DASSM PMI Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) Exam Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

The primary risk addressed by thestakeholder vision milestoneisthat your primary stakeholders agree to your strategy. This milestone ensures alignment and consensus among key stakeholders regarding the project's overall vision, goals, and strategic approach. Achieving this agreement is critical to securing buy-in, support, and commitment from stakeholders, which helps to mitigate the risk of misalignment and conflicting expectations as the project progresses. Other risks, like architectural strategy viability, business case viability, or a realistic release plan, are addressed by other specific milestones or checkpoints in the Disciplined Agile framework.

True: A value stream does indeed begin and end with a customer. In Disciplined Agile, a value stream represents the sequence of activities an organization undertakes to deliver a product or service that is of value to a customer. It starts with a customer need or demand and ends with the delivery of value to that customer. The focus on value streams helps organizations optimize the flow of value, reduce waste, and enhance customer satisfaction by aligning all activities around delivering what the customer truly needs.

The "Architecture Owner" in Disciplined Agile is responsible for addressing and mitigating key technical risks within a project. This role ensures that the architecture of the solution aligns with the strategic and tactical goals of the organization, guides the team in making architecture-related decisions, and helps in managing technical debt.

Options B (removing impediments) and C (working cross-functionally to deliver the solution) are responsibilities of the Team Lead or Scrum Master. Option D (determining priorities for the solution) is typically the role of the Product Owner.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

The primary advantage of breaking a project into phases is that it enables teams to focus on critical themes and ease of governance. Phases provide a structure to manage complex projects by focusing on specific objectives or deliverables at each stage, facilitating better planning, monitoring, and control. This approach also makes it easier to align with governance requirements and tomake course corrections based on learnings from earlier phases. Options A, B, and C do not capture the strategic and governance benefits provided by phased approaches.

A complex adaptive system (CAS) is characterized by the property that understanding the individual components does not lead to a perfect understanding of the entire system's behavior. This is because CAS are dynamic networks of interactions where the behavior of the whole system emerges from the interactions among its parts. Option A describes a process but does not capture the essence of complexity. Option C suggests a deterministic algorithm, which is not accurate for describing CAS. Option D touches on evolving ways of working, but it does not correctly define the nature of CAS in the context of complexity theory.

In the context of Disciplined Agile (DA), an Epic is a large user story that represents a significant piece of work that usually requires substantial effort and may span multiple iterations or sprints to complete. Epics are often too large to be completed in a single iteration and are typically broken down into smaller, more manageable user stories. Option A (a collection of smaller user stories) is partially correct because epics are often decomposed into smaller user stories, but option B provides a more precise definition as it emphasizes the size and effort required for completion. Options C and D are not correct in the DA context; they describe different types of analysis tools or techniques.

A value stream map is a lean tool that visually maps out the steps in a process from start to finish to identify areas of waste, delays, or inefficiencies in delivering value to the customer. In Disciplined Agile (DA), value stream mapping helps the team identify problem areas where waste occurs, such as bottlenecks, excessive handoffs, or unnecessary steps that do not add value to the customer. By recognizing these problem areas, the team can focus on improving or eliminating them to optimize the value delivery process. Options A, C, and D provide specific strategies for improving processes but do not encompass the broad benefit of identifying problem areas in realizing value.

Disciplined Agile (DA) encourages embracingdiversitybecause diverse teams bring a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and ideas, which can foster innovation and creativity. Diverse teams are better equipped to solve complex problems, adapt to changing environments, and meet varied customer needs. While diversity can sometimes lead to more challenging discussions, it ultimately contributes to higher-quality outcomes.

Options A (reaching consensus faster) and B (mandates) are not primary reasons within the DA framework. Option D (allowing everyone to do what they want) does not reflect a structured Agile approach.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a product with the minimum set of features needed to satisfy early customers and gather feedback for future development. The primary purpose of an MVP is to validate product assumptions, understand user needs, and guide subsequent iterations based on real user feedback. This iterative approach helps in aligning the product with customer expectations and reducing the risk of failure.

Options A (last iteration of development), B (not yet ready to be sold), and C (used for demonstration only) do not accurately reflect the primary purpose of an MVP in Disciplined Agile.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

One of the promises of Disciplined Agile (DA) is to ensure psychological safety, which means creating an environment where team members feel safe to express their ideas, take risks, and admit mistakes without fear of criticism or retaliation. Psychological safety allows teams to collaborate more effectively, innovate, and learn from their experiences. Option A (providing a hygienic work environment) refers to physical safety, while Options C (never criticizing) and D (providing counseling) do not accurately capture the essence of psychological safety as promoted in DA.

