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

The sponsor is looking at the product roadmap, which is a visual representation of the product's planned features and their expected delivery timelines across multiple releases. It typically shows the major milestones, planned releases, and features grouped by their respective release numbers. This aligns with the sponsor's inquiry about when a specific feature will be ready, as the roadmap provides a high-level view of the product's development and release schedule.

In Agile, it's important to continuously refine and prioritize requirements while managing dependencies. The team should work collaboratively to identify and prioritize the key dependencies that must be resolved to ensure that the user stories meet the Definition of Ready (DoR) criteria. By focusing on the highest priority dependencies first, the team can maintain progress while adapting to changes, rather than getting stalled trying to resolve all dependencies at once. This allows for more flexibility and efficient delivery.

The correct answer is B – Ensured the early engagement of key stakeholders. Agile emphasizes early and continuous stakeholder involvement. In this case, engaging enterprise architects and standards stakeholders early in the design process would have helped detect conflicts before sprint execution.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Key stakeholders should be engaged early in the development cycle to ensure alignment with organizational policies, standards, and expectations.”

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

Mike Griffiths notes:

“Involving stakeholders early helps mitigate the risk of late surprises and rework. Enterprise architects should be consulted during backlog grooming or prior to sprint planning.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Incorrect options:

A is reactive and escalatory.

C presumes the standards are flawed without analysis.

D ignores necessary compliance and does not solve the issue proactively.

Answer: B

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Estimation challenges are common among new agile teams. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2 Requirements and Estimating Techniques), improving estimation accuracy involvesteam collaboration, continuous feedback, and inspecting and adapting techniquessuch as Planning Poker, affinity estimation, or triangulation. These discussions should happen in dedicated planning or retrospective meetings, but estimation issues can be flagged and lightly discussed in daily scrums to initiate deeper review.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)advises that estimation is ateam activity, not an individual one, and that teams learn and improve accuracy over time throughfeedback loops and shared insights.

Option Bis correct because discussing estimating challenges—even briefly during daily scrums—raises team awareness and drives improvement.

Option AandCdeal with symptoms rather than the root cause.

Option Dsuggests using metrics for performance evaluation, which contradicts agile values (Agile Manifesto: "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools").

The correct answer is D — Help establish the next sprint's goal.

The sprint goal provides a shared objective and guides the selection and execution of user stories. It is established collaboratively between the product owner and the development team at the start of sprint planning and precedes task decomposition or estimation.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The team collaborates with the product owner during sprint planning to define a sprint goal. The sprint goal gives the team clarity and focus on what it intends to achieve during the sprint.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.5 – Iteration Planning)

Mike Griffiths reinforces:

“Effective planning starts with understanding the desired outcome of the sprint. The sprint goal aligns the team and informs prioritization and task breakdown.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Incorrect options:

A prematurely assigns tasks, which goes against Agile’s collaborative ethos.

B and C happen later in the sprint planning process after defining the sprint goal.

Answer: D

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In Kanban, limiting work in progress (WIP) is a key practice to improve task flow and reduce bottlenecks. By restricting the number of tasks that can be worked on at any given time, the team is forced to focus on completing the tasks that are already in progress before taking on new ones. This helps reduce the accumulation of tasks in the "In Progress" column, ensures that tasks move through the workflow more efficiently, and ultimately helps to meet project timelines more effectively. It also promotes better quality, as team members can focus on fewer tasks at a time.

In agile,information radiators—such as visual boards placed in common areas—are used to make project dataaccessible, transparent, and real-time. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 7.1 Communication), visibility improves coordination across interdependent teams.

Mike Griffiths in thePMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 4: Stakeholder Engagement)recommends that agile teams usevisible, shared artifactssuch as task boards, burn charts, or Kanban walls to improvecross-team communicationand reduce friction.

Option Bis correct: a physical or virtual board offers transparency and encourages informal communication.

Option Ais useful but not as effective for rapid visibility.

Option Cis one-way and doesn’t support real-time updates.

Option Dis reactive and could cause delays or misalignment.

