PMI-ACP PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) Free Practice Exam Questions (2026 Updated)

One of the pillars of agile is early and continuous customer feedback to ensure that the product being delivered meets stakeholder expectations. According to the PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.3: Reviews and Feedback Loops) and Mike Griffiths ' PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 4: Stakeholder Engagement), frequent customer reviews (e.g., sprint reviews) ensure alignment and early identification of quality or value issues.

Option D is correct: regular customer engagement during reviews ensures delivery effectiveness and customer satisfaction.

Option A is inappropriate—daily stand-ups are for internal team coordination.

Option B reflects a waterfall approach.

Option C misplaces the responsibility—requirements evolve and are refined throughout, not fixed up front.

The correct answer is B – Prioritizing stories.

The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique used in Agile to categorize requirements and backlog items based on their business value. It helps stakeholders and teams agree on what is essential to deliver versus what is desirable or optional.

MoSCoW stands for:

M – Must have

S – Should have

C – Could have

W – Won’t have (this time)

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“The MoSCoW prioritization method helps stakeholders classify backlog items based on their criticality and desired delivery timing. This enables better alignment with business objectives.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.2 – Prioritization)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“MoSCoW is a simple but effective method for clarifying which features are essential and which can be deferred. It enhances transparency during prioritization discussions.”

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

Why the other options are incorrect:

A – Estimating story size involves techniques like planning poker or T-shirt sizing.

C – Product validation is done via demos, acceptance criteria, and stakeholder feedback.

D – Progress tracking uses tools like burndown charts or cumulative flow diagrams.

Answer: B

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The correct answer is D – Confirm managers and stakeholders are invited to product review meetings. Agile promotes early and continuous feedback from stakeholders through regular reviews (e.g., sprint reviews or demos). Their active engagement ensures alignment with evolving business needs.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Demonstrating working product increments at iteration reviews allows stakeholders to inspect progress, provide feedback, and align expectations. Agile teams rely on these sessions to validate whether the product meets business requirements.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.2 – Stakeholder Engagement and 5.2 – Reviews)

Mike Griffiths emphasizes:

“Frequent stakeholder reviews reduce risk by capturing early feedback. Stakeholder participation in iteration reviews ensures alignment and continuous validation of business goals.”

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

Incorrect options:

A includes only the team; stakeholders are critical to product validation.

B is insufficient—product owner alignment alone doesn’t ensure business alignment.

C refers to documentation, not collaboration.

Answer: D

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According to the PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2 Requirements and User Stories) and Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning), epics are large user stories that must be decomposed into smaller user stories for accurate planning and inclusion in sprints.

The two main drivers for breaking down epics are:

Size – Epics are typically too large to be completed in a single iteration and must be divided to create manageable pieces of work.

Priority – High-priority epics are decomposed early to allow the team to work on the most valuable items first.

This makes Option A the correct answer. The decision to decompose the epic is based on the need to fit it into sprint capacity and to align with backlog prioritization.

The correct answer is A – Use an information radiator to help increase the transparency of work for key stakeholders.

Information radiators (such as Kanban boards, burndown charts, and story maps) make work status visible to the entire team and stakeholders in real-time, improving communication without additional meetings or reporting overhead.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams use information radiators to promote transparency, show progress, and increase stakeholder engagement without adding administrative burden.”

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

Mike Griffiths confirms:

“Effective agile environments display work status where everyone can see it. Visual indicators allow stakeholders and team members to remain informed without direct queries.”

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

Other options explained:

B creates unnecessary manual effort.

C may disrupt team rhythm; daily stand-ups are sufficient in Scrum.

D encourages siloed behavior and contradicts collaboration.

Answer: A

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The correct answer is B – Ensure there is a balanced mix of people who are experts and members with broad experience based on the work to be performed and determine training needs.

Scrum encourages cross-functional, self-organizing teams with complementary skills. Building a balanced team that reflects both depth and breadth of experience ensures optimal delivery while enabling team learning.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams are cross-functional. The team may need T-shaped skills—members with deep expertise in one area and a willingness to broaden knowledge in other areas. Creating balanced teams with knowledge diversity leads to better collaboration and learning.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.1 – Building Agile Teams)

Mike Griffiths adds:

“Team selection should prioritize diversity of skill sets and the ability to collaborate, not just performance history. The goal is a team that can deliver value collectively, not as individuals.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 4 – Team Performance)

Why the other options are not suitable:

A may reduce team diversity and discourage healthy conflict resolution.

C may not be feasible in distributed environments and is not a strict requirement.

D focuses on individual velocity contributions, which contradicts Agile’s team-based delivery focus.

