PMI-ACP Practice Questions #101
During an Agile project, you, as a Product Owner, are working with stakeholders to discuss high-level requirements for a new feature set. The stakeholders express concerns that the requirements feel too large and complex, making it difficult for them to visualize the work and dependencies. They request a structured breakdown that allows them to see how the functionality will be delivered in increments and prioritized accordingly.
What should you do?
A. It’s too early to break down these requirements. We should defer decomposition until the time is right and allow backlog refinement to happen naturally during iterations.
B. We should create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to provide a detailed decomposition of tasks and dependencies, ensuring all work is structured from a top-down perspective.
C. We should break the Epics into smaller User Stories and refine them iteratively in backlog grooming sessions, ensuring the right level of detail at the right time.
D. We should use User Story Mapping to visualize the feature set based on the user journey, helping stakeholders see how value will be delivered incrementally.
Analysis
The question presents a scenario where stakeholders find the requirements too large and complex, making it difficult to visualize how the work will be delivered incrementally. The goal is to choose an approach that effectively structures and prioritizes the functionality while addressing stakeholder concerns. The best approach should align with Agile principles, support progressive elaboration, and enhance stakeholder understanding of incremental value delivery.
Analysis of Options:
A: It’s too early to break down these requirements. We should defer decomposition until the time is right and allow backlog refinement to happen naturally during iterations.
This option suggests delaying decomposition and allowing backlog refinement to take place over time. While Agile encourages progressive elaboration, completely deferring the breakdown disregards the immediate concerns of stakeholders. The question explicitly states that stakeholders are struggling to visualize the work and dependencies. Ignoring this need can lead to disengagement and lack of alignment. Agile does not mandate waiting for iteration-level backlog refinement to address critical stakeholder concerns. Therefore, this is not the best option.
B: We should create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to provide a detailed decomposition of tasks and dependencies, ensuring all work is structured from a top-down perspective.
While a WBS might seem like a structured approach to decomposition, it is not aligned with Agile principles. A traditional WBS is a predictive, top-down planning tool that focuses on detailed task breakdowns, which contradicts Agile’s iterative nature. Agile encourages evolving requirements rather than rigidly defining tasks in advance. Furthermore, a WBS is focused on task dependencies rather than value delivery, making it a poor choice for addressing stakeholder concerns about incremental delivery.
C: We should break the Epics into smaller User Stories and refine them iteratively in backlog grooming sessions, ensuring the right level of detail at the right time.
This approach aligns with Agile principles as it supports iterative refinement. However, breaking all epics into user stories at once may not be the most efficient approach. Agile promotes “just-in-time” backlog refinement, meaning that detailed decomposition should occur closer to implementation. Additionally, this option does not explicitly address stakeholder concerns about visualizing dependencies and incremental delivery. While backlog grooming (refinement) is necessary, it may not fully resolve the issue stated in the question.
D: We should use User Story Mapping to visualize the feature set based on the user journey, helping stakeholders see how value will be delivered incrementally.
This is the best option. User Story Mapping is a powerful technique that helps stakeholders visualize the entire feature set as a structured journey, showing how different pieces of functionality are delivered incrementally. It provides clarity on dependencies while maintaining flexibility in refinement. By mapping user interactions and prioritizing functionality based on business value, stakeholders gain a clear understanding of how requirements evolve progressively. This directly addresses the challenge of large, complex requirements and aligns with Agile’s incremental approach.
Conclusion
The best answer is Option D, as it effectively facilitates stakeholder understanding of how value will be delivered incrementally. It aligns with Agile principles by keeping the backlog dynamic while providing a structured, visual representation of the work. Other options either fail to address stakeholder concerns adequately or rely on non-Agile methods that contradict iterative development.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Product | Refine Product Backlog |
| Product | Manage Value Delivery |
Topics Covered:
- Use User Story Mapping to break down large features into smaller, manageable stories.
- Help stakeholders visualize dependencies and prioritize work effectively.
- Ensure backlog items are progressively elaborated and refined based on business value.
- Focus on delivering value in increments by structuring work in a way that enables iterative releases.
- Ensure that stakeholders can see how value is optimized through incremental feature rollouts rather than large, complex deliveries.
- Align the backlog with business goals and user journeys, ensuring that each increment delivers meaningful progress toward the product vision.
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