PMI-ACP PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

The correct answer is C – Explain that the Kanban board enables the team to complete the work and increases transparency on work that is not done.

Agile values transparency, visibility, and collaboration. Kanban boards are a form of information radiator—tools that openly display the team’s workflow, work-in-progress (WIP), and progress toward goals. Their visibility helps stakeholders and the team remain aligned and encourages accountability.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams use information radiators such as Kanban boards to provide transparency and make status, bottlenecks, and priorities visible to all. This fosters trust, communication, and quick decision-making.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5 – Information Radiators)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“Visibility into progress and issues enhances communication and alignment across stakeholders. Information radiators like task boards or Kanban boards are vital tools for agile success.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 5 – Agile Tools and Techniques)

Other options are inappropriate:

A and D compromise transparency and contradict agile values.

B misstates the purpose of the Kanban board—it’s not about assigning work post-completion.

Answer: C

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Agile teams areself-organizingand should strive forconsensus-based decision making. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 4.3.1 Team Empowerment)supports facilitative leadership where leadersguide decision-making, not override it. Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance)emphasizes that leaders shouldfoster collaboration and respectdiverse views to prevent disengagement.

Option Ais correct: encouraging consensus builds ownership, trust, and engagement.

Option BandCstill place control with the leader, reducing team empowerment.

Option Dis too passive; agile leaders participate actively as facilitators.

The correct answer is A – Conduct frequent demos and obtain feedback from users throughout the development of the next release. Agile is feedback-driven. Regular demonstrations (e.g., sprint reviews) help gather customer input to continuously enhance the product and optimize value.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Frequent demonstrations and validation with stakeholders ensure that teams deliver value continuously and adapt the product based on real-time feedback.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Feedback and Product Review)

Mike Griffiths notes:

“Customer feedback loops are vital to agile. Demos provide a mechanism for validating delivered functionality, identifying improvement opportunities, and maximizing product value.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

B contradicts continuous delivery and customer collaboration.

C may help with scale, but doesn’t directly address value improvement.

D is more about process quality than business value.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is C – Ask the team to collaboratively work out a solution. Agile teams are self-organizing, and problem-solving is most effective when handled collaboratively. The Scrum Master’s role is to facilitate discussions and remove impediments—not to impose solutions.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Problem detection and resolution is a continuous process. Agile teams regularly identify and resolve problems as part of the team’s responsibility. The Scrum Master supports the team by facilitating resolution discussions rather than solving problems directly.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.5 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Mike Griffiths states:

“When technical challenges arise, the team should collaborate to assess the issue and determine the best course of action. The Scrum Master enables this by fostering open communication and guiding the team through the problem-solving process.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Incorrect options:

A delays resolution and pushes it into the future unnecessarily.

B undermines team autonomy and ownership.

D introduces unnecessary hierarchy into team-level problem-solving.

Answer: C

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The sprint retrospective is a key Scrum ceremony where the team reflects on the sprint, identifies what went well, what didn’t, and discusses ways to improve their processes. The focus is on continuous improvement, and the team makes plans to implement those improvements in future sprints. Stakeholders are typically not involved in the retrospective, but it’s important for them to understand that the meeting is about helping the team improve their collaboration, efficiency, and performance.

After the product vision is communicated, the product owner should ensure thatthe product backlog is prioritizedso the team canfocus on delivering the most valuable features first. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.1 Product Backlog and Vision Alignment), prioritizing the backlog helps teams understand the product roadmap and plan their efforts accordingly.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)reinforces that the product owner’s key responsibility isbacklog prioritization, not task management or detailed design.

Option Cis correct: prioritizing the backlog enables the team to understand and plan the roadmap.

Option AandBare too detailed for the product owner and move into the team's domain.

Option Dis ateam responsibility, not the product owner’s.

This approach reinforces the core values of agile, particularly the idea that a self-managed team should be collaborative and support one another. The agile lead should focus on creating a safe environment where team members feel comfortable sharing challenges and asking for help. This will not only help the junior team member but also improve the overall team dynamics and performance by fostering a culture of openness and mutual support.

When the team is not confident that the solution will work, delivering the minimum marketable feature (MMF) to customers for feedback is the best approach. The MMF represents the smallest, functional version of the product that can provide value to customers. By delivering this early and obtaining feedback, the team can validate assumptions, identify potential issues, and make necessary adjustments before committing to further development. This approach allows for early course correction and ensures the solution aligns with customer expectations and business needs.

The correct answer is B – Align with stakeholder expectations and releasable product increments.

In Agile, sprint or iteration reviews provide an opportunity for the team to present completed work and validate it against stakeholder expectations. Demonstrations should showcase working, potentially shippable increments that align with business goals and value delivery.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The purpose of iteration reviews is to showcase a working product increment. The review should focus on what was completed and how it aligns with stakeholder expectations and business objectives.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5 – Iteration Review)

PMBOK® Guide further reinforces this point:

“The team should deliver functional product increments that are valuable to stakeholders. These should be validated for alignment with scope and business value.”

(PMBOK® Guide, 6th Edition, Section 5.5 – Validate Scope)

Mike Griffiths notes:

“Product demonstrations should confirm stakeholder needs are being met. The team’s focus should be on verifying value delivery, product completeness, and stakeholder alignment.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery / Stakeholder Feedback)

Why other options fall short:

A is valuable context, but doesn’t directly ensure demonstration success.

C reflects team improvement but is not the purpose of a product demo.

D speaks to collaboration, not validation of stakeholder alignment.

Answer: B

The correct answer is A — Make sure the product owner is fully embedded into the project team so that they are readily available to make quick decisions.