Agile promotesself-organizing teams, where leadership canemerge naturally. ThePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 4.3.2: Team Empowerment and Leadership)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 3: Team Performance)both emphasize supporting team members who take on informal leadership roles, as this strengthens team capability and fosters growth.

Option Ais correct: nurturing emerging leaders aligns with agile values ofempowerment and self-organization.

Option Bmay suppress initiative.

Option Cescalates unnecessarily.

Option Dapplies hierarchical control inconsistent with agile team dynamics.

To kick off the project, especially when the idea is not yet clear, the agile lead should focus on understanding the needs and challenges of the end users—HR in this case. By applying the empathy map technique, the team can gather insights into the users' experiences, needs, and pain points. This helps in building a more focused and user-centered approach to solving the problem, which is the foundation for developing a product backlog. Engaging stakeholders early and understanding the problem space will clarify the project direction and lay the groundwork for creating meaningful user stories.

In this scenario, the team faced delays due to the absence of a single tester. To prevent similar issues in the future, the team should work on becoming more cross-functional, where team members are skilled in multiple areas (e.g., testing multiple data sources). Encouraging team members to become general specialists reduces bottlenecks and dependency on a single individual, ensuring that the team can continue to make progress even if someone is unavailable. This fosters greater flexibility and resilience within the team, improving overall efficiency and minimizing disruptions in future implementations.

When comparingtotal scope (story points)andvelocity, you can calculate the number of sprints each team expects:

Team A: 420 / 30 = 14 sprints

Team B: 280 / 20 = 14 sprints

Even though the story points are different,both teams estimate the same number of sprints, which means they estimatesimilar effort and durationrelative to their own internal baselines. This aligns with the concept thatstory points are relative and not comparable across teams.

PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.4: Velocity and Relative Estimation)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning)explain that velocity is ateam-specific measureand cannot be directly compared between teams.

Option Dis correct: both teams have estimated thesame project size in their own context.

Options A and Bincorrectly compare velocity between teams.

Option Cis irrelevant; velocity is based on team experience, not technology assumptions.

The correct answer isC – Encourage the team to more frequently interact with all stakeholders. When an agile team is struggling to meet commitments, one key cause is often alack of communication or feedbackfrom key stakeholders. Increasing interaction helps align the team's priorities, clarify requirements, and improve ownership and accountability.

From thePMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Teams that engage in regular, open communication with stakeholders are better able to align with the evolving needs of the business and take ownership of their commitments. Agile coaches support this behavior by facilitating frequent interactions and improving team dynamics.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement and 6.2 – Coaching the Agile Team)

Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Bookreinforces this:

“Encouraging frequent stakeholder interaction fosters a sense of ownership in the team. Agile coaches guide teams to seek clarity through communication rather than rely on assumptions.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 4 – Team Performance and Coaching)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A– Involving the sponsor in team-level performance issues may undermine team self-organization.

B– Providing a list of deliverables doesn’t address the root cause (lack of communication or clarity).

D– Upfront product design goes against agile principles and does not improve team ownership or delivery capability.

Answer: C

The Definition of Done (DoD) is a crucial agile practice that outlines the agreed-upon criteria for when a deliverable is considered complete and ready for release. It ensures that all aspects of the deliverable meet the necessary standards and requirements before it is finalized. Additionally, the team should demonstrate the deliverable, typically during a sprint review or other appropriate meeting, to confirm that it meets stakeholder expectations and aligns with the project goals. This practice helps ensure that the deliverables are truly complete and ready for release, avoiding rework and maintaining a high level of quality.

A developer is unable to work on their tasks within an iteration, because senior management is constantly pulling them into production incident analyses.

This is a blocker because the developer is unable to work on tasks within the iteration due to external interruptions (senior management pulling them into production incident analyses), preventing the team from progressing.

The offshore testing team is pulled away at the last minute from a high-profile initiative and testing cannot be resumed until a new testing team is assigned.

This is also a blocker because the offshore testing team has been pulled away at the last minute, causing a halt in testing until a new team is assigned. This delay impedes progress and prevents the team from moving forward with their work.

Theproduct owneris responsible formaintaining and prioritizing the product backlogbased on stakeholder input. According to thePMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.1: Product Backlog and Prioritization)andMike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 4: Stakeholder Engagement), when a sponsor is dissatisfied, the product owner should confirm that their needs are clearly prioritized and represented in the backlog.

