PMI-ACP Practice Questions #12
An Agile team is working on a new product. During a retrospective, the team identified that the Product Owner often introduces changes mid-sprint. While these changes appear reasonable, they are causing the team to miss their sprint goals.
What are the most appropriate actions to address this situation?
A. Facilitate a mid-sprint review meeting with the Product Owner to reassess priorities and collaboratively decide on changes.
B. Adopt shorter sprint durations to accommodate emerging changes without disrupting sprint goals.
C. Develop a working agreement with the Product Owner to balance change flexibility with sprint focus and explain the impact of mid-sprint changes caused by missing details or expectations.
D. Refine the product backlog more frequently to ensure priorities are clarified, and missing details or expectations are addressed before sprint planning.
Analysis
The scenario presents a common Agile challenge where the Product Owner (PO) frequently introduces mid-sprint changes. While these changes appear reasonable, they are causing the team to miss their sprint goals.
In Agile, adaptability and flexibility are key, but they should not come at the cost of team focus and sprint commitments. The Agile practitioner must ensure a balance between accommodating necessary changes and maintaining sprint discipline. The best approach is one that collaboratively engages the team and the Product Owner to establish a sustainable way of handling changes while ensuring the team remains productive and focused.
Analysis of Options
A: Facilitate a mid-sprint review meeting with the Product Owner to reassess priorities and collaboratively decide on changes.
While collaboration is good, introducing a mid-sprint review meeting is not the best approach. Agile frameworks like Scrum discourage mid-sprint changes unless absolutely necessary. The team already has daily standups for short-term planning and adaptation, so adding another formal meeting for reassessing priorities mid-sprint may disrupt flow and cause unnecessary distractions. This is not the best option.
B: Adopt shorter sprint durations to accommodate emerging changes without disrupting sprint goals.
Shorter sprints can help with faster adaptation to change, but this approach assumes that external changes are inevitable and cannot be controlled. The scenario does not indicate that the environment is highly volatile, meaning the problem may lie in poor backlog refinement or a lack of clear expectations upfront rather than sprint duration. While this could be a valid strategy in certain situations, it is not the most direct or collaborative solution for this scenario.
C: Develop a working agreement with the Product Owner to balance change flexibility with sprint focus and explain the impact of mid-sprint changes caused by missing details or expectations.
This is the best option because it directly addresses the root cause of the problem—the Product Owner’s frequent mid-sprint changes. By establishing a working agreement, the team and PO can find a balance between allowing necessary flexibility while protecting the sprint goals. This approach also helps educate the Product Owner on the impact of mid-sprint changes, ensuring that changes are only introduced when absolutely necessary. It promotes collaboration, transparency, and accountability.
D: Refine the product backlog more frequently to ensure priorities are clarified, and missing details or expectations are addressed before sprint planning.
This is a good approach because frequent backlog refinement helps ensure that stories are well-defined before sprint planning, reducing the likelihood of mid-sprint changes. However, this alone does not address the issue of managing changes once the sprint has started. A better approach is combining backlog refinement with a working agreement, which is why Option C is the better choice.
Conclusion
The correct answer is Option C: Develop a working agreement with the Product Owner to balance change flexibility with sprint focus and explain the impact of mid-sprint changes caused by missing details or expectations.
This choice ensures that the team and Product Owner collaborate to define an approach that minimizes mid-sprint disruptions while maintaining necessary adaptability. It prevents unnecessary changes while ensuring alignment between the team and stakeholders, promoting both sprint focus and Agile flexibility.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Mindset | Experiment Early |
| Mindset | Promote Collaborative Team Environment |
Topics Covered:
- Balancing sprint focus with change flexibility.
- Establishing a working agreement with the Product Owner.
- Enhancing backlog refinement to minimize mid-sprint changes.
- Promoting collaboration between the team and stakeholders.
- Encouraging shared accountability for sprint commitments.
If you’re preparing for the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Exam, we highly recommend enrolling in our PMI-ACP® Exam Prep Program. Designed to provide a comprehensive Agile learning experience, this program not only helps you ace the PMI-ACP® exam but also enhances your Agile mindset, leadership skills, and ability to deliver value-driven projects. Ensure exam success and career growth with our expert-led, structured preparation program tailored for Agile professionals.
