

Story 6-1 points

Which of the following stories should be chosen?

1. 1,2
2. 1,2,3
3. 1,2,4,6
4. 1,2,4,5

Answer: C. 1,2,4,6

Choice C is correct since the number of story points is equal to the average velocity.

Q 9. You are leading a large agile project for a health insurance company. You have decided to outsource one of the major functional modules. You received three bids. Seller A has the most experience of working on agile projects. Seller B has the most experience of delivering health insurance projects. Seller C has the lowest bid. Which seller would you choose?

1. Seller A: Understanding of agile methodology is most important. Agile incremental & iterative delivery can cover for limited functional experience and will ultimately save the cost.
2. Seller B: In agile, functional expertise is most important. If the contract is fixed price, it doesn’t matter whether the vendor uses agile iterative delivery or waterfall.
3. Seller C: Lowest bid, wins the contract.
4. Any seller can win the contract depending on the weighing system. The weighing system considers all important factors.

Answer: D. Any seller can win the contract depending on the weighing system. The weighing system considers all important factors.

Any seller can win the contract depending on the weighing system. The weighing system considers all important factors.

Q 10. What agile team should do to mitigate the risks associated with intrinsic schedule flaw?

1. Add Local safety in the estimate.
2. Adding extra resources increases team productivity.
3. Re-evaluate the release plan at the end of each iteration.
4. Re-evaluate the release plan at the end of the release.

Answer: C. Re-evaluate the release plan at the end of each iteration.

The agile team should re-evaluate the release plan after the end of each iteration to mitigate risks associated with intrinsic schedule flaw.

Q 11. An agile team is tracking the progress using release burn-down charts. While the chart was moving down till 5th iteration then it went up slightly and then again moved down till it touched the horizontal line. What could have been the reason for the burn-down chart going down?

1. In the testing of 6th iteration, there were bugs found in stories that were accepted as “done” in 5th iteration.
2. It was simply a plotting error. The team requires training on agile tracking tools.
3. There was more work added that the team finished in the sixth iteration.
4. The team could not finish any story in the sixth iteration.

Answer: C. There was more work added that the team finished in the sixth iteration.

There must have been more work added than team finished in 6th iteration so work finished was negative. This is a known limitation of the burn-down chart that it doesn’t show the work added separately.

Q 12. An agile team working on new software for a bookstore. In 1st iteration top priority story in book maintenance (adding books, modifying information about books, deletion of books) During the iteration planning, the team realized that this story is quite big and may not be delivered completely in a single iteration. What should the team do?

1. Divide into smaller stories based on the layers on an architecture such as the creation of screens,  user interface layer, back-end, middle tier connecting back-end and user interface.
2. Divide it into smaller stories based on functions such as one story for adding books, another for modifying information about books, and the 3rd one for deletion of books.
3. Do nothing as it’s normal to have the initial few iterations delivering no business value. The team can continue working on remaining tasks in the 2nd iteration.
4. Modifying the iteration length so that the team is able to finish this story in one single iteration.

Answer: B. Divide it into smaller stories based on functions such as one story for adding books, another for modifying information about books, and the 3rd one for deletion of books. 

It is advisable to split the stories based on operational boundaries.

Q 13. Which of the following is best to call a good user story?

1. The administrator can manage the books she has added.
2. The administrator can update the book availability text.
3. The administrator can add, edit and delete multiple books.
4. The code should be written in JAVA.

Answer: B. The administrator can update the book availability text.

An administrator can update the book availability text. This can be particularly useful if the book is out of stock so that users can get the correct information. It may also tell if the book was out of stock but now has become available.

Q 14. As an agile lead/manager, what should you do if you see a committed story can’t be finished by end of the iteration and it would take another 2 days?

1. As it is just a matter of two days, extend the iteration length this time to finish what was committed. Meeting commitment is more important than having a fixed iteration length.
2. Ask the team to stop working on the story as it can’t be finished. Schedule this as the top priority story for the next iteration.
3. Discuss with the product owner about the situation and available options without changing the iteration end date. Determine if and when it should be completed.
4. Let the team continue working and finish as much as you can. Pick the unfinished part in next iteration

Answer: C. Discuss with the product owner about the situation and available options without changing the iteration end date. Determine if and when it should be completed.

A product owner is best placed to decide about priorities. One of the opinions could be to divide the story into smaller stories (if feasible) or have an agreement about reduced scope. If the story has to be deferred to future iterations, it needs to be taken up in the iteration planning meeting of next iterations. There is a high probability that this would be picked in the next iteration but we can’t just assume that.       

Q 15. A new person joined the team. You see him doing copy paste from one module to another. What do you think is right here?

1. There is nothing wrong here as in a team, it’s okay to reuse team members work
2. This is the violation of intellectual property. People should use their knowledge and creativity rather than copying others work
3. Violation of design principle called ‘DRY’ (Don’t Repeat Yourself)
4. No need for this person to ask permission from the original author of the code

Answer: C. Violation of design principle called ‘DRY’ (Don’t Repeat Yourself).

The violation of design principle DRY. DRY concept recommends removing/avoiding duplicate code. Ideally, if we need to reuse some logic, the best thing is to make it a common routine, which can be called /referenced from multiple places. This issue with such copy paste is, the code becomes unnecessarily lengthy and clumsy. If there is a change in that logic, changes will have to be made at multiple places so this impacts the scalability.

Q 16. Which of the following are the TRUE statements about velocity?

1) If a story is not complete, based on % complete, it can contribute towards velocity calculation.

2)  Velocity corrects estimate errors.

3)  Velocity helps in customer satisfaction.

4)  Velocity helps in predicting the end date of release.

A. 4 only.

B. 1 and 3.

C. 2,3 and 4.

D. All four.

Answer: C. 2,3 and 4.

All the given statements 2, 3 and 4 are correct related to the velocity of the team.

Q. 17. During iteration planning, the amount of slack that you build depends on the ______________of the problems that your team experiences in each iteration.

1. Complexity.
2. Number.
3. Randomness.
4. Impact

Answer: C. Randomness.

Randomness is the factor we consider to build the amount of slack in iteration planning.

Q. 18. An agile team needs to build a new website to sell few retail products through the internet. In which order you would perform various activities related to user role modeling.

1. Create a persona, Identify user roles, Refine roles, Consolidation and narrowing.
2. Identify customer, Brainstorm on initial roles, Organize roles, Consolidate roles, refine roles (add persona, consider an attribute).
3. Identify customers, create personas, Identify initial roles, Refine roles, consolidated roles.
4. Identify initial roles, refine roles (add persona, consider and attributes), Identify customer, consolidation and narrowing.

Answer: B. Identify customer, Brainstorm on initial roles, Organize roles, Consolidate roles, refine roles (add persona, consider an attribute). 

The statement is given in the correct sequences.

Q 19. Which of the following is correct about terms product knowledge and project knowledge?

1. Product knowledge is knowledge about what will be developed while project knowledge is about how the product will be created.
2. Project knowledge is knowledge about what will be developed while product knowledge is about how the product will be created.
3. Project knowledge is knowledge about what will be developed while product knowledge is about features to be developed.
4. Both project knowledge and product knowledge terms are used interchangeably in agile development and relate to knowledge about how the product should be developed.

Answer: A. Product knowledge is knowledge about what will be developed while project knowledge is about how the product will be created. 