One of the major benefits of agile is that decision-making is streamlined by having empowered roles, such as the product owner, closely embedded with the team. This reduces delays and improves the responsiveness and accuracy of decisions, especially for prioritization and clarification.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Empowering the product owner and embedding them with the team ensures faster decision-making, increased feedback loops, and reduces delays.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Mike Griffiths:

“Agile teams thrive when key decision-makers, especially the product owner, are available to provide clarification and approval on the spot.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

B is too broad and may slow decision-making further.

C adds overhead and delays.

D misplaces decision authority; the Scrum Master is not responsible for product decisions.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is A – Create a user story for this new improvement and put it in the product backlog for prioritization and validation by the customer. Agile is iterative and feedback-driven. New requirements or enhancements identified during reviews are treated like any other backlog item: they are created as user stories, evaluated, and prioritized collaboratively.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Feedback during review meetings may lead to new stories. These are added to the product backlog and prioritized based on value, risk, and customer need.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Product Review and Feedback)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“Agile welcomes change—even late in development. New feedback should be captured as stories, then reviewed and prioritized by the Product Owner in alignment with business goals.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

B assumes premature prioritization.

C implies scope creep, which contradicts agile’s flexibility.

D contradicts team empowerment and planning integrity.

Answer: A

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Predictable flow in agile is achieved byreducing variabilityin story size and complexity. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.7: Flow-based Agile and Kanban), working withsmall, similarly sized user storiesincreases throughput predictability and improves cycle time.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Value-Driven Delivery)supports breaking large stories into smaller, testable chunks as a way tostabilize delivery and forecasting.

Option Ais correct:small user storiesreduce variability and support predictable flow.

Option Bsupports testability but doesn’t directly improve flow.

Option CandDare too broad or conceptual to specifically improve predictability.

The correct answer is D – The Product Owner is responsible for both the budget and the release plans.

In Scrum and Agile frameworks, the Product Owner acts as the voice of the customer and is responsible for maximizing the value of the product. This includes managing the product backlog, prioritization, and release planning. Additionally, in Agile environments, budget management—especially in terms of what value is delivered with what investment—is a key aspect of the Product Owner’s role.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The Product Owner manages the backlog and prioritizes work based on value delivery. The Product Owner is also typically responsible for budgeting and release planning, often in collaboration with stakeholders.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Roles and Responsibilities)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“Release planning and value-based budget decisions fall under the Product Owner’s responsibilities, as they are closest to business stakeholders and value prioritization.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Why other options are incorrect:

A is partially correct but misplaces budget responsibility.

B is traditional and does not reflect Agile delegation to the team and Product Owner.

C promotes team ownership but budget and release planning specifically lie with the Product Owner.

Answer: D

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When a team reports that user stories are unclear or lack sufficient detail, the correct agile response is to fostercollaborative refinement and shared understanding. Auser story workshopis a well-recognized practice that involves the team and product owner collaborating to write, clarify, and refine stories. This is supported by thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2: User Stories and Backlog Refinement), which recommends story-writing workshops as a proactive way to clarify requirements.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)notes that good agile teams collaboratively refine stories in grooming sessions or workshops to ensure shared clarity and alignment.

Option Cis correct: a workshop enables both the team and product owner to collaborate in improving story clarity.

Option Aoversimplifies the solution—acceptance criteria alone don’t fully define a story.

Option Bmisuses the retrospective, which is for process improvement, not story editing.

Option Descalates prematurely and undermines team ownership and collaboration.

Pair programmingis aproven agile techniquefor improving quality, sharing knowledge, and ramping up less experienced developers. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.5: Quality and Engineering Practices)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance)recommend using pair programming to improve team cohesion and performance when skill gaps are affecting velocity.

Option Ais correct: pair programming supports learning and improves delivery quality.

Option Bmisuses the retrospective—it’s not for backlog prioritization.

Option Cmay be helpful, butestimation changesdon’t directly address the skill gap.

Option Dmay reduce risk short-term but doesn’t help the team improve or grow.

The correct answer is A – Include it in the product backlog and use a new indicator to annotate that it is technical debt. Agile teams track technical debt transparently by adding it to the product backlog. Marking it with a clear label helps the team and product owner consider it during prioritization and planning.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Technical debt should be made visible and added to the product backlog. Teams may use tags or indicators to distinguish it and make informed prioritization decisions.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.5 – Technical Debt)

Mike Griffiths emphasizes:

“Technical debt must be tracked in the backlog to avoid long-term consequences. Tagging it ensures stakeholders are aware and can prioritize its resolution appropriately.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Value-Driven Delivery)

Incorrect options:

B assumes all technical debt is low priority, which may not be true.

C is incorrect; agile explicitly recommends tracking tech debt.

D introduces inconsistency and reduces visibility.

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When the team determines that the highest-priority item will take longer than expected in the current sprint, it is essential to engage the product owner. The product owner is responsible for maintaining the product backlog and defining the priority of work items. By scheduling a meeting with the product owner, the team can collaboratively reassess the priorities and make adjustments based on the evolving understanding of the work required.

The product owner can help determine if the current high-priority item should be moved to the next sprint or if other adjustments to the backlog are needed. This ensures that the team is always focused on delivering the most valuable work within the given sprint time frame. Engaging with the product owner fosters collaboration and ensures alignment between the team and stakeholders, maintaining flexibility and focus on delivering customer value.

The primary reason for delivering a minimally viable product (MVP) is to reduce risk as quickly as possible. By releasing a version of the product with just the essential features, the team can quickly test assumptions, gather feedback from users, and make necessary adjustments before investing more time and resources. This approach allows the team to identify and address potential risks early in the process, ensuring that the product is on the right track and meets user needs before full-scale development continues.