PMI-ACP Practice Questions #73
You are working for an online store client that wants to launch their product on short notice. The Product Owner communicated last-minute changes to the team, and the team worked late into the night to implement them.
During a customer demo the next day, the Product Owner realized that the changes made the previous night were not included in the product, leading to customer dissatisfaction and the need for crisis management.
How should the Product Owner address this issue with the team member(s)?
A. Appreciate the team’s effort and avoid discussing the issue to maintain morale.
B. Discuss the issue with the team during the retrospective meeting, explaining how it led to a crisis and explore ways to prevent it.
C. Review the team’s development practices and definition of done, ensuring extra validation is added to prevent such mistakes in the future.
D. Propose a new process of pre-customer demo testing to avoid such issues in the future.
Analysis
The issue in this scenario arises because last-minute changes were implemented late at night, but they did not make it into the final product demo, causing customer dissatisfaction. The Product Owner needs to address the situation in a way that acknowledges the team’s effort while also ensuring similar mistakes do not happen in the future. The best approach should encourage learning and process improvement without demoralizing the team or adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
Analysis of Options:
A: Appreciate the team’s effort and avoid discussing the issue to maintain morale.
While appreciating the team’s effort is important, avoiding the discussion is not a productive approach. Ignoring the issue may lead to repeated mistakes, as no corrective actions will be taken. Agile teams thrive on transparency and continuous improvement, making avoidance an ineffective response. Therefore, this option is not suitable.
B: Discuss the issue with the team during the retrospective meeting, explaining how it led to a crisis and explore ways to prevent it.
This is the best option because it aligns with Agile principles of continuous improvement. Retrospectives provide a structured opportunity to analyze what went wrong and collaboratively determine how to prevent such issues in the future. The team can discuss solutions and refine their process while maintaining an open and safe environment. Since this option promotes team learning and self-improvement, it is a strong choice.
C: Review the team’s development practices and definition of done, ensuring extra validation is added to prevent such mistakes in the future.
While reviewing development practices and refining the definition of done is valuable, this action should come from the team rather than the Product Owner. The Product Owner’s role is to facilitate and empower the team, not dictate technical or development processes. A better approach would be to raise this concern during the retrospective and let the team decide how to improve. Therefore, this option is not ideal.
D: Propose a new process of pre-customer demo testing to avoid such issues in the future.
While ensuring quality before a demo is beneficial, mandating a new process as a Product Owner may introduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Agile teams should decide on their own improvements collaboratively. Instead of imposing a process, the team should identify the root cause of the issue and determine the best way to address it during a retrospective. This makes option D less favorable.
Conclusion
The best choice is Option B (Discuss the issue during the retrospective) because it promotes learning and empowers the team to find solutions collectively. Option C (Review development practices and definition of done) is a secondary choice, but it should be driven by the team, not the Product Owner. Options A and D are less effective because they either avoid the issue or impose a solution without team involvement.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Leadership | Promote Agile Mindset Principles and Practices |
Topics Covered:
- Encouraging a culture of continuous improvement by addressing process gaps in the retrospective.
- Promoting transparency and learning from mistakes instead of ignoring issues for the sake of morale.
- Empowering the team to collaboratively identify solutions rather than imposing processes from leadership.
- Reinforcing Agile values of self-organization and adaptability by letting the team decide on improvements.
- Supporting iterative development by refining workflows based on real-world challenges encountered.
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