Product knowledge is knowledge about what will be developed. It is knowledge about the features that will be included and about those that will not be included. The more product knowledge a team has, the better able they will be to make a decision about the nature and features of the product.

Project knowledge, by contrast, is the knowledge about how the product will be created. Examples include knowledge about the technologies that will be used, about the skills of the developers, about how well the team functions together and so on.

The explanation for the product knowledge and project knowledge are correct.

Q 20. Which of the following allows the team to make and meet long-term commitments?

1. Release planning.
2. Project Chartering.
3. Risk management.
4. Slack.

Answer: C. Risk management.

Every project has a number of uncertainties. Despite these uncertainties, your stakeholders need schedule commitments that they can rely upon. Risk management allows us to make and meet these commitments.

Q 21. Following are a few statements about the story writing workshop. Which of the following statements are correct with respect to a story writing workshop?

1. During a story writing workshop, the focus should be on quality rather than quantity.

2. A Good story-writing workshop combines the best elements of brainstorming with low-fidelity prototyping.

3. No priorities are associated with stories during the story writing workshop.

4. A story writing workshop includes developers, users, the product customer and other parties who can contribute by writing stories.

1. 1 and 4
2. 2 and 3
3. 2, 3 and 4
4. All four

Answer: C. 2, 3 and 4 

Statement 1 is incorrect as the aim of the story writing workshop is to produce as many stories as possible so key focus in on quantity (rather than quality)

Statement 2 is correct as low fidelity prototypes are used during story-writing. There is brainstorming to come up with stories.

Statement 3 is correct as, during a story writing workshop, the complete focus is on writing stories. No priorities are associated at this time.

Statement 4 is correct as the story-writing workshop does include developers, users and all other people who can contribute.

Q 22. What is the best time for a product owner to groom the backlog?

1. During release planning.
2. During iteration planning.
3. Exactly before iteration planning.
4. This can happen throughout the iteration or in a meeting a few days prior to iteration planning.

Answer: D. This can happen throughout the iteration or in a meeting a few days prior to iteration planning.

Backlog grooming is a process of estimating the existing backlog using effort/points, refining the acceptance criteria for individual stories, and breaking large stories into smaller stories. It can either happen in a meeting or can happen throughout the sprint on a more continuous basis. One of the commonly used methods is planning poker.

Choice D is correct, as grooming of backlog can happen anytime during the iteration. The idea is to have sufficient information in place before iteration planning.

Q 23. When it is best to do a Risk Audit (examine the effectiveness of risk responses)?

1. As part of iteration planning.
2. As part of iteration review.
3. As part of the retrospective meeting.
4. As part of a risk management review meeting.

Answer: C. As part of the retrospective meeting.

The purpose of the retrospective is to understand what went well and what did not go well. Examining the effectiveness of a risk response plan (risk audit) should be best done as part of the retrospective meeting.

Q 24. An agile team is following the burndown bar chart to track the progress. Following is the sequence of events:

1. In the beginning, there were 240 story points worth work.

2. In iteration 1, the team finished 20 stories.

3. In the iteration planning meeting of the second iteration, a new high priority story of 15 story points was added and the same was selected as part of iteration scope.

4. The team did finish the newly selected story and another story of 5 points (total 20 points of worth work).

How should the bar chart now look like for iteration progress?

1. Top of the bar is at 200 points, the bottom is at -15.
2. Top of the bar is at 215 points, the bottom is at zero.
3. Top of the bar is at 200 points, the bottom is at zero.
4. Top of the bar is at 215 points, the bottom is at -15.

Answer: A. Top of the bar is at 200 points, the bottom is at -15.

Explanation: Top of the bar is lowered based on the amount of work finished. Total 40 points worth work finished so that means the top of the bar should be at 200 points. Bottom of the bar is lowered when additional work is added so the bottom was brought down to -15. It doesn’t matter when this additional work finishes, the bottom of the bar will be raised only when some scope is removed.

Q 25. Mark is working on a product development project using Agile methodologies. There are many features in the product which are available to the end user. Which one of the below is not a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

1. An explainer video which explains your product in a few seconds.
2. A nicely designed landing page which communicates the value of offerings in the product.
3. A single most valuable feature ready for use online for free to judge investor interest.
4. A product display of fifty features working nicely and developed/tested for six months thoroughly.

Answer: D. A product display of fifty features working nicely and developed/tested for six months thoroughly. 

Minimum Viable product is that version of a new product that allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

Q 26. Daily stand-up is an important practice used in agile methodologies in different variants. Which of the below statements describes the difference between daily stand-up between Kanban vs scrum methodologies ? Assuming a big project with multiple teams.

1. In both Kanban & Scrum senior-level meetings happen first.
2. In both Kanban & Scrum team level meetings happen first.
3. In Kanban, higher level (in authority) meetings happen first whereas in Scrum the team’s first meets and then sends a delegate to a Scrum-of-Scrums.
4. In Scrum, higher level (in authority) meetings happen first whereas in Kanban the team’s will meet first.

Answer: C. In Kanban, higher level (in authority) meetings happen first whereas in Scrum the team’s first meets and then sends a delegate to a Scrum-of-Scrums. 

In Kanban, all the features are taken at once and pulling of work items happens based on WIP. This is controlled first at senior level on a daily basis and then further calls are taken. Whereas in Scrum, a set of features are taken and daily stand up happens within the individual team first and then they send representatives for the scrum of scrums.

Q 27. You are managing a large project. As you don’t have internal capacity, you decided to outsource a major part of your project. You have prepared and sent the RFP to key suppliers. You get a call from your cousin who is an account manager in one of the supplier firms. He wants to bid on your project. You know his company has done good work in the past so may be a good fit. How do you proceed?

1. You disclose the conflict of interest to your company and disqualify your cousin’s company
2. You disclose the conflict of interest to your company and provide your cousin with information that can improve his chances of winning the contract
3. You do not disclose the conflict of interest and give your cousin the bid
4. You disclose the conflict of interest to your company and make the selection based on objective criteria

Answer: D. You disclose the conflict of interest to your company and make the selection based on objective criteria

Any time there’s a conflict of interest, it is your duty to disclose it to your company. After that, you should always proceed based on your company’s policies. If there are no specific policies about that, then make sure that the conflict does not affect your decisions. When bidders are competing for a contract, you must make sure they all have some level of information so that no one bidder is given an unfair advantage.

Q 28. John is a scrum master/coach for an agile team. Tom came to him with a complaint about Jack. John, as a good coach, tried a three-step intervention method but Tom rejected all three options. What John should be Next?

1. Do nothing. Cease to consider it a problem.
2. Set-up a meeting with both Tom and Jack to sort out differences.
3. Talk to Jack and make him aware of the complaint but without telling him the name of the complainer.
4. Warn Tom that complaining about colleagues is not acceptable in agile teams so there should not be repetition.

Answer: A. Do nothing. Cease to consider it a problem.

If the complainer is not willing to accept options given in three-step intervention, that might mean the complainer doesn’t want to resolve the complaint. Sometimes, people just want to vent. Other times, people try to add coaches into their gossip chain. If the conflict looks too serious to ignore, then the coach should ask “Are you ready to solve this without blaming?” This is not given a choice and hence the best choice is A.

Q 29. Which of the following is a one-page summary of key business and quality objectives, product capabilities and project management information?

