PMI-ACP Practice Questions #22
As an Agile practitioner, you are leading a team working on a product with significant uncertainty about the technology to be used. Team members express frustration about the lack of clarity regarding solutions and find it difficult to estimate project timelines. How would you address this situation?
A. Take sign-off on the requirements to ensure clarity on at least the scope, and estimate timelines based on similar industry projects.
B. Follow an iterative approach and run experimental spikes in the initial iterations to explore and gain more understanding of the technology.
C. Add a significant contingency buffer to the estimates to account for the high level of uncertainty in the project.
D. Involve technical experts, assigning them ownership of the estimates and making them accountable for ensuring their accuracy.
Analysis
This scenario presents a technologically uncertain project where the team is struggling to estimate because they lack clarity on solutions. The Agile Practitioner must guide the team toward learning through iteration, reducing uncertainty, and making informed decisions rather than relying on predictive approaches.
Agile encourages experimentation, iterative learning, and team ownership of estimation rather than fixed upfront planning or excessive contingency buffers.
Analysis of Options
A: Take sign-off on the requirements to ensure clarity on at least the scope and estimate timelines based on similar industry projects.
- This approach is predictive rather than Agile. Agile works well in uncertain environments because it allows for iterative discovery.
- Taking sign-off on requirements does not reduce technological uncertainty. Even with well-defined requirements, the team still needs to explore the technology to understand feasibility.
- Estimating based on industry projects is risky, as past projects may not have had the same level of complexity or uncertainty.
- Not a suitable approach for an Agile environment.
B: Follow an iterative approach and run experimental spikes in the initial iterations to explore and gain more understanding of the technology.
- This is the best option as it aligns with Agile principles of fast feedback, learning through experimentation, and reducing uncertainty iteratively.
- Spikes are a recommended Agile practice where teams conduct short research efforts (technical spikes) to evaluate feasibility and inform future development.
- Reduces risk by validating technological assumptions early, allowing the team to make informed estimates based on real findings.
- Strong choice, as it promotes empirical learning, shortens feedback loops, and enhances team confidence.
C: Add a significant contingency buffer to the estimates to account for the high level of uncertainty in the project.
- This is a predictive approach, not an Agile one. Agile teams embrace change and uncertainty rather than padding estimates to account for unknowns.
- Adding buffers does not solve the root problem (lack of technical clarity); it merely inflates timelines and may lead to inefficient resource utilization.
- Poor choice, as it assumes upfront forecasting is reliable in an uncertain environment, which contradicts Agile principles.
D: Involve technical experts, assigning them ownership of the estimates and making them accountable for ensuring their accuracy.
- Agile teams are cross-functional and self-organizing. Estimation should be a collaborative activity involving the whole team, not just assigned to technical experts.
- While experts can provide guidance, ownership of estimation should remain with the team to ensure shared responsibility and commitment.
- This option reduces team empowerment and is not aligned with Agile principles.
Conclusion
The correct answer is Option B: Follow an iterative approach and run experimental spikes in the initial iterations to explore and gain more understanding of the technology.
This approach ensures that technical uncertainty is addressed early, risks are mitigated through experimentation, and the team can make more informed decisions moving forward—aligning with Agile’s core principles of empirical learning, iterative development, and fast feedback loops.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Mindset | Experiment Early |
| Mindset | Shorten Feedback Loops |
| Product | Manage Increments |
Topics Covered:
- Using experimental spikes to explore and reduce technology uncertainty.
- Iterative learning to refine understanding of feasibility before full development.
- Shortening feedback loops to validate technical solutions early.
- Encouraging empirical decision-making instead of upfront assumptions.
- Enabling the team to make informed estimates based on real findings.
- Reducing risk by testing technical feasibility before committing to long-term plans.
- Promoting a learning-driven approach to handle unknowns in Agile development.
- Aligning Agile development with continuous discovery and adaptation.
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