Answer: B

In agile, early and frequent feedback from stakeholders and clients is critical to ensure that what is being built delivers the intended value. The PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.5 and Section 7.2.2) promotes regular product review sessions (e.g., sprint reviews) with stakeholders to validate progress and obtain immediate feedback.

Mike Griffiths (PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 6: Value-Driven Delivery) explains that product validation is continuous and not left to the end of the project. Regular review sessions allow clients to confirm that the product meets expectations, reducing the risk of building the wrong solution.

Therefore, Option D is correct: holding product review sessions with the client aligns with agile values of transparency, collaboration, and value delivery.

The correct answer is A – Perform value stream analysis to eliminate the processes with wastage. Value stream mapping is a lean and agile technique used to identify and eliminate non-value-adding activities, optimize flow, and increase delivery efficiency—especially crucial when facing tight deadlines.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Value stream mapping is used to analyze the flow of materials and information required to bring a product or service to a consumer. It helps teams eliminate waste and improve speed and quality.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 6.4 – Continuous Improvement and Feedback Loops)

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“Value stream analysis is a lean technique that helps agile teams identify delays, bottlenecks, and handoffs that waste time. When velocity lags behind expectations, understanding the end-to-end process is essential to improvement.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 7 – Continuous Improvement)

Option B (removing high-risk stories) may introduce more long-term risk and undermine value.

Option C suggests manipulating metrics instead of addressing root causes.

Option D may help identify risks early, but it doesn’t address why velocity is low.

Answer: A

The correct answer is C – Passive-aggressive. When a team delivers work but avoids open discussion or interaction, especially in meetings, it may indicate passive-aggressive behavior. This behavior might reflect unresolved tension, lack of engagement, or unwillingness to collaborate transparently.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“High-performing agile teams thrive on open communication and collaboration. Passive-aggressive behavior, where communication is avoided despite task completion, can hinder trust and team health.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 4.3 – Team Performance and Collaboration)

Mike Griffiths warns:

“Silence or avoidance in agile teams may signal underlying issues. While work might be completed, lack of transparency and communication should be addressed early to maintain team cohesion.”

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

Incorrect options:

A refers to real-time communication and is unrelated to emotional dynamics.

B is contradicted by the lack of vocal interaction.

D implies disorder or lack of structure, which is not evident here.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is C – Ensure the team captures the technical dependencies as issues within the backlog and prioritize based on value optimization. In Agile, technical considerations are factored into backlog refinement and sprint planning. Dependencies should be visualized and managed as part of adaptive planning while still striving to deliver maximum value.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Backlog items with technical dependencies should be identified and addressed collaboratively. Agile teams balance value with feasibility and technical constraints to optimize delivery.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.3 – Backlog Refinement and Adaptive Planning)

Mike Griffiths explains:

“While business value drives prioritization, technical constraints influence the ordering of stories. Agile planning is adaptive; dependencies and delivery risks are identified early and managed through backlog reordering.”

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

Incorrect options:

A may discard valuable features unnecessarily.

B risks accumulating technical debt and incomplete work.

D shifts responsibility away from the team and PO unnecessarily.

Answer: C

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When teams face conflicts about priorities or direction, they should fall back on agile values and principles. According to the Agile Manifesto and PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 2.2 Agile Mindset), decisions should be grounded in values such as collaboration, sustainability, simplicity, and delivering customer value.

Mike Griffiths in the PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 2: Agile Principles and Mindset) highlights that teams should be self-organizing, and consensus should emerge from aligning decisions with core agile values—rather than defaulting to top-down directives or contractual obligations.

Option A is correct: referring to the agile framework and team values enables internal resolution in a collaborative and value-driven way.

Option B (contracts) and Option C (priority list) are more rigid and transactional.

Option D bypasses the team’s ability to self-resolve, which is not ideal for a mature agile team.

The correct answer is D – Features should be prioritized and then teams should be organized around those priorities. In agile scaling and reorganization, forming feature teams allows for the creation of cross-functional, end-to-end value delivery units. This reduces dependencies and promotes customer-focused outcomes.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Teams are best organized around delivering customer value. When scaling or merging efforts, restructuring around features or customer priorities improves flow, minimizes handoffs, and supports agility at scale.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.5 – Agile Scaling Considerations)

Mike Griffiths notes:

“Agile scaling favors organizing teams around features and capabilities rather than components. Feature teams are cross-functional and able to deliver end-to-end slices of functionality with minimal dependencies.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 4 – Scaling Agile and Team Formation)

Incorrect options:

A can lead to chaos without structure.

B reinforces siloed, component-based teams which increase integration risk.

C recreates functional silos rather than cross-functional teams.