1. Vision.
2. Project Datasheet.
3. Business case.
4. Requirement specification.

Answer: B. Project Datasheet.. 

A vision statement tells what is to be achieved. It may not provide a full picture of why a project should be undertaken. Choice B is correct since a project data sheet (PDS) is a single page summary of key business and quality objectives, product capabilities and project management information.

Q 30. Which of the following is incorrect about acceptance tests?

1. Acceptance tests should be written as late as possible, generally just before the start of testing as that avoids rework
2. Acceptance tests are helpful in communicating assumptions of the customer team
3. Acceptance tests are tests that validate that the functionality to be delivered meets customer expectation
4. Acceptance tests are often written on the back of story card

Answer: A. Acceptance tests should be written as late as possible, generally just before the start of testing as that avoids rework.

The given statement about the acceptance test is false.

Q 31. A project team is discussing the priorities associated with different project management methodologies. What would an agile practitioner say is the top priority?

1. Working software and lean documentation    
2. Individuals and interactions and lightweight processes and tools    
3. Customer satisfaction through delivery of valuable products    
4. Responding to change and progressive elaboration of plans

Answer: C. Customer satisfaction through delivery of valuable products  

This answer choice most closely resembles the highest priority according to the Agile Manifesto which states, “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.”

Q 32. An agile coach suggests that a lean product development team use a value stream mapping technique in their continuous improvement efforts. What is the primary purpose of this technique?

1. Improving and applying consistent coding standards    
2. Identifying and eliminating non-essential process tasks or activities to decrease cycle time    
3. Ensuring only the highest value and highest quality deliverables are produced    
4. Creating a visual map of a process that can be used by other teams to build value for their customers

Answer: B. Identifying and eliminating non-essential process tasks or activities to decrease cycle time  

Value stream mapping is used to break down and map a multi-step process with the goal of identifying those tasks or activities that cause unnecessary delay and inefficiency. The identification and elimination of these non-value added activities decrease cycle times and improve the overall process efficiency.

Q 33. During a sprint review, the product owner rejects one of the product features that the development team demonstrated. What happens next to the user story according to which the rejected feature was developed?

1. The user story is automatically placed into the sprint backlog of the next sprint
2. The user story is deleted from the product backlog and dropped from the project
3. The user story is rewritten to address the reasons why they were not accepted
4. The user story is placed in the product backlog to be reprioritized

Answer: C. The user story is rewritten to address the reasons why they were not accepted

If a feature is rejected, it is most often due to a gap in the team’s understanding of the expectations of the business or customer. This misunderstanding can arise due to missed acceptance criteria or a poorly written user story which served as a basis for the feature. The first step is to correct or rewrite the user story. Then it can be placed into the backlog and reprioritized.

Q 34. In an effort to increase agile knowledge, traditional project managers of a company have been paired with scrum masters to observe them lead their teams. One observation is that many project decisions are the responsibility of the project team and the scrum master is more facilitative than authoritative. In fact, the scrum masters seem more focused on ensuring that the team can focus on the work, have a shared vision, and determine how they will accomplish their work. What leadership approach have the scrum masters adopted?

1. Participative leadership
2. Autocratic leadership
3. Transformational leadership
4. Servant leadership

Answer: D. Servant leadership

Servant leadership is the practice of leading through service to the team, by focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of the team members in order to enable the highest possible team performance.

Q 35. An agile team finished coding for the current iteration. Which of the following is a continuous process improvement ceremony that the team will now attend? 

1. Release planning meeting
2. Iteration retrospective meeting
3. Product demonstration meeting
4. Iteration planning meeting

Answer: B. The iteration retrospective meeting is an example of a continuous process improvement ceremony on an agile project.

Q 36. A scrum master is starting a project with a new team and needs to develop an estimate of velocity. What should the scrum master use as a basis for velocity in the first sprint?

1. Forecasted velocity
2. Actual velocity
3. Terminal velocity
4. Cycle velocity

Answer: A. Forecasted velocity

Forecasted velocity is commonly used in a new agile project’s first iteration because there is no historical data available to help estimate this velocity.

Q 37. A development team is using an eXtreme Programming (XP) development practice that frequently incorporates new and updated code into the project code repository. What technique is the development team using? 

1. Refactoring    
2. Pair programming    
3. Collective code ownership    
4. Continuous integration

Answer: D. Continuous integration 

Continuous integration is a development practice that requires developers to integrate code into a shared repository several times a day. When the new or altered code is checked into the code repository, automatic routines are run to ensure that all the code will work together and that it will all compile successfully.

Q 38. On an agile project, the team completed the creation of a potentially shippable product increment. Of the following, which represents the length of time that it took to create this product increment?

1. Estimated time
2. Cycle time
3. Lead time
4. Ideal time

Answer: B. Cycle time is the amount of time something takes to go from the start of the process to the end of that process.

Cycle time is the amount of time something takes to go from the start of the process to the end of that process.

Q 39. An agile practitioner has developed a prioritized matrix that describes which product features will be delivered in each release over time. What has the agile practitioner created?

A. The product vision statement

B. A product wireframe

C. The product roadmap

D. A product theme

Answer: C. The product roadmap

A product roadmap is a prioritized matrix that describes product features that the team will deliver in each release over time.

Q 40. A team lead is currently demonstrating a potentially shippable product increment for project stakeholders. Which agile meeting is being conducted?

1. Iteration review meeting
2. Daily standup meeting
3. Iteration retrospective meeting
4. Iteration deliverables meeting

Answer: A. Iteration review meeting

The iteration review meeting is a product-oriented meeting held at the end of the iteration to demonstrate product increments completed within that iteration. 

Q 41. An agile team has decided to create an artifact to demonstrate the product increment for the purpose of gathering feedback from the stakeholders. How should the project team accomplish this task?

1. Construct a wireframe
2. Build a prototype
3. Develop a persona
4. Utilize a template

Answer: B. Build a prototype

A prototype is an original type, form, or instance of a product to explore the basic size, look and feel of a product without simulating the detailed functionality of the product. A prototype can be used to demonstrate the product increment and gather feedback from the stakeholders, making this choice the best answer to the question asked.

Q 43. An agile practitioner needs to track the team’s performance over time. How might the agile practitioner accomplish this task?

1. Report the team’s performance using real time
2. Calculate the team’s velocity
3. Capture the number of escaped defects
4. Create an estimate of the project’s CPI

Answer: B. Calculate the team’s velocity

Velocity is perhaps the most common metric and is used to determine the team’s performance over time. It is often used to compare actual performance to estimated performance.

Q 44. An agile team is estimating the level of effort necessary to complete their user stories. They decide to make the assumption that the team members will not have any interruptions to project work and will be productive 100% of the time. Which of the following is the team using?

1. Real time
2. Relative size  
3. Ideal size
4. Ideal time

Answer D: Ideal time.

Ideal time is where the assumption is made that the agile project team members will have no interruptions in their work, such as checking email or attending meetings and will be 100% productive every hour of every day.

Q 45. A product owner and the scrum team members are conducting their first sprint planning meeting. The user stories are read to the team, and the team members have provided estimates to complete these user stories. As the team proceeds to develop the user stories during the sprint, what should the product owner do?

