PMI-ACP Practice Questions #14
A member of the team has expressed a desire to transition roles from testing to development. The team member has completed several courses and gained knowledge in development. Some of the team members are concerned that coming sprint velocity may decrease with this transition in roles.
What should the agile practitioner do?
A. Allow the team member to transition immediately and assign simpler development tasks initially to build confidence and reduce the impact on sprint velocity.
B. Schedule a meeting with the team to discuss their concerns and collaboratively create a plan to support the team member’s transition while balancing velocity expectations.
C. Delay the transition until the team member demonstrates expertise by completing additional training or certifications in development.
D. Reject the transition request to ensure sprint velocity is not impacted and maintain the team’s current roles and responsibilities.
Analysis
The scenario describes a team member wanting to transition from testing to development after completing relevant training courses. However, other team members are concerned that this transition might lower sprint velocity.
As an Agile practitioner, the goal is to promote team growth, cross-functionality, and continuous learning while ensuring that sprint goals and delivery commitments are met. Agile supports T-shaped skills (where team members develop secondary competencies beyond their primary role), but transitions should be collaborative and planned rather than forced or delayed unnecessarily.
The best approach is to engage the team in a discussion, address concerns, and collaboratively create a transition plan that balances learning with delivery commitments.
Analysis of Options
A: Allow the team member to transition immediately and assign simpler development tasks initially to build confidence and reduce the impact on sprint velocity.
This partially aligns with Agile principles because it encourages learning and ensures a gradual transition. However, the issue is that the Agile practitioner is making the decision alone and assigning tasks, which goes against Agile’s self-organizing team structure. In Agile, the team collectively decides on work allocation rather than a leader assigning simpler tasks. While supporting learning is good, this option lacks collaboration, making it less ideal.
B: Schedule a meeting with the team to discuss their concerns and collaboratively create a plan to support the team member’s transition while balancing velocity expectations.
This is the best choice because it ensures that the transition is handled collaboratively, rather than being imposed or delayed arbitrarily. The team can:
- Discuss concerns openly and align on expectations.
- Create a structured transition plan that supports the learning process while minimizing delivery risks.
- Ensure knowledge-sharing to help the transitioning team member succeed.
This option promotes collaboration, shared ownership, and cross-functional team development while maintaining a balance between learning and delivery.
C: Delay the transition until the team member demonstrates expertise by completing additional training or certifications in development.
While training is important, delaying the transition solely for additional certifications contradicts Agile principles of learning through real-world experience. Agile teams learn by doing, and hands-on experience is often more valuable than formal training. Also, a structured transition plan (as suggested in Option B) can already include additional training if needed, making this an unnecessary delay.
D: Reject the transition request to ensure sprint velocity is not impacted and maintain the team’s current roles and responsibilities.
This is not an Agile approach. Agile encourages growth, adaptability, and skill development. Rejecting the request purely to preserve sprint velocity prioritizes short-term delivery over long-term team capability building. This option should be eliminated.
Conclusion
The correct answer is Option B: Schedule a meeting with the team to discuss their concerns and collaboratively create a plan to support the team member’s transition while balancing velocity expectations.
This choice aligns with Agile principles of collaboration, empowerment, and continuous learning while ensuring that team concerns and delivery commitments are addressed. It helps the team find a structured way to support the transition, foster cross-functional skills, and maintain sprint goals—making it the most holistic and Agile-aligned solution.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Mindset | Embrace Agile Mindset |
| Mindset | Embrace Change |
Topics Covered:
- Encouraging cross-functional skill development.
- Facilitating team collaboration in role transitions.
- Balancing learning opportunities with sprint commitments.
- Embracing Agile mindset and adaptability.
- Supporting team growth while maintaining velocity expectations.
- Promoting a growth mindset to respond to change.
- Encouraging and modeling cross-skilling within the team.
- Adapting to evolving team needs based on learning and feedback.
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