Pass the PMI PMI Agile PMI-ACP Questions and answers with CertsForce

The scrum master should emphasize the core principles of agile, which are centered around collaboration, delivering value incrementally, and fostering a shared mindset among the team. In an agile environment, success is not only about following processes but about the team working together towards a common goal, adapting to change, and continuously delivering value to customers. These principles are the foundation of agile methodologies and essential for teams that are new to agile to understand.

The correct answer is A – Work with the team to improve collaboration by fostering group decision-making and conflict resolution techniques.

One of the core principles of Agile is self-organizing teams. Teams must learn to make decisions collaboratively. If they are struggling, the Scrum Master or Agile Coach should facilitate improved team dynamics, encouraging consensus-building and effective conflict resolution techniques such as consensus, dot voting, or facilitation.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams are empowered to make decisions. Coaches support this by teaching group decision-making techniques and fostering a culture of psychological safety and collaboration.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.2 – Coaching the Agile Team)

Mike Griffiths highlights:

“When teams hesitate to make decisions, the coach’s role is to facilitate better team dynamics—not to make decisions for them. Group decision-making leads to greater commitment and alignment.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Why other options fall short:

B gives decision-making power to the Product Owner inappropriately for technical matters.

C fragments accountability and may cause misalignment.

D may help in leadership development but doesn’t guarantee collaborative decision-making.

Answer: A

The correct answer is C – Work with the stakeholder directly rather than go through different layers of people. Agile emphasizes direct communication and collaboration with stakeholders to reduce miscommunication and ensure clarity. When requirements differ depending on who is asked, the agile practitioner must go directly to the source for clarification and alignment.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Face-to-face conversation is the most effective method of conveying information to and within a development team. Agile encourages working directly with stakeholders and product owners to minimize miscommunication.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement; Agile Manifesto Principle #6)

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“To reduce noise and confusion, agile practitioners are encouraged to engage stakeholders directly rather than relying on intermediaries or second-hand interpretations.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 1 – Agile Principles and Mindset)

Option A contradicts agile’s value of responding to change. Option B is an indirect solution that does not eliminate confusion. Option D is internal to the team and doesn’t resolve inconsistencies from stakeholder communication.

Answer: C

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DevOps is a methodology that focuses on enhancing collaboration between development and operations teams to create a continuous feedback loop and speed up the delivery process. The key to enabling and sustaining a fast workflow is the establishment of a culture of collaboration, supported by the right tools and processes that allow for continuous delivery. This culture helps break down silos between teams, leading to faster and more efficient workflows that can continuously deliver value to customers.

The correct answer is B — Prioritize the most valuable product features in the backlog first.

Agile prioritization focuses on delivering value early and frequently. Coaching the product owner to understand value-based prioritization ensures that the most critical features are built and validated first.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams focus on delivering the highest value items first. The product owner prioritizes the backlog based on business value, risk, and stakeholder input.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.3 – Backlog Management)

Mike Griffiths:

“Product backlog prioritization is value-driven. The product owner should assess each item’s value and prioritize those that deliver the greatest return or strategic impact.”

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

Incorrect options:

A misinterprets story points as a priority metric—story points measure effort, not value.

C addresses risk but not value.

D refers to Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which is a release planning technique, not a backlog sorting method.

Answer: B

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The correct answer is D – Understand the impediments and facilitate issue resolution to enable the team to succeed.

The Agile Project Manager (or Scrum Master) acts as a servant leader by removing impediments and coaching the team toward improvement. Instead of dictating action or adjusting timeboxes, the right approach is to facilitate problem-solving and help the team meet its sprint goal.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The Scrum Master works to remove impediments and support the team’s progress. They do not give commands but instead facilitate improvement.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Roles and Responsibilities)

Mike Griffiths affirms:

“Agile leaders remove roadblocks and create an environment where the team can succeed. They support rather than direct.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Other options are inappropriate:

A is command-and-control, not servant leadership.

B violates timebox principles of Scrum.

C misplaces responsibility for testing onto customers.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is C – Conduct retrospectives at the end of every sprint.

According to the Agile framework, regular retrospectives are a key practice to inspect and adapt the process. If team members have concerns about the Scrum Master's processes, the appropriate time and space to bring up and resolve such issues is the Sprint Retrospective.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Retrospectives are a time-boxed event that enables the team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next iteration. It provides a structured opportunity for feedback and reflection.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5, Iteration Retrospectives)

Mike Griffiths further adds:

“Teams must take ownership of their process. The role of the agile leader, such as a Scrum Master, is to facilitate improvement via mechanisms like retrospectives. They are not responsible for enforcing process, but for enabling continuous improvement.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A may undermine the team's self-organization and brings hierarchy into team-level process adjustments.

B may address some confusion, but doesn’t actively involve the team in process improvement.

D is inappropriate—sprint planning is for work planning, not process feedback.

Therefore, the most agile-appropriate and validated solution is: C

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The correct answer is C – Ask the team to restate the requirements and review them with the client.

Clear communication and shared understanding are core Agile values. The best way to resolve confusion is through direct collaboration. Restating and reviewing requirements with the client fosters alignment and transparency, which reduces rework and frustration.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile encourages frequent interaction with stakeholders to clarify requirements and reduce misunderstanding. Requirements are best elaborated through collaboration.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Backlog Refinement)

Mike Griffiths supports:

“User stories and acceptance criteria should be understood by both team and stakeholders. If confusion arises, revisit and clarify together.”

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

Why not others?

A may boost morale but doesn’t resolve the confusion.

B is speculative and not customer-centric.

D risks building something without validation.

Answer: C

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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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In this situation, the Scrum Master observes that the developer is confused about a business rule during the daily coordination meeting. The best approach is to address the issue directly with the developer after the meeting. This ensures that the developer receives the clarification they need without disrupting the flow of the meeting or drawing unnecessary attention to the issue during the daily standup.