1. Add more features for the team to develop so they can deliver more value
2. Let the team work and answer any questions that might arise during this sprint
3. Shield the team from interruptions and facilitate discussions for the team members
4. Extend the sprint’s length if it appears the team cannot complete the work on time

Answer B: Let the team work and answer any questions that might arise during this sprint 

Letting the team work and answering any questions that might arise during the sprint reflects the commitment that the developers and the product owner have made.

Q 46. An agile team does not think it can meet the release deadline based on their velocity midway through the release’s iterations. What should the team do?

1. Meet with the product owner to discuss a new release date
2. Add more developers to the team
3. Slice user stories so that the team can increase velocity
4. Meet with the product owner to re-prioritize the backlog

Answer D: Meet with the product owner to re-prioritize the backlog 

Unless stated differently, on agile projects the cost and the schedule are fixed, while the scope is flexible. Therefore, meeting with the product owner to discuss the scope reduction, or in other words, to re-prioritize the backlog, is the best option among the answer choices provided.

Q 47. An agile team is demonstrating a recently developed product. Who determines when a product is complete? 

1. The development team
2. The product owner
3. The sponsor
4. The agile coach

Answer B: The product owner

The product owner accepts the completed product increment in the iteration review meeting after reviewing the acceptance criteria and verifying the functionality.

Q 48. An agile team wants to determine the root cause of a recurring issue. Which method would an agile practitioner select to determine the root cause?

1. Five Whys
2. Kano
3. MoSCoW
4. Kanban

Answer: A. Five Whys

The ‘Five Whys’ analysis method has its origin with Toyota and works well for agile teams performing a root cause analysis during a retrospective.

Q 49. For their new project to develop a point-of-sale system, the team creates an agile model in the form of a sample screen design of the system’s user interface. What would an agile practitioner say is the primary benefit of this model?

1. Achieving a highly polished design
2. Discussing aspects of potential features
3. Increasing the level of detail
4. Creating a very accurate representation

Correct Answer: B. Discussing aspects of potential features

The primary value of an agile model is in the discussion and creation of the model, rather than the actual model. As a result, an agile model is barely sufficient rather than highly detailed.

Q 50. An agile team lead has many years of experience and is a subject matter expert on the product that the team is building. How can the team lead best engage the team in solving a problem?

1. Steer the team towards what the team lead knows is the best option
2. Consult the team on every decision
3. Encourage the team to experiment with different potential solutions
4. Engage the team in documenting the pros and cons of different solutions

Answer: C. Encourage the team to experiment with different potential solutions

To engage the team in solving problems, the team lead should create an open and safe environment, where the team members can experiment with different options without fear of being punished for mistakes they may make during this experimentation.

Q 51. Stakeholders want to understand what progress an agile team has made in their last iteration. What should stakeholders review to determine this information?

1. The team’s velocity chart
2. The results of the spike
3. Product backlog
4. Fishbone slices

Answer: A. The team’s velocity chart

A velocity chart shows the amount of value delivered in each iteration allowing the stakeholders to understand what progress the team has made during the iteration.

Q 52. A project team is discussing the priorities associated with different project management methodologies. What would an agile practitioner say is the top priority?

1. Working software and lean documentation
2. Individuals and interactions and lightweight processes and tools
3. Customer satisfaction through the delivery of valuable products
4. Responding to change and progressive elaboration of plans

Answer: C. Customer satisfaction through the delivery of valuable products

This answer choice most closely resembles the highest priority according to the Agile Manifesto which states, “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.”

Q 53. An agile team needs to demonstrate a product increment at the end of every iteration. What should an agile practitioner recommend that the team do to make sure that they have adequate time to get prepared for the demonstration?

1. Create a user story for conducting the demonstration
2. Hire an external expert to handle the demonstration
3. Track the task with a project management plan
4. Delay the demonstration to the next iteration

Answer: A. Create a user story for conducting the demonstration

The creation of a user story to demonstrate the product increment developed in the iteration allows the team to allocate dedicated time to get prepared for the demonstration.

Q 54. A cross-functional agile team has experienced many disruptions in recent sprints since various members needed time off due to planned holidays and unplanned absences for personal reasons. What should the team have done differently?

1. Increased specialization among team members
2. Engaged in more planning
3. Provided for more safety in estimates
4. Shortened the sprint length during the project

Answer: C. Provided for more safety in estimates

On average through the course of all the sprints, some amount of time allocated for unplanned events (such as team taking time off) needs to be included as a safety in the team’s estimates.

Q 55. Which of the following behaviors should an agile coach avoid?

1. Coordinating individual contributions
2. Emphasizing business value delivery
3. Taking the problem to the team
4. Being invested in the team’s overall performance

Answer: A. Coordinating individual contributions

An agile coach should move away from coordinating individual contributions, and instead coach the team to collaborate.

Q 56. Agile team members reported that they were unable to complete all user stories that they had committed to deliver in the last sprint since they had worked overtime and eventually got burned out. What is wrong with the team approach?

1. Nothing is wrong. Maintaining a constant pace indefinitely is more important than missing a sprint goal.
2. The team approach is wrong. The team should fulfill and be held accountable for their commitment.
3. Nothing is wrong. To maintain good working relationships with the team, the product owner should not hold the team accountable.
4. The team approach is wrong. Maintaining a constant pace indefinitely has a different meaning that is not applicable in this scenario.

Answer: B. The team approach is wrong. The team should fulfill and be held accountable for their commitment.

The Agile Manifesto should not be used as an excuse for not completing the committed sprint goal. The team should be held accountable for their work.

Q 57. At the daily standup meeting, the agile team has raised an impediment where one of the developers has been withdrawn from the team by the developer’s line manager to complete their previously committed tasks from another project. As a result, the team will be unable to meet their sprint goal. What should have been done differently to avoid this impediment?

1. The team should have considered human resources availability while planning the sprint.
2. The team should have worked faster during the sprint before the developer has been withdrawn. 
3. The team should have added buffers to each user story to account for the unknown risks. 
4. The line manager should have not let the developer go to work on the agile project in the first place.

Answer: A. The team should have considered human resources availability while planning the sprint.

Prioritization of work is not solely based on the customer value. There are other factors to consider, such as risks, dependencies between user stories, and people’s availability, to name the few.

Q 58. At the sprint retrospective meeting, the agile team members drew a fishbone diagram, wrote a problem at the fish’s head, and labeled the bones of the fish with categories. What should the team do next?

1. Decide what to do about the categories
2. Brainstorm factors within each category
3. Look for items appearing in more than one category
4. Label the fish’s tail with a category for the solution

Answer: B. Brainstorm factors within each category

After the problem is written at the fish’s head and the bones of the fish are labeled with categories, the next step is to brainstorm factors within each category.

Q 59. A team of agile practitioners who have been working together for a long time and successfully delivered many projects has decided to improve their best practices for their upcoming project. What would be the best approach for the team to take to accomplish this task? 

1. Select the best practices used by the most successful agile team in the organization 
2. Design a new set of best practices that are tailored to the upcoming project
3. Apply the same practices that have been used by the team in their previous projects 
4. Consult with the scrum master, the product owner, and the project stakeholders

Answer: C. Apply the same practices that have been used by the team in their previous projects 

The process can and should always be analyzed for any improvements, for example, during retrospective meetings. However, if a set of practices used by a team has proven to be effective, i.e. became a set of best practices, using the same best practices in the next project would be the best option among the answer choices given.

