PMI-ACP Practice Questions #96
A software development team is working on a new feature for an e-commerce platform, including enhanced order tracking, a streamlined checkout process, and AI-powered product recommendations.
During the sprint review, the Product Owner and stakeholders raise the following concerns:
- Lack of visibility into the progress of different features.
- Development bottlenecks, causing delays in feature completion.
- Challenges in tracking work across multiple teams working in parallel.
To enhance transparency and optimize workflow efficiency, the team decides to implement a visualization technique to track progress, identify bottlenecks, and improve coordination.
Which of the following visualization techniques would be the most effective in addressing these concerns?
A. Kanban Board
B. Feature Burndown Chart
C. Feature Lead Time
D. Velocity
Analysis
The question focuses on selecting the most effective visualization technique to enhance transparency, identify bottlenecks, and track progress across multiple teams working in parallel. The concerns raised—lack of visibility, development bottlenecks, and challenges in tracking work across teams—suggest the need for a tool that provides real-time progress tracking and bottleneck identification rather than just historical trends or summary statistics.
A suitable visualization technique should allow teams to see where work is stuck, coordinate efforts efficiently, and identify delays early. Metrics like feature burndown charts, feature lead time, or velocity may provide useful insights, but they do not offer real-time visualization of bottlenecks and workflow inefficiencies. The best choice is a Kanban board, which allows tracking of work items as they move through different stages, making it easier to spot bottlenecks, balance workloads, and improve coordination across teams.
Analysis of Options
A: Kanban Board
A Kanban board is the best visualization technique for this scenario. It provides a real-time view of work in progress, allowing teams to see where tasks are in the development pipeline. By visually displaying each work item’s status, Kanban helps identify bottlenecks, workload imbalances, and delays in real-time. It also supports coordination across multiple teams by making dependencies and blockers visible. Since the primary concerns in the question are about workflow efficiency and tracking progress, Kanban is the most effective choice.
B: Feature Burndown Chart
A feature burndown chart shows how much work has been completed over time and helps track progress toward completing a feature. While it can help forecast completion dates, it does not visualize bottlenecks or workflow inefficiencies. It focuses on how much work is left rather than highlighting where delays are occurring. Since the question specifically asks for a visualization tool to track progress and optimize workflow, a burndown chart is not the best fit.
C: Feature Lead Time
Feature lead time measures how long it takes for a feature to go from request to delivery. While this is useful for identifying overall process efficiency, it does not provide real-time visibility into where bottlenecks occur. If the lead time is increasing, it indicates a problem, but it does not show what is causing the delay. The team needs a tool that allows immediate visibility and intervention, which a lead time metric alone cannot provide.
D: Velocity
Sprint velocity tracks the total story points completed per sprint, helping teams predict future capacity. However, velocity does not show where work is getting stuck or how teams are coordinating their efforts. It is more of a summary metric rather than a visualization tool. Since the question is about improving transparency and identifying bottlenecks, velocity is not relevant to solving this issue.
Conclusion
The best choice is Option A (Kanban Board) because it provides a real-time view of work in progress, helps identify bottlenecks, and improves coordination across teams. It allows the team to track progress efficiently, optimize workflow, and address delays proactively, making it the most effective visualization technique for addressing the concerns raised in the question.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Product | Visualize Work |
Topics Covered:
- Using Kanban Board for real-time visibility into feature progress
- Identifying and addressing development bottlenecks
- Enhancing workflow efficiency across multiple teams
- Improving coordination and tracking work in progress
- Aligning Agile principles with continuous improvement and transparency
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