Answer: D

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The product owner is responsible for managing the product backlog and ensuring that it reflects the priorities and vision of the product. While the Scrum team can suggest changes or improvements during the refinement process, the product owner has the final say on what changes are made to the backlog. This ensures that the product backlog aligns with business needs, stakeholder expectations, and the overall product vision. Therefore, the product owner can reject changes to the backlog if they believe the changes do not align with these priorities.

This situation introduces technical uncertainty. In agile, such scenarios are best addressed by spikes or incremental implementation and early feedback. The PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2 Spikes and Experimentation) suggests that uncertain work should be prototyped, tested early, and shown during sprint reviews for feedback and learning.

Mike Griffiths in the PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 7: Problem Detection and Resolution) recommends testing high-risk integrations early and iteratively, rather than over-planning.

Option D is correct: developing, testing, and demonstrating early minimizes risk and aligns with agile principles.

Option A leans toward waterfall-style planning and over-documentation.

Option B incorrectly assumes non-functional requirements are less valuable—they’re critical in many systems.

Option C may delay necessary architectural work and increase risk.

A complete and realistic backlog must include not only functional stories but also non-functional and support tasks such as infrastructure setup, analysis, and design. The PMI Agile Practice Guide (Section 5.2: Backlog Composition) and Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book (Chapter 6: Adaptive Planning) emphasize including all types of work in the backlog to ensure accurate effort planning.

Option D is correct: effort must include technical tasks, not just feature delivery.

Option A suggests speculation on velocity and cost increases, which is unreliable.

Option B and C (adding buffers or padding estimates) violate agile’s principle of transparency and simplicity.

The correct answer is D – Write tests that will be used to know when a story has been correctly developed. This practice aligns with Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD), which are common in agile environments. Agile promotes defining “done” through clear acceptance criteria and tests before coding begins.

From PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Agile teams use test-first practices, such as TDD or ATDD, where acceptance tests are written before development begins. This ensures that functionality is built to meet agreed expectations.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.5 – Agile Testing and Quality Strategies)

From Mike Griffiths’ PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book:

“Defining acceptance criteria or tests before development is a core agile practice. It ensures the team understands what success looks like and builds quality in from the start.”

(Mike Griffiths, Chapter 6 – Problem Detection and Resolution)

Option A may be useful but is unrelated to the new requirements.

Option B is not standard—customers help define acceptance criteria but rarely write tests.

Option C skips an important quality control step and doesn’t align with test-first practices.

Answer: D

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The correct answer is C — Ask the team to determine how to adapt to this increase in the next retrospective.

The retrospective is the ideal agile forum to inspect and adapt. It allows the team to identify root causes of issues (such as rising defects), reflect on their quality practices, and collaboratively propose solutions like adding more testing, refining definitions of done, or changing working agreements.

PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Teams should use retrospectives to analyze quality issues, adapt processes, and commit to continuous improvement.”

(PMI Agile Practice Guide, Section 5.8 – Retrospectives)

Mike Griffiths:

“Quality issues like increasing defect rates should be addressed through team introspection and adaptation in retrospectives, not by command-style fixes.”

(PMI-ACP Exam Prep, Chapter 7 – Continuous Improvement)

Incorrect options:

A is reactive and bypasses team collaboration.

B encourages unsustainable practices.

D disrupts the team’s current sprint focus and contradicts agile flow.

Answer: C

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The correct answer is C – Facilitate a retrospective to identify areas of improvement.

In Agile, mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities. The Scrum Master should create a safe environment where the team can reflect, discuss issues openly, and identify ways to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

From the PMI Agile Practice Guide:

“Retrospectives provide a regular forum for teams to inspect and adapt. Teams discuss what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve. This supports continuous learning and performance enhancement.”

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

Mike Griffiths states:

“Mistakes are inevitable; agile teams embrace them to improve. Retrospectives are essential for structured reflection and action planning.”

(Mike Griffiths, PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book, Chapter 7 – Continuous Improvement)

Why other options are less appropriate:

A may reinforce outdated or flawed processes.

B may help in quality control but does not address the mistake constructively.

D promotes fear and competition, which undermines team trust and collaboration.

Answer: C

By moving to an iterative approach, the organization can focus more on delivering value and benefits incrementally, with each iteration producing a working product or a usable increment. This allows the team to receive feedback from stakeholders more frequently and make adjustments as needed, ensuring that the most valuable features are prioritized and delivered in a timely manner. Unlike a predictive approach, where the focus is often on completing tasks according to a strict plan, an iterative approach allows for flexibility and continuous improvement, ensuring the product better aligns with user needs and business objectives.