PMI-ACP Practice Questions #99
A Product Owner is preparing for a major release of an e-commerce platform that includes enhanced product search, optimized checkout, and personalized product recommendations. The team follows an agile approach, and the Product Owner needs to ensure that the release is well-planned and aligns with business goals, customer needs, and development capacity.
To plan the release effectively, the Product Owner should consider which of the following factors?
A. Market launch deadlines, stakeholder expectations, and competitive feature benchmarking.
B. Number of completed backlog items, sprint velocity, and developer workload.
C. Prioritizing high-value features, team velocity estimation, and dependency management.
D. The frequency of stakeholder meetings, historical bug resolution rates, and UI/UX improvements.
Analysis
The question focuses on identifying the most relevant factors when planning a major release for an e-commerce platform. Since the team follows an Agile approach, the Product Owner needs to ensure that the release is well-planned, balancing business goals, customer needs, and development capacity.
An effective release plan requires:
- A prioritized and estimated backlog to ensure that high-value features are delivered.
- Team velocity estimation to understand how much work can be realistically completed.
- Dependency management to ensure that work is sequenced correctly and blockers are identified early.
Factors like competitive benchmarking, historical bug resolution rates, or developer workload may provide context but are not primary considerations for Agile release planning. The focus should remain on delivering the highest value features efficiently while considering dependencies and team capacity.
Analysis of Options
A: Market launch deadlines, stakeholder expectations, and competitive feature benchmarking.
This option includes relevant business considerations, such as market launch deadlines and stakeholder expectations, which help define release goals. However, competitive feature benchmarking is not a critical factor for Agile release planning. Agile teams focus on delivering value based on customer needs rather than just replicating competitor features. While this option includes some useful elements, it lacks critical planning components like velocity estimation and dependency management.
B: Number of completed backlog items, sprint velocity, and developer workload.
This option focuses too much on internal metrics rather than value-driven release planning. The number of completed backlog items may provide insight into past work but does not necessarily help in forecasting the next release. Sprint velocity is useful, but developer workload is not a primary factor for release planning in Agile—it is more relevant for team capacity management. This option lacks prioritization and dependency considerations, making it a weaker choice.
C: Prioritizing high-value features, team velocity estimation, and dependency management.
This is the best choice because it directly addresses the core elements of Agile release planning.
- Prioritizing high-value features ensures that the most impactful functionalities are included in the release.
- Team velocity estimation helps determine how much work can be realistically delivered within the planned timeframe.
- Dependency management is crucial, especially when multiple teams are involved, as it ensures that features are sequenced properly and blockers are addressed early.
D: The frequency of stakeholder meetings, historical bug resolution rates, and UI/UX improvements.
This option focuses on team communication and past bug resolution trends, which are useful for continuous improvement but not directly relevant to release planning. UI/UX improvements are part of product development but should be prioritized based on business impact and user needs rather than being a standalone factor. Stakeholder meetings alone do not ensure effective release planning, making this option ineffective.
Conclusion
The best choice is Option C (Prioritizing high-value features, team velocity estimation, and dependency management) because it ensures that the release is strategically planned, aligned with business value, and realistically achievable within team capacity. This approach balances prioritization, forecasting, and dependencies, aligning with Agile principles of delivering incremental value efficiently.
PMI – ACP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
| Product | Manage Value Delivery |
Topics Covered:
- Aligning release planning with business goals and customer needs.
- Ensuring success criteria such as sustainability, security, compliance, and user experience.
- Prioritizing high-value features for maximum business impact.
- Estimating team velocity to set realistic release expectations.
- Managing dependencies to avoid bottlenecks and ensure smooth delivery.
- Delivering increments optimized for customer satisfaction and business growth.
- Planning releases to align with business strategy and stakeholder expectations.
- Balancing development capacity with market-driven deadlines.
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