ACP Risk Management & Mitigation 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When using the ROAM framework in SAFe PI Planning, what does 'Mitigated' mean for a risk?
- The risk has been fully eliminated and requires no further tracking
- A plan has been put in place that sufficiently reduces the risk's probability or impact (Correct answer)
- The risk has been transferred to another team
- The risk has been deferred to the next PI
Correct answer: A plan has been put in place that sufficiently reduces the risk's probability or impact
Mitigated means the team has agreed on and begun executing a plan that lowers the risk to an acceptable level, but the risk still exists and is monitored.
Question 2: A product owner wants to reduce schedule risk. Which backlog management technique directly addresses this?
- Increasing the definition of done criteria
- Splitting large stories into smaller, independently deliverable increments (Correct answer)
- Adding more acceptance criteria to existing stories
- Assigning stories to the most senior developer first
Correct answer: Splitting large stories into smaller, independently deliverable increments
Smaller stories are easier to estimate, complete within a sprint, and deliver value incrementally, reducing the risk of late-sprint surprises that delay the schedule.
Question 3: A team flags a Jira issue because a key dependency team has not responded to a request in five days. This is an example of which risk category?
- Technical risk
- Market risk
- Dependency risk (Correct answer)
- Resource risk
Correct answer: Dependency risk
Dependency risk arises when a team's progress relies on external parties or other teams, and those parties are unresponsive or delayed.
Question 4: In Jira Software, which built-in report helps teams identify whether work is piling up in a specific workflow stage, signaling a process risk?
- Burndown Chart
- Cumulative Flow Diagram (Correct answer)
- Velocity Chart
- Sprint Report
Correct answer: Cumulative Flow Diagram
The Cumulative Flow Diagram shows work distribution across workflow states over time; widening bands in one state indicate a bottleneck or process risk.
Question 5: A Scrum Master notices the team consistently underestimates stories involving a newly integrated system. What risk mitigation action is most appropriate?
- Increase the team's sprint capacity allocation
- Schedule a spike to investigate and document the new system's behavior before further estimation (Correct answer)
- Remove all stories related to the new system from the backlog
- Ask the product owner to de-prioritize integration stories
Correct answer: Schedule a spike to investigate and document the new system's behavior before further estimation
A spike (time-boxed research task) reduces estimation risk by building team knowledge about the unknown system before committing to delivery stories.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes a contingency plan in agile risk management?
- A plan to prevent the risk from occurring
- A backup plan activated if a risk event actually happens (Correct answer)
- A budget reserve set aside for risk mitigation costs
- A retrospective action item assigned to the Scrum Master
Correct answer: A backup plan activated if a risk event actually happens
A contingency plan is a pre-defined response to be executed if a risk materializes, distinct from a mitigation plan which aims to prevent or reduce the risk beforehand.
Question 7: A team uses Jira Automation to notify the Scrum Master when any issue stays 'In Progress' for more than three days without a status change. This automation primarily manages which type of risk?
- Scope creep risk
- Stale work and hidden blocker risk (Correct answer)
- Budget overrun risk
- Stakeholder communication risk
Correct answer: Stale work and hidden blocker risk
Automating alerts for long-idle in-progress issues surfaces hidden blockers or stalled work before they silently threaten sprint goals.
ACP Risk Management & Mitigation 3
When using the ROAM framework in SAFe PI Planning, what does 'Mitigated' mean for a risk?