PMI-ACP Practice Questions #24
During an iteration review, stakeholders express confusion about the target customer for the demonstrated features. Some stakeholders focus on young people using the application, while others focus on older people. This misalignment has led to unclear feedback and conflicting priorities. How can this problem be avoided in the future?
A. Ensure clearer definition of features by including detailed acceptance criteria to align expectations.
B. Revisit the target personas for the application and ensure all stakeholders agree on a common understanding of the target audience.
C. Increase the frequency of demos, conducting them more often than iteration reviews to catch misalignments early.
D. Ask the Product Owner and the team to collaborate on defining detailed wireframes to provide a shared visual reference for the features.
Analysis
During an iteration review, stakeholders expressed confusion about the target audience for the demonstrated features. Some stakeholders focused on young people using the application, while others focused on older people. This misalignment led to unclear feedback and conflicting priorities. The root cause of the issue is the lack of alignment on the target customer, which affects how features are developed and evaluated. To avoid this problem in the future, the Agile practitioner must ensure that all stakeholders share a common understanding of the intended audience before moving forward with feature development.
Analysis of Options
A: Ensure clearer definition of features by including detailed acceptance criteria to align expectations.
Having clear acceptance criteria is a good Agile practice that ensures alignment on how features should function. However, acceptance criteria focus on defining how a feature should work, not who it is intended for. If stakeholders are unclear about the target audience, well-defined acceptance criteria will not resolve the misalignment. The issue must first be addressed at a higher level by clarifying the user personas.
B: Revisit the target personas for the application and ensure all stakeholders agree on a common understanding of the target audience.
This is the best option because it directly addresses the root cause of the problem. If stakeholders are not aligned on the intended users, any discussions about features, functionality, or priorities will continue to be misaligned. Establishing a shared understanding of personas will help create a consistent vision for product development, making future iterations more effective and aligned with business goals.
C: Increase the frequency of demos, conducting them more often than iteration reviews to catch misalignments early.
Frequent demos are useful for gathering feedback, but they do not solve the core issue of misalignment regarding the target audience. If stakeholders are confused about the intended users, increasing demo frequency will not eliminate the conflicting feedback; rather, it may amplify it. The problem must first be resolved by aligning on personas before using demos effectively.
D: Ask the Product Owner and the team to collaborate on defining detailed wireframes to provide a shared visual reference for the features.
Wireframes help provide a clearer visual representation of features, but they do not directly address the misalignment about the target audience. If stakeholders disagree on who the product is for, wireframes alone will not resolve the issue. Personas must first be clarified, after which wireframes can be used to further refine the user experience.
Conclusion
While all options present valuable Agile practices, Option B is the most effective because it resolves the fundamental issue—misalignment on the target audience. Without a shared understanding of user personas, other practices such as acceptance criteria, wireframes, and frequent demos will not effectively address the conflicting priorities. Establishing clear personas will provide a foundation for aligning expectations, refining backlog items, and ensuring more meaningful feedback during iteration reviews.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Mindset | Experiment Early |
| Mindset | Shorten Feedback Loops |
| Product | Visualize work |
Topics Covered:
- Align on target personas to avoid misinterpretation.
- Clarify stakeholder expectations for consistent feedback.
- Improve communication on intended user needs.
- Ensure product vision consistency by defining users clearly.
- Use personas in backlog refinement for better prioritization.
- Increase transparency in feature development.
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