Q 60. An agile team has worked together on previous projects. In the team’s last project, the greatest negative criticism was the inaccuracy of the estimates. When preparing estimates for a new project, what should an agile practitioner recommend that the team members do differently?

1. Deliberate extensively to completely eliminate uncertainty from the estimate
2. Fine tune approach but do not put too much effort to gain the maximum benefit from estimating
3. Lock down the budget, schedule, and scope to improve the accuracy
4. One team member should take primary responsibility for owning the estimate

Answer: B. Fine tune approach but do not put too much effort to gain the maximum benefit from estimating

With estimating, there is a point of diminishing returns, where additional effort put into estimation yields a minimal improvement in accuracy. Therefore, the team can fine-tune, but should not put in too much time or effort in estimating.

Q 61. A new scrum team is looking to improve its process for their next project. Which approach would an agile practitioner say is most likely to help the team improve its process?

1. Adopt the process used by the most successful team in the organization
2. Tailor the process for the new project
3. Focus on ‘work not done’ and reflection
4. Consult with the scrum master and the project sponsor

Answer: C. Focus on ‘work not done’ and reflection

Simplicity and reflection are core agile practices. Simplicity, “the art of maximizing the amount of work not done”, is one of the Agile Manifesto principles. Reflection is in the center of iteration retrospectives aimed to improve the team’s process and performance. Focusing on reflection and simplicity will most likely help the team improve its process, making this the best answer to the question asked.

Q 61. Which of the following Scrum event centers on the ‘product’?

1. Daily Standup Meeting
2. Sprint Planning Meeting
3. Sprint Review Meeting
4. Sprint Retrospective Meeting

Answer: C. Sprint Review Meeting

The Sprint Review Meeting is a product-centric meeting held at the end of each sprint where the development team demonstrates the functionality they have completed during the sprint, asks for feedback, and seeks the acceptance of this functionality by the Product Owner.

Q 62. What happens to user stories that are not accepted by the customer at the end of a sprint?

1. They are automatically placed into the backlog of the next sprint.
2. They are deleted from the product backlog and dropped from the project.
3. They are placed in the product backlog to be reprioritized.
4. They are rewritten to address the reasons why they were not accepted.

Answer: C. They are placed in the product backlog to be reprioritized.

User stories that are not accepted by the customer at the end of a sprint are placed in the product backlog to be reprioritized by the customer and/or the product owner.

Q 63. When an Agile project team member is not 100% dedicated to one project, they are referred to as?

1. Practically Assigned
2. Minimally Assigned
3. Partially Assigned
4. Fractionally Assigned

Answer: D. Fractionally Assigned

If the time an Agile project team member has available is not 100% fully dedicated to one project, then the team member is said to be fractionally assigned. Fractional Assignment is particularly common in organizations where an individual is assigned to one or more projects simultaneously. This makes it extremely difficult for the individual to focus and achieve their maximum productivity on either project, and is not considered an Agile Project Management best practice.

Q 64. Which of the following refers to the start-to-finish time required to develop a potentially shippable product increment?

1. Actual Time
2. Cycle Time
3. Ideal Time
4. Real Time

Answer: B. Cycle Time

Cycle Time refers to the time it takes (from beginning to end) to complete the creation of a potentially shippable product increment. Actual Time and Real Time are used synonymously and refer to the actual time during each day that the team members are available and are productively working on specific Agile project tasks. Ideal Time or Ideal Days refers to when you make the assumption that your Agile project team members will have no interruptions in their work, such as checking email or attending meetings, and will be 100% productive every hour of every day.

Q 65. What is considered the most effective method of communication on an Agile project?

1. Osmotic Communication
2. Electronic Communication
3. Face-to-Face Communication
4. Virtual Communication

Answer: C. Face-to-Face Communication

Face-to-face communication is the verbal exchange of information by senders and receivers in real time and is considered the most effective form of communication in both Agile Project Management and Traditional Project Management. Collocation helps make Face-to-Face Communication a reality for an Agile project team.

Q 66. An agile team used planning poker to estimate user stories. After all team members read a user story, the facilitator asks everyone to choose a card with an estimated number of ideal days to complete a user story and then reveal the card. If estimates were widely different, the facilitator would immediately ask for re-estimates until all the estimates converge. What did the facilitator do wrong?

1. Participants used ideal days as the unit for the estimates.
2. Participants re-estimated immediately after everyone revealed their cards.
3. Cards were revealed when the process should have been anonymous.
4. The facilitator did nothing wrong and played by the rules.

Answer: B. Participants re-estimated immediately after everyone revealed their cards.

By immediately re-estimating, the team misses out on the benefit of discussing the estimates and why they chose those estimates.

Q 67. An agile coach noticed that team members are afraid to ask questions, do not collaborate with each other, and avoid taking responsibility for their actions. What is the most likely reason for such behavior among the team members?

1. Fear of conflict
2. Lack of leadership 
3. Avoidance of accountability 
4. Absence of job security

Answer: A. Fear of conflict

Fear of conflict is one of the main reasons for team members to avoid taking responsibility, to be afraid to ask questions, and not to collaborate with each other.

Q 68. In the planning workshop, the product owner prioritized and ranked the features by business value, and then presented the top features to the development team. What is the team’s next logical step?

1. Set up a customer review meeting to capture more details
2. Start planning and estimating
3. Decompose the features into stories
4. Start development work

Answer: C. Decompose the features into stories

Decomposing the features into stories is the best choice. The next step is for the team to continue analysis by decomposing features into stories. Such decomposition is part of adaptive planning.

Q 69. An agile team has worked together before. In their last project, the greatest negative criticism against them was the inaccuracy of their estimates. What should the team members do differently when preparing estimates for their new project?

1. Deliberate extensively in order to eliminate uncertainty from the estimate
2. Fine tune approach but do not put too much effort to gain the maximum benefit from estimating 
3. Lock down the budget, schedule, and scope to improve the accuracy
4. One team member should take primary responsibility of tracking the estimate

Answer: B.  Fine tune approach but do not put too much effort to gain the maximum benefit from estimating

With estimating, there is a point of diminishing returns, where additional effort put into estimation yields very little in terms of additional accuracy. The team therefore can fine tune, but should not put in “too much” time or effort in estimating.

Q 70. During a retrospective meeting after a failed sprint, emotions run high as the team members blame each other for the failure. Phrases like “He always forgets to check in his code!” or “You never listen to what I have to say!” predominate this heated debate. What is the first thing that an experienced agile coach should do in such a situation?

1. Sit back for a while and observe the team members
2. Intervene immediately to avoid further harm
3. Call in a human resources department representative
4. Start a coaching session with the team members

Answer: A. Sit back for a while and observe the team members

Sitting back and observing the team members’ may be interpreted as a lack of action. However, as a first step, it is important for an experienced agile coach to sufficiently observe the situation.

Q 71. During what Agile meeting is a potentially shippable product increment shown to all interested stakeholders?

1. Iteration Acceptance Meeting      
2. Iteration Planning Meeting
3. Iteration Review Meeting
4. Iteration Retrospective Meeting

Answer: C. Iteration Review Meeting

The Iteration Review Meeting occurs at the end of the iteration where the development team presents the potentially shippable product component they have developed during the current iteration to all interested stakeholders.

