PMI-ACP Practice Questions #90
Your Agile team is developing a food delivery app that allows users to browse restaurants, place orders, and track deliveries. During backlog refinement, the Product Owner presents a User Story Map that outlines the entire user journey:
1️. Browse Restaurants – View menus, search for cuisines, filter by ratings.
2️. Place Order – Select items, customize options, apply promo codes, checkout.
3️. Payment & Confirmation – Enter payment details, receive order confirmation.
4️. Order Tracking – Real-time tracking, delivery status updates, estimated arrival time.
5️. Post-Delivery – Rate the restaurant, provide feedback, reorder favorite meals.
The team needs to determine which user stories should be prioritized for the first release, ensuring that users can complete the most fundamental tasks.
Which approach is the best for selecting user stories for the initial release?
A. Select at least one story from each stage of the user journey, ensuring users can complete an order end-to-end.
B. Focus only on payment processing and restaurant listing, as they are the most critical backend features.
C. Include all user stories to deliver the full experience immediately.
D. Prioritize only front-end UI elements, since the backend can be added in later updates.
Analysis
When using a User Story Map, the goal is to prioritize features that allow users to complete an end-to-end workflow rather than focusing on isolated features. The first release should ensure that users can complete the core task—in this case, ordering food. This means selecting at least one story from each critical stage of the journey (browsing, ordering, payment, tracking, and post-delivery feedback).
Prioritizing only certain features (e.g., payment or front-end UI) without ensuring a complete workflow will result in an incomplete product that does not deliver value. Similarly, including all user stories at once is not an Agile approach, as it delays feedback and increases time-to-market. The best approach follows incremental delivery with a functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Analysis of Options
A: Select at least one story from each stage of the user journey, ensuring users can complete an order end-to-end.
This is the correct answer. The purpose of User Story Mapping is to ensure a logical flow in user interaction. The first release should include essential stories from each major stage so that users can place an order from start to finish. This approach aligns with Agile principles by delivering a working solution early, allowing for feedback and iterative improvements.
B: Focus only on payment processing and restaurant listing, as they are the most critical backend features.
This is incorrect. While payment and restaurant listing are important, they do not provide a complete user experience. A user should be able to browse, place an order, track it, and receive it. Focusing only on backend features would result in an unusable product for end-users. Agile prioritization focuses on delivering value, not just technical components.
C: Include all user stories to deliver the full experience immediately.
This is a Waterfall-style approach and contradicts Agile principles. Agile promotes incremental and iterative delivery, where teams release functional portions of the product to gather early feedback. Delivering everything at once increases risk, delays market entry, and prevents quick adjustments based on user input.
D: Prioritize only front-end UI elements, since the backend can be added in later updates.
This is incorrect because a functional system requires both front-end and backend integration. Prioritizing only UI means users may see the interface but won’t be able to complete actual transactions. Agile focuses on delivering working software, and an order flow without backend support is not useful.
Conclusion
The best approach is Option A, where the team selects at least one story from each stage of the User Story Map to ensure that users can complete an end-to-end order process. This aligns with Agile principles, delivers value early, and enables feedback-based improvements.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Product | Refine Product Backlog |
Topics Covered:
- Prioritizing user stories to ensure an end-to-end user experience
- Applying User Story Mapping to define Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Delivering incremental value rather than an all-at-once release
- Ensuring both front-end and backend components are included for a functional product
- Aligning Agile backlog prioritization with user needs and workflow completion
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