The coordination meeting (often known as the Daily Stand-up or Scrum meeting in Agile practices) is crucial for keeping the team synchronized. It provides a regular opportunity for team members to share their progress, discuss any obstacles they face, and plan their activities for the day. This meeting ensures that everyone is aligned with the team's goals, helping to maintain momentum and quickly address any issues that might impede progress.

Options A, B, and C do not fully capture the core purpose of a coordination meeting. While A (providing a demo) might occur in a sprint review, it is not the focus of a daily coordination meeting. Option B (stakeholder observation) is not the primary intent, and Option C (reassessing the backlog) is typically part of a planning meeting, not the coordination meeting.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

The last step in Ester Derby and Diana Larsen's 5-step retrospective template isClose the Retrospective. This step involves wrapping up the retrospective by summarizing the key takeaways, ensuring that everyone understands the agreed-upon action items, and reflecting on the meeting itself. It is an opportunity to appreciate the contributions of team members and reinforce the commitment to continuous improvement. Closing the retrospective properly helps maintain a positive and constructive atmosphere and ensures that the insights and decisions made are effectively carried forward.

In Disciplined Agile (DA), teams should first select the goal diagrams that are most relevant to their specific context and chosen lifecycle. DA provides guidance on choosing strategies and practices that are best suited to the team's unique situation, objectives, and constraints. While it's important to consider goals in which the team lacks experience (A) or that are selected by stakeholders (B), the most effective approach is to focus on those goals that align with the team's current context and lifecycle. Choosing goals that are the easiest to complete (C) might not necessarily contribute to the overall effectiveness or agility of the team.

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DevOps in the Disciplined Agile framework refers to a set of practices and tools aimed at creating a seamless integration of development and operations to enable continuous delivery and integration. Option (B), "Creating a smooth flow of work from development to operations," correctly captures the essence of DevOps. This practice involves automating workflows, improving collaboration between development and operations teams, and ensuring that software changes can be deployed to production reliably and frequently.

Options A, C, and D do not fully encompass the concept of DevOps in the Disciplined Agile context. While automating testing (A) and involving operational teams in development (C) are parts of DevOps, they are not the complete definition. Using development team members to solve operational problems (D) is not the primary focus of DevOps; instead, the aim is to create a collaborative environment where both development and operations teams work together effectively.

Thus, the correct answer is (B) as it represents the overarching goal of DevOps in a DA context, which is to facilitate a smooth, efficient flow from development to operations, enabling rapid and reliable software delivery.

In Disciplined Agile, "Push" refers to a practice where work is assigned to individuals or teams, regardless of their capacity or readiness. This is in contrast to a "Pull" system, where team members pull work when they have the capacity to handle it. A push system can often lead to overloading team members, inefficiencies, and decreased productivity. In Agile practices, a pull-based approach is generally preferred to manage work-in-progress (WIP) and to ensure a sustainable pace for the team.

Options A, C, and D do not accurately represent the concept of "Push" in the context of Disciplined Agile.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

Pushis when work isgiven to people. In a "push" system, tasks or work items are assigned to individuals or teams regardless of their current capacity or workload. This can lead to overburdening, inefficiencies, and bottlenecks. In contrast, a "pull" system allows team members to take on new work only when they have the capacity to do so, promoting smoother flow and reducing waste. Agile methodologies generally favor a pull approach to optimize flow and enhance team autonomy and efficiency.

The main role of the team lead (which can be referred to as a Scrum Master, Team Coach, or Team Lead in Disciplined Agile) is to ensure that the team is building the product in the right way. This involves facilitating the team's process, removing impediments, and coaching them to adopt and optimize Agile practices, ensuring quality and efficiency in delivery. The team lead does not dictate what product to build (which is the role of the Product Owner), nor is their primary role to build the product themselves or coordinate building efforts in a command-and-control manner. Instead, they focus on enabling and empowering the team to deliver high-quality work in alignment with Agile principles.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.

In Disciplined Agile, the responsibility for determining the "Way of Working" (WoW) falls primarily on the team members. Disciplined Agile promotes a self-organizing team structure, where team members collaboratively decide on the practices and processes they will use, tailored to their unique context. While roles such as the Product Owner or Team Lead may provide input or guidance, the decision is ultimately a team-driven process. This approach empowers teams to choose the most effective ways of working to meet their goals. Thus, "B. Team members" is the correct answer.

Reducing work-in-progress (WIP)is intended to increase focus, reduce lead time, and create a greater incentive to prioritize. It helps teams deliver value more quickly and efficiently by concentrating on fewer items at a time, minimizing context-switching, and reducing the chances of burnout.Option A isnota benefit of reducing WIP, as reducing WIP discourages multi-tasking between many high-priority items. In fact, reducing WIP aims to prevent multi-tasking, which is often counterproductive.

References:

PMI’s Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) curriculum materials.

"Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working (WoW)", PMI.