Q 72. Which of the following statements is not true with regard to user stories?

1. They are stored in the Product, Release and Sprint Backlogs.
2. They are the primary vehicles used in Agile to create project and product requirements.
3. They should be written by the customer or customer proxy.
4. They represent the smallest unit of work performed on an Agile project.

Answer: D. They represent the smallest unit of work performed on an Agile project.

User stories are broken down into tasks, which represent the lowest form of work decomposition on an Agile project. Tasks can be assigned specific resources for their execution and can also have discreet hourly estimates assigned for their completion.

Q 73. What Agile role is sometimes referred to as ‘the voice of the customer’?

1. Scrum Master
2. Development Team Lead
3. Product Owner
4. Project Manager

Answer: C. Product Owner

Think about which of these roles has the closest and most frequent contact with the customer on an Agile project. The Product Owner is responsible for bridging the gaps between the customer, business stakeholders, and the development team and is sometimes referred to as ‘the voice of the customer’.

Q 74. In what year was the Declaration of Interdependence published?

1. 2001
2. 2003
3. 2005
4. 2007

Answer: C. 2005.

The Declaration of Interdependence was published four years after the Agile Manifesto in 2005 by a group of Agile practitioners to help implement guidelines set forth in the Agile Manifesto.

Q 75. What type of planning describes the technique of applying incremental delivery cycles to perform the work on an Agile project?   

1. Rolling Wave Planning
2. Adaptive Planning
3. Progressive Planning
4. Incremental Planning

Answer: B. Adaptive Planning

Adaptive planning is a technique the employs iterative development cycles in order to produce incremental product deliverables and allows you to adapt your project plans based on the current reality that surrounds and affects your Agile project. Rolling Wave Planning is a form of Progressive Elaboration that focuses more on the near term plans and rolls into the longer term as more information becomes available about the project requirements. Progressive Planning and Incremental Planning are not terms associated with Agile product development.

Q 76. What is the Agile term for the technique of creating a group of rules that govern how team members interact?

1. Standard Operating Procedures
2. Sprint Backlog
3. Working Agreements
4. Rules of Engagement

Answer: C. Working Agreements

Working Agreements is an Agile Project Management term that refers to the standards that each Agile team defines (by consensus) to outline the specific rules for how the team will work together during the course of the project. They are normally considered a ‘verbal contract’, and should be displayed as an information radiator in the team’s Commons space. These are sometimes referred to as Rules of Engagement on non-Agile projects. Teaming Agreements are contractual arrangements  between two or more entities to form a partnership or joint venture for the duration of a project. Standard Operating Procedures are used in both Project Management and Organizational Management and are not specific to Agile.

Q 77. In terms of the decomposition of requirements on an Agile project the artifact that contains release plans as its first level of decomposition is referred to as a?

1. Product Roadmap
2. Release Backlog
3. Product Backlog
4. Sprint Backlog

Answer: A. Product Roadmap

The Product Roadmap is the second Agile Artifact that is created during the Initial Strategy Meeting on an Agile Project. It is a visual timeline of major product features that support the Product Vision Statement, broken down into releases. This will enable the Initial Strategy Meeting attendees to see the ‘big picture’ of when these major product features will be developed and released over the life of the entire project.

Q 78. According to Lean Manufacturing, which of the following terms refers to a set of unfinished work that produces no business value?

1. Work In Process
2. Work in Transition
3. Work In Stagnation
4. Work In Progress

Answer: A. Work In Process

Work in Process is a Lean Manufacturing term that refers to the set of unfinished items being developed or waiting in the backlog that produce no business value until they are fully completed. Work in Progress is a more general term that is not specific to Lean Manufacturing and refers to any work for which you are actively performing tasks at any given moment.

Q 79. Osmotic Communication relies on which of the following in order to be most effectively practiced?

1. Distributed teams
2. Caves and common area
3. Pair programming
4. Co-located teams

Answer: D. Co-located teams

Distributed teams cannot experience osmotic communication since not all team members are located in the same physical space. Although caves and common areas, as well as pair programming, assume co-location, the definition of osmotic communication dictates that teams be co-located. Being located near each other and in the same physical environment enables knowledge to be shared and absorbed more easily as though through osmosis.

Q 80. What is the term used to indicate the number of story points that an agile team completes in an iteration?

1. Affinity
2. Cadence
3. Relativity
4. Velocity

Answer: D. Velocity

Velocity refers to the number of story points an Agile team completes in an iteration. Cadence is also a term sometimes used in Agile to describe when a team gets into a ‘rhythm’ of average work performed during a sprint but is not specifically measured in story points.

Q 81. All of the following are considered Agile Methods except?

1. Adaptive Software Development
2. Feature Driven Development
3. Lean Software Development
4. Test Driven Development

Answer: D. Test Driven Development

Adaptive Software Development, Feature Driven Development and Lean Software Development are all considered Agile methods. Test Driven Development is considered an Agile tool.

Q 82. Alistair Cockburn created the Crystal Family of Agile Methods, all of whose names contain colors of quartz crystals taken from geology.  What two characteristics of an Agile project are used to determine the color of the Crystal method that should be implemented?

1. Size and complexity
2. Duration and complexity
3. Size and criticality
4. Duration and criticality

Answer: C. Size and criticality

Crystal comes from Alistair Cockburn’s characterization of projects along the two dimensions of “size” (meaning the size of the project team) and “criticality” (meaning the damage that will be caused if the developed product or system fails).

Q 83. Who is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the Product Roadmap?

1. Project Manager         
2. Product Manager
3. Scrum Master
4. Product Owner

Answer: D. Product Owner

The primary responsibility of the Product Owner on an Agile project is to represent the business, which includes the creation and maintenance of several Agile artifacts. The Product Owner is responsible for the creation of the Product Vision Statement, the creation and ongoing maintenance of the Product Roadmap, and the creation and ongoing maintenance of Product Backlog, which is commonly referred to as ‘Product Backlog Grooming’.

Q 84. Which of the following is an example of a continuous process improvement ceremony on an Agile Project?

1. Release Planning Meeting         
2. Iteration Retrospective Meeting
3. Product Demonstration Meeting
4. Iteration Planning Meeting

Answer: B. Iteration Retrospective Meeting

Although Continuous Process Improvement should always be on the minds of all Agile project team members, the Iteration Retrospective Meeting is a formal ceremony used in Agile. This event is held at the end of each iteration where lessons learned during the iteration are reviewed, and specific plans of action are implemented during the very next iteration to prevent these issues from occurring again on the project.

Q 85. Frequently integrating new and updated software code on an Agile project is called?

1. Constant Integration
2. Continuous Integration   
3. Consistent Integration   
4. Continuous Integration   

Answer: D. Continuous Integration 

Continuous Integration is a technique used in Extreme Programming dictating that all updates to the application source code base be integrated and tested at least once per day.

Q 86. Emotional Intelligence is an extremely important interpersonal skill that each Agile team member should possess. In terms of the social awareness aspects of Emotional Intelligence, which of the following statements is true?

1. Social Awareness is characterized by the use of self-confidence
2. Social Awareness is characterized by the use of influence
3. Social Awareness is characterized by the use of self-control
4. Social Awareness is characterized by the use of empathy  

Answer: D. Social Awareness is characterized by the use of empathy 

When utilizing the interpersonal skill of Emotional Intelligence on an Agile project, Social Awareness is characterized by the use of empathy in order to understand the perspective of the person with whom you are interacting and communicating.

