PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) Practice Exam

The PMI-ACP® Certification is for people who are experienced in using agile methods, work well with others, like tackling complex problems, and can respond quickly when needed. This certification, created by the same people who made PMP®, officially recognizes your ability to work with agile methods. It shows that you can lead agile teams effectively, and you'll be respected by your colleagues, bosses, and others involved in the projects. With PMI-ACP certification, you prove that you're good at:

• Understanding and using different agile methods like Scrum, Lean, Kanban, and Test-Driven Development.
• Working closely with stakeholders to gather what's needed, take in feedback, and make sure projects succeed.
• Making sure customers get value by developing things in stages and using measurements to make smart choices along the way.

Eligibility Criteria for the exam:

If you have practical experience with agile methods, you've already cracked the toughest aspect. Before you apply, make sure you meet these prerequisites:

• A secondary degree.
• Completion of 21 hours of training in agile practices.
• At least 12 months of general project experience in the last 5 years (having a current PMP® or PgMP® fulfills this, but it's not obligatory).
• A minimum of 8 months of experience in agile projects within the last 3 years.

Exam Details

• Exam Name: Agile Certified Practitioner
• Exam Code: PMI-ACP
• Exam Language: English, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish
• Number of Questions: 120
• Time: 3 hours

Course Outline

The PMI Agile Certified Practitioner Exam covers the following topics - 

Domain 1: Understanding Agile Principles and Mindset

Task 1 Advocate for agile principles by modeling those principles and discussing agile values in order to develop a shared mindset across the team as well as between the customer and the team.

Task 2 Help ensure that everyone has a common understanding of the values and principles of agile and a common knowledge around the agile practices and terminology being used in order to work effectively.

Task 3 Support change at the system or organization level by educating the organization and influencing processes, behaviors, and people in order to make the organization more effective and efficient.

Task 4 Practice visualization by maintaining highly visible information radiators showing real progress and real team performance in order to enhance transparency and trust.

Task 5 Contribute to a safe and trustful team environment by allowing everyone to experiment and make mistakes so that each can learn and continuously improve the way he or she works.

Task 6 Enhance creativity by experimenting with new techniques and process ideas in order to discover more efficient and effective ways

of working.

Task 7 Encourage team members to share knowledge by collaborating and working together in order to lower risks around knowledge silos and

reduce bottlenecks.

Task 8 Encourage emergent leadership within the team by establishing a safe and respectful environment in which new approaches can be tried in order to make improvements and foster self-organization and empowerment.

Task 9 Practice servant leadership by supporting and encouraging others in their endeavors so that they can perform at their highest level and continue to improve.

Domain 2: Learn about Value-Driven Delivery

Define Positive Value

Task 1 Define deliverables by identifying units that can be produced incrementally in order to maximize their value to stakeholders while minimizing non-value added work.

Task 2 Refine requirements by gaining consensus on the acceptance criteria for features on a just-in-time basis in order to deliver value.

Task 3 Select and tailor the team’s process based on project and organizational characteristics as well as team experience in order to optimize value delivery.

Avoid Potential Downsides

Task 4 Plan for small releasable increments by organizing requirements into minimally marketable features/minimally viable products in order to allow for the early recognition and delivery of value.

Task 5 Limit increment size and increase review frequency with appropriate stakeholders in order to identify and respond to risks early on and at minimal cost.

Task 6 Solicit customer and user feedback by reviewing increments often in order to confirm and enhance business value.

Prioritization

Task 7 Prioritize the units of work through collaboration with stakeholders in order to optimize the value of the deliverables.

Task 8 Perform frequent review and maintenance of the work results by prioritizing and maintaining internal quality in order to reduce the overall cost of incremental development.

Task 9 Continuously identify and prioritize the environmental, operational, and infrastructure factors in order to improve the quality and value of the deliverables.

Incremental Development

Task 10 Conduct operational reviews and/or periodic checkpoints with stakeholders in order to obtain feedback and corrections to the work in progress and planned work.

Task 11 Balance development of deliverable units and risk reduction efforts by incorporating both value producing and risk reducing work into the backlog in order to maximize the total value proposition over time.

Task 12 Re-prioritize requirements periodically in order to reflect changes in the environment and stakeholder needs or preferences in order to maximize the value.

Task 13 Elicit and prioritize relevant non-functional requirements (such as operations and security) by considering the environment in which the solution will be used in order to minimize the probability of failure.

Task 14 Conduct frequent reviews of work products by performing inspections, reviews, and/or testing in order to identify and incorporate improvements into the overall process and product/service.

Domain 3: Understanding Stakeholder Engagement

Understand Stakeholder Needs

Task 1 Identify and engage effective and empowered business stakeholder(s) through periodic reviews in order to ensure that the team is knowledgeable about stakeholders’ interests, needs, and expectations.

Task 2 Identify and engage all stakeholders (current and future) by promoting knowledge sharing early and throughout the project to ensure the unimpeded flow of information and value throughout the lifespan of the project.

Ensure Stakeholder Involvement

Task 3 Establish stakeholder relationships by forming a working agreement among key stakeholders in order to promote participation and effective collaboration.

Task 4 Maintain proper stakeholder involvement by continually assessing changes in the project and organization in order to ensure that new stakeholders are appropriately engaged.