Option Bis correct: ensuring priorities are accurately captured aligns delivery with stakeholder expectations.

Option Ais reactive and not productive.

Option Cpresumes funding is the issue without confirming alignment.

Option Dundermines the product owner’s role.

The correct answer isBbecause agile approaches prioritizecontinuous stakeholder engagement,collaboration, andadaptive communicationstrategies. When stakeholder roles are redefined due to an organizational restructure, the agile team should proactively and directly engage with the newly impacted stakeholders to clarify expectations, responsibilities, and to maintain alignment with evolving needs.

ThePMI Agile Practice Guidestates:

“Engaging stakeholders directly and frequently fosters a shared understanding of objectives and priorities. Two-way communication, such as conversations and collaboration sessions, is preferred over one-way communication such as reports or status updates.”

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

In addition,Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Booksupports this approach by highlighting:

“An agile team should regularly revisit and refresh stakeholder analysis. When changes occur in the stakeholder landscape, it's essential to revalidate stakeholder needs through open, two-way communication, rather than assuming static roles.”

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

Options A, C, and D fail to incorporate agile’s emphasis ondirect engagement and collaboration. Option D, while partially correct, lacks the proactive communication componentthat agile requires. Option C suggests a passive communication method (email), which is discouraged in agile practices for important stakeholder interactions.

Therefore, the best agile-aligned choice is: B

The correct answer is C – Conduct retrospectives at the end of every sprint.

According to the Agile framework, regular retrospectives are a key practice to inspect and adapt the process. If team members have concerns about the Scrum Master's processes, the appropriate time and space to bring up and resolve such issues is the Sprint Retrospective.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Retrospectives are a time-boxed event that enables the team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next iteration. It provides a structured opportunity for feedback and reflection.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 3.5, Iteration Retrospectives)

Mike Griffiths further adds:

“Teams must take ownership of their process. The role of the agile leader, such as a Scrum Master, is to facilitate improvement via mechanisms like retrospectives. They are not responsible for enforcing process, but for enabling continuous improvement.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A may undermine the team's self-organization and brings hierarchy into team-level process adjustments.

B may address some confusion, but doesn’t actively involve the team in process improvement.

D is inappropriate—sprint planning is for work planning, not process feedback.

Therefore, the most agile-appropriate and validated solution is: C

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The correct answer isC – Initiate an estimation sessionbecause agile planning isiterative and collaborative. When delivery timing is in question, especially during a release planning session, the team must firstestimatethe size of the work (epics and user stories). Once estimates are made (often using story points or relative sizing techniques), velocity can be used to forecast delivery timelines.

From thePMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Estimation is typically performed at the beginning of a release or iteration planning session to determine how much work can be completed. Teams use estimation to size items and then apply their known or projected velocity to forecast completion.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Estimation and Velocity)

Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Bookalso states:

“Before making any delivery commitments, teams should first engage in collaborative estimation to understand the scope and effort of the work. These estimates then inform velocity-based forecasting.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 5 – Adaptive Planning)

Why the other options are incorrect:

A– Scrum Masters do not estimate work; estimation is a team activity.

B– You cannot determine deliverables based on velocity until the work has been estimated.

D– Historical data can support forecasting but must be preceded by proper estimation of current backlog items.

Answer: C

The correct answer is A – Conduct regular one-on-one meetings to review development features and trace them back to the product roadmap. Close collaboration between the agile leader (e.g., Scrum Master or Project Lead) and the Product Owner ensures alignment between the product strategy and development execution.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Frequent and open collaboration between the Product Owner and agile project leader helps maintain alignment between delivery and business objectives. These discussions link work to roadmap-level planning.”

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

Mike Griffiths states:

“Agile leadership includes partnering with the Product Owner to ensure that work being done contributes to overall product goals. Roadmap alignment is critical.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 3 – Stakeholder Engagement)

Incorrect options:

B is more appropriate for the Product Owner, not the project leader.

C implies waterfall-style communication.

D oversteps the Product Owner’s authority in setting feature priorities.

Answer: A

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