Q 87. Which of the following techniques is considered most effective when used as a method for project team members to generate ideas for solving problems or meeting open-ended challenges?

1. Brainstorming 
2. Fist of Five 
3. Free-For-All
4. Silent Idea Generation   

Answer: A. Brainstorming.

There are three types of techniques that Agile project teams can use for solving problems or meeting open-ended challenges. These are Brainstorming, Free-For-All and Silent Idea Generation. Of these three techniques, Brainstorming is considered the most effective. Fist of Five is a technique used in Agile estimation.

Q 88. What type of Agile contract allows the customer to terminate the contract at any time on the project if they do not see any added value?

1. Agile Iteration Contract    
2. Agile Time and Materials Contract    
3. Agile Phased Development Contract    
4. Agile Early Termination Contract  

Answer: B. Agile Time and Materials Contract  

An Agile Time and Materials contract allows the customer to terminate the contract at any time on the project if they do not see any added value.

Q 89. Often when implementing an Agile project for the first time in an organization, there is no historical data to determine the velocity of the first project iteration, so this velocity is really more of a ‘guestimate’ than an ‘estimate’. Which term describes this type of velocity?

1. Forecasted Velocity                                               
2. Estimated Velocity
3. Terminal Velocity
4. Cycle Velocity

Answer: A. Forecasted Velocity

Forecasted Velocity is an estimate of Agile project team velocity and is used when it is impossible or impractical to determine how many story points they will need to complete an iteration. This is commonly used on a new Agile project’s first iteration since there is no historical data available to help estimate this velocity.

Q 90. Product defects reported by the customer that have escaped all software quality processes  are called?

1. Primary Defects                                                
2. Escaped Defects
3. Secondary Defects
4. Undetected Defects

Answer: B. Escaped Defects

Escaped Defects are those defects reported by the customer that have escaped all software quality processes, and are usually pointed out by the customer during the Iteration Review meeting.

Q 91. Variance and Trend Analysis is a technique used on Agile projects to reduce risk. What type of Agile Risk Management is Variance and Trend Analysis considered?

1. Organic Risk Management                                      
2. Organizational Risk Management
3. Optimal Risk Management
4. Overt Risk Management 

Answer: D. Overt Risk Management 

Overt Risk Management is the implementation of risk management techniques on your Agile project to explicitly identify, track and create risk responses plans for project risks. Organic Risk Management is the amount of risk reduced on your project inherently by implementing Agile best practices.  Organizational Risk Management and Optimal Risk Management are not terms recognized in Agile.

Q 92. On your Agile projects there is sometimes undocumented knowledge or information that is only known by certain project team members, and is usually kept to themselves.  What is the name of this type of knowledge?

1. Common Knowledge                             
2. Shared Knowledge
3. Tacit Knowledge
4. Tribal Knowledge    

Answer: C. Tacit Knowledge

Undocumented knowledge or information that people keep to themselves on an Agile project team without wanting to share with the rest of the team is known as Tacit Knowledge.

Q 93. Which of the following Agile meetings is used to synchronize an Agile project team’s activities to ensure they are all working toward a common iteration goal?

1. Daily Standup Meeting                       
2. Iteration Review Meeting
3. Iteration Planning Meeting
4. Iteration Retrospective Meeting

Answer: A. Daily Standup Meeting

When you think about the Agile Daily Standup Meeting, remember the term ‘synchronize’.  This Agile meeting is used to synchronize an Agile project team’s activities to ensure they are all working toward a common iteration goal.

Q 94. On your Agile project you have just completed the creation of a potentially shippable product increment. The time it took to create this product increment is referred to as?

1. Actual Time           
2. Cycle Time
3. Lead Time
4. Real Time

Answer: B. Cycle Time

Cycle Time refers to the time it takes (from beginning to end) to complete the creation of a potentially shippable product increment.

Q 95. The Value Stream Mapping process has four distinct steps.  Which of the following is not a recommended step in the Value Stream Mapping process?

1. Define the current state
2. Describe the opportunity
3. Identify the value stream target
4. Depict the desired future state

Answer: B. Describe the opportunity

The four distinct steps in the Value Stream Mapping process are (in order); 1) Identify the value stream target, 2) Define the current state, 3) Clarify the opportunity, and 4) Depict the desired future state. Describing the Opportunity is not a valid Value Stream Mapping process step.

Q 96. You are currently on an Agile project team developing a new bar code scanning device for a major drug store retailer and are currently creating user stories. One project team member is very strong-willed and is constantly trying to exert his influence over others to sway them to his way of thinking. This is an example of?

1. Dominating
2. Influencing
3. Dictating
4. Anchoring

Answer: D. Anchoring

Anchoring occurs when undue influence is exerted by an individual on an Agile project team to  sway the other team members to their way of thinking.

Q 97. Which of the following Agile meetings is process-oriented?

1. Iteration Planning
2. Iteration Review
3. Iteration Demonstration
4. Iteration Retrospective

Answer: D. Iteration Retrospective

The Iteration Retrospective is a process-oriented Agile project team meeting that is held at the end of each iteration. Its  purpose is to explicitly reflect on the most significant events that have occurred during the current iteration in order to make decisions on how to improve processes during the next iteration.

Q 98. Agile project teams often use a collection of values, principles and practices to aid in the  Agile software development process. What is the term used to describe this collection?

1. Agile Prototyping
2. Agile Analytics
3. Agile Modeling
4. Agile Diagnostics

Answer: C. Agile Modeling

Agile Modeling is a tool that Agile project teams often use to create models for Agile software development, and is a collection of values, principles and practices.

Q 99. All of the following are considered methods of receiving feedback from Agile project team members except?

1. Team Evaluation
2. Prototyping
3. Individual Evaluation
4. Process Tailoring

Answer: B. Prototyping

Team Evaluation, Individual Evaluation and Process Tailoring are all methods of soliciting feedback from your Agile project team members. Prototyping is a form of “Product” feedback, not a form of “Project Team” feedback.

Q 100. Which of the following contain the Core Practices of Kanban ?

1. Limit WIP, Make Process Policies Explicit, Measure and Manage Flow
2. Define and Visualize the Workflow, Self-Organizing, Measure and Manage Flow
3. Limit WIP, Use Models to Suggest Improvement, Prioritize Business Value
4. Define and Visualize the Workflow, Make Process Policies Explicit, Simplicity

Answer: A. Limit WIP, Make Process Policies Explicit, Measure and Manage Flow

The five core practices of Kanban are Define and Visualize the workflow, Limit WIP, Measure and Manage Flow, Make Process Policies Explicit, Use Models to Suggest Improvement. In answer B, Self-Organizing is a focus in Scrum. In answer C Prioritize Business Value is an overall Agile philosophy. In answer D, Simplicity is an XP Core Value.

Q 101. A teammate doesn’t finish their work, because they had to help out on another project. Which of the categories of Waste does this fall into?

1. Partially done work
2. Defects
3. Task Switching
4. Extra Processes

Answer: C. Task Switching

Being assigned to different projects is an example of task switching, which creates waste.

Q 102. When prioritizing using the MoSCoW technique, which of the following would comprise what is needed to support the business case ?