Task 5 Establish collaborative behaviors among the members of the organization by fostering group decision making and conflict resolution in order to improve decision quality and reduce the time required to make decisions.

Manage Stakeholder Expectations

Task 6 Establish a shared vision of the various project increments (products, deliverables, releases, iterations) by developing a high level vision and supporting objectives in order to align stakeholders’ expectations and build trust.

Task 7 Establish and maintain a shared understanding of success criteria, deliverables, and acceptable trade-offs by facilitating awareness among stakeholders in order to align expectations and build trust.

Task 8 Provide transparency regarding work status by communicating team progress, work quality, impediments, and risks in order to help the primary stakeholders make informed decisions.

Task 9 Provide forecasts at a level of detail that balances the need for certainty and the benefits of adaptability in order to allow stakeholders to plan effectively.

Domain 4: Learn about Team Performance

Team Formation

Task 1 Cooperate with the other team members to devise ground rules and internal processes in order to foster team coherence and strengthen team members’ commitment to shared outcomes.

Task 2 Help create a team that has the interpersonal and technical skills needed to achieve all known project objectives in order to create business value with minimal delay.

Team Empowerment

Task 3 Encourage team members to become generalizing specialists in order to reduce team size and bottlenecks, and to create a highperforming cross functional team.

Task 4 Contribute to self-organizing the work by empowering others and encouraging emerging leadership in order to produce effective solutions and manage complexity.

Task 5 Continuously discover team and personal motivators and demotivators in order to ensure that team morale is high and team members are motivated and productive throughout the project.

Team Collaboration and Commitment

Task 6 Facilitate close communication within the team and with appropriate external stakeholders through co-location or the use of collaboration tools in order to reduce miscommunication and rework.

Task 7 Reduce distractions in order to establish a predictable outcome and optimize the value delivered.

Task 8 Participate in aligning project and team goals by sharing project vision in order to ensure the team understands how their objectives fit into the overall goals of the project.

Task 9 Encourage the team to measure its velocity by tracking and measuring actual performance in previous iterations or releases in order for members to gain a better understanding of their capacity and create more accurate forecasts.

Domain 5: Understand Adaptive Planning

Levels of Planning

Task 1 Plan at multiple levels (strategic, release, iteration, daily) creating appropriate detail by using rolling wave planning and progressive elaboration to balance predictability of outcomes with ability to exploit opportunities.

Task 2 Make planning activities visible and transparent by encouraging participation of key stakeholders and publishing planning results in order to increase commitment level and reduce uncertainty.

Task 3 As the project unfolds, set and manage stakeholder expectations by making increasingly specific levels of commitments in order to ensure common understanding of the expected deliverables.

Adaptation

Task 4 Adapt the cadence and the planning process based on results of periodic retrospectives about characteristics and/or the size/complexity/criticality of the project deliverables in order to maximize the value.

Task 5 Inspect and adapt the project plan to reflect changes in requirements, schedule, budget, and shifting priorities based on team learning, delivery experience, stakeholder feedback, and defects in order to maximize business value delivered.

Agile Sizing and Estimation

Task 6 Size items by using progressive elaboration techniques in order to determine likely project size independent of team velocity and external variables.

Task 7 Adjust capacity by incorporating maintenance and operations demands and other factors in order to create or update the range estimate.

Task 8 Create initial scope, schedule, and cost range estimates that reflect current high level understanding of the effort necessary to deliver the project in order to develop a starting point for managing the project.

Task 9 Refine scope, schedule, and cost range estimates that reflect the latest understanding of the effort necessary to deliver the project in order to manage the project.

Task 10 Continuously use data from changes in resource capacity, project size, and velocity metrics in order to evaluate the estimate to complete.

Domain 6: Understand Problem Detection and Resolution

Task 1 Create an open and safe environment by encouraging conversation and experimentation, in order to surface problems and impediments that are slowing the team down or preventing its ability to deliver value.

Task 2 Identify threats and issues by educating and engaging the team at various points in the project in order to resolve them at the appropriate time and improve processes that caused issues.

Task 3 Ensure issues are resolved by appropriate team members and/or reset expectations in light of issues that cannot be resolved in order to maximize the value delivered.

Task 4 Maintain a visible, monitored, and prioritized list of threats and issues in order to elevate accountability, encourage action, and track ownership and resolution status.

Task 5 Communicate status of threats and issues by maintaining threat list and incorporating activities into backlog of work in order to provide transparency.

Domain 7: Continuous Improvement (Product, Process, People)

Task 1 Tailor and adapt the project process by periodically reviewing and integrating team practices, organizational culture, and delivery goals in order to ensure team effectiveness within established organizational guidelines and norms.

Task 2 Improve team processes by conducting frequent retrospectives and improvement experiments in order to continually enhance the effectiveness of the team, project, and organization.

Task 3 Seek feedback on the product by incremental delivery and frequent demonstrations in order to improve the value of the product.

Task 4 Create an environment of continued learning by providing opportunities for people to develop their skills in order to develop a more productive team of generalizing specialists.

Task 5 Challenge existing process elements by performing a value stream analysis and removing waste in order to increase individual efficiency and team effectiveness.

Task 6 Create systemic improvements by disseminating knowledge and practices across projects and organizational boundaries in order to avoid re-occurrence of identified problems and improve the effectiveness of the organization as a whole.