PMI-ACP Practice Questions #117
You are managing a software development team working on an AI-powered chatbot. The team has been facing delivery challenges due to impediments, so you asked your team leader to track the impact of blockers over the last four sprints. The data is as follows:
Looking at the sprint data, what insights can the team derive to improve their performance in coming sprint?
A. Work to identify systematic impediments that are creating blockers in sprints since resolving them can increase team production.
B. The team is planning beyond their effective capacity and should commit to fewer stories per sprint.
C. Work with the Product Owner to identify stories that are less likely to get blocked during the sprint, improving backlog refinement and aggressive impediment removal.
D. The team should increase their sprint commitment to match the estimated max velocity.
Analysis
The given sprint data highlights that the team has been consistently facing impediments that result in blocked stories, causing a lower actual velocity than the estimated maximum velocity. The primary concern is that these blockers are recurring across sprints, affecting the team’s ability to deliver efficiently.
To improve performance in the coming sprint, the focus should be on mitigating these blockers. Simply reducing commitment may not solve the problem, as the blockers are due to external dependencies rather than overcommitment. The most effective approach is to proactively refine the backlog and work on minimizing blockers before starting the sprint.
Analysis of Options
A: Work to identify systematic impediments that are creating blockers in sprints since resolving them can increase team production.
This is a valid but long-term approach. Identifying and resolving systematic impediments will improve the team’s productivity over multiple sprints. However, since the question specifically asks for an improvement in the coming sprint, this option is not the best immediate solution. Removing impediments may require collaboration with external teams and organizational changes, which may not yield quick results.
B: The team is planning beyond their effective capacity and should commit to fewer stories per sprint.
While the team’s actual velocity is lower than the estimated max velocity, the root cause is not overcommitment but blockers affecting work progress. Even if the team commits to fewer stories, critical stories may still get blocked, leading to a lower than expected velocity. This option incorrectly assumes that the problem is due to overestimation of capacity rather than external impediments.
C: Work with the Product Owner to identify stories that are less likely to get blocked during the sprint, improving backlog refinement and aggressive impediment removal.
This is the best option because it directly addresses the problem for the next sprint. By improving backlog refinement and identifying dependencies in advance, the team can choose stories that have a lower risk of getting blocked. This proactive approach minimizes disruptions during the sprint, allowing the team to improve their delivery without waiting for long-term systemic changes.
D: The team should increase their sprint commitment to match the estimated max velocity.
The team is already committing to the estimated max velocity but is unable to achieve it due to impediments. Increasing the commitment further does not solve the root cause and may create additional pressure on the team. This approach ignores the impact of blockers and is therefore not a viable solution.
Conclusion
The best answer is Option C: Work with the Product Owner to identify stories that are less likely to get blocked during the sprint, improving backlog refinement and aggressive impediment removal. This approach provides an immediate improvement by selecting work that is less prone to getting blocked, thereby reducing disruptions and improving overall velocity in the next sprint.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Delivery | Manage Agile Metrics |
Topics Covered:
- Managing Agile metrics to analyze delivery impediments
- Sprint planning with focus on dependency and blocker risk
- Backlog refinement and story selection strategies
- Collaborating with the Product Owner to minimize sprint disruption
- Continuous improvement through analysis of actual vs. planned velocity
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