1. Must Have
2. Must Have and Should Have
3. Must Have, Should Have, and Could Have
4. None of the above

Answer: B.  Must Have and Should Have

Must Have and Should Have, are the categories that make up the Business Case.  Must Have support the Minimum Useable Subset.  Answer C, should be 100% of the total effort and supports both the business case and contingency.

Q 103. You are a tester and you are testing unscripted scenarios to explore the range of the product.  Which of the following are you performing?

1. Exploratory Testing
2. Alpha Testing
3. Usability Testing
4. Scenario Testing

Answer: A.  Exploratory Testing

Exploratory Testing is where testers perform unscripted testing.

Q 104. Information Radiators are designed to:6. Information Radiators are designed to:

1. Be simple to understand
2. Be detailed and precise
3. Kept in management areas so they can be aware
4. Only accessible to members of the team

Answer: C. Kept in management areas so they can be aware

Continuous Integration is a technical practice.  A, B, and D are all ways of working collaboratively

Q 105. Your team is having a passionate discussion and you are trying to understand their level of conflict.  The team is making statements like “I guess we are just going to have to save the day again” and “This is a stupid discussion.”  What level of conflict are you observing?

1. Level 1
2. Level 2
3. Level 3
4. Level 4

Answer: B. Level 2. 

Level 2.  At level 2, the language is cynical and team members try to distance themselves from the debate.

Q 106. Which of the following is not true about velocity?

1. Velocity is used to track progress
2. Velocity can be used to project how much work an agile team can do
3. Velocity is the measure of work that a team can tackle in a single iteration
4. Velocity can be used to compare teams

Answer: D. Velocity can be used to compare teams  

Velocity cannot be used to compare teams, since all teams will have their own calibration of velocity

Q 107. Which of the following is not an aspect of designing agile spaces?

1. Caves and Commons
2. Areas to conduct the daily standup
3. Information radiators
4. Expensive furniture

Answer: D.  Expensive furniture is not needed to create an agile space.

Q 108. When planning an iteration, the team committed to 10 points.  It looks like you are only going to complete 8.  What do you do?

1. Work overtime to complete the work
2. Do not complete definition of done criteria to get to 10 points
3. Complete 8 points
4. Extend the iteration

Answer:  C. Complete 8 points

The best answer is to complete the 8 points.  Working overtime doesn’t follow the principle of sustainable pace.  You cannot skip the definition of done criteria in order to “complete” 10 points, because as a team you agree the DoD is needed for high quality products.  D is incorrect because iterations are timeboxed.

Q 109. Your team has 200 points in the backlog and a velocity of 15 points for each two-week iteration.  How many weeks should you expect to complete the backlog?

1. 14 weeks
2. 26 weeks
3. 28 weeks
4. 16 weeks

Answer C.  28 weeks.

It will take you 13.3 iterations to complete the work in your backlog (200/15=13.3) Since you should not change the timebox of an iteration, you would need 14 iterations to complete the work.  Since the question asks how many weeks, 14 iterations of two-week timeboxes.

Q 110. Which of the following practices are latest on the Cost of Change curve?

1. Defect found through traditional testing methods
2. Defect found though paired programming
3. Defect found through continuous integration
4. Defect found through Test Driven Development

Answer: A. Defect found through traditional testing methods 

B, C, and D are all methods that look for defects before the code even gets to a tester.

Q 111. On agile projects, Cycle time normally refers to:

1. The average duration of an iteration
2. The time required to complete a work items from start to finish
3. The time required for product review
4. The time periods between iterations.

Answer B. The time required to complete a work items from start to finish 

The cycle time is how long it takes for an item to go from start to finish.

Q 112. Your team is conducting an Iteration Planning Meeting.  You spend five minutes waiting for the team to show up, 30 minutes reviewing the stories, 10 minutes to take a break, and 30 minutes to select the stories for the iteration.  What is the Process Cycle Efficiency?

1. 70%
2. 80%
3. 90%
4. 95%

Answer: B. 80%  

The total cycle time is 75 minutes.  The Value Add time is 60 minutes.  60/75=80%

Q 113. At the end of an iteration, who approves the completion of that iteration ?

1. Project Manager
2. Product Owner
3. Scrum Master
4. Management

Answer: B. Product Owner. 

The product owner is the only person who can approve an iteration

Q 114. You are on a team that is using XP.  Your team seems to be confused during a discussion, where people seem to be talking about different things, when you believe they are just using different words, which is confusing.  Which XP practice are you probably not following?

1. Sustainable Pace
2. Simple Design
3. System Metaphor
4. Pair Programming

Answer:  C. System Metaphor

The best answer is C, System Metaphor is a tool to create a shared understanding for the team.  B could be considered, where the design could be too complicated, but the best answer is C.

Q 115. Which of the following would not be helpful in selecting a project for inclusion?

1. IRR
2. NPV
3. ROI
4. WIP

Answer: D.  WIP.

WIP has nothing to do with project prioritization.  IRR, NPV, and ROI are all financial metrics that can be used to prioritize opportunities

Q 116. The pattern for Test Driven Development is:

1. Write Code, Write Test, Refactor
2. Write Test, Write Code, Refactor
3. Write Test, Refactor, Write Code
4. Write Code, Review Code, Test Code

Answer: B. Write Test, Write Code, Refactor 

The Test Driven Development Pattern is Write Test, Write Code, Refactor

Q 117. You are the scrum master for a project, and you have found out that you are not going to deliver the MMF at the end of the release. The best way to deal with this situation is:

1. Text the Product Owner
2. Write a report documenting what occurred
3. Go discuss the issue face to face with the stakeholders
4. Schedule a conference call with the stakeholders

Answer: C. Go discuss the issue face to face with the stakeholders 

The best method of communication, especially when there is bad news is face to face.

Q 118. Which of the following is not one of the agile values?

1. Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools
2. Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation
3. Customer Collaboration over Technical Quality
4. Responding to Change over Following a Plan

Answer: C. Customer Collaboration over Technical Quality

The value is Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation

Q 119. A Scrum Master has set up a team celebration for a successful release.  Which aspect of Servant Leadership are they demonstrating?

1. Shield the team from interruptions
2. Remove Impediments to progress
3. Communicate (and re-communicate) the project vision
4. Carry Food and Water

Answer: D. Carry Food and Water

Carry Food and Water isn’t just about getting food and water for the team.  It’s about providing the essential resources to keep them nourished and productive.  Appreciation is something that is important for the team to feel motivated and productive

Q 120. Recently you have been assigned as a Product Owner to the Scrum team that you had never worked with before. One week later one of your company’s managers approaches you and asks to confirm that the project will be finished by the 6th of March. He says that he reviewed estimates given by your team and needs a commitment guarantee it will be finished to the exact date. What is the most likely problem in this situation?

1. The Manager should approach a Scrum Master not you
2. Many managers confuse estimates with commitments. As soon as a team expresses an estimate they are forced to commit to it
3. You have been assigned to the project recently therefore you are not able to make any commitments yet
4. Agile teams don’t make any commitments to specific dates

Answer: B. Many managers confuse estimates with commitments. As soon as a team expresses an estimate they are forced to commit to it

An estimate is a probability and a commitment cannot be made to a probability. Commitments are made to dates. Normally the date that a team is asked (or told) to commit to is one to which they would assign a less than 100% probability.