PMBOK Agile and Hybrid Approaches 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is a 'spike' in agile project management?
- A sudden increase in team velocity during a sprint
- A time-boxed research activity to reduce uncertainty or explore a solution (Correct answer)
- A high-priority bug that must be fixed immediately
- An unplanned work item added to an active sprint
Correct answer: A time-boxed research activity to reduce uncertainty or explore a solution
A spike is a time-boxed exploration task used to gain knowledge, reduce risk, or evaluate a technical solution before committing to implementation.
Question 2: In Kanban, what is the primary purpose of setting Work In Progress (WIP) limits?
- To restrict the number of team members who can work simultaneously
- To reduce multitasking and improve flow by limiting active work items (Correct answer)
- To cap the total number of features in a release
- To prevent stakeholders from adding new requests
Correct answer: To reduce multitasking and improve flow by limiting active work items
WIP limits reduce context-switching and bottlenecks, helping teams focus on completing work rather than starting new items, which improves throughput and predictability.
Question 3: A hybrid project manager notices that the agile team is delivering features quickly, but integration with legacy systems keeps failing. What is the BEST hybrid approach adjustment?
- Switch entirely to waterfall for better control
- Add a dedicated integration testing phase at the end of each sprint (Correct answer)
- Stop all agile sprints until legacy issues are resolved
- Remove the legacy integration requirement from scope
Correct answer: Add a dedicated integration testing phase at the end of each sprint
Adding integration testing within each sprint ensures that legacy compatibility issues are caught early and continuously, not just at the end of the project.
Question 4: Which agile estimation technique uses relative sizing based on story complexity, risk, and effort?
- Function point analysis
- PERT estimation
- Story points with Planning Poker (Correct answer)
- Bottom-up cost estimation
Correct answer: Story points with Planning Poker
Story points estimated through Planning Poker use relative sizing and group consensus to capture complexity, uncertainty, and effort in a single abstract unit.
Question 5: What is the role of the Scrum Master when a team member violates a team working agreement?
- Immediately escalate to the project sponsor
- Facilitate a team conversation to address the violation and reinforce the agreement (Correct answer)
- Remove the team member from the sprint
- Update the working agreement to remove the violated rule
Correct answer: Facilitate a team conversation to address the violation and reinforce the agreement
The Scrum Master coaches the team on self-organization and facilitates resolution of internal conflicts, helping the team uphold its own agreements.
Question 6: In agile, what does 'technical debt' refer to?
- Budget overruns caused by technology purchases
- The cost of software licenses for development tools
- Shortcuts or suboptimal code decisions that create future rework (Correct answer)
- Outstanding invoices from technology vendors
Correct answer: Shortcuts or suboptimal code decisions that create future rework
Technical debt represents the implied future cost of rework caused by choosing quick solutions now instead of better approaches that would take longer.
Question 7: Which statement BEST describes the difference between an agile 'release' and a 'sprint'?
- Sprints are longer than releases
- A sprint is one iteration; a release may span multiple sprints and delivers value to end users (Correct answer)
- Releases are internal milestones; sprints are external deliveries
- There is no difference — they are used interchangeably in PMBOK
Correct answer: A sprint is one iteration; a release may span multiple sprints and delivers value to end users
A sprint is a short timebox for development, while a release is the deployment of one or more sprint increments to production for end-user consumption.
PMBOK Agile and Hybrid Approaches 3
What is a 'spike' in agile project management?